Title 42, The Public Health and WelfareRelease 119-102

§282c Public Access to Funded Investigators’ Final Manuscripts

Title 42 › CHAPTER 6A — PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE › SUBCHAPTER III — NATIONAL RESEARCH INSTITUTES › Part A — National Institutes of Health › § 282c

Last updated Aug 21, 2026|Official source

Summary

Starting this fiscal year, NIH must require funded researchers to deposit their final peer‑reviewed manuscripts in PubMed Central when accepted and make them public within 12 months, consistent with copyright law.

Full Legal Text

Title 42, §282c

The Public Health and Welfare, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

The Director of the National Institutes of Health (“NIH”) shall require in the current fiscal year and thereafter that all investigators funded by the NIH submit or have submitted for them to the National Library of Medicine’s PubMed Central an electronic version of their final, peer-reviewed manuscripts upon acceptance for publication, to be made publicly available no later than 12 months after the official date of publication: Provided, That the NIH shall implement the public access policy in a manner consistent with copyright law.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Codification Section was enacted as part of the Department of Health and Human Services Appropriations Act, 2009, and also as part of the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2009, and the Omnibus Appropriations Act, 2009, and not as part of the Public Health Service Act which comprises this chapter.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

42 U.S.C. § 282c

Title 42, The Public Health and Welfare

Last Updated

Aug 21, 2026

Release point: 119-102