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President's decision D/7179/00.01.06.02/2025, 15 December 2025

Aalto University is introducing a prior licence model for scientific peer-reviewed articles. By obtaining a prior licence for their author-accepted manuscripts (AAM), a researcher affiliated with Aalto University ensures the immediate open access of their research publication [1] [2] by self-archiving and publishing it in the Aalto University publication repository. In the publication repository, the manuscript is licensed with the Creative Commons licence the funder requires. Internationally, this prior licence model is known as the Rights Retention Strategy. 

With the help of the prior licence model, the researcher and the university implement immediate open access publishing of research publications as is required by research funders, regardless of any restrictions defined by the publisher. If the researcher's manuscript is not the output of a research project that has received external funding, the researcher can exercise their right of opt-out, in which case self-archiving takes place in accordance with the publisher's terms and conditions. 

The prior licence model enables the preservation of the researcher's rights to their peer-reviewed manuscript and the long-term preservation of Aalto University’s research publications. 

At Aalto University, the prior licence model applies to all manuscripts of scientific articles (Ministry of Education and Culture's publication types A1- A4) that a researcher affiliated with Aalto University sends to the publication channel for evaluation (submission) as of 1 January 2026. It does not apply retroactively to manuscripts submitted for review before 1 January 2026. 

Aalto University undertakes to bear the legal and financial responsibility if the publisher sues the researcher for violating the terms and conditions of the publishing agreement when a researcher affiliated with Aalto University complies with Aalto University's prior licence model in the university's publication repository. 

With this decision, the President has confirmed Aalto University's prior licence model.

[1] Coordination of Open Science, Federation of Finnish Learned Societies. (2025). . The Advisory Board for Public Information and the Federation of Finnish Learned Societies.   

[2] UNESCO. (2021). (p. 34). UNESCO.