The revised public access policy for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is now in effect, covering NIH-funded articles accepted for publication after July 1, 2025. 

Since NIH is a significant source of grant funding for UC, this change is likely to affect many UC-affiliated authors. Visit OSC’s Guidance on the Revised NIH Public Access Policy page to learn how to comply with these policies and how UC’s open access agreements with publishers can help.

This guidance features a summary of the requirements for NIH-funded authors, notes on publication costs and policy compliance, and an explanation of how the policy applies in a few different publishing scenarios.

The NIH policy text and FAQs can be found at the NIH’s Public Access pages. Further guidance is also available via these resources:

• The NIH Public Access Policy: Q&A for Authors, from the Authors Alliance
• An Updated NIH and Publisher Guidance: What Authors Need to Know about NIH’s Public Access Policy, from the Authors Alliance
• NIH Public Access Policy Overview, from SPARC

Tags: NIH, Open Access