Rights retention is a legal mechanism that allows researchers to make author accepted manuscripts of journal articles and conference proceedings available open access at the point of publication when other routes to open access are not available. Rights retention is used by increasing numbers of UK universities

This 30-minute briefing for humanities and social sciences researchers will report on the University of Oxford’s planned implementation of an institutional rights retention policy. It will also provide an opportunity for discussion of the benefits and implications for humanities researchers.

Colleagues from the Bodleian Libraries will cover the following topics:

- An overview of open access publishing routes and the value of ‘green’ open access – The development of rights retention at Oxford and changes to Statute (to be approved by Congregation 11 June 2024) – How rights retention will work in practice and its relationship to the REF – Potential future developments in green open access for the humanities