Today, NIH is releasing its new 2024 Public Access Policy along with supplemental guidance on government license use and rights and publication costs. The final Public Access Policy builds upon NIH’s long history of providing public access to scholarly publications, and it details steps to accelerate access, particularly through removal of the current twelve-month embargo period before manuscripts are made freely available to the public.   

The policy was developed after significant public engagement and feedback and is in keeping with the 2022 Memo Ensuring Free, Immediate, and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research.  The 2024 Public Access Policy is effective for manuscripts accepted for publication on or after December 31, 2025. Until then, NIH’s current Public Access Policy remains in effect.

In addition to the release of the 2024 Public Access Policy, NIH is also releasing its Plan on Metadata and Personal Identifiers (PIDs) for public comment. The plan outlines how researchers and institutions should be using metadata and PIDs, and also outlines proposed requirements for NIH-supported repositories to collect and make relevant metadata publicly available and searchable. 

To view the Plan and provide comments please utilize the portal found here.  Comments will be accepted until February 21, 2025. 

For additional context on these releases, please see a statement made today by NIH Director, Dr. Monica Bertagnolli, and an Under the Poliscope blog co-authored by Dr. Lyric Jorgenson and Dr. Stephen Sherry. 

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