NIH Public Access Policy

The NIH Public Access Policy is an open access mandate for NIH-funded research established by the National Institutes of Health in 2008 and updated in 2024. 

Under the updated policy, final manuscripts reporting NIH-funded research that are accepted for publication on or after July 1, 2025, must be immediately deposited in NLM’s digital archive, PubMed Central (PMC).

For an overview of the policy, visit the NIH's Public Access Policy website.

Submitting Your Article

• When signing publication agreements be sure to retain the right to deposit your article in PubMed Central (PMC)
• There are four methods of submission to PMC
• For two of the submission methods (A and B), the journal/publisher will submit your article for you
• For the other submission methods (C and D), you are required to submit your article to the NIH Manuscript Submission System (NIHMS)
• See Submission to PMC for more information

Reporting, Citing, and Managing Your Article

• You are required to provide the PubMed Central ID (PMCID) when citing your article
• If you have not been issued a PMCID, use the NIHMS number until you received the PMCID
• See After Submission to PMC for more information