Navigating the NIH Public Access Policy

1. Does the manuscript result from funding by the NIH in whole or in part through any of the following:

• Grants or cooperative agreements, including training grants
• Contracts
• Other transactions 
• NIH intramural research 
• The office work of an NIH employee

2. Was the manuscript accepted for publication in a journal on or after July 1, 2025?

3. Determine what fees apply and if there is a charge for making the manuscript open access on the date of publication (without an embargo period) prior to submitting for peer review.

4. Assess any funds available for publishing fees (costs budgeted within NIH grant, department support, etc.). 

Northwestern University Galter Health Sciences Library maintains an active list of discounts and services related to open access. This includes lists of publishers where the institution may have a read-and-publish or transformative agreement in place. To be eligible for these discounts, the author must have a Northwestern University affiliation. Additional agreement and journal information can be found on the Open Access Publishing Research & Teaching page.

Some scientific societies apply member discounts for articles. 

Will the journal or publisher submit the manuscript through the NIH manuscript submission system which leads to PubMed Central? If so:

• Determine if this will be done on the date of publication (required for compliance).
• Determine if a fee will be charged for making the manuscript open access on the date of publication (without an embargo period).
• If relying on the journal to deposit, the NIH recommends reviewing the specific journal records in the National Library of Medicine to confirm that the release delay is 0 months (immediate release) and the agreement status is active.   
• Authors should carefully review the publisher's contract terms to ensure they can maintain compliance with public access policy requirements. If needing support authors can contact legal services. It is important to read and understand the journal's terms and conditions. 

Compliance can often be achieved by an author depositing the manuscript directly to PubMed Central through the NIHMS. However, to do this it must be in alignment with the journal's terms and conditions. 

• If an author is unable to identify budgeted or other pathways to cover or eliminate fees associated with dropping the embargo period, authors may need to submit to a different publisher/journal without fees to eliminate the embargo period.  
• Journals with an active agreement to deposit all articles can be found in the PubMed Central journal list. NIH recommends reviewing the specific journal record to confirm that the release delay is 0 months (immediate release) and the agreement status is active.  

When submitting a manuscript for peer review, include the following recommended NIH Rights Statement to inform publishers and journals that your work is subject to NIH Public Access Policy and that NIH has the right to make the manuscript publicly available in PubMed Central upon publication:  

“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, as defined by NIH.”