Since 2008, the NIH Public Access Policy mandates that peer-reviewed articles resulting from NIH funding must be freely available in PubMed Central (PMC) within 12 months of publication. Changes to the NIH Public Access Policy have been brewing for the last couple years after the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) issued their memo “Ensuring Free, Immediate, and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research.” You can read more about the OSTP memo through the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC).
In response to the OSTP memo, the NIH released their new 2024 NIH Public Access Policy that will apply to articles accepted for publication on or after December 31, 2025. Perhaps the biggest takeaway of the new policy is that it removes the current 12-month embargo period, requiring authors to make their NIH-funded articles available in PMC as soon as their work is published.
It is not yet clear how journals and publishers will adapt to this new change. If you publish in a Gold open access (OA) journal or select the OA option in a Hybrid journal, the process of depositing the manuscript into PMC at the time of publication is more straightforward, since the article will not be behind a paywall. However, the Gold and Hybrid publishing options require authors to pay an article processing charge (APC), which can be several thousand dollars. Keep in mind that the NIH generally considers these types of publication charges an allowable expense. If you anticipate submitting your manuscript to an OA journal, consider including APCs in your grant proposal.
The NIH maintains that complying with the new public access policy will still be free. Most subscription-based journals have policies that allow for Green OA, which is where you have the right to upload the peer-reviewed postprint to an OA repository, including PMC. While the Green OA model is associated with embargo periods, it is unclear whether publishers will make exceptions for NIH-funded research. You can look up journal policies using the Open Policy Finder database, but make sure to also check the journal’s website for the most current information. It’s also good practice during the manuscript submission process to let the journal know that your work is funded by the NIH.
In the meantime, continue complying with the current NIH Public Access Policy as normal. As more details are released, and if publication workflows and practices change related to policy compliance, keep an eye out for updates at the NIH Public Access Policy website or reach out to a librarian from HSLS Scholarly Publishing Services for further guidance.
~Stephen Gabrielson