The policy applies to all Author Accepted Manuscripts (AAM) funded by NIH in whole or part, whether or not the NIH-funded Principal Investigator is an author.
An electronic version of the AAM must be submitted to PubMed Central upon acceptance. The author of any article published open access with a Creative Commons license can deposit the Final Published Article in PubMed Central – the formatted PDF available on the publisher’s website – rather than the Author Accepted Manuscript at the Official Date of Publication.
This applies to AAMs accepted for publication on or after July 1, 2025, regardless of the submission date.
The AAM is "the author's final version that has been accepted for journal publication and includes all revisions resulting from the peer review process, including all associated tables, graphics, and supplemental material." File formats include the broad array of file types accepted by journals (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, etc.). Images should be high-resolution.
The AAM will be made publicly available in PMC on the Official Date of Publication (no embargo). The Official Date of Publication is "the date on which the Final Published Article is first made available in final, edited form, whether in print or electronic (i.e., online) format."
More guidance is provided on the UC Office of Scholarly Communication website.
You still have to deposit your article in PubMed Central. However, if your article is published open access with a Creative Common license you may deposit the Final Published Article instead of the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM). Some open access journals/publishers will deposit the Final Published Article on your behalf. Check this list and check with the journal/publisher to ensure that the AAM will be deposited.
To comply with the NIH Public Access Policy your article must be deposited in PubMed Central. To avoid multiple deposits you might provide a link to the PubMed Central public version in the UCPMS.
No, depositing in PMC is free and fulfills your public access compliance obligations under the NIH Policy
Yes, the NIH Public Access Policy states that PIs can "budget for reasonable costs associated with publication".
Since January 25, 2023, NIH has a Data Management and Sharing Policy in place. For more information consult our Data Management Service.
According to the supplemental guidance on the Government Use License and Rights, accepting NIH funding means granting NIH a nonexclusive license to make your author accepted manuscript publicly available in PubMed Central. Authors are required to agree to the following terms:
“I hereby grant to NIH, a royalty-free, nonexclusive, and irrevocable right to reproduce, publish, or otherwise use this work for Federal purposes and to authorize others to do so. This grant of rights includes the right to make the final, peer-reviewed manuscript publicly available in PubMed Central upon the Official Date of Publication.”
The supplemental guidance also recommends that grantees should consider including the following NIH-recommended language in your manuscript submission to journals:
“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.”