Rights Retention Frequently Asked Questions
The Library has informed all publishers where Loughborough authors have published over the past four years of our Rights Retention Policy, and notified them that all relevant research outputs will be included from a formal start date of 1 April 2026.
After 1 April 2026 all journal articles and conference papers authored by Loughborough staff and doctoral researchers and accepted for publication by a publication venue with an ISSN are automatically included within the Loughborough Rights Retention Policy.
What has changed?
Prior to 1 April 2026 authors depositing Accepted Manuscripts into the Loughborough Research Repository had to comply with publisher embargo periods. This meant their Accepted Manuscripts would not be Open Access for 12 to 24 months for many publishers.
From 1 April 2026 the Accepted Manuscripts of research articles or conference papers with an ISSN that are authored by Loughborough staff or doctoral researchers can be made available in the Loughborough Research Repository with a Creative Commons (CC BY) Licence immediately after publication.
Authors should inform any co-authors from other institutions that Loughborough has a Rights Retention Policy.
What are the benefits to authors?
Authors will be able to publish their Accepted Manuscripts immediately after publication and will not need to comply with publisher embargo periods.
More articles will comply with the REF Open Access Policy, specifically the new 2029 REF allowances for embargo periods that came into force on 1 January 2026.
Research outputs will be more visible, read and cited, with greater visibility to policy makers, researchers, businesses, and charities.
Authors retain more of the rights in their work granted them by copyright law enabling them to re-use their own images, diagrams, and text in future works without needing to apply for permission from the publisher.
What do authors have to do to comply with OA policy?
Authors should continue to deposit their Accepted Manuscripts via LUPIN as soon as possible after their work is accepted for publication and Library staff will publish the appropriate version.
This is the quickest and easiest way for authors to comply with their requirements for REF 2029 and funder Open Access policies.
From 1 January 2026 REF 2029 requires that authors deposit an Accepted Manuscript or Open Access article (with a Creative Commons Licence) within 3 months of publication to be eligible for inclusion. Loughborough University encourages authors to deposit on acceptance whenever possible.
How does Rights Retention help with REF 2029 and Funder Open Access policies?
From 1 January 2026, the REF 2029 Open Access Policy has reduced the allowed publisher embargo periods to 6 months for Main Panel A and Main Panel B and 12 months for Main Panel C and Main Panel D.
Most publisher embargoes are 12 or 24 months. Any articles that exceed these periods will require exceptions to be applied by the Library and Research Office. Rights Retention will ensure more articles are directly eligible for REF.
Rights retention follows a direct recommendation in the REF Open Access policy that “institutions fully consider the extent to which authors currently retain or transfer the copyright of works published by their researchers, as part of creating a healthy research environment”.
Many research funders also have Open Access publication requirements. Rights Retention will ensure these are met immediately after publication.
When will the policy be applied?
Library staff will apply the Rights Retention Policy to any deposited Accepted Manuscript with an acceptance date after 1 April 2026. The Accepted Manuscript will then be made available on publication.
During the transition period there may be a delay while Library staff identify in-scope articles. Please contact the Library Open Research Team if you have any questions about specific articles.
What is covered by Rights Retention?
Accepted Manuscripts of research articles and conference papers published with an ISSN are in the policy. Other work such as datasets, books and book chapters are not currently covered. Please ask the Library Open Research Team for more information on making other item types open.
Has anything changed if the article is being published Open Access?
No, Open Access articles are already allowed to be made available immediately after publication. This applies to all Gold, Platinum and Diamond Open Access publications.
Can I opt out of the Rights Retention Policy?
Authors can discuss excluding an article from the policy prior to publication by emailing the Library Open Research Team.
Loughborough authors who opt-out should be aware that co-authors from other institutions may apply their own Institutional Rights Retention Policies to articles. You should discuss this with colleagues.
Do I need to tell my publisher that I am using Rights Retention?
A Rights Retention statement within the article is no longer required, as all publishers Loughborough University authors have published with over the last four years have already been informed of this policy. Nonetheless, it remains good practice to include one. You can check whether your publisher has been contacted by consulting the list of notified publishers.
Please use the following wording if you wish to discuss the policy with your publisher or to add a Rights Retention statement to your article:
“For the purpose of open access, the authors have (or author has) applied a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission.”
Contact the Library at repository@lboro.ac.uk if you need any advice on discussing rights retention with your publisher.