Open access and rights retention

The SHU Research Publications and Copyright Policy asks you to make all your scholarly articles and chapters in edited collections available via immediate Open Access under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence.

There are three routes to do this:

Route A. Green open access  

You publish your article in a subscription-based journal or your chapter in a book that is not Open Access, but you make the Author Accepted Manuscript* available to download from the institutional repository, SHURA. If you have included the Rights Retention Statement in your submission, then the article can be made Open Access from the day of first publication under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence. 

Route B. Gold open access after payment of a fee 

The Version of Record** of your article or chapter will be made available to download for free from the publisher’s website, usually after payment of a fee, known as an Article Processing Charge (APC) of Chapter Processing Charge (CPC). Your library has an Open Access Fund available to pay for these charges. You can apply for funding by filling out a form before you submit your paper. 

Route C. Gold open access via a Read-and-Publish Agreement  

You publish your article in a journal that offers both subscription content and Open Access content (a ‘hybrid’ journal). If the university is part of a read-and-publish agreement with that publisher, you will be able to publish your article Open Access in the journal without incurring extra costs. You can find a list of the read-and-publish agreements SHU has with publishers, as well as a list of journals that are part of these agreements (forthcoming). This type of agreement is not available for book chapters.

When you publish a scholarly article or book chapter, this checklist tells you what you need to do and when. 

When choosing a venue

• inform your co-authors
• check your journal or conference
• for edited collections: inform the editor
• If you are signing a publishing agreement  or contract before submission: inform your publisher
• Plan your use of third-party content

On submission

• include the Rights Retention Statement
• add a data accessibility statement
• use your ORCID

On acceptance

• deposit your Author Accepted Manuscript in Elements
• forward your acceptance email to Library Services
• arrange your Open Access route with your publisher
• opt-out of the Research publications and Copyright Policy if needed

On Publication

• notify Library Services of the publication date

1. Inform your co-authors 

Inform your co-authors about the SHU requirement to share the Author Accepted Manuscript upon publication under the CC BY license. If you are not the corresponding author, please request the Rights Retention Statement to be included in the manuscript.  

“My co-authors were very happy: because of the rights retention statement they said that they can share their work without any hurdles and it can also increase the accessibility to their work." Dr Aslam Jarwar, Assistant Professor in Smart Computing

You can refer co-authors to the information for co-authors page, and you can use the template email to seek their agreement. 

You can inform your co-authors: 

• At the start of your collaboration. Ideally, this should be part of the usual discussions around choice of publication venue you will have at the outset of the research collaboration when other issues regarding authorship are being considered as well.  

• At a later stage but before submission. If at the start of the collaboration, rights retention was not explicitly agreed, you may need to obtain your co-authors’ agreement at a later stage before submission. You can use the library's template email to do this. You need not seek formal agreement, just a simple ‘okay’ response to a written communication will suffice.  This is essentially a courtesy, confirming what should have been discussed at the start of the collaboration. If no response, positive or negative, is received - following a period of two weeks - this can be taken as tactic approval from that individual to proceed. 

• When writing the paper. In some cases, it may be appropriate to simply add the Rights Retention Statement to the manuscript you and your co-authors are working on, perhaps with a brief note to explain why it is there, and a hyperlink to the information for co-authors from the Library web pages. 

For small-sized authoring partnerships, agreement could be sought from all authors at external institutions. For larger multi-authored publications, it may be more reasonable to seek agreement from just the lead and/or corresponding author.  

What you are seeking from your co-authors, is their agreement to include the Rights Retention Statement in your submission. Sheffield Hallam University automatically sub‐licenses the rights granted to it to all co‐authors and their host institutions, on condition that if the said co‐authors and/or host institutions make a co‐authored scholarly article publicly available, they will do so on the terms of a CC BY licence (as per the SHU Research Publications and Copyright Policy, clause 18).  

In other words, if your co-authors agree, they are in fact also licensing their home institutions, and they can make the Author Accepted Manuscript available via their institutions’ repositories under the same conditions as you can, and they will therefore reap the same benefits as you. 

In any case, if your co-author’s home institution has an Open Access policy in place with rights retention, just as SHU, you need not seek their agreement as it is automatically given. This is currently the case for all University of Edinburgh authors and for some authors from the University of Cambridge. Other institutions are likely to follow over the next few months and years.

“I was amazed when I learnt I could retain certain rights over my publications. Both co-authors were really pleased, and the publisher’s response was very positive.” Imtiaz Mostafiz, Senior Lecturer in International Business and Strategy is the first Hallam author to publish a paper with rights retention. His paper is now downloadable from SHURA from day one under the CC BY licence.

What to do in the unlikely event a co-author does not agree? 

If for any reason, one of your co-authors raises Rights Retention as an issue, then it is possible to opt out of the University’s policy to request a different open licence than CC BY, or to apply your publisher’s Open Access policy, which usually requires a delay (also called ‘embargo’) as well as a different licence than CC BY. 

2. Check your journal, conference or publisher

Journals

When selecting a journal, check which route to open access you have chosen and act accordingly. It may be, for example, that you need to apply for funding from your Library before you submit your paper. 

Conferences

For conference papers, check where the conference papers will be published: will this be in a journal, a conference proceedings volume or on the conference website? It may not be clear whether a gold open access route is available, so be sure to include the Rights Retention Statement in your submission so that you can follow the green route to Open Access. If you choose a Gold Open Access route, please check that funding is available before you commit yourself to paying the fee. You can apply for funding by filling out an application form. If you proceed and place an order without confirmation, then you may be held liable for the costs. 

Publishers

For book chapters in edited collections, check the options available from your publisher.  Not all publishers will offer a Gold Open Access route and Green Open Access may be the only option.

If you have included the Rights Retention Statement in your submission, then the Author Accepted Manuscript can be made immediately Open Access from the day of first publication under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence and there is nothing else you need to do.  

If you choose a Gold Open Access route, please check that funding is available before you commit yourself to paying the fee. You can apply for funding by filling out an application form. Please check that funding is available before you commit yourself to paying the fee. .If you proceed and place an order without confirmation, then you may be held liable for the costs. 

3. For edited collections, inform the editor

If you are planning to submit your work to an edited collection such as a book or special issue of a journal, inform the editor(s) of the book or special issue about your Open Access plans for your chapter. Let them know about the SHU requirement to share the Author Accepted Manuscript upon publication under the CC BY license and also if you intend to make your chapter available via Gold Open Access.  This will enable the editor to consider the Open Access options for the whole collection as they may wish to try as far as possible to maintain parity in access across the contributions. You can refer the editor to the rights retention information for editors of edited collections page

4. If you are signing a publishing agreement  or contract before submission, inform your publisher

If you are asked to sign a publishing agreement or contract before submission, you must communicate to your publisher on that occasion that you have given a prior licence over the accepted manuscript tp the university, and - later on - you must also include the Rights Retention Statement in your submission.  You can use an amended version of the Rights Retention Statement to inform you publisher at the point you sign the contract: “For the purpose of open access, the author will apply a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from the intended submission.”

5. Plan your use of third-party content

If you are considering using third-party content in your publication, you need to make sure that you have the appropriate permission to use the content (a) in the published paper, and (b) in the Open Access version that will be made available on SHURA under a CC BY licence. There is more information on the pages on this guide about third-party content and rights retention.

1. Add the Rights Retention Statement

Include the following Rights Retention Statement (RRS) in the funding acknowledgement section of the manuscript or in the first footnote or endnote and in any cover letter/note accompanying the submission.

The purpose of the statement is to inform the publisher and journal editors of the license over the accepted manuscript you have already given to the University. Simply including the statement verbatim in the funding acknowledgement section and the cover letter will do this. For example, your cover note could say something like: "Please note that I/we have included the following statement in the funding acknowledgement section of my/our paper: [..]'.

For conference proceedings, the Rights Retention Statement should be included in your full paper submissions.  It is not necessary to include it in abstract submissions.

If you prefer to use a different licence, please replace ‘Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence’ in the statement above by your preferred licence, e.g. ‘Open Government Licence (OGL)’ or an alternative Creative Commons licence. Please be aware that for this alternative licence to take effect, you need to opt out of the University’s policy. If you do not opt out, the standard CC BY licence will be applied to your item instead.

2. Add a Data Accessibility Statement

Add a data accessibility statement to your paper. Data accessibility statements provide information about where the research data and other artefacts 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. If you did not generate any new data for your paper, you can say so by including something to the effect of the following sample statement: ‘No new data were generated or analysed during this study.’

3. Use your ORCID

Please use your ORCID when you submit your paper to the journal. If you do not yet have an ORCID, please create one on the ORCID website, and then add your ORCID to Elements.

ORCID provides researchers with a unique identifier that can be kept throughout their career. It distinguishes between researchers with similar names and helps ensure that publications are attributed and recorded correctly, potentially reducing researchers’ workload. ORCID is a global, non-profit organization supported by its members, including Sheffield Hallam University. Publishers are increasingly adopting ORCIDs in their journal submission systems. Major research funders, such as the Wellcome Trust and the UK Research Councils, now require, or recommend the use of ORCID. In addition, external grant application and reporting systems, such as Researchfish and Je-S, now link with and require ORCID identifiers.

1. Deposit your accepted manuscript into Elements within 3 months of acceptance

When you receive acceptance notification from the journal, the editors of the conference proceedings or the book editor, please ensure that the Author Accepted Manuscript is deposited in Elements within 3 months of acceptance but always before the publication date -- even if you have chosen Gold Open Access (Routes B and C).

Please see our guidance on how to deposit your file on Elements.

2. Forward your acceptance email to Library Services

When you receive acceptance notification from the journal or conference proceedings, please forward this email to elements@shu.ac.uk.  

For the purpose of the university’s submission to the next Research Excellence Framework (REF), we need to establish the date on which your work was accepted by the publisher. The acceptance notification from the journal editor is your proof of that date. In order for your paper to be eligible for submission to the next REF, you will need to deposit the accepted manuscript of your paper within three months of the date of acceptance. 

You do not need to forward acceptance emails for book chapters.

3. Arrange your Open Access route with the publisher 

After your article or chapter has been accepted for publication, the publisher usually sends you a link to complete their online forms. At this point, select your Open Access route and initiate the process with the journal publisher.

4. Opt-out if applicable

There are three main reasons why you may choose to opt out of the University's policy: 

1. Because of the publisher’s response to a submission with the Rights Retention Statement.

2. Because of copyright, when the paper contains third-party materials which cannot be made available under the Creative Commons Attribution licence and the redaction of the third-party materials will compromise the reading of the article. Or when the author has grounds to prefer another Creative Commons licence than CC BY (which may occur especially in the arts and humanities).

3. Because your co-authors want a different licence than CC BY or follow the publisher’s embargo.

It should be noted that you cannot opt out of the requirement to deposit the accepted manuscript in Elements. You can only obtain an opt-out of the following two policy requirements: 

• to achieve immediate open access from the day of first publication 

• to use the Creative Commons Attribution licence 

Therefore, opt-outs will often mean that a delay of between 6 and 24 months will be applied (often referred to as ‘an embargo’), and that no Creative Commons Attribution licence will be used.  

You should be aware that opting out may mean that you no longer comply with your funder’s Open Access requirements, especially if you have a grant from a funder that requires immediate Open Access, such as UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the Wellcome Trust, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) or the European Research Council (ERC). 

How do you opt out?

You can opt out in two ways: 

1. By sending an email to elements@shu.ac.uk. Please include: 

• The publication for which you are requesting a waiver 
• Why you are requesting a waiver 
• What your requirements are (licence and embargo) 

2. By requesting a ‘waiver’ in Elements.

Please see our guidance on requesting a waiver in Elements.

I have requested a waiver. What happens next?

Because opting out may mean that you no longer comply with your funder’s Open Access requirements or with Open Access requirements for REF, your Library will get in touch with you to confirm that an opt out is indeed desired. Once you have given confirmation, your paper will be made available from the repository according to your requirements. 

1. Notify library services of the publication date

When your article or chapter is published and available online, please notify Library Services of the publication date, so that the Author Accepted Manuscript can be made open access as soon as possible with the correct final publication details.  

The easiest way to do this is to send an email to elements@shu.ac.uk with the publication date.  You could for example forward an email communication from your publisher that announces the publication date. 

We do not expect authors to negotiate with publishers. So if you have chosen Green Open Access and any issues arise with Rights Retention, please get in touch with the Library Research Support Team immediately. They will attempt to resolve the issue for you. 

For example, if your publisher asks you to remove the Rights Retention Statement from your submission, please get in touch with the Library Research Support team. 

If your chosen journal contacts you to say that immediate Open Access under the CC BY licence is not possible, then you may have to opt-out of the University’s policy. Please note that if you have a grant from a funder that requires immediate Open Access, such as UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the Wellcome Trust, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) or the European Research Council (ERC), then your publisher may be preventing you from complying with your funder’s requirements. 

If you would like help with making your article Open Access or with any aspect of Rights Retention, please get in touch with the Library Research Support Team:

• email library-research-support@shu.ac.uk 
• phone 0114 225 3852