The 2024 Updated NIH Public Access Policy is in Effect: Requirements and NIH Rights Statement

By and — August 7, 2025

The 2024 Updated NIH Public Access Policy is applicable to peer-reviewed journal articles accepted for publication on or after July 01, 2025. 

Requirements

  1. Submission of an electronic version of the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) to PubMed Central upon its acceptance for publication for public availability without embargo upon the Official Date of Publication. 

  2. When an Author Accepted Manuscript is submitted to NIHMS, authors (submitters) agree to a standard license that mirrors that of the Government Use License at 2 CFR 200.315, or its successor regulation, explicitly granting NIH the right to make the Author Accepted Manuscript publicly available through PubMed Central without embargo upon the Official Date of Publication. 

  3. Submission of the Final Published Article to PubMed Central from journals or publishers with formal agreements with NLM, upon the Official Date of Publication, for public availability without embargo, is also acceptable.

  4. 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 (GPS 4.2.1 and GPS 8.2.1). Each publication about research supported by an NIH grant must include:

    1. An acknowledgment of NIH grant support such as: 
      “Research reported in this publication was supported by [name of the Institute, Center, or other funding component] of the National Institutes of Health under grant number [specific NIH grant number in this format: R01GM012345].”

    2. A disclaimer that says:
      “The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.”

Highly Encouraged

NIH highly encourages authors to include an NIH Rights Statement in manuscripts submitted for peer review. The Statement can accompany the required NIH Funding Acknowledgement. NIH provides the following sample language:

“This manuscript is the result of funding in whole or in part by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It is subject to the NIH Public Access Policy. Through acceptance of this federal funding, NIH has been given a right to make this manuscript publicly available in PubMed Central upon the Official Date of Publication.”

This statement alerts journals and publishers that you are required to comply with the 2024 Updated NIH Public Access Policy. NIH suggests the statement accompany the required NIH grant support acknowledgment. 

When authors are submitting Author Accepted Manuscripts to NIHMS/PMC to prepare for PMCID assignment, they must agree to a related statement. Per the NIH, the language in these statements may evolve but these are the current recommendations. See: NOT-OD-25-049: Supplemental Guidance to the 2024 NIH Public Access Policy: Government Use License and Rights.

Stay tuned for other updates on the 2024 Updated NIH Public Access Policy.

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Contact Cathy Sarli or Amy Suiter if you have questions.