Open access is a movement aimed at making research freely accessible. To facilitate open access, various Creative Commons licenses (CC licenses) have been developed. These licenses allow authors to retain certain rights while granting the public permission to use, share, and sometimes even modify their works.
The CC licenses are very important for open access because they enable authors to specify how they want their work to be used and shared. They offer a wide range of preferences, from completely open to more restrictive.
Here are some of the different CC licenses used in open access:
- CC BY (Attribution): This is a license that allows others to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon your work, even for commercial purposes, as long as they provide appropriate attribution to the original creator. It is the most permissive CC license, ensuring maximum openness.
- CC BY-SA (Attribution-ShareAlike): Similar to CC BY, this license permits others to use and modify your work, but they must share their derivative works under the same terms (ShareAlike).
- CC BY-NC (Attribution-NonCommercial): With CC BY-NC, others can use your work, but they cannot do so for commercial purposes.
- CC BY-ND (Attribution-NoDerivatives): This license allows redistribution of the work, even commercially, but only in its original form.
- CC BY-NC-SA (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike): This license combines the restrictions of non-commercial use with ShareAlike.
- CC BY-NC-ND (Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives): This is the most restrictive one. Others can download your works and share them with proper attribution, but they cannot change them or use them commercially.