PubMed Central (PMC) Deposition Requirements

The 2024 NIH Public Access Policy is effective for manuscripts accepted for publication on or after July 1, 2025, replacing the 2008 Public Access Policy. The Policy is applicable to Author Accepted Manuscripts resulting from the Intramural Research Program (IRP) and Author Accepted Manuscripts resulting from the official work of an NIH employee not in the IRP.

Requirements of the Policy

Authors are responsible for depositing all their manuscripts meeting the following criteria into PubMed Central:

  • The manuscript was peer-reviewed; and
  • the work described in the manuscript was funded in whole or in part by the NIH; and
  • the manuscript was published in a language using a Latin script (e.g., English).

To comply with the Policy, NIH authors and co-authors should:

  • Submit the NIH Intramural Research Program and Employee Publishing Agreement & Manuscript Cover Sheet with every submitted manuscript. Include the Cover Sheet (revised in 2025) when first submitting a manuscript to a publisher for review. The Cover Sheet may also be attached to an unsigned Publisher’s Agreement. This Cover Sheet is the complete agreement with the publisher.
    If the manuscript has multiple NIH authors, at least one Cover Sheet must accompany the manuscript to ensure NIH’s interests are protected. Ensure that the Cover Sheet is sent even if the submitting or corresponding author is not affiliated with NIH. The Cover Sheet does not need to be signed by your IC leadership referenced at the bottom of it.
  • Ensure compliance. The NH Public Access Policy requires submission of an electronic version of the Author Accepted Manuscript to PubMed Central (PMC) upon its acceptance for publication, for public availability without embargo upon the Official Date of Publication. This is the date on which the publication is first made available in its final, edited form, either in print or electronic (i.e. online) format.
    Some publishers will submit to PMC on behalf of the author. Otherwise, the NIH author is required to submit the Author Accepted Manuscript to PubMed Central at the time of acceptance. Note that all NIH authors are held responsible for assuring that the manuscript is submitted to PMC, not just the corresponding author. Further, purchasing an Open Access package from the publisher does not fulfill the requirements of submission to PMC.

Copyright

Your manuscript resulting from your official duties is a U.S. Government Work and is not subject to copyright under U.S. law. Publishers may claim copyright on the Final Published Article. Some journals may require you to click through items, and you may supply information such as necessary identifying information, financial and conflict of interest information, and data sharing arrangements. However, if the journal asks you sign away rights other than those to the Final Published Article, IRP investigators and IC employees should contact their IC Technology Development Coordinator before proceeding; authors from the NIH Office of the Director should contact SciencePolicy@od.nih.gov.

Publication Costs

Open access publishing is not required to be compliant with the Policy, and does not necessarily fulfill the requirements of the Policy. Some publishers or journals may require the payment of publishing fees or article processing charges. Reasonable costs associated with publication are allowable costs that an NIH author may consider paying. Authors are encouraged to seek publication venues that comport with their goals, and should weigh the value in spending funds on publishers’ fees for immediate availability through an open access package. NIH funds cannot be used to pay the publisher a fee for submission of the Author Accepted Manuscript to PubMed Central.

The NIH Library currently provides limited funding assistance in an effort to support authors affiliated with the National Institutes of Health to publish in an open access format. More details can be found here.

Contacts

Questions about the Policy should be addressed to:

Additional Resources

This page was last updated on Thursday, July 10, 2025