Whether you’re an NIH-funded investigator, an avid consumer of our research publications, or a data scientist eager to dive deeper into our data sets, we encourage you to comment on NIH’s Draft Public Access Policy. 

Building on the 2008 NIH Public Access Policy (which required NIH-funded manuscripts to be made publicly available on PubMed Central®), the proposed enhancement would remove the 12-month embargo period for scholarly publications. This means you could access both the primary research article and its underlying data sets sooner! Upon approval, NIH aims to update the policy by the end of 2024.

You can review the draft policy, and the early public comments that helped guide it, in the Federal Register. The document outlines how the enhancements compare to the 2008 policy and can answer questions about compliance, licensing and intellectual rights, and publication costs.

To share your feedback, please complete the NIH Draft Public Access Policy comment form by August 19, 2024.