In the European Research Area, there is a clear commitment to advancing Open Science, with the ERA Policy Agenda identifying the open sharing and reuse of research outputs as a top priority. Achieving this goal, however, requires changes to the legal and regulatory frameworks that govern copyright. This need is further underlined in the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science (2021), which defines open scientific knowledge as including publications that are openly accessible and licensed to allow reuse, redistribution, and adaptation. It stresses that any copyright transfer or licensing should not hinder immediate open access to scientific publications. In alignment with these principles, the European Commission has prioritized the development of a copyright and data framework fit for research (European Commission, 2022), including analysis of legal barriers that prevent researchers and institutions from providing open access, and the consideration of mechanisms such as Secondary Publication Rights (SPR) and Rights Retention (RR).

In light of these developments, it becomes important to assess whether repository infrastructures across Europe are technically equipped to support the implementation of these rights. Current evidence suggests that not all of them are: some institutional and national repositories lack standardised fields for recording and displaying licensing or copyright metadata, or fail to present this information clearly. As emphasised in recent studies (Treadway et al., 2025; Labastida et al., 2023), repository readiness is an important factor in how effectively RR and SPR policies can be implemented. Functional repository infrastructure supports Green Open Access routes, enables compliance with institutional and funder mandates, and underpins broader open licensing strategies. Where such infrastructure is lacking or inconsistent, the adoption of rights retention policies or exercising secondary publication rights already guaranteed by some national laws is often delayed or fragmented.

Furthermore, from a practical standpoint, the dissemination, visibility, and reuse potential of repository content depend on the clear communication of usage rights in both machine- and human-readable formats. When reuse is subject to conditions, such as when licenses more restrictive than CC BY are applied, metadata records must include information about the rights holder, i.e., the individual or organisation authorised to grant permission for reuse.

This presentation outlines preliminary findings from a community-driven mapping initiative that examines how national repository networks and aggregators handle metadata related to copyright status and ownership, and licences for reuse. The mapping exercise will be carried out through the Knowledge Rights 21 programme’s network of National Contacts (https://www.knowledgerights21.org/about/national-coordinators/), in countries where these roles have been established.

Building on existing frameworks such as those employed by the OpenAIRE network and the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), the study explores gaps, variations, and promising practices in metadata implementation. Furthermore, it opens a discussion on the potential use of rightsstatements.org as a standard for communicating rights information across repositories in the Open Science ecosystem.