NIH Public Access Policy and Manuscript Submission: Home

The library has regularly scheduled workshops on NIH Public Access Policy Compliance during each semester.

See the schedule and sign up through the Workshops Calendar.

Classes are free. Consultations are also available by contacting Terry Kit Selfe at tselfe1@ufl.edu.

The NIH has a number of resources further explaining their policy and processes:

2008 NIH Public Access Policy (still in effect until June 30, 2025)

Publications resulting from NIH-funded research must be available in PubMed Central (PMC) no later than 12 months after publication.

Note: While a 12 month embargo period is currently acceptable to NIH, articles accepted for publication on or after July 1, 2025 will not be allowed an embargo period per updated NIH policy.

Link to 2008 policy details: https://publicaccess.nih.gov/policy.htm

• Final peer-reviewed manuscripts must be submitted to PubMed Central once accepted for publication.
•  Manuscripts must be accessible to the public by 12 months after publication.
• This applies to all articles accepted for publication after April 7, 2008 and results of grants active after October 2007. 

Also note that having the article in PubMed (with a PMID) does NOT qualify for compliance. PubMed Central is different from PubMed and it is the PMCID that the NIH requires, NOT the PMID. See the PMCIDs section of this Guide for more detailed information. 

2024 NIH Public Access Policy (Effective date: July 1, 2025)

Publications resulting from NIH-funded research must be available in PubMed Central (PMC) upon publication.

Note: While a 12 month embargo period was acceptable under the 2008 policy, articles accepted for publication on or after July 1, 2025 will not be allowed an embargo period per updated NIH policy.

Link to 2008 policy details: https://publicaccess.nih.gov/policy.htm

• Final peer-reviewed manuscripts must be submitted to PubMed Central once accepted for publication.
• Manuscripts must be accessible to the public in PMC upon publication (no embargo period allowed).
• This applies to all articles accepted for publication on or after July 1, 2025. 

Also note that having the article in PubMed (with a PMID) does NOT qualify for compliance. PubMed Central is different from PubMed and it is the PMCID that the NIH requires, NOT the PMID. See the PMCIDs section of this Guide for more detailed information.

Remember that Public Access and Open Access are not the same.

Public Access policies state that funded articles must be made freely available to the public. To be in compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy, an article needs to be placed in PubMed Central (PMC) specifically. This can be accomplished for free by depositing the author accepted manuscript into the NIHMS system (see Manuscript Submission section of this guide for more detail). There is no requirement that the article be published as open access.

Open Access is a publishing model in which the author pays a publishing fee and the journal makes the content free on the journal's website.

To learn more about Open Access, check out the library's Open Access Guide.