My Bibliography Official Publication Dates Change

According to a recent NCBI Insights post, on October 1, 2025, the My Bibliography tool will begin using the earliest publication date listed in PubMed records (whether print or electronic) to indicate an article’s official publication date and compliance with the the NIH’s 2024 public access policy updates. Peer reviewed journal articles associated with NIH awards and not submitted to PubMed Central by their official publication dates could be considered noncompliant. This change is the result of the NIH public access policy updates that went into effect on July 1, 2025. The updates mandate that articles accepted for publication after July 1 would be fully accessible on their official publication dates. Previously, the NIH’s public access policy considered an article’s print publication date to be the official publication date in most cases unless the journal was digital only.

This change is expected to impact My Bibliography citations that may have previously relied on a later publication date before becoming noncompliant with the NIH’s public access policy. The My Bibliography system will make this official publication date change to users’ lists automatically.

Our recommendation for dealing with this potentially faster compliance schedule is the submission of the author accepted manuscript to the NIH Manuscript Submission System (NIHMS) upon journal acceptance. The PAS offers funder submission assistance through our BuckySubmit tool.

Questions? Contact us at publicaccess@wisc.edu.