LibGuides: NIH Public Access Policy: Home

NIH Public Access Compliance Requirements

In 2008 Congress passed the NIH Public Access Policy. This policy requires that any research:

written on of after April 2008
funded by an NIH research grant
published in a peer-reviewed journal

must be deposited and available to the public in electronic format in PubMed Central.

The rational behind this is to help advance science and improve human health.

NIH Public Access Policy

NIH Public Access Policy

NIH Public Access Policy - FAQs

NIH Public Access System/Tools

Policy Overview

The NIH Public Access Policy ensures that the public has access to the published results of NIH funded research. It requires investigators to submit final peer-reviewed journal manuscripts that arise from NIH funds to the digital archive PubMed Central upon acceptance for publication. To help advance science and improve human health, the Policy requires that these papers are accessible to the public on PubMed Central no later than 12 months after publication.

The major components of complying with NIH Public Access Policy:

Determine Applicability
Address Copyright
Submit Manuscript to the NIH Manuscript Submission System (NIHMS) for Deposit into PubMed Central (PMC)
Show Evidence of Compliance

The Principal Investigtor (PI) is ultimately responsible for ensuring compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy.

In navigating compliance with NIH Public Access Policy, it may be helpful to keep in mind that there are multiple systems involved. Here is a graphic displaying the systems mentioned in this help guide.