May 2025

On April 30, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced an update to the timing for the implementation of the NIH 2024 Public Access Policy. When the revised Public Access Policy was announced in December 2024, the effective date for implementation was noted as December 31, 2025. The update from April 30 includes a new date of effective implementation—July 1, 2025—meaning that author manuscripts accepted after July 1 will be subject to immediate public access after publication under the updated timeline.

The overall update to NIH’s Public Access Policy was aligned with the 2022 memorandum from the Office of Science and Technology Policy, Ensuring Free, Immediate, and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research.

In addition to this update, according to news reports, there have been personnel updates among institute leaders across NIH, including the reported removal of Diana Bianchi, who had served as director of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). Alison Cernich, NICHD deputy director, is currently serving as acting director. Under the FY 2026 budget outline, this would be one of the consolidated NIH institutes.