Meeting Public Access Requirements

What You Need to Know

Funding agencies, most recently US Government Agencies such as NIH, are moving toward requiring immediate public access for reports on funded research. If you publish with ACS, here’s how to stay compliant—and why it matters.

What’s changed and what it means for you

Until recently, many funders allowed a 12-month embargo before peer-reviewed reports on funded research had to be shared or posted to a public repository. That’s ending. By January 2026, all U.S. federal agencies will require immediate (zero-embargo) access. Many European funders already have similar requirements. In other words, some funders are requiring the peer-reviewed accepted manuscript version of your work to be publicly accessible as soon as it’s accepted or published.

What counts as public access

Most funders, such as NIH, require you to publicly share the accepted manuscript (the version after peer review but before final formatting). Usually this entails depositing or posting the accepted manuscript to a repository such as PubMed Central. This is called green open access. Making the fully edited, published article (also called the version of record) publicly available is gold open access.

Your options with ACS

You have three main ways to comply:

1. Use your institution’s agreement and publish open access

More than 1,700 institutions have ACS open access agreements. If you are the submitting corresponding author at an institution with an agreement, you can choose to publish open access and make your work public at no personal cost. Check to see if your institution has coverage and review the details.

2. Choose Gold Open Access

Make your final published article immediately available on the ACS platform and post either the accepted manuscript or the version of record. Article publishing charges (APCs) may be covered by your grant. Discounts are available. Learn more here.

3. Choose zero-embargo green open access

Publishing a traditional hybrid journals like JACS? Pay a lower-cost Article Development Charge (ADC) to retain copyright of the work and post it right away. The fee for these publishing services may be covered by your grant. Learn about the services covered and the cost here.

Need to make a past work open access?
You can convert previously published articles to open access. Fees may apply. Visit our Research Sharing and Open Access page or contact our ACS OA Operations team for details.

Your library can help

Your library team can:

Interpret funder mandates
Confirm or acquire institutional coverage
Support deposit workflows

Stay compliant and understand your funder’s requirements

Don’t post articles, or portions thereof, without first ensuring you have the appropriate rights. This may violate ACS terms and could lead to takedowns or other action.

It is the author’s sole responsibility to understand and abide by their funders’ requirements. We strongly advise authors to review the terms of their grant(s) before making any publishing decisions.
Always understand your obligations and make sure that you can comply.

Frequently asked questions

Publishing services — like submission/review systems, editing, fraud checking, and hosting — still have costs. We anticipate that most grants will continue to allow these expenses. Check your grant terms to confirm coverage.

Yes. If you’re the submitting corresponding author and your institution has a green or gold OA agreement, you can deposit your accepted manuscript immediately. In most cases, we’ll detect your affiliation during the publishing process and offer the option automatically.

Both green and gold OA let you post the accepted manuscript in any repository, including PubMed Central, NSF-PAR, or your institutional repository. You can even deposit in more than one.

Posting without the right agreement violates ACS terms. It can lead to article takedowns or publishing restrictions.

Work with the submitting author to confirm OA coverage through their institution. If none exists, you’ll need to choose gold or green OA before sharing. Post-publication upgrades are available — visit our Research Sharing and Open Access page or contact ACS OA Operations for help.

Usually, no. Authors are responsible for depositing in the correct repository on time. The exception: if you choose gold OA, ACS will automatically deposit your article in PubMed Central and Europe PMC after publication.

That’s between you and your funder. ACS doesn’t enforce funder-specific timelines, but missing deadlines can affect future funding eligibility.

For detailed posting guidance on posting accepted manuscripts and preprints, visit our related policy page.

Please visit our page on Use of Materials from ACS Journals for instructions specific to Theses and Dissertations.

If the content in question was published Open Access with ACS, use will be governed by the terms of the relevant public use license (such as CC BY). This is denoted on each article hosted on Pubs.acs.org. Visit our page on Permissions/RightsLink to learn about reusing non-open access content.

All open access fees, whether green or gold, are due after acceptance. Visit our page on individual open access options and prices for more information.

For questions related to institutional open access, such as publishing under a university’s agreement, contact OA Operations.

Contact your regional sales representative or submit a general sales inquiry to discuss institutional OA agreements.