Rights Retention Strategy was initiated by cOAlition S to ensure that the researchers they fund can publish Open Access, but is a strategy that can be applied by any researcher when submitting a manuscript to a journal.
‘The rights retention strategy is a tool for researchers to retain sufficient rights on their scientific articles so that they can make them available in immediate open access, regardless of the distribution model of the journal in which they are published.’
‘The rights retention strategy encourages you to no longer transfer exclusive copyright to the publishers of scientific journals. This procedure allows you to retain control over the dissemination of your manuscripts before, during and after the peer review process.’
Implementing the rights retention strategy for scientific publications
Why?
To allow immediate open access to scientific publications
Publications are immediately shareable, citable, reusable and archived permanently.
Align with funder requirements (NWO, Horizon Europe)
By employing the Rights Retention Strategy you retain your rights on the manuscripts, which gives you the right to share the author’s version of the article, after peerreview, through a repository. This is Green Open Access, but then without the embargo period (generally 6-48 months) that journals usually place on this version of the article.
When you choose a NC or NC-ND license, publishers take over the control of authorisations where only they can make and authorise derivatives and commercially use your work. This copyright transfer has only been introduced relatively recent and is not something that is essential for the publishing process.
How?
- Give prior notice to the publisher
Provide in the submission letter or in the acknowledgements of the publication the following wording:
“As author(s) and original copyright holder(s) of this submission, I/we have applied a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) version arising from this submission. If the article is accepted for publication, I/we will make the AAM available without embargo in a repository.”
Template text for the acknowledgements:
“For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a CC BY licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission.”
- Keep a copy of the successive versions of your manuscript with the licence notice, and archive your discussions with the publisher so as to be able to testify, if necessary, to the retention of your rights.
- Once accepted, you can update the article with the changes from peer review and archive this version (Author’s Accepted Manuscript/postprint) as an update to the preprint - or use the TU Delft repository.
If you run into any troubles during this process, you can reach out to library[at]tudelft.nl or your funder (for example, Horizon Europe). You can also reach out to CoalitionS directly.
Examples
Examples of articles that used the Rights Retention Strategy (from Mounce 2022)
Breakdown of the copyright agreement from Taylor and Francis
More information
Stephen Eglen’s (2021) Primer on the Rights Retention Strategy
Implementing the rights retention strategy for scientific publications (includes a FAQ)
Methods of Rights Retention by Peter Suber