Durham University (and each N8 partner institution) has implemented a policy in support of the Rights Retention approach. The purpose of these policies is to:
- empower researchers to retain the rights to their work;
- support authors in making their journal papers openly accessible via a single, simple action;
- allow researchers and their institutions to comply with the open access requirements of research funders;
- align with each institution’s aspirations to support open research;
- enable research and scholarship to be disseminated as widely as possible, whilst allowing researchers to publish their work in a journal of their choice.
The key principles underpinning Durham University's Research Publications Policy are aligned with the N8 Statement of Rights Retention, recognising that it is universities, not publishers, who provide the environment for research to take place and recommending that researchers do not by default transfer copyright to publishers without retaining sufficient rights to enable them to share their research.
