Rights Retention is a strategy supported by Open Access advocates that aims to ensure research can be shared and re-used without barriers. 

The aim is for authors (you) to retain their rights to the academic work they produce. 

In traditional publishing models, authors sign copyright transfer agreements or exclusive licenses to publishers. This means that the publisher holds the copyright to the work and can decide on re-use often making a profit on re-use requests. 

Rights retention uses the green route to open access and asserts the rights of the author to the Author Accepted Manuscript (the version of the work post peer-review changes but pre type-setting). 

This is the version you usually add to SURE. 

Retaining rights on this version of your work means that you retain more control on what can be done with your work and how far it can reach. 

This approach to open access is gaining ground in the UK and worldwide with more and more universities adopting institutional rights retention policies (IRRP). 

The University has adopted a Rights Retention policy. It is included in our new Research Publications, Open Access and Copyright policy (active from 1st January 2026). 

It will replace our current Open Access Mandate. 

The rights retention element of our Research Publications, Open Access and Copyright policy covers journal articles and published conference papers. It applies to all staff and research postgraduate students affiliated with the university of Sunderland. 

This policy means that as authors you are supported by the institution to retain rights on your author accepted manuscripts and to place them on our institutional repository. 

How does it work?

Choose which journal you want to publish your work in. For guidance on how to select an appropriate journal you can refer to this guide's 'Publishing your research' section. 

1. Prepare your manuscript according to the requirement of the journal (see their guidance on word count, layout, font, and referencing)
2. Add the rights retention statement to the acknowledgement section, cover letter or cover sheet: 
   • For the purpose of Open Access, the author(s) has applied a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission.
3. Submit your manuscript to the journal of your choice (submitted manuscript)
4. The manuscript will undergo peer review. 
5. Make the changes/ respond to peer-reviewers comments
6. Your manuscript is accepted (this is the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM))
7. Add your AAM to SURE. This version will be made immediately on publication with a CC BY license. 

8. The publisher will typeset and copy-edit the article and provide you with proofs

9. Check the proofs

10. Article is published on the publisher's platform (Version of Record (VoR)). 

Retaining your rights on your publications means that:

1. You retain academic freedom to choose where to publish and still comply with REF or funder open access requirements.
2. You can share and re-use your work.
3. Others can access your work and re-use your work following the principles of the chosen creative commons license. 
4. You do not have to pay a significant Article Processing Charge (APC) to publish your work.
5. You contribute to the spread of knowledge through open access and open research.
6. You contribute to a healthier, more trustworthy scholarly publishing landscape by making your work open and allowing re-use. 

The Research publication, Open Access and Copyright policy, which applies in full from 1 January 2026 requires full and immediate open access for in scope articles and published conference papers (with ISSN). The university requires that the Creative Commons attribution (CC BY) is applied to the open access version of the research output. In most cases, it will be simple to comply with this policy. However, in some exceptional circumstances it will be possible for staff to voluntarily opt-out of the requirement for immediate open access upon publication, or the assignation of a CC-BY license. 

However, please note :

• Opting out of the policy means access to your manuscript will be restricted, either by delaying access or by applying a more restrictive license. 
• This may result in the research output being non-compliant with REF or with funders open access requirements.
• Authors cannot opt our of the requirement to deposit the Author Accepted Manuscript in SURE.

Reasons to opt out

There four main scenarios in which it might be appropriate for authors to request an opt-out:

1. Publisher/ Journal response: The journal/publisher will not publish the output with the Rights Retention intact
2. Co-author(s)'s response: An author does not have permission to share the accepted manuscript with a CC BY license immediately upon publication because:
   • Co-authors do not respond
   • Co-authors prefer a different license (CC BY-ND or CC BY-NC for instance)
   • Co-authors do not want to share the manuscript with CC license at all and /or prefer to follow publisher's embargo
3. Copyright issues: The article contains a substantial amount of third-party materials which cannot be licensed with a CC BY. The redaction of the third-party material will comprise the reading of the article. Or when an author has ground to prefer another license than CC BY (which may occur especially in the arts and humanities). 
4. The author has already applied for a Wellcome/UKRI licesing exemption.

In these circumstances, it will be possible to opt-out of the policy or to ask for a different CC license. In these cases, contact the Research and Scholarly Communications Team by filling in the form below. 

Any such request will be reasonably considered by the University but will be granted only in exceptional circumstances and will not be granted where doing so would put the University (or the relevant researcher) in breach of funder requirements. It is incumbent on University researchers to comply fully with the terms of any funding which gave rise to the relevant work. 

Opting out form:

To opt out of either immediate open access or to request a different license, fill in the Opt out form. 

What happens next?

Because opting out may mean you will not comply with REF or  your funder open access requirements, the Research and Scholarly Communications Team will get in touch with you to confirm that an opt out is desired. Once you have given confirmation, your paper will be made available from the repository according to your requirements. 

This short animation provided by Manchester Met University gives a good summary of why retaining rights to your publications is important.