1.1 This policy sets out Durham University’s position on the implementation of a Rights Retention Approach. This will enable authors and the institution to retain sufficient rights in research articles to ensure these can be shared and appropriately re-used (e.g. in teaching). This is also in line with funder expectations, where applicable. The key principles underpinning this policy are aligned with the N8 Statement of Rights Retention, recognising that it is universities, not publishers, who provide the environment for research to take place and recommending that researchers do not by default transfer copyright to publishers without retaining sufficient rights to enable them to share their research.
2.1 As determined in the University Intellectual Property Policy, section 3.4: Copyright and publication, the University will usually recognise members of staff as the first owner of copyright in their Research Publications. [As defined in Section 8]
2.2 This applies only to first copyright in authored Research Publications, and does not extend to other Intellectual Property Rights created in the course of employment at the University.
3.1 The following provisions apply to Scholarly Articles [As defined in Section 8] submitted for publication on or after [31-03-2023]. For output types out of scope of this policy see section 5.
3.2 In order to comply with the policy, and in line with the expectations of research funders, authors are strongly recommended that a statement as detailed below is included in all manuscripts submitted for publication. The following text should be included in the funding acknowledgements1 section of the manuscript, and any cover letter/note accompanying the submission, where possible:
3.2.1.1 Where the article acknowledges any funding from a UK Research Council, the following text should be used (the specific licence applied may be amended if permission has been sought and received by the funding council): “For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising.”
3.2.1.2 Where the article acknowledges any funding from the Wellcome Trust, the following text should be used (the specific licence applied may be amended if permission has been sought and received by the Trust):2 “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."
3.2.1.3 For any other funder which requires the inclusion of specific wording in the submitted manuscript, then that should be used.
3.2.1.4 In all other cases, the following text should be used (the specific licence applied may be amended with the licence as agreed under 2.3.4 of this policy): “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.”
3.3 In return for the University waiving its Statutory claim to copyright in Scholarly Articles, and recognising the authorising member of staff as the first owner of copyright in said Scholarly Articles, each staff member who is an author of a Scholarly Article agrees to, grant the University of Durham a non-exclusive, royalty-free, irrevocable, worldwide, licence, with the right to sub-licence to make the author accepted manuscripts (AAM) of their Scholarly Articles publicly available under the terms of an appropriate Creative Commons licence. By default, this will be the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence. [As defined in Section 8] Where a funder acknowledged in the Scholarly Article requires the use of a Creative Commons (Attribution) licence, this will be the licence granted to the University. Where a funder acknowledged in the Scholarly Article has authorised the use of a more restrictive Creative Commons licence, such as the Creative Commons No-Derivates (CC BY-ND) licence, then this will be the licence granted to the University. Where no funder requirements on licencing of the AAM apply, then the author may request in writing to dro.admin@durham.ac.uk that a more restrictive Creative Commons No-Derivates (CC BY-ND) or Creative Commons Share-Alike (CC BY-SA) licence is granted as an alternative to the default Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence.
3.4 Immediately upon granting the licence to the University (and no later than the date of first publication of the Scholarly Article), each staff member who is an author of a Scholarly Article will provide an electronic copy of the AAM of each article, at no charge, for deposit in the University’s open access repository, Durham Research Online (DRO) in line with the requirements of the University’s policy on Open Access. The author should also ensure that any supplementary materials (e.g. research data) essential to the understanding, interpretation or reproduction of the findings reported in the Scholarly Article should also be made available in line with the F.A.I.R data principles and the University’s Research Data Management Policy.
3.5 Upon receipt of the electronic copy of the AAM, the University is responsible for ensuring that the deposited manuscript is then made available from Durham Research Online (DRO). Article metadata will usually be available immediately upon deposit and the deposited manuscript(s) will be made accessible to the public in line with the requirements of any funder acknowledged in the Scholarly Article and the University’s policy on Open Access.
3.6 The University recognises that there may be situations beyond a staff member’s control where it is difficult to grant a licence to the University under this policy. In cases where the licence cannot be granted it will be permissible for staff to opt out of the granting of a CC BY licence. Where a staff member requests to opt-out, this may result in the research output to be non-compliant with funder policies (see 3.6.3). To request an opt-out the staff member will need to contact dro.admin@durham.ac.uk and provide details of the publication and the reasons for requesting the opt-out. It is expected that the use of this opt-out would only be used in exceptional circumstances. These circumstances might include, but not be limited to, the list below:
3.6.1.1 A journal has informed the author that they will not publish the Scholarly Article with the Rights Retention Statement intact and has clearly indicated to an author that granting of the licence to the AAM by the author would result in the article being withdrawn from publication.
3.6.1.2 A Durham University author’s co-authors object to the granting of the licence to the AAM.
3.6.1.3 In each of the examples above (3.6.1.1 - 3.6.1.2) there is an expectation that an author will have clearly communicated in advance to their co-authors and to their publisher any requirements for sharing their manuscript as set out in this policy or by the funder of their research to avoid any difficult discussions following the submission of their manuscript.
3.6.1.4 The Scholarly Articles contains a substantial amount of 3rd party materials which cannot be licenced using a Creative Commons licence AND the redaction of the 3rd party materials would significantly compromise the reading of the article. The use of this opt-out will be monitored by the University to inform the development of future policy and guidance. Authors are reminded that the use of this opt-out may result in the Scholarly Article to be non-compliant with the requirements of their funder, and may render it ineligible for submission to a Research Excellence Framework (REF) exercise.
3.7 The above requirements [3.1-3.6] also apply to any postgraduate research student who is an author of a Scholarly Article3 and where a third party funder of that postgraduate research student requires the Scholarly Article to be made open access under a creative commons licence. For any postgraduate research student who is an author of a Scholarly Article, and where there is no research funding requirement placed on the Scholarly Article, then the student author is encouraged to still follow the steps outlined above [3.1-3.5] to ensure their paper can be made open access immediately in a form which supports re-use in research and teaching activity to the fullest extent, as appropriate.
4.1 If post-publication any publisher contacts an author to request a manuscript shared under the terms of this policy is taken down, authors should contact the Library at dro.admin@durham.ac.uk in the first instance for support.
4.2 If following review, restricting access to the deposited manuscript is required, a retrospective opt-out to the policy will be applied by the Library to the article, and the author will be kept informed.
4.3 Where required, University Legal Services who have been involved in drafting this policy and providing expert legal advice will be consulted for additional support.
4.4 As agreed by University Executive Committee in January 2023, the University will support its researchers who received any legal notice from a publisher and will accept responsibility and liability for such claims where researchers have properly followed University policy and guidance, as set out in this policy and/or funder’s policies.
4.5 All instances covered in sections [4.1] to [4.4] of this policy will be treated on a case-by-case basis.
4.6 Additional support and guidance for authors will be provided via the University’s Open Research Guide.
5.1 These requirements do not apply to other forms of Research Publication. The following list of other publication types not in scope of this policy is not an exhaustive list; preprints, working papers, monographs, scholarly editions, textbooks, book chapters, collections of essays, datasets, software.
5.2 However, the University strongly encourages all authors of Research Publications, in whatever form, to make them as openly available as possible and in line with the requirements of any acknowledged research funder.
6.1 In line with the University’s Research Integrity Policy and Code of Good Practice (10.0 Publication and Authorship), Durham authors are encouraged to publish and disseminate the outcomes of their research in an appropriate form.
6.2 Authorship and Contributor Roles: Authors of a Research Publication are responsible for ensuring that all contributors are credited appropriately, either as co-authors, or given appropriate credit as contributors to the published research. University guidance on authorship, and on CRediT for contributors to Research Publications, can be found at Authorship & Acknowledgements: Authorship and CRediT Guidance.
6.3 Institutional Affiliation: Authors of a Research Publication should ensure that the institutional affiliation is included and wherever possible conforms to the expectations set out in the University’s Policy on Institutional Affiliation. Further guidance can be found at Authorship & Acknowledgements: Author Affiliations in Research Publications.
6.4 Acknowledgement of Funding: Where not already covered in [4.2 – 4.3], all authors of Research Publications should appropriately acknowledge anyone who had directly or indirectly assisted the work. This should include funders. Many funders have set out guidance on how they expect an acknowledgement of funding to appear in Research Publications. Further guidance can be found at Authorship & Acknowledgements: Acknowledgements of Funding in Research Publications.
6.5 Data Access Statements: Durham University, in line with many funders of research, expects authors to wherever possible include a statement indicating if any supplementary materials (e.g. research data) essential to the understanding, interpretation or reproduction of the findings reported in the Scholarly Article are available to access, and directing a reader of the Scholarly Article to where/how these can be accessed, in line with the University's Research Data Management Policy. Where possible, access to supplementary materials such as research data should be in line with the principle of "as open as possible, as closed as is necessary", and where publicly available a DOI should be provided wherever possible.
6.6 ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID): Durham University expects all academic staff and postgraduate research students who are in receipt of research funding, author Research Publications and/or offer peer review or editorial services to publishers, to register for an ORCID. Use of ORCID is required by some publishers and funders and recommended for all staff included in the REF submission. Further guidance on registering and using ORCID can be found at Authorship & Acknowledgement: ORCID & Author IDs.
6.7 Publication Embargos: There are times where an embargo on publication may be appropriate. This is usually required by a funder of the research and set out in a contractual agreement, which prohibits or restricts publication of research outcomes or the sharing or release of data, either indefinitely or until an agreed period following project completion. Principal Investigators and authors are responsible for ensuring that any contractual obligations which may limit, delay or prohibit publication are followed. IP Licensing: Note that a Publication Embargo [As defined in Section 8] should not be confused with an Open Access Embargo [As defined in Section 8]. It is distinct and separate to any considerations of rights retention and would not normally be a justification for opting out of the expectations under of this policy except where already covered by [2.6.1.2] or [2.6.1.3]. Further guidance on publication embargos can be found at RIS: Systems, Policies and Governance: How long can publications be embargoed?.
7.1 Exception(s) may apply if an individual is unable to follow this policy due to disability or other protected characteristics. Where requested, and if possible, we will make reasonable adjustments to ensure all individuals can equitably comply with this policy and the University's Open Access Policy. Examples may include providing assistance with deposit of AAMs and providing reminders of timebound elements.
7.2 For advice on reasonable adjustments please contact the library's Disability Support service.
Research Publication includes textbooks, academic journal articles, conference papers and related presentations, theses and dissertations, popular non-fiction, novels and poems, but excludes any such materials or part of them which can be defined as Teaching Materials. Also includes research data as deposited in archives or otherwise made available e.g. for the purposes of verification or for use in further research.
Open Access Embargo is an embargo, usually required by a publisher, which prohibits an author who has not retained sufficient rights in their work from sharing their AAM prior to the end of that embargo.
Publication Embargo is an embargo, usually required by a funder of the research and set out in a contractual agreement, which prohibits or restricts publication of research outcomes or the sharing or release of data, either indefinitely or until an agreed period following project completion.
Creative Commons Licences are a bank of licences designed to be applied to online works by the copyright owner. The licences allow the copyright owner to make it clear how their work can be used by others, beyond what is permitted under copyright legislation.
Scholarly Article is a specific subset of Research Publication, and will usually refer to any Research Publication which is submitted for publication in a journal or conference proceeding or a similar form of serial publication. This will include, but is not limited to, review articles and articles reporting on the findings of original research.
Teaching Materials are defined as any materials, whether in written, recorded or other electronic form including web-based material, computer programs, and computer based learning material and databases, produced by one or more members of staff in the course of their duties for use in or connection with a degree programme module or other course offered by the University. Textbooks, or other materials produced for publication that are not related to a particular course offered at Durham University, are excluded from the definition of Teaching Materials except where a member of staff has been specifically asked to write the material for a specific course. Personal lecture
notes and other materials that are not routinely made available to students are also excluded from the definition of Teaching Materials.
1 Note that the submission requirements of a journal may require funding acknowledgements to be removed from the submitted manuscript in order to preserve anonymity during peer review. In such circumstances, authors should aim to notify the journal in the most appropriate form, e.g. through any covering letter, email or note accompanying the submission.
2 We note that on 16th January 2024, the Wellcome Trust announced that “whilst they continued to support rights retention” and “believed researchers should retain rights over their own work to be able to share and disseminate as widely as possible”, they were removing the requirement to include a rights retention statement in all article submissions, “unless the authors choose to comply with our policy by archiving the accepted manuscript” as a condition of use of the funding they made available for Open Access publishing. This was in part in recognition of the number of research organisations adopting their own institutional policies, and as such the recommendation under our University policy remains unchanged, as detailed in PARAS 3.2 to 3.2.1.4. The statement should be included to ensure the publisher and co-authors are informed of the licence prior to acceptance, and subsequently readers of the manuscript, and this remains applicable for authors acknowledging funding from the Wellcome Trust.
3 The Intellectual Property Rights of students are governed by General Regulations X, and under this regulation the principle recognising the student as the owner of any Intellectual Property they produce whilst registered as a student is subject to variation where there is any obligation or contract between the University and any third parties funding post-graduate research.
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