Starting July 1, 2025, the NIH and other U.S. federal agencies will require that all research funded by them must be made publicly available as soon as it’s published. While the exact rules and timelines may vary by agency, all federally funded researchers should plan to follow these rules by the end of 2025.

For research either funded in whole or in-part by the NIH, this statement can be included in the submitted and accepted manuscripts to indicate the intent to comply with the NIH requirements:

“This manuscript is the result of funding in whole or in part by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It is subject to the NIH Public Access Policy. Through acceptance of this federal funding, NIH has been given a right to make this manuscript publicly available in PubMed Central upon the Official Date of Publication, as defined by NIH.”

The National Institutes of Health released their 2024 Public Access Policy in December, 2024. The effective date of the policy was moved forward to July 1, 2025 to “help increase public confidence in the research we fund while also ensuring that the investments made by taxpayers produce replicable, reproducible, and generalizable results that benefit all Americans.”

The NIH Public Access Policy applies to any Author Accepted Manuscript accepted for publication in a journal, on or after July 1, 2025, that is the result of funding by NIH in whole or in part through:

• A grant or cooperative agreement, including training grants,
• A contract,
• An Other Transaction,
• NIH intramural research, or
• The official work of an NIH employee.

The NIH Public Access Policy applies regardless of whether the NIH-funded principal investigator or project director is an author and regardless of whether non-NIH funds contributed to developing or writing the Author Accepted Manuscript. Upon the Effective Date, this Policy replaces the 2008 NIH Public Access Policy.

Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM)

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. (Also known as the Version of Record or “VoR.”)

Journal

A periodical publication that is either 1) included in the “journal” section of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) Catalog or 2) meets all of the following criteria:

• Requirements for ISSN assignment;
• Content is issued over time under a common title;
• Is a collection of articles by different authors; and
• Is intended to be published indefinitely.

Official Date of Publication

The date on which the Final Published Article is first made available in final, edited form, whether in print or electronic (i.e., online) format.

NIH funded researchers whose articles are accepted for publication on or after July 1, 2025 must submit their Authors Accepted Manuscript available in PubMed Central at the time of acceptance. The Authors Accepted Manuscript must be publicly available in PubMed Central no later than the Official Date of Publication of the Final Published Article (also known as Version of Record or VoR).

You are subject to this policy if your research was funded in whole or in part by NIH, or includes an NIH researcher as part of the authorship of an article.

How to submit to Pubmed Central