NIH Public Access Policy

The National Institutes Health (NIH) Public Access Policy (Public Law 110-161) requires that any peer-reviewed manuscript resulting in whole or in part from direct funding paid by the NIH or NIH staff must be submitted in electronic format to the National Library of Medicine's digital archive, PubMed Central (PMC), and made publicly available within twelve months of publication.

As of Spring 2013, the NIH will delay processing of non-competing continuation grant awards if publications resulting from that award are not in compliance with the NIH public access policy.  For the full announcement please see NIH NOT-OD-12-142.

Additional details and other information, including video tutorials and examples, can be viewed at the NIH Public Access website.

For information on additional federal open access policies, see Supporting Public Access to Funded Research.