Open Access Licensing: Creative Commons

Open access content is normally published under a Creative Commons (CC) licence, which communicates permissions for reusing the material. Different licences permit users to reuse material in different ways, and this page provides guidance on choosing a licence, the implications of a more restrictive licence, and how CC licences for your work will interact with third-party content you are using. 

What are Creative Commons licences?

Creative Commons licences are a series of easy-to-use copyright licences designed to encourage the creation of content that can be copied, distributed, and re-used, without infringing the creator’s copyright.

Creative Commons licences apply worldwide and are non-exclusive and irrevocable.

  • Non-exclusive: If a Creative Commons licence does not permit commercial re-use, for example, the copyright holder can still grant a commercial use licence separately to an individual user.
  • Irrevocable: Once a version of the content has been distributed with a Creative Commons licence, the terms of that licence continue to apply to that version and cannot be revoked. Other versions can still be shared with a more (or less) permissive licence.

Types of Creative Commons licence

Creative Commons (CC) licences are made up of different elements which apply conditions to the permitted reuse.

Licence Elements

These four elements can be combined to clearly communicate what users can and cannot do with a work. There are six different licence ‘combinations’.

At a minimum, all CC licences require attribution (acknowledgement) of the creator of the work (‘BY’).

Creative commons licence attribution icon. A black circle around a person symbol on a white background

BY

Attribution

Attribution (credit or acknowledgement) of the original creator is required.
Creative commons licence non-commercial icon. A black circle around a dollar symbol with a diagonal slash on a white background

-NC

Non-commercial

Reuse is only permitted for non-commercial purposes.
CC licence non-derivative icon. A black circle around an equal symbol on a white background

-ND

Non-derivative

Reuse is only permitted for verbatim (unmodified) copies of the original work. Adapted or derivative works cannot be shared.
Creative commons licence share-alike icon. A black circle around a circular arrow on a white background

-SA

Share-alike

Any derivative works must be shared under the same licence as the original work.

Works in the public domain (i.e. where no copyright applies) also have specific visual markers. While attribution is not required for Public Domain or CC0 works, academic best practice is normally to still include an acknowledgement of the creator, if known.

Creative commons public domain licence icon. A black circle around a zero with a diagonal slash on a white background

CC0 (Public Domain)

CC ‘Zero’ – Public Domain Dedication

The original creator has waived all copyright and related rights. The original work can be treated as if it is in the public domain and copyright does not apply.

 

Choosing a licence for your published work 

A CC BY licence is generally considered the most permissive open access licence.

Many research funders require this licence be applied to outputs from funded research. Even where there is no funder requirement, the University strongly recommends a CC BY licence to maximise the reach, impact, and reuse of your published work.

Theses at the University of Bristol are normally made available under a CC BY-NC-ND license and Postgraduate Researchers (PGRs) retain control of the commercial and derivative rights accordingly. More information about public access to theses is available on the Thesis Guidance webpages. 

What does a more restrictive licence mean in practice?

Publishers may offer authors a choice of Creative Commons licence. If a more restrictive licence is selected (i.e. not CC BY), authors should be aware that the publisher will often require an exclusive licence to the rights not immediately granted to all users.

For example: If the author chooses to apply a CC BY-NC licence (which restricts commercial reuse), the author’s agreement with the publisher will often require the author exclusively licence commercial rights to the publisher. This can impact the potential for reuse by others, including the original author(s) and the publisher will have the sole right to decide what commercial licences to grant and to whom.

Consider also: Non-derivative restrictions can prevent translation of all or part of a published work without the publisher’s permission. This can limit the reach of your research, especially if your research took place overseas or is relevant to non-English speaking audiences.   

Applying a different Creative Commons licence to your work

Authors normally retain the right to decide how to treat their copyright in their scholarly works.

  • If a funder requirement applies (eg UKRI’s Open Access Policy), you will need to comply with those requirements. Special permission must be obtained from a funder to apply a more restrictive licence.
  • If no funder requirement applies, you should carefully consider whether restricting reuse permissions is appropriate or if there is greater benefit to applying a more permissive licence (i.e. CC BY) right away.
  • Remember, if you are publishing material, the publisher is likely to retain control of certain rights under a more restrictive licence. If a publisher does not permit a CC BY licence and this is the still the best publishing venue for your work, the University’s Scholarly Works Policy may provide an open access route via the repository to apply a CC BY licence to the accepted manuscript. You should contact the Library's Research Support team to discuss whether the repository route is a feasible option to meet any OA requirements.

What do I do if my work has third-party content?

Third-party content is any material created by someone else which is under copyright, such as a photograph taken by somebody else or a diagram in a paper authored by someone else. You must have permission to reuse third-party copyrighted content.

  • You may need to request permission directly from the copyright holder.
  • Permission may be granted automatically by a licence already applied to the third-party content. For example, open access content under a CC BY licence is available for you to reproduce in your own work as long as you attribute it properly.
  • Public domain work is not subject to copyright and can be reused without permission. Content which is publicly available is not necessarily in the public domain – if you can’t verify the public domain status, assume copyright applies.

The Bristol Data Blog also has a copy of our Copyright Bootcamp (7 parts) which includes guidance on using third-party copyrighted content.

If you have permission to reuse the third-party content, you can choose to apply a Creative Commons licence to your work, but you must clearly identify and mark the third-party content within your work to indicate the specific terms of use for those elements.

Example:

Other types of outputs (algorithms, software, code)

It is better to use a licence specifically designed for software rather than a Creative Commons licence to make software or code available open source. There is a well-established open licensing ecosystem for software:

  • There are permissive licences which are very similar to Creative Commons licences and apply specific (limited) restrictions on permitted reuse.
  • Others are described as ‘copyleft’ licences which apply a similar requirement as a CC BY-SA licence: derivative works must use the same or a compatible licence as the original work.

The University’s Advanced Computing Research Centre provides separate guidance on licensing research software. The University’s Open Code Sub-Policy should also be reviewed.