Developing and implementing a Rights Retention Policy at Queen’s University Belfast
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Queen's University Belfast has developed a rights retention policy that enables authors to retain copyright of their peer-reviewed articles while allowing the university to make them publicly available under a Creative Commons license. The policy aims to create a more diverse open access landscape, facilitating compliance with funder requirements and increasing the visibility of research. Initial implementation has received positive feedback, with 15 articles made openly accessible upon publication, and further efforts planned to raise awareness of the policy.
Developing and implementing a Rights Retention Policy at Queen’s University Belfast
- 1. Developing and implementing a Rights Retention Policy at Queen’s University Belfast SHAPING A BETTER WORLD SINCE 1845 Stephen Gorman and Dan Holden CONUL Conference 2024
- 2. Aims • Rights retention – background • Queen’s Policy and journey to approval • Implementation • Feedback and next steps
- 3. Thanks • Dominic Tate (Head of Library Research Support & Deputy Director) and Theo Andrew (Scholarly Communications Manager) at the University of Edinburgh • Eddy Verbaan (Head of Library Research Support) at Sheffield Hallam University
- 4. Open Research Team • Team of 10 staff in Library at Queen’s • Responsible for open access, institutional repository, research data management and e-theses • Approx. £515,000 from funders for article processing charges (APCs) and £65,000 institutional open access fund • Open Research Team validated nearly 9000 repository records in 2023
- 5. Open Research Group • Chaired by University Librarian and has rep from each faculty, D&IS, Research and Enterprise and Information Compliance Unit • Responsible for University’s Roadmap for Open Research • Reports to Research and Innovation Committee, chaired by Pro-VC for Research and Enterprise
- 6. What is rights retention? Rights Retention is based on a simple principle: The peer-reviewed AAM is the intellectual creation of the authors and belongs to them. Traditionally, when publishing scholarly articles, staff at Queen’s have assigned copyright to the publisher via a copyright transfer agreement. As a result, many scholarly articles are under the partial or complete ownership of publishers.
- 7. Background • UK Scholarly Communications Licence (UK-SCL) led by Imperial College London • Plan S • Wellcome Trust and UKRI policies • University of Edinburgh
- 8. Development of Research Publications and Copyright Policy • Papers taken to Open Research Group, faculty research committees and Research and Innovation Committee • Consulted Head of IP Management and Commercialisation and Head of Legal Services and Employee Relations • Consulted union • Policy agreed by Academic Council
- 9. The policy At Queen’s, upon acceptance for publication, each staff member with a responsibility for research agrees to grant Queen’s University Belfast a non exclusive, irrevocable, worldwide licence to make manuscripts of ‐ their scholarly articles publicly available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence. This non-exclusive licence is given automatically via the policy and therefore takes precedence over any subsequent publisher agreement.
- 10. Scope Queen's Research Publications and Copyright Policy is subject to the University’s IP Policy and supersedes the University’s Open Access Policy. It applies to: • Academic and research staff currently employed by Queen’s University Belfast • Scholarly articles and conference papers submitted for publication from 1st November 2023 onwards
- 11. Rights Retention Authors retain copyright Zero cost route to OA Helps to create a more diverse OA landscape Makes immediate OA possible for all staff Allows researchers to meet funder requirements Allows research to be shared as widely as possible Benefits of the Policy
- 12. Implementation of the policy Notify publishers Create an online presence Develop workflows Promote the policy
- 13. Notifying publishers • Prior notice given to the major academic publishers • Identified publishers most used by Queen’s authors • 93 letters sent via recorded delivery so far - signed by Queen’s Deputy Vice Chancellor • Two replies to date – both in support of RR
- 14. Creating an online presence • Policy added to Queen’s Open Research webpages & the library’s policies and regulations page • Page created on the Open Access Libguide • Twitter, Library news, and Queen’s Staff round-up regularly used
- 15. Workflows Prior to submission: Have a conversation with co-authors and explain Queen’s policy. Upon acceptance: Deposit the AAM in Pure. The AM should acknowledge sources of funding and include a Data Access Statement. Upon publication: OR Team will make the AM available on the date of first online publication under a CC BY licence.
- 16. Internal Workflows Author deposits AM Author, submission date, & journal status checked If RR applies, CC BY licence applied & temporary embargo added Embargo report run every 6 weeks Article published online > Embargo removed Article made OA with RR statement
- 17. Policy in action
- 18. Promoting the policy • Emails sent to Heads of School, Library Reps, and Subject Librarians • Online & in person bitesize sessions for staff • Presentations at school board meetings • 14 sessions have been delivered so far with just over 300 attendees
- 19. Feedback • Positive feedback from our academics • 15 articles have been made open access upon publication via the policy so far • Zero opt-outs • Soft launch – work still to be done to increase the level of awareness around the policy
- 20. Next steps • REF 2029 • Monographs • Postgraduate students
- 21. Useful links Research Publications and Copyright Policy: https://www.qub.ac.uk/directorates/InformationServices/TheLibrary/CustomerS ervice/PoliciesandRegulations/ResearchPublicationsandCopyrightPolicy/ Email: openaccess@qub.ac.uk Twitter/X: @QUBOpenAccess
Editor's Notes
- #13: Ongoing process – letters continue to be sent to new publishers as we come across them