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NIH Public Access Policy
To advance science and improve human health, the NIH Public Access Policy makes NIH-funded peer-reviewed articles publicly available on PubMed Central. As of July 1, 2025, manuscripts must be made publicly available upon acceptance for publication, without an embargo period.
Principal Investigators must ensure manuscripts are submitted to PubMed Central
Compliance with the policy can be achieved either by an author arranging with the publisher to submit the Final Published Article to PubMed Central, or an author submitting their Author Accepted Manuscript (final peer-reviewed manuscript) to PubMed Central manually using the NIH Manuscript Submission System.
Use NIH My Bibliography to Assure Compliance
After submission to PubMed Central, Principal Investigators (PIs) and Program Directors (PDs) must use My NCBI's online portal My Bibliography to manage their bibliographies. Citations must be added to My Bibliography to ensure that they appear in eRA Commons and thereby become associated with future annual progress reports. My Bibliography helps users address NIH Public Access compliance by associating the appropriate NIH grant(s) with publications.
U-M Library can help
When making publishing decisions, it is critical for NIH-funded authors to read all author agreements closely, and assess publisher's NIH Public Access Policy compliance options before signing. The Taubman Health Sciences Library can help you navigate the compliance process. See the U-M Library's NIH Public Access Policy guide or contact informationists at [email protected] for more information.
References and Resources
- NIH Public Access Policy
- U-M Library Research Guides on National Institutes of Health Public Access Policy (NIHPAP)
- NIH My Bibliography
- NIH PubMed Central Free full-text archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature at the U.S. National Institutes of Health's National Library of Medicine.
- NIH Manuscript Submission System (NIHMS)
Questions?
Contact the University of Michigan Taubman Health Sciences Library for assistance at [email protected]