The Rights Retention Statement
Get a super quick overview of how to apply Rights Retention to your journal articles!
If you are a UoA author follow this checklist to make your research outputs open access.
The University of Aberdeen has adopted a new Research Publications and Copyright Policy. It is designed to support authors and help to share University research as widely as possible, in a journal of your choice. There is a small additional step at the start of the publishing process that you are requested to do, but the remaining steps will already be familiar to published authors.
The policy was introduced in November 2022 and all UoA authors are expected to follow its requirements from 1 May 2023.
When publishing in a subscription journal Rights Retention supports immediate open access of a version of the manuscript, usually the accepted manuscript (AM). This is Green open access. It is recommended that the Rights Retention Statement (RRS) is included on all submissions, even when expecting to publish fully open access, to ensure all rights are retained and there is no impediment to open access in the event that the first choice of publication is not successful.
View a PDF diagram of the research publications author workflow
If you are unsure about ANY of these steps please contact the Open Research Team.
Before submission:
Add the following Rights Retention Statement (RRS) in the funding acknowledgement section of the manuscript and any cover letter/note accompanying the submission:
“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.”
*Insert other licence as appropriate
Inform co-authors about University of Aberdeen’s requirements to share the manuscript upon publication with a CC-BY license. Do this at the earliest point possible as action is required on submission to a publication. If you are not the corresponding author please request the RRS to be included in the manuscript. If for any reason, one of the co-authors raises this as an issue, please contact the Open Research Team
If a Publisher Agreement isn’t already in place contact the Open Research Team to see if support is available to cover the cost of publishing. The team will offer further guidance if there is no central budget available. If you proceed and place an order without confirmation then you may be held liable for costs.
Page and colour charges – Look on the journal webpages to see if the publisher charges for any extra costs. *These extra charges are not covered by the Publisher Agreements or the open access fund and can also apply to Green Open Access print copies.
Confirm your school has money available to cover these extra costs.
Transformative Agreement: We have a number of Publisher Agreements in place.
Where there is no budget available for open access and no Agreement in place the Green route should be taken and RRS used to enable deposit of the AM in the institutional repository.
Definitions for the above terms can be found on our glossary of open research key terms.
Adding a Data Availability Statement is required by some funders and we recommend inclusion for all outputs: It provides details on where the research data supporting the results reported in the paper can be found. Where applicable, links to the repository where the dataset(s) are publicly archived are included.
Check your Funder OA requirements to make sure that your chosen journal complies through one of the routes. Please do follow up with the Open Research Team if you are unsure about anything.
Upon Acceptance:
As soon as you have a research output (journal article, conference contribution, blog, book, chapter, etc.) accepted for publication please send:
Acceptance email
A copy of the accepted manuscript (AM)
to paperaccepted@abdn.ac.uk and we will deposit the article in Pure/AURA in accordance with REF and publisher self-archiving policies.
After your article is accepted for publication the publisher usually sends you a link to complete their online forms.
You may need to tick a box that says you are giving the publisher copyright to complete the form. As RRS is a pre-existing agreement that takes precedence over this agreement, we advise you to tick this box so as not to delay publication.
If you do not have funding in place you should select the green route and self-archive.
If your chosen journal specifically prohibits immediate open access of the AM and has contacted you to say this route is not possible then please contact the Open Research Team. They will assist you and will speak to the publisher on your behalf to ascertain the next step.
Please note that if you have a UKRI/ Wellcome Trust/ ERC grant (or other funder that requires immediate OA) then your publisher may be preventing you from complying with your funder’s requirements.
To arrange an open access APC payment previously agreed with the open access team, please send to openaccess@abdn.ac.uk
Acceptance Email
Your school name
Grant number
After Publication:
When your article is published and available online please send notification to the Open Research Team , or update your Pure record with the publication dates, so that the AM can be made open access as soon as possible with the correct final publication details.
Deposit in Pure is not sufficient to ensure compliance with most medical funders’ OA policies (e.g. MRC, BBSRC, Wellcome Trust, Cancer Research UK, BHF). If required by funders, and you have taken Route 2 (Green OA ) route then you may need to organise deposit in Europe PMC. This can be easily and quickly done by using the Europe PMC manuscript submission system.
If you are unsure about ANY of these steps please do contact the Open Research Team
Any questions?
Current practice in academic publishing requires corresponding authors to sign over their rights to publishers. This means that the author cannot share or reuse their work without permission from the publisher. Meanwhile the publisher retains an exclusive right to publish and sub-licence the rights to the work as they see fit.
The new policy supports authors in retaining their rights to the peer-reviewed manuscript allowing immediate open access and re-use from the date of first online publication under an open licence. The Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence is encouraged but the CC BY-NC licence may be used where there is a need to prevent commercial reuse or other open licences as permitted by funders may be used.
The new open access policy enables authors to submit their work to the journal of their choice, while remaining compliant with funder open access policies.
This policy applies to journal articles and conference proceedings authored or co-authored by staff currently employed by the University of Aberdeen and submitted for publication from 1st May 2023.
You retain your rights to the author’s peer-reviewed accepted manuscript (AM) by including a statement notifying the publisher of your intention to apply an open licence to any resulting AM with the submitted manuscript and accompanying cover letter.
We already encourage this approach to enable compliance with the UKRI Open Access policy.
Co-authors should be informed about the requirement to share the AM upon publication with a Creative Commons license. If issues are raised, it is possible to opt out.
The AM is deposited in Pure/AURA under the CC BY Creative Commons licence.
The policy will be reviewed and may be extended to cover long form publications in future as funder open access policies change.
The new policy aligns with the University’s 2040 strategy of being ‘open to all’ and our position on open research.
Your research reaches the widest possible audience without restrictions such as publisher embargoes or paywalls.
You retain the rights to your own work ensuring that you can disseminate your peer-reviewed accepted manuscript in any way you choose without publisher restrictions.
You are enabled to submit your work to the journal of your choice, while remaining compliant with funder and future Research Excellence Framework (REF) open access policies.
Creative Commons licenses allow the author to retain copyright whilst allowing others to copy, distribute and reuse the work under the terms of the individual licence. Many funders, including UKRI, now mandate their use.
CC BY allows any reuse, as long as the creator is attributed.
CC BY-NC prohibits commercial reuse
The Library Open Research Team can provide support and advice on licences and guidance is available on the Open Research webpages.
The University of Aberdeen encourages the use of the CC BY licence but will also apply a CC BY-NC licence where the author wishes to prevent commercial use. Where there is a funder requirement for a specific licence, the author is expected to abide by this to ensure compliance.
For articles with third party copyright material, please clearly indicate within the manuscript the terms under which the material is released and state that the CC BY licence is not applicable to this material.
While a publisher is under no obligation to consider a manuscript containing a rights retention statement, they should decline to publish such articles at the earliest possible opportunity and allow you to submit to another journal. In such cases, your choices are to (a) opt out and publish under the publisher’s terms, which may not be compliant with funder policy, or (b) select another journal.
If your chosen journal specifically prohibits immediate open access of the AM and has contacted you to say this route is not possible then please contact the Open Research Team. They will assist you and will speak to the publisher on your behalf to ascertain the next step.
Please note that if you have a UKRI/ Wellcome Trust/ ERC grant (or other funder that requires immediate OA) then your publisher may be preventing you from complying with your funder’s requirements.
The only legal risk relates to any inadvertent signing of a publisher copyright transfer agreement that contradicts the University of Aberdeen’s prior retention of non-exclusive rights.
The University of Aberdeen has sought legal advice on this and is confident that the risk in relation to this policy is low, as long as it follows the guidance that has been provided by the legal team. Wherever possible, any risk in relation to this policy will be borne by the University of Aberdeen and not by the individual researcher. As long as you include the rights retention statement provided above, there is no legal risk.
Check if your funder has an open access policy that you must comply with. If your funder is not included on our webpage, check your grant t&cs. Contact the Open Research Team if you are unsure.
The REF open access policy is currently under review. You must follow the REF2021 open access policy until further notice.
The REF open access policy is currently under review. You must follow the REF2021 open access policy until further notice.
Explain your requirements to your co-authors and the benefits of making research open access. It is possible they will have similar requirements from their own institutions and funders.
If any co-author objects to use of the RRS and cannot be convinced contact the Open Research Team.
Research students who are authors of scholarly articles associated with this policy are subject to it. Taught students are not subject to this policy, however the University of Aberdeen encourages them to use an individual open access licence instead of signing a publisher agreement. The Library Open Research team can support them to do so.
You may opt out of this policy on an individual article basis. We ask you to notify us by completing this form, stating your reason, but you will not be required to gain permission.
Even if you opt out, you are still required to deposit your AM in Pure/AURA. Check the publisher self-archiving policy of the journal you wish to publish in. An embargo may be applied to the AM meaning you can’t comply with funder or Research Excellence Framework (REF) open access policies.
When considering opting-out contact the Library Open Research Team who will advise on funder requirements and available options. If in doubt about the terms and conditions of your grant please contact the Research Policy and Strategy Team in Research and Innovation. It is important to be clear on this at the very outset, to plan accordingly.
The Library Open Research team will provide support for all aspects of this policy. Where there is a need for advice on the specific terms and conditions associated with a research grant, the Research Policy and Strategy Team in Research and Innovation will be able to advise.