Public Access
For decades, NIH has pioneered efforts to increase public access to publications resulting from its supported research. The 2008 NIH Public Access Policy has resulted in more than 1.4 million articles reporting on NIH-supported research being freely available to the public in PubMed Central.
Public Access to NIH-Supported Research
Increasing access to publications resulting from federally funded research offers many benefits to the scientific community and the public. Access can accelerate research, generate higher quality scientific results, encourage greater scientific integrity, and enable future inquiry, discovery, and translation for NIH-supported research. Importantly, these efforts also uphold NIH’s commitment to responsible stewardship of the Nation’s investment in biomedical research by improving transparency and accessibility of taxpayer-funded research.
2024 NIH Public Access Policy (December 2024)
On December 17, 2024, NIH released its updated 2024 Public Access Policy. The Public Access Policy was informed by public feedback, including comments received in response to the NIH Draft Public Access Policy. The 2024 NIH Public Access Policy is in keeping with the White House OSTP 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.
- 2024 NIH Public Access Policy
- Supplemental Guidance: Publications Costs
- Supplemental Guidance: Government License Use and Rights
- NIH Director’s Statement on Release of 2024 NIH Public Access Policy
- Under the Poliscope Blog: Introducing the New NIH Public Access Policy
Metadata and Persistent Identifiers Plan (December 2024)
NIH originally released its Plan to Enhance Public Access in February 2023. On December 17, 2024, NIH issued an update to the Plan to Enhance Public Access, titled NIH Plan to Increase Findability and Transparency of Research Results Through the Use of Metadata and Persistent Identifiers. This Plan outlines the combination of efforts already underway and planned efforts that will increase the findability of research outputs and promote transparency in the research process. Comments on the Plan will be accepted until February 21, 2025.
- NIH Plan to Increase Findability and Transparency of Research Results Through the Use of Metadata and Persistent Identifiers
- Public Comment Form for NIH Plan to Increase Findability and Transparency of Research Results Through the Use of Metadata and Persistent Identifiers
NIH Draft Public Access Policy (June 2024)
- NIH Draft Public Access Policy and Draft Supplemental Guidance
- Comments on Draft Public Access Policy
NIH Plan to Enhance Public Access (February 2023)
- NIH Plan to Enhance Public Access to the Results of NIH-Supported Research (NIH Public Access Plan)
- Public Comments on the NIH Plan to Enhance Public Access to the Results of NIH-Supported Research (February 21, 2023 – April 24, 2023)
- Virtual Listening Session on the NIH Public Access Plan
- Advancing the Promise of Open Science: We Want to Hear from You!
- Ensuring Free, Immediate, and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research (OSTP Public Access Memo)
Resources