This helper includes key resources on rights retention for institutions and researchers: including examples of rights retention policies, support documents and guidelines and a key reading list.

EXAMPLES OF RIGHTS RETENTION POLICIES

Good practices for university open-access policies. First released in October 2012 and regularly updated. https://cyber.harvard.edu/hoap/Good_practices_for_university_open-access_policies
This guide from Harvard University focusses on rights retention and provides good practices for college and university open-access (OA) policies. It’s based on the type of rights retention OA policy first adopted at Harvard, Stanford, MIT, and the University of Kansas.

University rights-retention OA policies, first released July 2023: https://oad.simmons.edu/oadwiki/University_rights-retention_OA_policies
The Open Access Directory offers a crowd-sourced list of institutional rights retention open access policies (IRRPs). 

Rights retention policies in Europe (early 2023): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1D2CXrS0UoovICHLZiJupyOu_WwTjxcJXZFmpptF2Zas/edit?usp=sharing
This list contains the rights retention policies from the KR21 SPARC Europe report: Labastida i Juan, Ignasi, Melinščak Zlodi, Iva, Proudman, Vanessa & Treadway, Jon. (2023). Opening Knowledge: Retaining Rights and Open Licensing in Europe. Zenodo.

N8 Rights Retention Statement (January 2023): https://www.n8research.org.uk/n8-rights-retention-statement/
The first university consortium statement supporting rights retention by a .

SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS AND GUIDELINES

PROJECT RETAIN OUTPUTS

Do you speak Rights Retention and Open Licensing? (2023) https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10208763
Short glossary containing the main concepts related to Rights Retention and Open Licensing. 

SPARC Europe Rights Retention Checklists (2023)
Step by step guides on how to better ensure rights retention and adopt open licensing:

KEY READING

Open Access Tracking Project – Rights Retention
This list contains resources from across the world on rights retention. It is continuously updated.

Other

  • Labastida i Juan, Ignasi, Melinščak Zlodi, Iva, Proudman, Vanessa & Treadway, Jon. (2023). Opening Knowledge: Retaining Rights and Open Licensing in Europe. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8084051
  • European Commission, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, Angelopoulos, C. (2022). Study on EU copyright and related rights and access to and reuse of scientific publications, including open access : exceptions and limitations, rights retention strategies and the secondary publication right, Publications Office of the European Union, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2777/891665
  • Morrison, Chris, Secker, Jane, Vezina, Brigitte, Ignasi Labastida I Juan, & Proudman, Vanessa. (2020). Open Access: An Analysis of Publisher Copyright and Licensing Policies in Europe. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.404662
  • Guibault, Lucie, Owning the Right to Open Up Access to Scientific Publications (2012). Guibault, Lucie & Angelopoulos Christina J. (eds.), Open Content Licensing: From Theory to Practice, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, pp. 137-167, 2011, Amsterdam Law School Research Paper No. 2012-25, Institute for Information Law Research Paper No. 2012-20, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2006318

Take me back to the Project Retain web page.