NIH Public Access Policy 2025

Take Action Early

The new policy applies to all articles accepted for publication after July 1, 2025, regardless of when they were submitted to the journal. 

Read your publishing agreement carefully 

Before signing your publishing agreement and transferring your author rights away to the publisher, make sure that your publishing agreement states that you can make your Author Accepted Manuscript (also know as a post-print)  freely available in PMC immediately upon publication. 

• Check to see if the journal has a PubMed Central Deposit agreement
• Tell your publisher that you have to comply with the NIH Public Access Policy.
• Select a journal that has these copyright policies already in place.
• Modify your publishing agreement with an author addendum.

You are normally asked to sign your publishing agreement upon acceptance of the article for publication. 

Click-through transfers upon submission

Publishers are increasingly requiring authors to accept a click-through agreement transferring copyright or granting an exclusive license to the publisher upon submission of a manuscript. Historically authors have been asked to sign their agreement after acceptance.  Click through agreements are commonly used on the web, and easier for publisher to manage, but disadvantages the author.  Not only does the electronic submission using this click-through serve to eliminate potential for negotiation. When presented with a click-through option, try contacting the publisher or journal editor indicating that you prefer to negotiate the terms of the agreement only after the work has been accepted for publication and that you will submit the work by other means. If that is not possible you should read the agreement carefully and keep a copy for your records. Or consider selecting another journal for your work.    

Ensure that your manuscript is deposited into PMC 

There are four different methods for depositing your manuscript into PMC. The method you follow depends on your journal or publisher. If you’re not sure which method applies to you, refer to the NIH's page Determine Submission Method.

• Method A: some journals submit directly to PMC. 
• Method B: authors make arrangements to have their journal or publisher submit to PMC. 
• Method C: authors or their delegates use the NIH Manuscript Submission System (NIHMS) to submit to PMC. 
• Method D: some publishers submit to the NIHMS for you. 

Remember that you can always publish in a journal that submits all of their content to PubMed Central without an embargo. 

Reporting to NIH 

My Bibliography is a tool available in My NCBI that allows you to add citations and link awards to those citations. Once you link your eRA Commons account to My NCBI, you’ll also be able to track the compliance status of your citations in My Bibliography. 

1. Login or create a My NCBI account. 
   1. Use your eRA Commons account to login. 
   2. If you don’t have an eRA Commons account, use a different third-party login option, such as ORCID. Or click More sign up options and select University of Pittsburgh to login with your Pitt username and password. 
2. If you have an existing My NCBI account, link your eRA commons account so that award information will appear in My Bibliography. 
3. Add citations to My Bibliography. 
4. Add awards to those citations and start/update compliance if necessary.

With citations and awards added to My Bibliography, you'll be able to create a Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR) that shows compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy.