Creative Commons licenses for eScholarship journals:Why, what and how

Katie Fortneykatie.fortney@ucop.eduhelp@escholarship.org

July 24, 2013

Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)

• ~10 years old

• ~10,000 journals

• Inclusion in DOAJ = better discoverability, implication of quality

Obsolete Book - 5/365 by Jamie CC BY http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamiesrabbits/4248396588/

New (draft) criteria announced 6/12/13

• Need a CC license to be listed

• Need a CC BY license for the new “DOAJ Seal of Approval”– http://www.doaj.org/doaj?func=

news&nId=303&uiLanguage=en

Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA)

• ~5 years old• ~70 members• “At OASPA, one of the criteria for membership is that

a publisher must use a liberal license that encourages the reuse and distribution of content. We strongly encourage publishers to choose a Creative Commons license and recommend (but currently do not require) the use of the CC-BY license wherever possible. . . . OASPA will currently also admit members who have a CC-BY-NC policy.”– OASPA Frequently Asked Questions,

http://oaspa.org/information-resources/frequently-asked-questions/

It’s a jungle out there.

• Open Access Advocacy -> OA standards and best practices

• Easily visible indicators of who’s following the rules

Tiger Profile by Kenneth Barrett CC BY-NC http://www.flickr.com/photos/griangrafanna/218580624/

Predator

Open Access vs. Copyright’s Default

Half-open door to Heaven by Klearchos Kapoutsis CC BY http://www.flickr.com/photos/klearchos/4761478827/

“open access is about more than access – open access removes access and reuse barriers, and thus has the potential to transform the literature into a much more powerful resource for research, education and innovation.” – OASPA FAQ

CC Licenses as a Solution

• Require giving credit

• Author keeps copyright ownership

• Widely used (for all kinds of content)

• Machine readable

• Six different licenses to choose from

Keys, USS Bowfin by Joseph Novak CC BY http://www.flickr.com/photos/josephleenovak/5559755789/

CC BY: Attribution

Bare bones by Caroline CC BY http://www.flickr.com/photos/hills_alive/8511444405/

Currently used by PLOS, BioMedCentral, Springer, Wiley, the Institute of Physics, and others.

The NonCommercial (NC) Restriction

• E.g. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/legalcode

• Some debate/confusion about what counts as “commercial”

• Broadest possible reuse vs. discomfort with commercial activity

Forex Money for Exchange in Currency Bank by epSos.de CC BY http://www.flickr.com/photos/epsos/8463683689/

The No Derivative Works (ND) Restriction

• E.g. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/legalcode

• No “translation, adaptation, derivative work,” etc.

• Inclusions in collections and anthologies still allowed.

• Encouraging as many translations as possible vs. tightly controlling them

Building Blocks by tiffany terry CC BY http://www.flickr.com/photos/35168673@N03/6086229920/

The ShareAlike (SA) Restriction

• E.g. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/legalcode

• Applies to Adaptations, but not Collections

• Ensures translations will be shared, but dictates translators’ choice of license

Photo by Katie Fortney

Choosing a License

Think about needs of

• Journal

• Journal readers

• Contributors

• Services and intermediaries

Stone balancing! by Giles Turnbull CC BY-NC http://www.flickr.com/photos/gilest/132093750/

Nuts and Bolts: Author Agreements

• Journals adopting CC licenses will need to update author agreements

• We have samples showing how to add the CC aspect to the standard agreement

• Any other questions about journal’s author agreements?

Nuts and Bolts: Page Display

CC license information will appear on journal landing page sidebar, article display sidebar, and PDF cover pages.

Resources and Tools

• Creative Commons has LOTS of information and resources, – About the Licenses: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/

– NonCommercial (definitions and confusion): http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Defining_Noncommercial

– ShareAlike: http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Share_Alike

– Wiki, FAQs: http://wiki.creativecommons.org/FAQ

• DOAJ proposed new critera: http://www.doaj.org/doaj?func=news&nId=303&uiLanguage=en

• OASPA FAQ on licensing: http://oaspa.org/information-resources/frequently-asked-questions/

Questions?

Question mark sign by Colin Kinner CC BY http://www.flickr.com/photos/colinkinner/2200500024/