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Research Publications and Copyright Policy: What is the scope of the policy?

A guide intended to raise awareness, provide a straightforward explanation of what rights retention is and guide researchers through what they need to do to take advantage of the new policy.

Who does this apply to and which outputs are in scope of the policy?

All researchers - This policy applies to all academic staff at Goldsmiths and can also be adopted by doctoral researchers and professional services staff. 

All articles - This policy applies to all peer-reviewed journal articles and papers published in conference proceedings (with an ISSN). Any articles accepted for publication before the adoption of this policy on 1 January 2026 are exempt. 

Monographs, book chapters, edited collections and all other output types such as practice research works are out of scope of the policy, but researchers are strongly encouraged to make these works available on GRO. Although, they are out of scope of the policy, Goldsmiths strongly encourages all authors of monographs, edited collections and book chapters to make their work open access in GRO as a way to increase the accessibility and visibility of research that may go out of print. Many publishers will allow authors to deposit a version of their monographs, or parts of their monographs, to the GRO repository with an embargo. More information on adding monographs and book chapters to GRO is available here.

Any manuscripts - To inform publishers of their intentions, authors are encouraged to include the following rights retention statement in the acknowledgements section of their manuscript and the publisher cover letter even if the article will eventually be made open access via the publisher:

"For the purpose of open access, the author(s) has applied a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission."

We have a cover letter template that you can use to inform publishers of your intentions.