NIH Public Access Policy FAQ

When submitting articles to journals, the NIH recommends authors be transparent upfront that, should the article be accepted for publication, the underlying Author Accepted Manuscript is subject to the NIH Public Access Policy and that this means the NIH has the right to make the Author Accepted Manuscript publicly available in PubMed Central upon the article’s official date of publication. 

Authors should include the following statement in manuscripts they submit to journals, which should then be included in the Author Accepted Manuscript upon acceptance: 

“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.” 

Contact Open Scholarship and Research Data Services at Harvard Library for navigating publishing agreements.