The University of Lapland is taking a significant step towards promoting open science. By decision of the Rector, the University has adopted a prior licence model, known in international contexts as the Rights Retention Strategy (RRS), as of 1 January 2026. Prior licensing ensures that all peer-reviewed research articles at the University are openly available immediately after publication.

The prior licence model precedes the publishing agreement, and under it, the researcher always has the right to self-archive their peer-reviewed scientific publication in the university’s publication archive under a Creative Commons license. The right to self-archiving is also granted in cases where the publisher’s terms and conditions prohibit self-archiving.

By decision of the Rector, the University provides legal assistance to the researcher and bears financial responsibility if the publisher makes claims for violation of the terms and conditions concerning self-archiving.

Prior licensing is voluntary for the researcher. If the researcher does not want to use prior licensing, then self-archiving takes place in accordance with the publisher’s terms and conditions.

The prior licensing model applies to publication types A1–A4 of the publication data collection of the Ministry of Education and Culture and it applies to the doctoral students as well.

The prior licensing model has been prepared in national cooperation between universities, and other Finnish universities have already adopted the model or are planning to introduce it during 2026.

The LUC Library is organising two Teams meetings on the introduction of the prior licence model, one in Finnish and one in English. The meetings are recorded and transcribed with an artificial intelligence tool. The discussion and Q&A session at the end of the events will not be recorded or transcribed.

Please join the Teams meeting with your user account provided by the university.