NIH Public Access & PubMed Central

Related Links

NIH Notices and Policy Statements

  • April 30, 2025 - See Notice NOT-OD-25-101. The 2024 Public Access Policy, originally slated to go into effect on December 31, 2025, will now be effective as of July 1, 2025. 
  • December 17, 2024 - See Notice NOT-OD-25-047. Scientists should submit NIH-funded Author Accepted Manuscripts immediately upon acceptance for publication, zero-embargo period.
  • January 9, 2013 - See Notice NOT-OD-13-020. Public Access Compliance Monitor: A New Resource for Institutions to Track Public Access Compliance.
  • November 16, 2012 - See Notice NOT-OD-12-160. Upcoming Changes to Public Access Policy Reporting Requirements and Related NIH Efforts to Enhance Compliance.
  • October 30, 2009 - See Notice NOT-OD-10-009 Until further notice, only papers written in Latin script will be collected via the NIH Manuscript Submission System for the NIH Public Access Policy.
  • August 12, 2009 - See Notice NOT-OD-09-136 Clarification on the Use of an NIHMSID to Indicate Compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy.
  • March 19, 2009 - See Notice NOT-OD-09-071. The Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009 Makes the NIH Public Access Policy Permanent.
  • March 19, 2009 - See Notice NOT-OD-09-070. The intent of this Notice is to provide information on the following statutory provisions that limit the use of funds on National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant, cooperative agreement, and contract awards for FY2009.
  • September 23, 2008 - See Notice NOT-OD-08-119. Reminder Concerning Grantee Compliance with Public Access Policy and Related NIH Monitoring Activities.
  • March 7, 2008 - See Notice NOT-OD-08-057. Notice of Public Meeting: Seeking Comments on Implementation of the NIH Public Access Policy.
  • January 11, 2008 – See NOT-OD-08-033. Revised Policy on Enhancing Public Access to Archived Publications Resulting from NIH-Funded Research

Policy Summary:

The 2024 NIH Public Access Policy for Publications requires scientists to submit Author Accepted Manuscripts that arise from NIH funds and accepted for publication on or after July 01, 2025, to PubMed Central immediately upon acceptance for publication with a zero-embargo period. The Final Published Article is also acceptable for articles published in journals that have formal agreements with the National Library of Medicine.

Additional Requirements:

  • An acknowledgment in the Author Accepted Manuscript and Final Published Article that satisfies the requirements in the NIH Grants Policy Statement (GPS) regarding communicating and acknowledging federal funding, as well as analogous requirements for acknowledging federal funding as incorporated into the terms of Other Transaction agreements and applicable contracts.
  • When an Author Accepted Manuscript is submitted to NIH, agreeing to a standard license that mirrors that of the Government Use License, explicitly granting NIH the right to make the Author Accepted Manuscript publicly available through PubMed Central without embargo upon the Official Date of Publication.
  • NIH encourages authors to include a statement that indicates the Author Accepted Manuscript is subject to the NIH Public Access Policy and that this means that NIH, as the funding agency, has the right to make the Author Accepted Manuscript publicly available in PubMed Central upon the Official Date of Publication.

Compliance

Compliance with this Policy is a statutory requirement and a term and condition of the grant award and cooperative agreement, in accordance with the NIH Grants Policy Statement. For contracts, NIH includes this requirement in all R&D solicitations and awards under Section H, Special Contract Requirements, in accordance with the Uniform Contract Format.

Current Policy & NIH Implementation:

The 2024 Public Access Policy (originally slated to go into effect on 12/31/2025) is effective as of July 1, 2025. Author Accepted Manuscripts meeting this qualification and with acceptance dates on or after July 1, 2025, are subject to the policy.

  1. NIH will delay processing of an award if publications arising from it are not in compliance with the NIH public access policy.
  2. Investigators will need to submit papers to PubMed Central.
    1. With the retirement of My NCBI in 2022, please refer to this FAQ with login questions.
  3. PubMed Central reference Numbers at the end of citations:
    1. For papers published more than 3 months before an application, proposal and report is submitted: List the PubMed Central reference number (PMCID) at the end of the full journal citation for the paper in NIH applications, proposals and reports. A PMCID is the only way to demonstrate compliance for these papers.
    2. For papers in press, or published within 3 months of when an application, proposal or report is submitted:
      1. When using Submission Method A or B, indicate “PMC Journal - In Process” or the PMCID at the end of the full citation.
      2. When using Submission Method C or D, provide a valid NIH Manuscript Submission System reference number (NIHMSID) or PMCID at the end of the full citation. Note, NIH awardees are responsible for ensuring that all steps of the NIHMS submission process are complete within three months of publication.
    3. Anyone submitting an application, proposal or report to the NIH must include the PMC reference number (PMCID) when citing applicable papers that they author or that arise from their NIH-funded research.

The Difference between a PMCID and a PMID

The PubMed Central reference number (PMCID) is different from the PubMed reference number (PMID). PubMed Central is an index of full-text papers, while PubMed is an index of abstracts. The PMCID links to full-text papers in PubMed Central, while the PMID links to abstracts in PubMed. PMIDs have nothing to do with the NIH Public Access Policy.

Terminology

PubMed A service of the National Library of Medicine that provides access to over 17 million citations from MEDLINE and additional life sciences journals. PubMed includes links to many sites providing full text articles and other related resources.

  1. PMID - PubMed Identifier. This is not sufficient for Public Access compliance
  2. PubMed Central PubMed Central is a digital archive of life sciences journal literature, developed and managed by NCBI. With PubMed Central, NCBI is taking the lead in preserving and maintaining open access to the electronic literature.
  3. PMCID – PubMed Central Identifier. This is the unique identifier for the PubMed record for a PMC article. The PMCID is needed for compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy.
  4. NIHMS - NIH Manuscript System. If a journal article is not submitted to PubMed Central by the publisher, then the Reviewing Author to ensure complete submission to the NIHMS.
  5. There are 6 steps involved in submitting a manuscript to the NIHMS System:
    1. Enter Journal and Title – manually, via PubMed
    2. Enter Grant/Project information – each manuscript submitted must be assigned at least one grant, project number, or other source of NIH funding.
    3. Upload Files – upload the manuscript text, figures, tables, and supplementary data
    4. Summary – review all the information entered for the submission
    5. PDF Approval – Only the Reviewing Author can approve the submitted manuscript and complete the submission. NIHMS staff will prepare the manuscript fro PMC, which takes about 2 weeks. Once complete the Reviewing Author will be notified via email.
    6. Reviewing Author approves the Web version (both HTML and PDF) of the manuscript. Once approved, the manuscript will be available in PMC.

 

Reference Materials

National Institutes of Health Public Access Policy (NIH PAP)

UC – Library Guide

ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID)

UC – Library Guide

Video Training, Excerpted from our January 2013 Webinar – from the NIH