Rights retention

Under Spanish law, authors of literary, artistic, and scientific works automatically acquire the exploitation rights over their work: reproduction, distribution, public communication, and transformation rights. In the case of works created by University research staff as a result of their respective duties, the exploitation rights belong to the University¹ , although these rights are usually managed directly by the researchers.

These exploitation rights may be transferred to third parties, either exclusively or non-exclusively, or retained. Typically, these exploitation rights are transferred exclusively to scientific journals, which means that the author may no longer reuse or share their work.

The retention of these rights by authors, rather than transferring them exclusively to publishers, allows authors to immediately communicate their works publicly and allow their reuse, a measure that contributes to promoting open access.

The Ley 14/2011, de 1 de junio, de la Ciencia, la Tecnología y la Innovación² establishes the obligation of research project beneficiaries (in our case, the UAB) to comply with the open access requirements established by the calls for proposals. Therefore, research staff must ensure they retain the intellectual property rights necessary to comply with the open access requirements of research calls.

Open licenses allow authors to retain their exploitation rights and indicate the uses they permit to third parties.

The SPARC Europe Retain Project was created with the aim of facilitating the dissemination of knowledge. We need the rights to publish, share, adapt, and reuse materials to meet research, educational, or multilingual needs. The support materials you will find below are aimed at the various agents involved (researchers, institutions, governments, etc.) to help them advance this retention of rights, which is essential for science to be open by default.

• ¿Conoces qué son la retención de derechos y las licencias abiertas? (Glosario)
• Acciones clave para el personal investigador: 6 pasos para retener tus derechos 
• Acciones clave para responsables de políticas institucionales: 5 pasos para implementar una Política institucional en Retención de derechos
• Acciones clave para responsables de políticas nacionales de Ciencia Abierta: 4 pasos para implementar una Política nacional en Retención de Derechos y licencias abiertas

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1. Article 35  Ley 14/2011, de 1 de junio, de la Ciencia, la Tecnología y la Innovación. Article 51 Real Decreto Legislativo 1/1996, de 12 de abril, por el que se aprueba el texto refundido de la Ley de Propiedad Intelectual. Article 58.4 Ley Orgánica 2/2023, de 22 de marzo, del Sistema Universitario.
2. The article 37.3 of the Ley 14/2011, de 1 de junio, de la Ciencia, la Tecnología y la Innovación, establishes: “Los beneficiarios de proyectos de investigación, desarrollo o innovación financiados mayoritariamente con fondos públicos deberán cumplir en todo momento con las obligaciones de acceso abierto dispuestas en las bases o los acuerdos de subvención de las convocatorias correspondientes. Los beneficiarios de ayudas y subvenciones públicas se asegurarán de que conservan los derechos de propiedad intelectual necesarios para dar cumplimiento a los requisitos de acceso abierto”