Different paths to retaining rights in Europe

Abstract

The lack of legal certainty surrounding intellectual property rights is one of the few remaining obstacles to the adoption of Open Science in the European Research Area. In particular, the legal aspects of sharing and reusing copyrighted scholarly works .

The proposed will delve into the findings from Project Retain, examining the ongoing development and implementation of rights retention in different legal, political, organisational and economical settings across Europe.

Led by SPARC Europe and part of the KR21 programme. The first phase of the project developed an overview of current approaches to author rights retention and open licensing resulting in a report published in June 2023. Interim results were shared at the Munin Conference 2022.

Our research draws on case studies from 10 European countries, highlighting varied approaches to rights retention and open licensing. We will highlight the dynamic interplay between legal systems, institutional practices, and stakeholders, and in particular, we will cover:

• Variations in policies across jurisdictions and their relationship with laws, especially laws that are enacting secondary publishing rights,
• The interplay between institutional policies, organisational settings, publisher relations, and legal frameworks,
• Collaborative initiatives between institutions and different groups of stakeholders,
• Systems and procedures put in place to support and monitor the uptake of policies,
• Evolution of institutional policies and their impact on authors and scholarly communication.

We will conclude with a discussion of the value of case studies of this type, how to make them as vibrant as possible and more easily digestible and accessible to a wider group of potential agents.