The University of Derby’s Research Publication and Open Access Policy allows authors to retain copyright over their Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) for all journal articles and conference proceedings rather than signing those rights away to the publisher.
Under this Policy, all University of Derby authors automatically grant to the institution a perpetual, royalty-free in all formats (now known or yet to be devised), sub-licensable, non-exclusive licence to use, copy, publish and distribute for academic (i.e. research and teaching), promotional and administrative purposes, to make the AAM of their scholarly papers available from the University's institutional repository, UDORA, immediately Open Access (OA) from the day of first publication under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence. In order to ensure there is clarity about this position in contract law, University of Derby authors need to include the following Rights Retention (RR) Statement in their submission to journals and conference proceedings: If you are the corresponding / lead author working with a University of Derby author, RR Statement A, below, should be included in the funding/acknowledgements section of the submitted manuscript as well as in any cover letter to inform publishers of the authors’ intentions.
Rights Retention Statement A
“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.”
If the publication is a result of funding from an external organisation, the corresponding / lead author should ensure that the funder’s details, including the grant ID are included, as in RR Statement B, below:
Rights Retention Statement B
“This research was funded in whole, or in part, by [Insert funder name] [Grant number]. For the purpose of Open Access, the author has applied a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) public copyright licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission”.
These Statements simply announce to the publisher that the authors have already applied a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence to the AAM that will arise from the submission. Once the publisher has accepted your submission for publication in the full knowledge that you have already applied a licence to the peer-reviewed manuscript, this manuscript can be made available from the University’s repository, UDORA, from the day of first publication under a CC BY licence, without breaking copyright law.
This mechanism of Rights Retention is used by the OA publishing initiative, Plan S led by cOAlition S, a consortium of national research agencies and funders from twelve European countries including the European Commission and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). It is also used by funders whose OA policies align with Plan S principles, such as the Wellcome Trust, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. These research funders require their authors to include the same Rights Retention Statement mandated by the University of Derby.
What does my University of Derby co-author want from me?
If you are the corresponding / lead author working with a University of Derby co-author or another co-author, but not the corresponding / lead author, the University of Derby co-author will want your agreement to include the RR Statement when submitting the article. Agreement confirms that you and co-authors are licensing your jointly owned copyright in the AAM to the University of Derby to disseminate the AAM OA immediately on publication under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC BY). The University of Derby will sub-license your copyright in the AAM to your home institution so that all home institutions of all co-authors can do the same without breaking contact law. In other words, indirectly you will also be licensing your own home institution.
This works as follows. As co-authors, both you and your University of Derby co-author jointly own copyright over your AAM. Just as you can jointly decide to give away your copyrights to your publisher by signing their publication agreement (often known as the ‘copyright transfer agreement’), you can also jointly decide to give a licence to your home institutions to disseminate the AAM of your paper via your respective institutional repositories immediately from the day of first publication under a CC BY licence.
The mechanism that we use means that, if you agree, all co-authors retain more copyrights over their AAM, rather than giving these rights to the publisher.
For example, you will retain the right to disseminate the AAM by uploading it to an academic social networking site such as ResearchGate or Academia.edu. You will also retain the right to make the AAM available immediately OA from your institutional repository from the day of first publication under a CC BY licence, rather than after a delay of 6 to 24 months which publishers usually require when published via a subscription journal. Disseminating your paper quickly and widely helps increase citations and extends the reach and impact of your research.
What are my options as a co-author of a University of Derby author?
You have three options:
1. You agree
This is our preferred option because it would benefit all co-authors involved. If your University of Derby co-author has been in touch via email, then simply respond confirming your agreement.
If you do not respond to the University of Derby author within two weeks, they will assume that they can proceed as planned and that you agree to grant the University of Derby a licence to share the AAM without delay under the CC BY licence.
2. You agree, but would like a different licence
If you would like your paper or chapter to be shared under a different Creative Commons licence than CC BY, please let the University of Derby author know. They can opt out of the University of Derby Policy to accommodate a different Creative Commons licence or to introduce an embargo before the AAM is shared.
3. You do not agree and want to follow your publisher’s open access policy instead
If you would like to follow your publisher’s OA policy, which in most cases requires an embargo period of between 6 and 24 months and does not allow for the usage of a CC BY licence, then please let the University of Derby author know. They can opt out of the University of Derby Policy to accommodate a different Creative Commons licence or to introduce an embargo before the AAM is shared.
Is there anything else I should do?
If you agree to apply the RR mechanism, we would advise you to deposit your AAM as soon as possible after acceptance in your institutional repository, and to instruct your institution’s repository team that they have been granted a sub-license from the University of Derby to make the manuscript available immediately OA from the day of first publication under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC BY). If your institution's repository team have any questions, please refer them to this web page or tell them to contact rightsretention@derby.ac.uk so University of Derby Library colleagues can respond.