ULibraries Research Guides: Resources for Researchers: NIH Public Access Policy

NIH Public Access Policy Update

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has reaffirmed its commitment to transparency in research by updating the effective date for its 2024 Public Access Policy. This new policy will take effect July 1, 2025, replacing the 2008 version.

What does this mean for you?
If you’re involved in NIH-funded research—including through grants, cooperative agreements (including training grants), contracts, or NIH intramural research—any Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) accepted for publication on or after July 1, 2025 must comply with this updated policy.

Key Points to Know:

The policy applies to all NIH-supported research, whether the funding is partial or full.
It covers AAMs accepted for publication in peer-reviewed journals.
This includes work supported by NIH training grants and even work conducted by NIH employees.

Additional guidance is available through:

To prepare and ensure compliance, please review resources at NIH Public Access Policy as well as on this page.
thanks to Jared Jones for providing wording.

NIH Public Access Policy Overview
National Institutes of Health Public Access Information

NIH Public Access Policy Compliance Resources

Sign in to your My NCBI account
a. Third party logins or federated credentials are credentials (username, password) you use on other sites such as Google, NIH, eRA Commons, ORCID, Login.gov, or your institution if it participates in InCommon. You can use these to log into your NCBI account. You can no longer create a standalone MyNCBI account.
b. Use the steps below to link 3rd party logins to your account.
1. Sign in directly to NCBI with your username and password.
2. Click your username, which is located on the top right of the browser page.
3. Click “Change” in the “Linked Account” portlet.
4. Locate the 3rd party account of your choice using the search bar.
5. You will be transferred to the 3rd party’s sign in page. Enter your credentials there for the 3rd party account.
Link your My NCBI login to your eRA Commons account (if eRA Commons is not your primary login)
a. Listed as "NIH & eRA Commons" in the list of partner accounts
Add citations to My Bibliography via PubMed
a. Search for your publications on PubMed
b. Check each publication
c. Click "Send to:" and choose "My Bibliography"
d. Save
In the "My Bibliography" section of the My NCBI Home page, click on the link that says some of the citations in "My Bibliography" are not compliant with NIHPA (assuming you have non-compliant citations)
Sort your publications list by Public Access Compliance using the Display Settings

If you find that you have non-compliant citations, you will need to submit them to PMC. There are four different submission methods. The method you use will depend on the journal/publisher associated with each citation.

Submission Methods
A overview of the four submission method processes.
Method A Best Practices: Journals
Search this list to see if the journal your article is published in will submit to PMC without author intervention.
Method B Best Practices: Publishers and Journals
A list of publishers that will assist with submission after the author indicates that it is required.
Method C & D Best Practices: Manuscripts

The NIH Public Access website offers overviews of the policy and the recent changes, along with help documents.

Policy Changes
A YouTube video overview of the latest NIH Public Access Policy changes.
Public Access Policy: My Bibliography FAQs
Compliance questions and answers on NIH Public Access Policy.
Learning Resources for Public Access Policy
Video and text-based overviews of how to use My NCBI and My Bibliography to manage compliance.
NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy Toolkit