The University of Manchester has updated its Publications Policy embracing Rights Retention

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The University has worked collectively with the other institutions in the N8 Research Partnership, to develop a new N8 Rights Retention Statement which was launched at an event held at the University's John Rylands Research Institute and Library in January. 

Under this consortium-wide agreement each university is updating their publication policy to support authors to retain more intellectual property rights in their research articles.

Benefits of the new policy for authors and their research 

With the launch of the University's new policy on 1 March 2023, authors will retain the right to make a copy of their Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) immediately Open Access through our institutional repository (Pure) under a CC BY license (Creative Commons Attribution License) irrespective of embargo periods stipulated by publishers. This will not only mean that authors’ articles are immediately available for all to access, thus extending the potential reach and impact of the research, but it will also make it easier for authors to adhere to the Open Access policies set out by funders. 

The N8 Rights Retention Statement is the latest in a growing trend of universities taking steps to support their researchers in retaining the rights in the research that they create. 

Implementation of the updated policy and author action

Authors don’t need to take any additional action to benefit from the revised policy. Manchester authors can simply continue to submit articles via the Open Access Gateway or publish articles Gold OA. The majority of articles will still be made Open Access either through one of our various Transformative Agreements or through the payment of Gold OA Article Processing Charges for eligible papers, however our updated Publications Policy will mean that those papers which are not eligible for paid Open Access can now be made Open Access via the Green OA route immediately and will not be subject to publisher embargoes. Authors should contact the Library if a publisher requests transfer of exclusive rights during the publication process. 

Open Research Tracker

Authors can now check which of their papers have been made Open Access (and how) by using the new Open Research Tracker tool developed in partnership between the Library’s Research Services and Digital Development Teams. This new tool will be shared under an open source license as part of the Library’s commitment to open research infrastructure, and to support wider use by other institutions. 

This project has been successfully delivered as a result of effective collaboration across Library Directorates, drawing upon expertise from multiple teams including Research Services, Digital Development, and Engagement. 

Find out more

For full details on the updated policy including a recorded presentation, please visit our dedicated Rights Retention webpage on the Library website. 

If you have any questions, please contact uml.openaccess@manchester.ac.uk