The University of Birmingham will be introducing a rights retention approach in January 2025.
Many UK research intensive universities have already done this and Midlands Innovation issued a statement on this topic in early 2024. Please see our short presentation to introduce the approach.
Fundamentally, the aims of the approach are to ensure:
- Research staff, their co-authors, and the University retain sufficient rights in research outputs to use them in their day-to-day business and share them openly.
- The impact of research outputs is maximised by making them available to as wide an audience as possible via open access (OA).
- There is clarity regarding ownership of research outputs.
- Researchers can comply with funder OA mandates.
- Researchers can continue to comply with the Research Excellence Framework OA policy irrespective of how the Funding Councils proposals are implemented.
- UK HE has a stronger position from which to challenge the excessive annual cost increases associated with publishing OA.
The approach has been achieved via revisions to the Code of Practice for Research (DOCX - 131 KB) and a new Research Publications Policy (DOCX - 100 KB) which replaces the old Research Publications Statement. You will be required to log in to review these policies, until they are both formally launched in January 2025. They should not be shared beyond the University at this time.
The information on these pages is intended to raise awareness, provide a straightforward explanation of what rights retention is and guide researchers through what they need to do to abide by the new policies.
Running up to the launch of the policy we are keen that researchers are able to ask questions and feedback on the support materials we have made available. See questions and feedback for further information.
Key information
What is rights retention?
Rights retention is a mechanism to enable all research publications to be made OA via Pure, at the point of publication (or within a reasonable period for long form outputs) under a licence that permits maximal reuse. It ensures those outputs can be reused for teaching, research and other purposes without having to seek publisher approval.
What do I have to do differently as an author?
We have drafted some author guidance to support introduction of the policy, but in short:
Journal and conference papers
The Research Publications Policy does include a relatively limited range of exceptions, but it is anticipated that their application would be rare. Should one of those apply, add a user note to the record when you upload your AAM to Pure.
Research monographs and book chapters
There is no requirement that all long-form outputs are made OA under the policy. However, if it is a requirement of your funder, or you wish to make your output OA via self-deposit:
- Include the rights retention statement when you submit a chapter or a book proposal.
- Upload your final post-review manuscript to Pure when it becomes available.
- Indicate the chosen Creative Commons licence and timescale for OA at the time of deposit in Pure.
At the present time, making all long-form outputs OA is not mandatory. The Research Publications Policy does, however, stipulate some requirements for authors to discuss OA with their publisher and to ensure a post-review manuscript is deposited in Pure for preservation purposes.
Why is the University introducing a rights retention policy?
Many research funders expect publicly funded research to be immediately OA under a licence which permits as broad a range of reuse as possible, to the benefit of research progress, the public and the economy. Since 2021 we have also seen funders impose restrictions on how grants may be used to pay for OA, with a recognition that with reasonable costs and transparent practices, existing library subscription spending should be repurposed to pay for OA publishing, without the need for substantial additional costs.
Realistically, we are not seeing many publishers transition in this way, or at the rate expected by funders. A robust self-archiving route, as provided by a rights retention policy, allows authors to meet their obligations to funders without being limited to just the journals where OA funding can be used. It also ensures that compliance with future Research Excellence Framework OA requirements can be met, irrespective of whether dedicated funding is available to pay for OA.
Furthermore, rights retention provides a route for immediate OA that can be used by funded and unfunded authors alike. In the past, unfunded authors regularly had to publish behind a paywall and abide by 12 or even 24 month embargoes before being able to make an author accepted manuscript (AAM) open access. Such restrictions negate some of the key author benefits of OA, namely the increased readership, potential citation gains and impact that making research immediately open access, can bring.
How does rights retention work?
In general terms
- A contractual arrangement between author and University determines which party owns research outputs, while granting certain rights to the other party, including a non-exclusive licence to make the author-accepted manuscript (AAM) of emerging research publications open access under a pre-determined Creative Commons Licence.
- Publishers are notified of this prior contractual relationship and licence.
Under UK law, where a publisher is notified of an existing licensing arrangement, those existing terms override any subsequent terms that publisher tries to impose on an author. If a publisher were to try to impose a licensing agreement that requires more restrictive treatment of the AAM, for example, many licence agreements attempt to restrict open access by imposing embargoes and/or strict restrictions on how an AAM can be reused, this may be deemed as an attempt to ‘procure a breach of contract’ which would be unacceptable.
At the University of Birmingham
- The Code of Practice for Research (CoPR) (DOCX - 131 KB) has been amended to make explicit that the University assigns copyright in a subset of research outputs referred to as Scholarly Works to their author(s). In return, authors grant the University a non-exclusive licence to reuse those works.
- The CoPR defines a subset of Scholarly Works as Research Publications (Journal articles, conference papers, research monographs, edited collections, chapters, research reports) and requires that researchers grant a public licence to the copyright in such works as defined in a new Research Publications Policy (RPP) (DOCX - 100 KB)
- For journal articles and conference papers:
- The RPP stipulates that AAMs must be deposited in Pure and made immediately open access under a CC BY licence.
- Ahead of the formal launch of the policy, publishers which the University knows are routinely targeted by our researchers will be notified in writing of the prior licence and contractual obligation authors have to the University.
- For research monographs, edited collections and chapters:
- Authors can choose to opt into the policy if it is a funder requirement, or if they wish to make their output open access.
- To opt-in, an author will include a rights retention statement with any proposal or submission which notifies the publisher of the prior contractual agreement with the University, that requires the post-review manuscript to be made OA within two years of publication under a Creative Commons licence.
- If or when a publisher accepts a paper, chapter, or monograph for publication, they do so in full knowledge of the prior licence. That prior licence to the University will take precedence over any subsequent grant of licence or copyright transfer agreement from the author to the publisher and it cannot be revoked. This means all AAMs and relevant manuscripts can be made open access under the conditions described in our Research Publications Policy irrespective of the publisher.
When will the policy be introduced?
Amendments to the Code of Practice for Research have been approved during its standard bi-annual review cycle. Approval for the new Research Publications Policy is expected by the end of the year. We expect our rights retention approach to be formally implemented before the end of January 2025.
Further communications will be made to confirm the date after which researchers will need to abide by the new policy.
Further information
- Information for authors: the final instructions authors will need to follow. This is currently in draft form, pending any comments during consultation.
- Questions and feedback: an opportunity for face-to-face discussion about rights retention and an opportunity to provide feedback.
- Rights retention frequently asked questions: this will be updated as new questions are received during the consultation period and beyond.
- Which version should I upload to Pure?: guidance on identifying the correct version of a manuscript to deposit in Pure.
You are welcome to contact Libraries and Learning Resources for further support applying the rights retention approach to your own research. Email: openaccesspublications@contacts.bham.ac.uk.