If you have created a work – like a text, a picture, a PowerPoint presentation, a video etc. and want to make it shareable without others having to ask you for permission then a Creative Commons license can be a solution. Creative Commons is a standardized method to clarify to what extent you accept that your work gets used, shared, and copied.
Customize a license for your work
A Creative Commons license lets you choose certain conditions when copyright protecting your work. If others are allowed to use your work freely, then you can choose the CC BY license. If others are not allowed to make money on your work, then you give it a Non-Commercial tag – and so on. In this way, you can share your work with others and decide how your work can be used. All work with a Creative Commons license must be credited, so when you use a Creative Commons work then you need to give credit to the creator, regardless of which license it is.
Attribution (BY)
This license allows others to distribute, remix, and adapt your work, even commercially, as long as they give you credit for the original work. This license is the least restrictive in terms of how others can use your work under the Attribution type license.
Share Alike (BY-SA)
This license allows others to adapt – such as changing, remixing, or building upon your work – even for commercial purposes, as long as they give you credit and apply an identical license to the new work. This license is often compared to Open Source Software licenses. Every new work that builds upon yours has the same license which means that every adaptation will also allow for commercial use.
Attribution - Non Derivative (BY-ND)
This license allows for distribution of your work publicly – both commercial and non-commercial as long as the work is distributed without any adaptations and with credit given to you.
Attribution - Non Commercial (BY-NC)
This license allows others to adapt – such as changing, remixing, or building upon your work, but for non-commercial purposes only. The new works must give credit to you and only have non-commercial purposes but does not need to be licensed under identical terms.
Attribution - Non Commercial - Share Alike (BY-NC-SA)
This license allows others to adapt – such as changing, remixing, or building upon your work for non-commercial purposes and only as long as they give credit to you, the creator, and license the modified material under identical terms. Others can download and share your work publicly just like the BY-NC-ND license, but they can also translate, change, and create new works based on your work. All new works based on your work must be licensed under a similar license, which is why every adaptation will remain non-commercial.
Attribution – Non-Commercial – Non-Derivative (BY-NC-ND)
This license allows for distribution of your work publicly for non-commercial purposes only, as long as the work is distributed without any adaptations and with credit given to you.
(Kilde: CreativeCommons.dk)
Once you have decided on a license for your work, applying it is easy. You simply add it the same way as you add other components on your article in a footer or header, like the DOI or page number.
These two parts should at least be covered:
Legal Code: The legal code is the full, legally binding text of the license. It provides the precise terms and conditions under which the work is licensed. This is the portion that lawyers and other legal professionals would refer to for detailed information.
License Title: The specific version of the Creative Commons license is usually indicated in the title, such as "Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License." The version number is important because it reflects the terms and conditions of the license.
You can follow this example from Elsevier:
or maybe even better this example from a Danish research journal:
When you, as a creator, have applied a CC license to your work then you cannot change the conditions or revoke the license. This means that you cannot apply another license to the same work. So carefully consider what license type you choose and what you want others to be able to do with your work.
Choosing a Creative Commons license depends on how you want others to use your work.
Choosing is almost down to two simple questions; You must determine if you want to allow for commercial use, and if you want to allow for adaptions (remix) of your work.
We recommend that you use the License Chooser, developed by Creative Commons, to help you choose license.
Publishers often use pre-defined CC-licenses both when you publish via the Gold route (APC) in a journal, but they also often require that you use a specfic CC-license when you deposit a manuscript in a repository. Since Green Open Access must work in harmony with the pay-to-read (subscription) the business models and subscriptions are important for the sustainability of many journals. Here the use of a non-commercial CC license is in place as an important safeguard for the publishers.
