2024 NIH Public Access Policy

NIH has published its 2024 NIH Public Access Policy. The Policy applies to any Author Accepted Manuscript accepted for publication in a journal, on or after December 31, 2025, that is the result of funding by NIH in whole or in part through:

• A grant or cooperative agreement, including training grants,
• A contract,
• An Other Transaction,
• NIH intramural research, or
• The official work of an NIH employee.

The NIH Public Access Policy applies regardless of whether the NIH-funded principal investigator or project director is an author and regardless of whether non-NIH funds contributed to developing or writing the Author Accepted Manuscript.

Requirements

The NIH Public Access Policy requires:

• Submission of an electronic version of the Author Accepted Manuscript to PubMed Central upon its acceptance for publication for public availability without embargo upon the Official Date of Publication;
• An acknowledgment in the Author Accepted Manuscript and Final Published Article that satisfies the requirements in the NIH Grants Policy Statement (GPS) regarding communicating and acknowledging federal funding (GPS 4.2.1 and GPS 8.2.1), as well as analogous requirements for acknowledging federal funding as incorporated into the terms of Other Transaction agreements and applicable contracts; and
• When an Author Accepted Manuscript is submitted to NIH¹, agreeing to a standard license that mirrors that of the Government Use License at 2 CFR 200.315, or its successor regulation, explicitly granting NIH the right to make the Author Accepted Manuscript publicly available through PubMed Central without embargo upon the Official Date of Publication. 

Complete background and details are included in the full announcement:

National Institutes of Health
NOT-OD-25-047
December 17, 2024

Supplemental Guidance: Government Use License and Rights

This NIH Guidance assists authors in navigating compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy with minimal burden. NIH also encourages authors to be clear with journals and publishers to ensure journals and publishers understand that NIH has a right to make Author Accepted Manuscripts publicly available upon the Official Date of Publication. 

Public Access Policy Requirements Related to Rights

Upon accepting NIH funding, recipients grant to NIH the right to make Author Accepted Manuscripts resulting from the funding publicly available in PubMed Central upon the Official Date of Publication, and this is affirmed via a statement in Notices of Award, in the terms of Other Transaction agreements, and in applicable contracts. 

Authors submitting Author Accepted Manuscripts to PubMed Central must agree to a submission statement as part of the standard PubMed Central manuscript submission process. Under the NIH Public Access Policy, authors submitting an Author Accepted Manuscript to PubMed Central must provide NIH with a standard license that mirrors the Government Use License. This language, included as part of this submission statement to PubMed Central, states:

“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.” 

Guidance for Communicating Rights in Author Accepted Manuscripts

NIH highly encourages authors to be transparent during the journal submission process by indicating to the journal or publisher that the Author Accepted Manuscript, should the Submitted Manuscript be accepted, is subject to the NIH Public Access Policy, and that this means that NIH, as the funding agency, has the right to make the Author Accepted Manuscript publicly available in PubMed Central upon the Official Date of Publication. NIH does not require that authors demonstrate to NIH what was communicated to publishers.

Complete details are included in the full announcement:

National Institutes for Health
NOT-OD-25-049
December 17, 2024

Supplemental Guidance: Publication Costs

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) reiterates that compliance with the Public Access Policy is free. However, NIH recognizes that some peer-reviewed publishing routes may result in publication costs, including, but not limited to, article processing charges (APCs). Publication costs are allowable when they comport with the existing NIH cost principles (Grants Policy Statement (GPS) 7.2 and GPS 7.9.1 (Publication and Printing Costs)). Cost principles clarify when costs should be allocated as direct versus indirect costs, and they clarify charges and fees that are allowable under the outlined conditions. 

This Guidance clarifies publication costs that are not allowable based on existing cost principles. It also outlines Points to Consider for Authors and Institutions in Assessing Reasonable Costs. This Guidance is intended to help funded authors and institutions understand what costs are allowable and reasonable under the NIH Public Access Policy. The NIH GPS also permits allowable and reasonable costs to be used to make public other works resulting from NIH funding that are not subject to the NIH Public Access Policy. This Guidance includes a brief section describing these kinds of works. The factors for what make costs unallowable are broadly applicable, regardless of whether the publication or other work is subject to the NIH Public Access Policy.

Complete details are included in the full announcement:

National Institutes for Health
NOT-OD-25-048
December 17, 2024

eRA Enhancements: Changes to xTRACT Released

An xTRACT enhancement released, Friday, December 20, 2024, has implemented changes to align training tables generated by xTRACT with the new FORMS-I requirements. NIH will be requiring the use of updated application forms (FORMS-I) for due dates on or after January 25, 2025. Information entered into xTRACT is used to populate research training dataset (RTD) tables in forms for training awards. Forms generated by xTRACT after today’s release will conform with the new FORMS-I requirements.

Changes in xTRACT for FORMS-I are related to partner organizations, faculty who have left the program, and characteristics for training program candidates and entrants. Training data tables are being updated to reduce burden and promote consistent information collection across training programs.

Training data changes in xTRACT for Research Training Datasets:

• Include the ability to add partner organizations and associate faculty of partner organizations, and to add programs/departments from partner organizations (Tables 1, 2, and 4)
• Include the ability to report faculty that have left the program (Table 5)
• No longer require certain trainee characteristics related to prior academic and research experience (Table 6)
• No longer require information on “Those Clearly Associated with the Training Grant.” (Table 8, Part II)

Complete details including screenshots from the xTRACT module included in the full announcement.