Copyright applies to open access publishing.
For copyright advice contact the Copyright team directly: copyright@rmit.edu.au
The Australasian Open Access Strategy Group provides advice on the copyright implications of open access and the retention of copyright.
When publishing in an open access journal, as an author you will generally retain copyright. However, some open access publishing agreements may allow you to retain copyright but ask that you assign certain rights to the publisher. Read your publishing agreement carefully and get legal advice to ensure you understand what rights you are retaining and whether you are assigning some rights to the publisher.
Search in the SHERPA/RoMEO database to check publisher policies and permissions, including embargo conditions, for self-archiving a version of your publication in an open access or preprint repository.
If publishing in a traditional journal, the publishing agreement will usually transfer copyright to the publisher.
Authors can try to negotiate with the publisher to retain some rights by adding an addendum to the agreement, for example to allow them to deposit a version of the article in an institutional repository for open access.
The SPARC Author Addendum is a document that you can use to legally modify your publisher's contract so you can retain the rights you need to both promote your research publications and achieve your scholarly goals. The Addendum will allow you to deposit an accepted manuscript version of your publication in the RMIT Research Repository.
Creative Commons licences are a key tool in open dissemination of published research. When you publish your work as an open access article or book, you can usually apply a Creative Commons licence, and this specifies in what ways others may reuse your work. You will still retain copyright over your work.
Creative Commons licenses provide a way to manage the terms that attach automatically to all creative material under copyright. They allow material to be shared and reused under terms that are flexible and legally sound. More information is available at the Creative Commons website - About CC licences.
When you apply a Creative Commons licence, you define what combination of rights you are waiving and what you are retaining.
There are four basic conditions covered by Creative Commons licences.
| Core conditions | Application of condition |
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Applies to every Creative Commons work. Whenever a work is copied or redistributed under a Creative Commons licence, the original creator (and any other nominated parties) must be credited and the source linked to. |
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Lets others copy, distribute, display and perform the work for non-commercial purposes only. |
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Lets others distribute, display and perform only verbatim copies of the work. They may not adapt or change the work in any way. |
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Allows others to remix, adapt and build on the work, but only if they distribute the derivative works under the same the licence terms that govern the original work. |
Adapted from “About the Licences” by Creative Commons Australia is licensed under CC BY 4.0
The four conditions can be combined to create six different Creative Commons licences, which tell others what they can do with the work without needing to seek permission from the copyright holder. There are three commonly used Creative Commons licences in open access publishing.
| Licence | Conditions |
|---|---|
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Attribution: 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. It is the most open of the licences offered. |
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Attribution-NonCommercial: 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 licence their derivative works on the same terms. |
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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs: CC BY-NC-ND |
This licence is the most restrictive, 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. |
Adapted from “About the licenses” by Creative Commons is licensed under CC BY 4.0
A publisher may offer a choice of Creative Commons licence, or may only offer one option. When choosing which Creative Commons licence, there are some important considerations.
Creative Commons Licensing Explained (3:44 mins) by Max Noble (YouTube)
Sometimes publishers offer terms for open access publishing outside of the Creative Commons licence system. Or they may not offer the Creative Commons licence options you prefer or which are required by your funder. You may be able to negotiate with the publisher. Contact University Legal Services for support if required. If you are not able to negotiate an acceptable licence or publishing agreement, you may need to find another journal or publisher.
This Library guide by RMIT University Library is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 licence, except where otherwise noted. All reasonable efforts have been made to clearly label material where the copyright is owned by a third party and ensure that the copyright owner has consented to this material being presented in this library guide. The RMIT University logo is ‘all rights reserved’.
Attribution required: BY
Non-commercial: NC
No Derivative Works: ND
Share Alike: SA
