Self-Archiving Policy

This Self-Archiving Policy for Articles (SAP) supplements the University’s intellectual property policy (IPR Policy) as set out in Chapter XIII of its Ordinances (as may be amended from time to time) and sits within the Open Access Publications Policy Framework. The SAP is deemed to apply from 1 April 2023.

1. Background. The SAP has been developed as a result of changes to major research funders’ policies and grant funding terms that require the results of research funded by them to be made freely available to the public on an “open access” basis (this includes research supported by government and charity funding).
2. Purpose. The SAP will enable the University to disseminate research and scholarship as widely as possible to:

• further its mission to contribute to society through the pursuit of education, learning and research; and
• comply with research grant funder requirements.

The SAP aims to achieve this purpose while enabling the University’s researchers to publish their work in a journal of their choice.

3. Who it applies to. The SAP applies automatically to individuals engaged by the University in research activities including employees, workers, contractors, research fellows and research students. Equivalent individuals engaged by Colleges in research activities may participate in the SAP if this does not conflict with their obligations to their College, or if their College expressly requires them to participate. All such individuals shall be called Researchers for the purpose of this SAP.  Researchers can opt out of the SAP in accordance with paragraph 6(g) below.
4. What it applies to. The SAP applies to rights owned or otherwise secured by the Researcher in peer-reviewed research articles, including reviews and conference papers, that are accepted for final publication in either a journal, conference proceeding or publishing platform (Accepted Manuscript(s)) that are submitted on or after 1 April 2023.

The SAP does not extend to rights in other works owned or created by Researchers. However, the intention is for a policy to be developed in partnership with researchers before 1 January 2024 to enable them to deposit monographs, scholarly editions, textbooks, book chapters, collections of essays, datasets, or other outputs that are not Accepted Manuscripts. In the meantime, the University strongly encourages researchers to make these as openly available as possible. Help and advice is available through the Office of Scholarly Communication, please email info@osc.cam.ac.uk.

5. Feedback. Feedback on this SAP can be provided to the Head of Open Research Services by emailing info@osc.cam.ac.uk.
6. The SAP

1. The SAP does not amend or alter the IPR Policy.
2. Unless the Researcher takes an alternative route to compliance with the relevant grant funder’s open access requirements (or the research funder has no open access requirements) and notifies the University of this by emailing info@openaccess.cam.ac.uk, the Researcher will:

1. (If the grant funder requires it) include the following wording in their submitted manuscript and any submission cover letter/note:

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

2. automatically grant the University a non-exclusive, irrevocable, sub-licensable, worldwide licence, taking effect upon acceptance of the Accepted Manuscript for publication, to make the Accepted Manuscript publicly available in its institutional digital repository under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence from the moment of first publication (and / or such alternative licence as agreed with the relevant grant funder and the University in advance in writing).

3. Provided that publishers are notified of the Researcher’s (i) application of a CC BY licence to the Accepted Manuscript and (ii) the non-exclusive licence to the University, these licences will normally remain valid if a publisher seeks to impose conflicting licence terms. Researchers will be fully supported by the University to achieve open access under the terms of this policy.
4. If the Accepted Manuscript is co-authored or includes third party rights, the Researcher will use all reasonable endeavours to obtain a licence to the University from all the co-authors or relevant third parties on the same terms as the licence set out in paragraph 6(b)(ii) above.
5. The Researcher will provide the University with an electronic copy of the Accepted Manuscript on acceptance by depositing it in Symplectic Elements and, at the same time, will notify the University if any rights or permissions needed to make third party content (such as images, photographs, or maps) publicly available under a CC BY licence have not been secured.
6. The University will deposit the accepted manuscript in its digital institutional repository, with article metadata usually available immediately upon deposit and the accepted manuscript being made accessible by the date of first publication. 
7. The Researcher can voluntarily opt out of the SAP generally or in respect of a particular research article by emailing info@openaccess.cam.ac.uk. If the Researcher opts out, the expectation is that they will follow an alternative route to compliance with funder open access requirements in respect of the relevant Accepted Manuscript(s). Otherwise, the opt-out may cause the University and, depending on the circumstances, the Researcher concerned to be in breach of grant funder terms. Information on alternative routes to compliance with funder open access requirements can normally be accessed via the relevant funder’s website or please email info@openaccess.cam.ac.uk for advice. The University has no preference on which route to open access compliance is followed by the Researcher if compliance is ultimately achieved.