Skip to Main Content Page Title
Library logo

Library Research Support: Open Research: Research Publications Policy & Rights Retention

This guide is intended to provide advice and support on open access research, including guidance around Durham Research Online (DRO), open access publishing, research data management and related topics.

Durham University Research Publications Policy and Rights Retention Strategy

Research Publications Policy & Rights Retention

Durham University Research Publications Policy

The University's Research Publications Policy was approved by Senate on 14th February 2023 following a University wide consultation process, and is aligned with the Open Access (OA) requirements of funders, including UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the Wellcome Trust and Research England. 



Key messages
  • This policy embraces the Rights Retention approach, and is part of the University's commitment to support authors to make the outputs of their research open and reproducible. Durham University worked collectively with members of the N8 Research Partnership in developing a new N8 Rights Retention Statement, and jointly implementing policies to support the aims of that statement.
  • The policy will make it easier for authors to meet and comply with their funder's Open Access policies, by providing them with an additional route to immediate OA where a paid open access option may not be possible.
  • By enabling immediate OA, this policy will support authors in ensuring a broader readership can access their papers immediately upon publication, with all the potential benefits for increasing the chance of citation, future collaboration opportunities both within and outside academia, and opportunities for breaking down barriers to generate wider impact.
  • Authors can continue to select their preferred journal of choice for publication.
  • This policy will be reviewed on an annual basis for the first 2 years of implementation.

Key Policy details
  • Our Research Publications Policy applies to all staff, and any Scholarly Articles they submit for publication after 31st March 2023.
  • The policy also applies to any research student acknowledging any funder which requires immediate open access from publication.
    • All research students, however, are strongly encouraged to also ensure that any scholarly articles they publish which are not otherwise automatically covered by this policy (e.g. not co-authored with another Durham University employee), to follow the principles of this policy to ensure they are open access on an equal footing to other authored publications.
  • Authors are strongly encouraged to follow the Rights Retention approach by including a Rights Retention Statement in their submitted articles
    • Authors are also advised to ensure that as with any obligations to funders, collaborators or their institution, the obligation to ensure access immediately from publication under this policy is communicated to co-authors at the start of any research project, or as early as possible (and recognising that in some circumstances, e.g. large collaborations, this may be challenging and should be done in line with disciplinary norms).
  • Authors can continue to select their preferred journal of choice for publication, and transfer copyright to that publisher; if necessary, an opt-out for authors is built in to the policy, although its usage and impact on the ability to meet the requirements of funders and the REF will be monitored by Faculty Deputy Executive Deans (Research).
  • No other action is required of authors, and any questions should be directed to the Library using the options on this page.
  • This policy will be reviewed on an annual basis for the first 2 years of implementation.

 

The Rights Retention Approach

"Rights Retention" is an initiative from cOAlition-S funders, including the Wellcome Trust, UKRI and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, each of whom has published cOAlition-S aligned policies which include a rights retention requirement. 


N8 Statement on Rights Retention

In January 2023, the N8 Research Partnerhsip universities (comprising the universities of Durham, Lancaster, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield and York) published a Statement on Rights Retention, with a clear position from all institutions recognising that:

"It is funders, not publishers who stipulate regulations for grant awards. Similarly it is universities, not publishers who provide the environment which allows research to take place."

 


What is the 'Rights Retention Strategy'?

Rights retention supports the green (self-archiving) open access route and aims to allow an author to publish in their journal of choice (even if that published Version of Record (VoR) remains behind a subscription paywall), whilst ensuring an author retains the right to share their Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) immediately upon publication, in line with the expectations of their funder.

The author, or their institution (or both) notify the publisher that a prior licence has been applied to the AAM, granting rights to share that in line with any funder or other requirements.

The intended outcome is that:

  • Authors
    • Retain the rights to share and re-use their own AAM as they wish.
    • Are able to meet the open access requirements where these form any terms and conditions in their funding contract.
  • Institutions
    • Can share the accepted manuscripts provided to them by authors immediately from their institutional open access repository.
    • Can provide clear and consistent guidance for authors on how to comply and how and when AAMs will be shared.
    • Can ensure that more of the high quality research conducted by their community is able to made open access, at the point of publication, for anyone with access to the internet.
  • Researchers
    • Gain immediate open access to a peer-reviewed version of research publications, which would otherwise be hidden behind a subscription paywall.
    • Through the use of standard open licencing can clearly see how they can, and cannot, re-use that published research.
  • Publishers
    • Are clearly notified (by the institution, the author, or both) at the first point of submission (or by prior notice) of the institutions or funder's open access requirements that the author of the manuscript is obliged to meet.
  • Funders
    • Can ensure the authors they fund have a mechanism for making research open access immediately upon publication which is not dependent upon an author's ability to pay for publishing.

Funded authors and Rights Retention

The key expectation on authors from funders is to make their research articles Open Access immediately on publication, without embargo, and under a clear open licence, usually a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence. 

This can usually be done through various means, including publishing in a fully open access journal, or publishing in a hybrid journal which allows individual articles to be made open access.

These routes often come with a cost for an author, so many funders also allow an author to meet their open access obligations by self-archiving their AAM, as long as this is made available no later than the date of publication, and under an appropriate open licence. This is referred to as Route 2 in both the UKRI and Wellcome Trust Open Access policies.

The Rights Retention approach is aimed to support authors in retaining sufficient rights in their AAM to allow them to meet those requirements, irrespective of any embargo a journal might require on providing access to that AAM.

Durham University Research Publications Policy: What do I need to do as an author?


Core requirements for authors

For most authors, no additional action is required under the Research Publications Policy beyond depositing your Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) in to Durham Research Online (DRO).

We have outlined below some key actions/considerations for authors when submitting their articles for publication.


On submission, author's should:

  • Required: Submit to the journal most appropriate for disseminating your research
  • Recommended: Include a Rights Retention Statement in the acknowledgements section of the submitted manuscript, and any accompanying letter of submission.
    • This should follow the format: For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission.
    • An author may amend this statement to reflect a different licence where this have been agreed with the relevant funder or institution, as set out in the policy.
    • Some funder's may already require author's to include a similar statement, and this requirement does not replace or supercede that requirement.
  • Recommended: Communicate clearly within co-authorship teams so that all authors are aware of each other's obligations to their funders and institutions, as part of existing discussions in line with disciplinary norms.
    • For Durham authors, this coudl include that you are expected to make sure your AAM is able to be made open access, under an open licence, immediately upon publication if open access is not being provided via another means.
  • Optional: If a publisher refuses to proceed with your submitted manuscript with the grant of prior licence, you may want to consider publishing elsewhere, or requesting an opt-out from the policy. A Durham author may request an opt-out from the policy by contacting the Open Research Team. This request will be reviewed and the Open Research Team are required to seek approval for any opt-outs granted from the relevant Faculty's Deputy Executive Dean (Research). NOTE: this may result in your article being non-compliant for REF or your funder’s open access requirements if it prevents the article being open access on publication.

On acceptance, author's should:

  • Required (NO CHANGE ON CURRENT PRACTICE): Deposit your Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) in to Durham Research Online (DRO).

Author Support: If a publisher contacts you as author about the inclusion of any Rights Retention Statement, or the University's Research Publications Policy, contact the University's Open Research team for advice and guidance, or direct the publisher to contact us directly.
What do researchers acknowledging UKRI funding in the scholarly articles need to do?

This is advice is for research articles in scope of the UKRI Open Access policy, submitted on or after 1st April 2022. 

Durham University strongly recommends the inclusion of a Rights Retention Statement in any article when submitting for publication; but some funders require authors to include this statement.


At the point of submission

When submitting to a journal that is not fully open access, researcher's acknowledging UKRI funding should:

  • Include the statement below in the funding acknowledgements section of the manuscript, and in any cover letter, email or submission system note accompanying the submission.
"For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising."

 

[Note that, where the researcher has requested and received permission from their funder to use an alternate open licence, then the licence applied can be substituted in the wording included.]


At the point of acceptance

If the journal will not be published open access (e.g. through the payment of an APC, or through a transitional agreement with the publisher), the researcher should deposit a copy of their author accepted manuscript (AAM) in Durham Research Online (DRO), including the Rights Retention Statement. The DRO team will then ensure that the AAM is made open access in line with their funder's requirements once the article has been published.


 

What do researchers acknowledging Wellcome Trust funding in the scholarly articles need to do?

This is advice is for research articles in scope of the Wellcome Trust Open Access policy, submitted on or after 1st January 2021. 

Durham University strongly recommends the inclusion of a Rights Retention Statement in any article when submitting for publication; but some funders require authors to include this statement.


At the point of submission

When submitting to any journal, researcher's acknowledging Wellcome Trust funding:

  • MUST include the statement below in the funding acknowledgements section of the manuscript, and in any cover letter, email or submission system note accompanying the submission. (Authors are advised to familiarise themselves with the Wellcome Trust's Rights Retention Statement and how to add it to all manuscripts at the point of submission).
"This research was funded in whole, or in part, by the Wellcome Trust [Grant number]. For the purpose of Open Access, the author has applied a CC BY public copyright licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission."

 

[Note that, where the researcher has requested and received permission from their funder to use an alternate open licence, then the licence applied can be substituted in the wording included.]

Wellcome have added guidance to their policy, notifying authors that "You should not sign a publishing contract that conflicts with our open access requirements. These are set out in our grant conditions"


At the point of acceptance

If the journal will not be published open access (e.g. through the payment of an APC, or through a transitional agreement with the publisher), the researcher should deposit a copy of their author accepted manuscript (AAM) in Durham Research Online (DRO), including the Rights Retention Statement. The DRO team will then ensure that the AAM is made open access in line with their funder's requirements once the article has been published.


 

FAQs for Rights Retention and Durham's Research Publications Policy.

The following Frequent Asked Questions provide information to authors to help them make their research open access immediately upon publication under the University's Research Publications Policy.

For additional help and support, please contact us.

Please note, you can also access the N8 Research Partnerships Rights Retention FAQs page, although the FAQs below are specifically aimed to support Durham authors.


Rights Retention and Durham University's Research Publication's Policy: Key Facts and Rationale
Rights Retention Strategy (RRS) Statements
Different publishing routes
Copyright and Licence questions
Authorship and author status questions
Issues and opt-outs

RPP Video: Quick Author Guide

Research Publications Policy

(Durham University Logo) Link to Research Publications Policy

N8 Statement on Rights Retention

N8 Rights Retention Statement

Got Questions? Contact Us

Contact us for help at dro.admin@durham.ac.uk

Got Questions? Book a Meeting

If you have questions, you can book a 1-to-1 (or group) consultation with us for advice.

Plan S RRS Resources

cOAlition S logo (link to their Rights Retention guidance)

undefined  undefined  undefined  undefined  undefined  undefined