Guidance On The Revised Nih Public Access Policy Effective July 2025

Leo Migdal

-Dec 5, 2025, 5:54 PM

Home » Scholarly Communication Topics » Funder Public Access Policies » Guidance on the Revised NIH Public Access Policy, Effective July 2025 In 2022, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) issued a memo requiring all federal agencies to develop or revise their respective agency policies to make journal articles and data arising... OSTP requires that these new or revised federal funding agency policies go into effect no later than December 31, 2025. Implementation details and guidance will vary; see your funder’s website for more details. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has revised its Public Access Policy effective July 1, 2025. (Originally, this revised policy had an effective date of December 31, 2025, but in April NIH moved that date to July.) See below for details about how to comply with the NIH policy.

Note: this page provides guidance for articles only; all data management and sharing requirements remain covered by the 2023 NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy. We will update this page as we learn what additional guidance may be provided by NIH, and how publishers respond to the policy. The 2024 NIH Public Access Policy now requires that all peer-reviewed publications resulting from NIH funding—and accepted for publication on or after that date—be made immediately available in PubMed Central (PMC) on the official... PubMed Central is the National Library of Medicine’s free full-text digital archive. This change replaces the 2008 Public Access Policy, which allowed a 12-month embargo before articles became publicly accessible in PMC. That embargo option has now been removed, ensuring that NIH-funded research is available to the public without delay.

The policy went into effect on July 1, 2025. It’s important for NIH-funded researchers to understand and comply with the new policy to avoid jeopardizing current or future funding. Key points include: The Medical Center Library is here to support you throughout the compliance process. Visit our NIH Public Access Guide to learn more about the NIH PAP Compliance Submission process or email us at nihpublicaccesscompliance@dm.duke.edu with your specific questions. Want to talk with a librarian about preparing for the NIH PAP Policy changes or about submitting an article to NIHMs?

The Medical Center Library is offering Office Hours every Friday at 12 noon. Our Scholarly Communications Office Hours are informal, online sessions where you can meet one-on-one with a librarian to get support tailored to your needs. These aren’t formal classes—they’re drop-in style sessions designed for personalized assistance. Just come with your questions! 📝 Registration required On April 30, 2025, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced an accelerated implementation date for its updated Public Access Policy, originally released on December 17, 2024.

Like the current policy, the 2024 Public Access Policy applies to peer-reviewed journal articles resulting from research funded wholly or partially by the NIH. The 2024 policy will go into effect for manuscripts accepted on or after July 1, 2025. Its most significant change requires NIH-supported researchers to submit their Author Accepted Manuscripts to PubMed Central upon acceptance for publication. Additionally, these manuscripts must be made publicly available immediately upon the Official Date of Publication, without any embargo period. An embargo period of any length for public access will not be permitted. Increasing access to NIH-funded publications can accelerate future research, fosters collaboration, and keeps the public informed about the latest advances.

These goals also reflect NIH’s commitment to responsibly stewarding the United States’ investment in biomedical research by improving transparency and accessibility of taxpayer-funded research, an essential component of fostering trust in research. NIH’s 2023 Data Management and Sharing Policy remains in effect and is not changing as a result of this new policy. The 2024 Public Access Policy applies to peer-reviewed scholarly articles only. The 2024 Public Access Policy applies to all NIH grants, including those awarded prior to the July 1, 2025 implementation date. The 2008 Public Access Policy remains in effect through June 30, 2025. The implementation date for the new National Institutes of Health (NIH) Public Access Policy is expedited to take effect on July 1, 2025, according to a recent announcement.

The new policy updates, which were originally scheduled to go into effect on December 31, 2025, will impact current and future NIH-funded researchers. It’s important to understand the policy and be prepared to be in compliance starting July 1. Author Accepted Manuscript: The author’s final version that has been accepted for journal publication and includes all revisions resulting from the peer review process, including all associated tables, graphics, and supplemental material. Final Published Article: The journal's authoritative copy, including journal or publisher copyediting and stylistic edits, and formatting changes, even prior to the compilation of a volume or issue or the assignment of associated metadata. We’ve received many questions from authors, librarians, and research administrators about the NIH decision to accelerate implementation of its public access plan, going into effect on July 1, 2025. The policy will now require all NIH grantees to deposit research articles upon acceptance, for immediate public availability on the date of publication through the NIH public access repository, PubMed Central.

Below are some responses to questions we’ve received: The NIH revision of policy NOT-OD-25-101 states that “Author Accepted Manuscripts […] with acceptance dates on or after July 1, 2025, are subject to the Policy.” If an author signs a publisher agreement that... This is a realistic problem given some publishers’ workflows where, for example, they require authors to agree and select up-front, upon submission, how they would like their article published (open access or not), which... But to be clear, neither the funding date nor the submission date impacts the applicability of the policy—the policy only applies to articles accepted on or after July 1. Several major commercial publishers (including mega-publishers Elsevier, Springer Nature) per their publicly stated policies, at present require embargos for deposit of articles in public access repositories, and there are no indications that these publishers... This creates a contradictory policy environment: the NIH policy gives authors the obligation (policy mandate1) and the NIH obtains the right (via the federal purpose license2) to make an immediate repository deposit.

At the same time, publishers may of course set their own policies. For instance, a publisher can decide to refuse publication of an article that carries a pre-existing contractual burden such as an immediate deposit requirement (either from a sponsor or employing institution), or they impose... It is important to stress that how these publishers might enforce their policy positions remains an open question, and of course their positions could evolve over time. This update was sent via the Sponsored Programs Listserv on June 10, 2025 The NIH has announced that the 2024 NIH Public Access Policy will now take effect on July 1, 2025, moving up the original implementation date of December 31, 2025. This updated policy requires that peer-reviewed manuscripts resulting from NIH-funded research be made immediately and freely available upon publication, with no embargo period, beginning with articles accepted on or after July 1, 2025.

Read the full NIH announcement here: NOT-OD-25-047. To support the MSU research community in preparing for this change, the MSU Libraries offers some helpful resources: The NIH will be implementing their new public access to publications policy on July 1, 2025 with all federal agencies following with similar policies by the end of the year. The new NIH policy requires that manuscripts accepted for publication on or after July 1, 2025 should be added to PubMed Central (PMC) and be fully accessible on the articles’ official publication dates. The previous option for allowing a 12-month embargo on the article’s access to the public is no longer permissible. The Science & Engineering Libraries have created a short video and slide deck providing background on the policy, an overview of publisher responses, and author considerations when publishing under the new policy.

One of our librarians would also be happy to discuss this at a department meeting or consult with you individually. In addition to ensuring compliance as described above, authors should consider: At this time, we recommend that authors work with their publishers to ensure their agreements are consistent with the funder expectation that manuscripts are immediately available in a repository upon publication. We also recommend that researchers refer to the NIH supplemental guidance for this policy on the government use license and rights as well as on publication costs.

Guidance On The Revised Nih Public Access Policy Effective July 2025

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