Open Licenses

Public domain works are not protected by copyright or licenses, either because they were created or published before 1923, or because they've been donated to the public domain by their owners.

"Open licenses" are based on a "some-rights-reserved" or "zero-rights-reserved" copyright, rather than "all-rights-reserved" copyright.

The 5 "R" (rights) activities permitted (at least to some extent) by open licenses*:

1. Retain  - make, own, and control your own copy (e.g., download and keep your own copy)

2. Reuse - use your original, revised, or remixed copy of the resource publicly (e.g., on a website, in a presentation, in a class)

3. Revise - adapt, edit, modify the content (e.g., translate into another language)

4. Remix - incorporate the content into a new OER creation or product (e.g., make a mashup)

5. Redistribute - share your copies, revisions, and remixes with others (e.g., post a copy online or give one to a friend)

* Source: adapted from David Wiley under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license and opencontent.org.

Creative Commons open licenses

Mouse-over each icon for a definition of that CC license.

All licenses except CC0 (Public Domain) require attribution to the original copyright holder.

Open Educational Resource (OER) licenses
Open Access-only licenses (non-OER)

Open Access journals = "Gold" OA

• perform peer review
• contain only postprints (peer-reviewed)
• obtain copyright permissions from authors
• no embargo or delay of published content
• supported either by subsidy or by author charge

Open Access repositories = "Green" OA

• authors "self-archive" work in subject or institutional repositories
• authors may be "mandated" by funders or university employer to self-archive
• authors can publish in both a conventional journal and an OA repository, because most publishers of "toll-access" journals support agreements that give blanket permission (or permission on request) for authors to self-archive articles. No agonizing choice is necessary, the two venues are seldom mutually exclusive!
• doesn't perform peer review, but can host peer-reviewed content
• contains both "preprints" and "postprints", peer-reviewed journals as well as other content types
• content is sometimes embargoed or delayed

APC = Article Processing Charge, levied on authors to publish an article in some OA journals.

Predatory Journals/Publishers = “Predatory journals and publishers are entities that prioritize self-interest at the expense of scholarship, and are characterized by false or misleading information, deviation from best editorial and publication practices, a lack of transparency, and/or the use of aggressive and indiscriminate solicitation practices.” (See Grudniewicz et al.)