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

The University of Manchester has updated its Publications Policy as part of its commitment to more open and reproducible research.

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.

Dr Annette Bramley, Director, N8 Research Partnership

Policy updates

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

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.

Benefits for authors

Under such arrangements 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.

In a recent article in Times Higher Education, Professor Chris Pressler, Director of The University of Manchester Library and chair of the N8 Library Directors' Group, discussed the benefits arising from N8’s Rights Retention Statement and Manchester’s updated Institutional Publications Policy:

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It is a significant step forward, not least in ensuring open access can happen on publication but also in redressing the unfortunate practice of universities giving away IP or copyright to publishers who then hold all the cards in negotiating price to access those same universities’ content.

Professor Christopher Pressler, John Rylands University Librarian and Director of The University of Manchester Library.

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Additional information

Further information including a dedicated webpage, FAQs, and slidepack, will be made available as part of the Library’s support for the launch of the new Publications Policy on 1 March 2023.