There has been a great deal of confusion with the NIH Public Access Policy since the Appropriations Bill was signed in December 2007. The bill included language changing the current voluntary NIH Public Access Policy to mandatory. This language is a legislative mandate for NIH to develop guidelines to implement the new policy. NIH is currently developing guidance for implementation of the mandatory policy, with the new guidelines to be disseminated via the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts listserv and the NIH Public Access Policy website. Until the new guidelines are released by NIH, the NIH Public Access Policy will remain voluntary. There is no timeline for release of the new guidelines.

If authors follow the same steps for voluntary compliance with the current NIH policy, these steps will allow for mandatory compliance.  Authors who are currently preparing NIH-funded manuscripts for publication are strongly encouraged to be aware that authors must specifically retain the right to comply with the NIH policy.

Consult the Becker Library “Complying with the NIH Public Access Policy” page for more information on the NIH Public Access Policy and to learn about our services to help WU authors comply with the policy.