The Mettre en œuvre la stratégie de non-cession des droits sur les publications scientifiques (Implementing the rights retention strategy for scientific publications) guide is a tool for researchers developed by the Committee for Open Science’s Publications College. This approach paves the way for immediate open access to articles at no additional cost whatever the distribution model of the journal they are published in.

In tangible terms, the practical aspects of this 4-step implementation are explained with details of the licence required, the relationship with a publisher and how to deposit the accepted author manuscript in an open archive.

The rights retention strategy is part of France’s Second National Plan for Open Science. The strategy’s conclusions on the evaluation of research and the implementation of open science are also supported by the Council of the European Union. Finally, it enables researchers to align with certain funding agencies’ open science policies.