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NIH Public Access Policy

The 2024 NIH Public Access Policy, effective July 1, 2025, mandates that all NIH-funded peer-reviewed manuscripts be made immediately publicly available in PubMed Central upon publication, eliminating any embargo period.

Using My Bibliography to Manage NIH Public Access Policy Compliance

Please follow the instructions on Managing Compliance to the NIH Public Access Policy to manage compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy. In general, you should obtain and note your PMCID from your MyNCBI's My Bibliography as proof of policy compliance.

The following screenshot is shows how compliance is managed when your eRA Commons ID is linked to your MyNCBI in My Bibliography. In general:

  • Blue: Publications or products newly submitted to the NIHMS are considered in process; usually has a NIHMS ID assigned.
  • Green: Compliant, with a PMCID.
  • Red: Not compliant.
  • Grey: Publications or products that are not funded by NIH grants, or were accepted for publication prior to April 7, 2008 (not covered by the NIH Public Access Policy), are marked as “Not Applicable-Exempted.”
  • Question Mark: Compliance status unknown.

Screenshot of My Bibliography Policy compliance page

For Researchers - My Bibliography for Public Access Compliance

This video describes the use of the My Bibliography feature of My NCBI for monitoring compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy.  My Bibliography allows researchers to view the compliance status of their publications and link funding sources to citations.

For a general introduction to My Bibliography, please see the video on the Prior to Publication page of this guide.

 

For Administrators - The NIH Public Access Policy Compliance Monitor

The following video outlines the use of the NIH Public Access Policy Compliance Monitor for institutional tracking of publications that must meet the requirements outlined in the NIH Public Access Policy.

Access to the Monitor is limited to those with a Public Access Compliance Role (PACR).

More details about using the Monitor are available from its User Guide.

Contacts for Help

You may contact the NIHMS Help Desk directly with questions specifically related to the NIH Manuscript Submission System at this email nihms-help@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.

If you have general questions about the NIH Public Access Policy, you can also visit the NIH Public Access Policy contact page.