Date of End of Embargo: Definition

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Date of end of embargo is the date after which a deposited item — most often an accepted manuscript held in a repository — becomes available to read and download on the web. It marks the last day of an embargo period, the point at which a temporarily restricted record converts to open access.

How the end date is set

The date of end of embargo is calculated from the date of start of embargo plus whatever embargo length the publisher’s self-archiving policy or funder mandate specifies. Embargo lengths vary by publisher, discipline, and funder — commonly ranging from zero (no embargo) up to 24 months or longer in some fields — and the triggering start date itself can be the date of acceptance, date of online publication, or date of deposit, depending on the publisher’s stated policy. CASRAI’s guide on checking a journal’s self-archiving policy with Open Policy Finder covers how to look up a specific journal’s embargo terms.

Funder policy has moved sharply toward eliminating embargoes for publicly funded research. The US NIH’s 2024 Public Access Policy, for instance, requires that any Author Accepted Manuscript accepted for publication on or after 1 July 2025 be deposited in PubMed Central and made publicly available with zero embargo, at the article’s official publication date — a shift from the up-to-12-month embargo the prior NIH policy allowed. Other US federal funders have moved toward similar zero-embargo deposit requirements for more recent award cohorts.

What repository users see before and after this date

Before the date of end of embargo, most repositories display the record’s metadata (title, abstract, citation) publicly while withholding the full-text file — this is different from the record not existing at all. After the date of end of embargo passes, the full text becomes downloadable, and the record’s date of first open access is generally set to that same date, unless the item was already open from deposit.

Worked example

An accepted manuscript is deposited with a 12-month embargo starting from the date of online publication (1 March). The date of end of embargo is 1 March the following year; from that date the full text becomes downloadable without restriction.

Counter-example

A record with no applicable embargo has no meaningful “date of end of embargo” distinct from its date of deposit or date of first open access — the field only has substantive meaning when a genuine access restriction was in force.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the date of end of embargo the same as the date of first open access?

Usually, yes, for items that were fully hidden during the embargo — full-text access typically opens on this date. They can differ if a record was already partly visible, or if further checks delay public visibility past the embargo’s technical end date.

How long do embargoes typically last?

It varies widely by publisher, discipline, and applicable funder policy — from zero embargo (increasingly common under recent funder mandates) up to 24 months or more for some publisher self-archiving policies. Always check the specific journal’s stated policy rather than assuming a standard length.

Can an embargo end date be waived or shortened?

Some funder mandates now override publisher-set embargoes entirely by requiring zero-embargo deposit as a condition of funding, regardless of what the publisher’s own self-archiving policy would otherwise allow.

Use in your systems

JATS XML <role> element

xml

<role vocab="credit"
      vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
      vocab-term="Date of end of embargo"
      vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/date-of-end-of-embargo" />

Schema.org DefinedTerm (JSON-LD)

json

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  "name": "Date of end of embargo",
  "identifier": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/date-of-end-of-embargo",
  "description": "Date after which deposited items become available to read and download on the web. The date of the last day of an embargo period.",
  "inDefinedTermSet": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/domain/research-lifecycle#set",
  "url": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/date-of-end-of-embargo",
  "sameAs": [],
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "publisher": {
    "@id": "https://casrai.org/#organization"
  },
  "dateModified": "2026-08-17T01:58:45",
  "inLanguage": "en"
}

Date of end of embargo