Public Access at NEH
The NEH is currently in the implementation phase of a new policy that will expand the American public’s access to the products of our awards. The policy will take effect on October 1, 2025; in the coming months, we will continue to add detailed guidance, and answers to frequently asked questions. Please contact us at @email.
Public Access Policy
Public access, the ability for the public to freely and easily access the products funded through NEH grants, is central to NEH’s mission. The agency’s enabling legislation affirms that “the humanities belong to all the people of the United States,” and that “public funds provided by the Federal Government must ultimately serve public purposes.” NEH’s public access policy aligns with these principles by broadly disseminating the scholarly and professional literature supported by NEH funding.
Key Requirements
Effective for all new awards made on or after October 1, 2025, NEH recipients must comply with the following key requirements:
1. Public access to journal articles
Recipients must submit a copy of the author’s accepted manuscript (AAM) for any peer-reviewed scholarly article resulting in whole or in part from award activities. Recipients must submit a copy of the AAM to NEH no later than the article publication date, defined here as the date the final publisher’s version is available online.
The AAM, a version of the article following peer review, includes all final revisions as well as figures, tables, and supplemental material, but does not include publisher-provided copyediting or formatting. NEH will also accept the version of record or publisher’s version of the article when the applicable publisher agreement explicitly allows this.
NEH will deposit each article in a free and publicly available designated repository. NEH will also provide instructions on the Public Access page of the website with steps recipients should take to submit articles.
This requirement applies to all NEH program awards, excluding NEH general support grants to state humanities councils.
2. Public access to applied or scientific research data
Recipients must publicly share applied or scientific research datasets produced as a result of funding from a small number of NEH programs, as described in the respective Notices of Funding Opportunity. Recipients will not submit data directly to NEH; rather, they will adhere to a Data Management and Sharing Plan (DMSP) detailing expected points of access and preservation. Data will be generated from archaeological and ethnographic fieldwork, laboratory experiments, linguistic analysis, or other quantitative or qualitative studies with an emphasis on reliability and reproducibility. The recipient’s DMSP should follow both the FAIR Principles and the CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance, which emphasize that it may not be appropriate to share culturally sensitive information widely, as well as applicable legal and ethical considerations for personally identifiable information. The policy does not apply to preliminary analyses, drafts, personal research notes or photographs, field notes, or communications with colleagues. NEH will maintain a list of programs subject to this requirement on the Public Access page.
Copyright
Consistent with 2 CFR § 200.315(b), award recipients may copyright any work that is subject to copyright and was developed, or for which ownership was acquired, under the award. Under this provision, NEH reserves a royalty-free, nonexclusive, and irrevocable right to reproduce, publish, or otherwise use the work for federal purposes, and to authorize others to do so. This includes the right to require recipients and subrecipients to make such works available through agency-designated public access repositories.
NEH encourages recipients, upon submission of a manuscript, to communicate to the journal or publisher that the article is subject to the NEH Public Access Policy, under which NEH, as the funding agency, is permitted to make the author’s accepted manuscript publicly available without embargo upon publication.
Administration
On at least a biennial basis, NEH staff will review this policy and amend it as necessary, with approval from the Office of the Chair.
Programs Requiring Data Sharing
Digital Humanities Advancement Grants
Documenting Endangered Languages Fellowships
Archaeological and Ethnographic Field Research
Contact Us
NEH staff are eager to receive feedback from the public and agency stakeholders. Please contact us at @email.