Open Research and Scholarly Publications (NEW): Rights Retention FAQs

No. Rights Retention is intended to support author choice of publisher and to enable authors to use the Green (self-archiving) route to achieve Open Access, by uploading their Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) into Pure. The University has contacted the publishers that Coventry authors work with most frequently to notify them of the Standard and the inclusion of a Rights Retention statement in your submission ensure that they are aware from the outset. Across the sector, many universities have implemented Rights Retention Polices. We do not believe that publishers can plausibly decline to publish papers from authors from all these institutions, without impacting negatively on their publications. Some publishers are questioning these policies and there is ongoing dialogue. If you choose to publish with one of the small group of publishers who may remain resistant to this policy, you may need to make alternative licensing arrangements, opt-out, or seek an alternative publishing venue. For guidance, please contact rightsretention@coventry.ac.uk. 

Yes, you should apply the statement to all your publications to inform the publisher that you retain the rights to your accepted manuscript. Adding the statement to all your submissions ensures that your publisher will always be aware of the prior license given to the University when they make a decision based on your submission. Additionally, when publishing in an Open Access journal, we are asking you to always choose a CC BY license if available, and always deposit the accepted manuscript in Pure on acceptance.

Rights Retention does not currently apply to long-form publications. However, the University strongly encourages authors to make all outputs open Access wherever possible.

If the article or conference proceeding was submitted for publication before 1 August 2025, then you need to check any publishing agreement to see which rights were transferred to the publisher and seek copyright permission from the publisher accordingly. If the article or conference proceedings were submitted for publication after 1 August 2025, under the Coventry University Research Publications and Rights Retention Standard, the Author Approved Manuscript (AAM) version can be included in your thesis but it needs to be noted that it is included under a CC-BY licence with a link to the licence deed which can be found here.

The University of Edinburgh has provided translations of an RR statement in Chinese, French, Greek, German, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish and Welsh. You can access it here.

It is important that the publisher has been given notice that the author has designated a prior licence to Coventry University. This is achieved by including a Rights Retention statement at the point of submission. The University has also notified the publishers most frequently used by Coventry University authors. If you choose to publish with a publisher we have notified, you will still be able to add the AAM to Pure and make available on publication, as the publisher has been given prior notice. For guidance, please contact (rightsretention@coventry.ac.uk). .

It may be permissible to apply a more restrictive Creative Commons licence in some situations. Please contact rightsretention@coventry.ac.uk to discuss this further. Conditions of funding may be a factor in establishing if using an alternative licence is possible.

The Open Research and Scholarly Publications team in the library support researchers at the University with all aspects of scholarly communications. For guidance and advice on any aspects of the Research Publications and Rights Retention Standard, open access and meeting institutional and/or funder requirements please contact rightsretention@coventry.ac.uk.