Research Publications & Copyright Policy
Why are we doing this?
Academic staff at Newcastle University have traditionally, when publishing research outputs, exercised an independent right to assign or give away their scholarly works. This has enabled the current process of the corresponding author assigning copyright to publishers, which results in many journal articles and scholarly works now being under partial or complete ownership by the academic publishers.
In support of the Newcastle University Institutional Position Statement on Open Research which aims to maximise the visibility and impact of research for public benefit in accordance with the University Vision and Strategy. The University has implemented the Research Publications & Copyright Policy to ensure authors retain these rights over their own work, allowing dissemination of their accepted manuscript freely under a CC BY licence.
Research funders, including UKRI, Wellcome Trust and the National Institute for Health and Care Research, now require that all journal articles covering research supported in whole or in part by their funding should be made open access immediately on publication, without embargo. Compliance is a condition of grant funding. Rights Retention policies offer a way to comply with funder requirements and allow authors to distribute their research as widely as possible.
Policy Summary
This summary and the guidance that follows should be read in conjunction with the University Research Publications and Copyright policy.
The purpose of this policy is to allow immediate open access for all journal articles and conference proceedings to help maximise the visibility and impact of our research and ensure compliance with research funder requirements.
The policy applies to peer-reviewed research articles (including reviews and conference papers) authored or co-authored by Newcastle University staff and by students acting as co-authors with staff. Upon acceptance for publication each member of staff agrees to grant Newcastle University a non‐exclusive, irrevocable, worldwide licence to make the accepted manuscript publicly available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence. Accepted manuscripts provided to us by authors will be deposited in a digital repository and made open access on publication and under a CC BY licence.
This policy came into effect on 1st August 2022 and along with the other N8 institutions was formally implemented from 1st January 2023.
What do authors need to do?
When submitting manuscripts in scope of the policy to a publisher authors should add the following Rights Retention Statement (RRS) to the acknowledgements and to any cover letter or note accompanying the submission:
“For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission.”
Authors should also inform their co-authors at the earliest opportunity about the University’s requirements to share the manuscript on publication with a CC-BY licence. If the Newcastle University author is not acting as corresponding author they should request that the RRS is included in the submitted manuscript and cover letter.
Should any co-authors raise an issue with use of the RRS or if the publisher asks for this statement to be removed before they will review or accept the submission, authors should contact the open access team for advice. In some cases authors may choose to opt out of this policy. However, we would not recommend this where doing so would prevent compliance with your funder’s open access policy (e.g. UKRI, Wellcome, NIHR, Horizon Europe) or if it is anticipated that the publication may be returned as an output in the REF.
Authors are encouraged to include the RRS in the funding acknowledgements section as good practice, especially when contacting small or independent publishers, as it may not be possible for the University to contact all possible publishers. Newcastle authors can then continue to submit articles using the institutional repository, those papers which are not eligible for paid Open Access can now be made Open Access via the Green OA route, where applicable.
If the publication is eligible for one of our transformative agreements the publisher will offer authors the option to publish gold open access without additional charges. We recommend authors accept this offer and select the CC BY licence. The open access team will replace the AAM uploaded to MyImpact with the published version of record.
On publication authors are requested to notify the Library (lib-myimpact@ncl.ac.uk), who will update the MyImpact record.
Add the following Rights Retention Statement (RRS) in the funding acknowledgement section of the manuscript and in any cover letter accompanying the submission:
“For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission.”
Inform co-authors about Newcastle University requirements to share the manuscript upon publication with a CC BY licence. If you are not the corresponding author, please request the RRS to be included in the manuscript. If for any reason, one of the co-authors raises this as an issue, then it is possible to opt out of the University’s policy or request a different open licence from openaccess@ncl.ac.uk.
When selecting a journal, check if Newcastle University has a Transformative Agreement with the publisher, you might be eligible to publish your article Gold Open Access with a Creative Commons licence for no extra charge.
Check your Funder OA requirements and ensure your chosen journal complies. You can use the Journal Checker Tool for an initial indication, contacting openaccess@ncl.ac.uk if you are unsure about anything.
Add a data access statement in the paper. Data access statements provide information about where the research data is and how it is accessed. This may be a funder requirement (e.g. UKRI). The Research Data Service can help you understand data management requirements.
When you receive confirmation of acceptance from the publisher ensure your Authors Accepted Manuscript (AAM) is deposited in the institutional repository.
When your article is published and available online please notify lib-myimpact@ncl.ac.uk.
The publisher of your chosen journal may automatically deposit papers to PubMed Central on publication. If the publisher does not automatically deposit, it is possible to self-archive your papers in Europe PMC plus.
In most cases compliance with this policy will be straightforward for authors. However, in exceptional circumstances issues may arise that require staff to opt out of these requirements or to request use of a different Creative Commons licence (e.g. CC BY-ND).
Examples of where authors may wish to submit an opt out request include where:
- The journal refuses to publish the output with the RRS included.
- An author does not have permission to share the accepted manuscript with a CC BY licence immediately on publication because:
- A co-author objects to including the RRS in the paper
- A co-author prefers a different licence (e.g. CC-BY-ND)
- The author has approval from Wellcome/UKRI to apply a CC-BY-ND licence by exception
- The article contains significant 3rd party content which cannot be licensed as CC-BY and the redaction of which would compromise the integrity of the article
To opt out of this policy, or to request a different Creative Commons licence (e.g. CC BY-ND) for a publication, authors should contact the open access team on acceptance.
Please note that opting out means that the accepted manuscript is subject to standard publisher terms for open access and this may cause the publication to be non-compliant with funder policies.
The policy is designed to allow Newcastle authors to publish in the journal of their choice and comply with funder requirements for immediate open access, regardless of conflicting demands from publishers. The policy will simplify the publishing process, help authors them retain rights to share their research outputs more widely and ensure compliance with both REF and funder requirements for immediate open access.
The policy does not affect an author’s ownership of copyright in their work. By following the policy, authors grant a non-exclusive licence to the University, which allows the institution to defend, as part of a community of universities following the same policy, the prioritisation of funder requirements over publisher terms and conditions.
The policy will apply to research articles that are authored or co-authored while the person is a staff member of the University. The licence granted to the University for the publication is irrevocable, so stays with the institution after an author leaves. However, it is also non‐exclusive, so authors can enter into new agreements with other institutions/parties. In practice an AAM made openly available in our repository under a CC BY licence can be freely downloaded and re-shared by other institutions. Where authors join the University from another institution we would not be able to apply the policy retrospectively to papers that have already been published.
Papers are only eligible for open access through our transformative agreements where the corresponding author is affiliated with Newcastle University. If the corresponding author is based elsewhere the paper may not be covered by a transformative agreement. In such cases use of the RRS will still allow for immediate open access. University authors should therefore ensure that all co-authors are aware of the policy requirement and that the corresponding author agrees to include the RRS in the manuscript.
As mentioned above, University authors should ensure that all co-authors, including international ones, are made aware of the policy requirement at the earliest opportunity. If any problems arise, then authors should contact the open access team for advice.
The policy also applies to any students, who as part of their role working with a staff member, produce research publications (as defined above). This policy does not apply where a student is the sole author.
If a publisher challenges inclusion of the RRS please contact the open access team for advice. Publishers would be expected to do this on submission. If they accept the submission for publication this should not be dependent on removal of the RRS.
When using the RRS authors should select the subscription publication route. The RSS allows authors to publish articles as subscription access, avoiding open access charges, and provide immediate open access to the accepted manuscript in a repository. The RRS route is usually required where a journal does not meet funder open access requirements and as such they will not allow us to use their funds to pay open access charges.
The open access team will temporarily remove the article from public view while it investigates the request in accordance with ePrints repository policies.
Where an article contains significant 3rd party content that cannot be licensed as CC BY and the redaction of this content would compromise the integrity of the article, authors should request an opt out.
While the default licence is CC BY authors can request another licence be applied to the accepted manuscript. However, please bear in mind that funders including UKRI and Wellcome Trust require use of CC BY (or CC BY-ND if approved by exception).
Please contact the journal as soon as possible to let them know of your intentions to retain your copyright and apply an open licence to the accepted manuscript.