Federal Research Changes: NIH

There are many new changes coming out of NIH. We have included a few here below and will continue updating this LibGuide as changes occur. We cover here: NIH Public Access Policy and NIH Allowable Publishing Costs.

Effective July 1, 2025, a new NIH Public Access Policy went into effect.

This policy now removes the 12-month embargo, requiring all Author Accepted Manuscripts accepted for publication on or after July 1, 2025 to be made immediately available in PubMed Central upon publication.

Author Accepted Manuscripts are defined by the NIH as, "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."

Three Critical Steps to Maintaining Compliance

1. Ensure submission of work to PubMed Central upon notice of publication

2. Ensure language about NIH funding and PubMed Central requirements are clearly defined in the work

3. All reports, proposals, etc. must include a PubMed Central Identifier (PMCID) when demonstrating compliance with NIH

More Information on Steps 1 and 3

1. You must submit your Author Accepted Manuscript to PubMed Central for public availability without embargo upon publication date. It is not sufficient for the work to be available on a journal or publisher's website; it must be submitted for immediate release to PubMed Central. With that, there are some journals that automatically deposit the work in PubMed Central. To see which journals currently have this agreement, visit this link from the NIH. Ensure that the agreement is active and check with the journal/publisher.

3. When you submit your work to PubMed Central, it will be assigned a PubMed Central Identifier (PMCID). If you have a NIH Manuscript Submission identifier (NIHMSID), that may be used instead of a PMCID for up to three months following the publication date.

In July 2025, the NIH released guidance that they were intending to limit what they define as "Allowable Publishing Costs" for NIH-funded research. They have devised 5 different options for how to implement this limit, ranging from no APCs allowed for NIH funded research to either $20,000 or .8% of the grant, whichever is higher, for publication charges. Currently, NIH has requested information and feedback from institutions and researchers about these 5 options, and that RFI was due Sept. 15, 2025. We are currently awaiting more information on what option NIH will choose and how this will be implemented. 

You can read the proposal here: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-25-138.html