When Rights Retention (RR) language is included by an author stating the intent to apply a Creative Commons BY (CC-BY) license to the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) arising from a submission, in order to retain the rights to this version, and that is accepted by the publisher then the author (you) can make this version immediately Open Access (OA) via a repository (UDORA recommended). Publishers can decide to desk reject articles, as is their right, however, this should not be based on the inclusion of RR language alone.
Publishers' have no right whatsoever to dictate to you as the author which OA route to choose to make your work openly available, or indeed, which journal to publish in. Any publisher statement on their website, or in any documentation provided to you as the author, which claims that you must choose the Gold route to OA in order comply with a funder requirement for RR is misleading and incorrect.
At the University of Derby, the default route to achieve OA is via UDORA, or the Green route. Any publisher which dictates to an author to choose Gold OA, attempts to re-route their choice to publish in a subscription journal due to the inclusion of RR language, or requires the author to sign a copyright transfer agreement, is asking you to breach your contract of employment with the University of Derby and potentially your funder (if you are a funded author). No publisher has the right to dictate where or how you as an author publish your work or indeed which route to choose to make your work OA. As the original copyright holder, you as an author decide where to publish, how to share the work and under what terms and conditions.
The University of Derby has written to many publishers, (see the Information for Publishers section of this guide) to inform them of the revisions to the University Research Publication and Open Access Policy, the Intellectual Property Policy and the inclusion of RR so they are aware of these changes and the requirements for University of Derby authors. This requirement comes prior to any contract being presented by the publisher and as such, nullifies any later contract that you may be presented with by a publisher.
Publishers are well aware of RR, and the numerous institutions which have now implemented these policies as well as the requirements from a number of Research Funding Organisations. They should not be asking authors to sign over copyright to them if an article contains RR language, or is published via a subscription journal. Nor should they be asking this of authors if they are aware of a University’s position on RR and its incorporation into University policy. Publishers' have been notified by a large number of institutions that have implemented RR in the UK and so they are purposely asking authors to breach the terms and conditions of their employment by asking them to sign over copyright. They are also attempting to restrict author choice and fundamentally, the dissemination of research for the good of society!
It is vital that if you are asked to sign over copyright to the publisher, you do not do this and contact the University about this matter via rightsretention@derby.ac.uk.
However, as the University has notified a wide range of publishers, you will still be able to make the AAM immediately OA via UDORA, regardless of what the publisher attempts to do and say regarding the sharing and dissemination of your AAM via OA.