NIH Releases Public Access Plan for Public Comment

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced that the NIH Plan to Enhance Public Access to the Results of NIH-Supported Research (NIH’s Public Access Plan) is now available for public review and comment. NIH prepared this plan to accelerate access to the results of NIH-funded research and address the guidance issued last August by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) on equitable public access to federally funded research results.

The NIH plan builds upon the strong foundation of the NIH Public Access Policy, which since 2008 has made over 1.4 million articles describing NIH-supported research available to the public through PubMed Central. The plan builds on what NIH currently does, with many current practices expected to remain unchanged and with the ultimate goal to institute a zero-embargo period on publications so that research results are freely available to the public without delay.

Comments on the NIH Public Access Plan must be submitted to the NIH through the online response form. Responses may be submitted anonymously. Comments will be accepted until 11:59 p.m. on Monday, April 24, 2023.