Rights Retention and Secondary Publishing Rights

Submitted by Milica_S on Fri, 2024-05-31 03:45

Rights retention and secondary publishing rights are powerful tools to boost the achievement of open access to research.

Authors (or in some cases, their institutions) hold copyright in the work they produce. When a research manuscript is accepted for publication, the author is deemed to have entered into an agreement with the publisher. A traditional publishing agreement often restricts the immediate sharing and reuse of the work in open access (OA) because it entails either the transfer of copyright or the assignment of rights from the author (or the institution) to the publisher. Rights Retention and a Secondary Publishing Right are two ways to address these practices in support of open science.

Rights Retention

 

What is Rights Retention?

Rights retention means that authors (or their institutions) retain copyright in their work when entering into a publication agreement with a publisher, in order to ensure that the work can immediately be made open access. In other words, rather than giving away their rights, the author keeps the rights needed to enable open access to their work.

Rights retention enables authors (or their institutions) to:

  • take control of their copyright and share their work under an open licence; 
  • encourage further reuse and gain wide exposure for their work leading to increased citations and greater recognition;
  • publish in journals recognized for tenure and promotion and still comply with institutional open access policies;
  • comply with open access policies of major research funders, such as, World Health Organization, European Commission, Wellcome Trust, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

 

How to retain your rights

When submitting a manuscript, the author adds a statement: 

manuscript
informing the publisher of the source of funding and the need to comply with an OA policy (funder / institutional / national);
Creative Commons licence
declaring that an open licence (preferably CC BY) will be applied to the submitted manuscript and to any Author’s Accepted Manuscript (AAM) arising from the submission (see cOAlition S Template for a Pre-submission Letter to Journal/Publisher).
Once the manuscript is accepted, the author deposits the AAM in a repository e.g. an institutional repository, adding an open licence (preferably CC BY) to ensure that the manuscript is open access.
Alternative method: after manuscript acceptance, the author (or their institution) must ask for a modification to the publishing agreement retaining the rights needed to openly share and reuse the work.
Some publishers don't accept rights retention notices or they may impose an embargo period on open access to the work.

Rights Retention Take action!

  • Encourage your institution to adopt a policy on rights retention, if it doesn’t already have one (institutions can support authors by making publishers aware of institutional rights retention policies).
  • Raise awareness among researchers of rights retention policies, encourage authors to retain their copyright and make open licensing the default option for sharing research outputs (some are unaware of their rights). 
  • Network with other institutions to share expertise and experience (some are unaware that researchers are giving away their copyright).
  • Advocate for legislative solutions to include rights retention in national open science and technology policies (that provides legal backing to help researchers ensure their work is available in open access).

 

Secondary Publishing Rights

 

What is a Secondary Publishing Right?

A Secondary Publishing Right (SPR) refers to the legal right of authors (or their institutions) to make a work openly available after or in parallel to publication of a formal version - usually the peer-reviewed Author’s Accepted Manuscript (AAM) or the final, typeset version, known as the Version of Record (VoR). A right of secondary publication can be found in a range of laws (e.g. copyright, science, technology & innovation, economics and culture) in a growing number of countries in Europe.

A Secondary Publishing Right enables authors (or their institutions) to:

  • manage and enforce their rights in support of open access with the full backing of the law;
  • ensure that published, publicly funded work is openly available and ideally reusable, even in the absence of an open access publishing agreement with the publisher; 
  • increase the impact of published research by helping to guarantee wide dissemination and reuse through open access.
     

How to make use of a Secondary Publishing Right

Find out if your national law provides for a secondary publishing right e.g. check the law on copyright, science and innovation, etc.

If it does, be aware of any conditions that might apply e.g. the minimum percentage of public funding required for a publication to be subject to SPR, embargo periods, type of scholarly works covered.

The author deposits the AAM or VoR in a repository in accordance with any conditions set out in the law. 

To maximize open knowledge sharing, Secondary Publishing Rights should require immediate open access (zero embargo) and reuse (by means of an open licence) for all types of research outputs.

Secondary Publishing Rights Take action!

  • Learn more about national initiatives related to Secondary Publishing Rights, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8428315
  • Raise awareness of the challenges and opportunities of SPR.
  • Start working towards the adoption of zero embargo SPR legislation in your country.
These are the general principles and mechanisms with respect to Secondary Publishing Rights.
For guidance on specific national laws and rules, check with a local legal professional.

 

Learn more

Library consortia in EIFL partner countries can request support on Rights Retention and Secondary Publishing Rights from EIFL - contact info@eifl.net.

Resources

Rights Retention

Secondary Publishing Rights

Additional resources: https://www.zotero.org/groups/5503145/rights_retention_and_secondary_publishing_rights/library

 

Frequently Asked Questions

 

What is the relationship between institutional Rights Retention policies and Secondary Publishing Rights in law?

Institutional policies on Rights Retention and Secondary Publishing Rights set out in law co-exist alongside each other. Institutional policies are typically set by a funding body and/or an institution. They can apply individually or to all the institutions that fall within the remit of the policy (in a national OA policy, for example). Institutional policies usually contain detailed guidelines for implementation, such as workflow processes and technical information on the institutional repository. 

A Secondary Publishing Right set out in law is adopted by the national legislator. Coverage is automatically nationwide and it applies to all research outputs that satisfy the conditions, regardless of whether the research institution has a rights retention policy or not. A SPR usually describes in general terms the scope of the policy, the type of institutions to which it applies and the funding conditions.

 

Is there a risk of Rights Retention policies and legislation on Secondary Publishing Rights being out-of-step, or in conflict, with each other?

Rights Retention policies and Secondary Publishing Rights should complement each other. While the law sets out the minimum legal standards required, institutional policies can (and often do) go further by requiring a higher level of openness, for example, the scope of material is often more extensive, and the outputs can extend beyond publicly funded research usually stipulated in the law. As institutional policies evolve, it's more a risk that RR policies become out-of-step with the minimum legal standards on SPR, rather than contradicting each other. (For this reason, SPR provisions in the law should be reviewed from time to time).

 

Is there a model RR policy clause?

 

Is there a model SPR in legislation clause?

LIBER Draft Law for the Use of Publicly Funded Scholarly Publications: https://libereurope.eu/draft-law-for-the-use-of-publicly-funded-scholarly-publications/

 

How to upskill librarians in supporting to implementation of Rights Retention policies?

Use any training opportunities to learn about local rights retention policies and legislation (such as copyright law). In addition, check out the abundance of material available online (see Resources). Analyze relevant policies, study ‘use cases’, and network with colleagues involved in supporting rights retention in their institutions.

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