Aalto University prior licence model is applied in self-archiving to manuscripts submitted for peer-review starting 1 January 2026. 

What does the prior licence model mean?

• Prior licence model (Rights Retention Strategy, RRS) secures researcher's right to self-archive the peer-reviewed manuscript with immediate open access and under the Creative Commons license required by the funder, regardless of any restrictions set by the publisher. 
• If your funder doesn’t require a license, CC license is not used in self-archiving.

What happens if I don't want to follow the prior licence model?

• You have the possibility to opt-out from the prior licence model, as described in the president's decision. No justification is needed. 
• Opt-out means that the peer-reviewed manuscript will be self-archived following the publisher's terms, which often includes an embargo.
• Please note that many research funders require immediate open access. If you choose to opt-out, it is your responsibility to ensure that you are following your funder’s requirements.

What do I have to do?

1. Open Science and ACRIS team asks you to send the peer-reviewed manuscript. 
2. Options for self-archiving
   • Prior licence model (RRS): immediate open access
   • Opt-out: self-archiving following the publisher's terms, which often includes an embargo
3. Ensure your co-authors permission for self-archiving, see Co-authored publications
4. Send the peer-reviewed manuscript to manuscripts@aalto.fi and inform which option you wish to use.
5. Open Science and ACRIS team self-archives the peer-reviewed manuscript to Aalto's publication repository according to your choice.

Co-authored publications 

• Self-archiving should be agreed upon with the co-authors, similar to the authors' roles and their order in the article, choice and openness of the publication channel. You can inform your co-authors for example:
  • Our university follows a prior licence model, under which peer-reviewed manuscript versions are self-archived in our university’s publication repository without an embargo and under a CC license required by the funder. If these conditions for self-archiving are not acceptable to you, please inform me by [date]. 
• If any of the co-authors does not approve of self-archiving following Aalto's prior licence model, it is possible to opt-out, and self-archive the peer-reviewed manuscript following the publisher's terms.

Contact information

For any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact Open Science and ACRIS team, acris@aalto.fi. 

Aalto University prior licence model does not apply retroactively to manuscripts submitted for peer-review before 1.1.2026. Peer-reviewed manuscripts are self-archived following the publisher's terms, including embargo. 

What do I have to do?

1. Open Science and ACRIS team asks you to send the peer-reviewed manuscript.
2. Ensure your co-authors permission for self-archiving, see Co-authored publications.
3. Send the peer-reviewed manuscript to manuscripts@aalto.fi.
4. Open Science and ACRIS team self-archives the peer-reviewed manuscript to Aalto's publication repository in accordance with the publisher's terms, including embargo. 

Co-authored publications

• Self-archiving of the peer-reviewed manuscript should be agreed upon with the co-authors, similar to the authors' roles and their order in the article, choice and openness of the publication channel. 

Contact information

For any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact Open Science and ACRIS team, acris@aalto.fi. 

If you wish to publish your manuscript (preprint, version prior to peer review) in a discipline-specific repository, check from Open policy finder or directly from publisher whether the policy of the target journal is clear that a preprint will not pre-empt its publication. Please note that social media network services (e.g. ResearchGate, Academia.edu) are usually not acceptable repositories by publishers. 

Licenses used for preprints

Several repositories allow the possibility to use Creative Commons licenses for the preprint versions. However, if possible, we recommend using restrictive licenses for preprints (e.g. the non-exclusive license offered by arXiv), to limit re-use before the final publication of the peer-reviewed article.

Webinar: How to publish preprints 3.11.2022

Preprints and funders' open access policies

Please note that publishing preprints doesn't comply with funders' open access policies, because funders require that peer-reviewed scientific articles or peer-reviewed manuscripts are available open access.

Widely-used repositories for preprints

Usually, publishers allow self-archiving in subject-specific repositories (e.g. arXiv) and institutional publication repositories (ACRIS/Aaltodoc), but not, for example, on ResearchGate. Please also note that social media networks are not accepted as repositories by the funders, because permanent availability in these services is not guaranteed, and publications may be openly accessible only to logged-in users.