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Publishing through Open Access: Copyright and Open Access

What happens to copyright under OA?

Under the traditional academic publication model an author typically transfers all copyright interests to a publisher. If authors relinquish all their copyright interests to the publisher, the author loses the ability to use his or her own work without permission from the publisher.

Because of advances in digital technology, many publishers offer authors options for management of their copyright with flexible use conditions that meet the needs of both parties. Authors no longer have to transfer all their rights in a single bundle in exchange for publication.

Authors are encouraged to anticipate their future use of the work and retain any or all of the rights they may need to achieve their academic and professional goals. Authors may want to retain rights to do the following:

  • Make copies of the work for educational use, including class notes, study guides or electronic reserves
  • Use part of the work as a basis for a future publication
  • Send copies of the work to colleagues
  • Present the work at conference or meeting and give copies of the work to attendees
  • Use a different or extended version of the work for a future publication
  • Deposit the work in an institutional or funding agency repository
  • Post the work on a laboratory or institutional web site on a restricted network or publicly available network
  • Include the work in future derivative works, including a dissertation or thesis
  • Use the work in a compilation of works or collected works
  • Expand the work into a book form or book chapter

Note: Authors who receive funding from agencies that have public access mandate policies must retain the right to comply with these policies

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Selecting your Creative Commons licence

Copyright is often a question that researchers have about publishing through OA. 

Under the traditional academic publication model an author typically transfers all copyright interests to a publisher. This will depend on the publishing agreement you sign. Creative Commons (CC) licences do not replace copyright. Creative Commons licences operate within copyright law and allow you to specify how you want your work to be used in the future. By adopting CC licences authors allow others to use their published work more flexibly. We recommend that you first check if your funding body requires or prefers a specific licence.

The most common CC licences are:

CC BY logo
CC BY: This licence lets others distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation. This is the most accommodating of licences offered. Recommended for maximum dissemination and use of licensed materials.

CC BY-NC logo
CC BY-NC: This licence lets others remix, adapt, and build upon your work non-commercially, and although their new works must also acknowledge you and be non-commercial, they don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms.

CC BY NC-ND logo
CC BY-NC-ND: This licence is the most restrictive of the six main licenses, only allowing others to download your works and share them with others as long as they credit you, but they can’t change them in any way or use them commercially.

Source: https://creativecommons.org/licenses

For more information on the full range of CC licensing options, and advice on choosing the right licence for your research, see the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning's open licensing toolkit.

For further help with Creative Commons, see the Guide to Creative Commons for Scholarly Publications and Educational Resources by the VSNU and NWO in the Netherlands

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Full details of all Creative Commons licenses and their meaning, see below:

CC0 Public Domain Dedication - By using CC0, you waive all copyright and related rights to a work to the extent possible under the law.
Attribution, CC BY - This is the most open of all licences offered. Allows others to distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation.

Attribution-Share Alike, CC BY-SA - This licence lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work even for commercial purposes, as long as they credit you and licence their new creations under the identical terms.
Attribution-NonCommercial, CC BY-NC - This licence lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, and although their new works must also acknowledge you and be non-commercial, they don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms.
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike, CC BY-NC-SA - This licence lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, as long as they credit you and licence their new creations under the identical terms.

Attribution-NoDerivatives, CC BY-ND - This licence allows for redistribution, commercial and non-commercial, as long as it is passed along unchanged and in whole, with credit to you.

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs, CC BY-NC-ND - This licence is the most restrictive of the six main licenses, only allowing others to download your works and share them with others as long as they credit you, but they can’t change them in any way or use them commercially.

 

 

 

 

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