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Creative Commons (CC) licences give authors an easy, standard way of granting permission for their work to be reused under copyright law if they abide by specific conditions. They require the user to provide attribution – in other words, people can only make use of the work if they acknowledge the original work. It’s important that the corresponding author chooses the correct licence during the publishing process.
You must check your funder’s open access policy to determine which licence is acceptable. UKRI expects a CC-BY licence to be applied to research articles whether you are publishing via the gold route (Route 1), or the green route (Route 2) to maximise opportunities for sharing and reuse. It may be possible to apply a CC BY-ND licence under certain circumstances. A form must be completed. The University strongly encourages all authors to assign a CC-BY licence to their publications regardless of who has funded it.
Find out more about open access routes.
There are also specialised licences for software. Find out more about software licences.
There are six licences, and they are explained in full on the CC website. Each licence is made up of a series of letters which tell the user what they can and can’t do with the work, and these are also incorporated into a logo which appears on the work.
CC BY: This license allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, so long as attribution is given to the creator. The license allows for commercial use. UKRI expects publications arising from their funding to be made open access using this route. If your research is not funded by UKRI, Cranfield strongly encourages you to choose this licence.
CC BY includes the following elements:
BY 
– Credit must be given to the creator
CC BY-ND: This license allows reusers to copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in unadapted form only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator. The license allows for commercial use. UKRI may allow this licence to be applied to work arising from their funding. A form must be completed.
CC BY-ND includes the following elements:
BY – Credit must be given to the creator
ND 
– No derivatives or adaptations of the work are permitted
This license allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, so long as attribution is given to the creator. The license allows for commercial use. If you remix, adapt, or build upon the material, you must license the modified material under identical terms.
CC BY-SA includes the following elements:
BY – Credit must be given to the creator
SA 
– Adaptations must be shared under the same terms
This license allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator.
It includes the following elements:
BY – Credit must be given to the creator
NC 
– Only noncommercial uses of the work are permitted
This license allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator. If you remix, adapt, or build upon the material, you must license the modified material under identical terms.
CC BY-NC-SA includes the following elements:
BY – Credit must be given to the creator
NC – Only noncommercial uses of the work are permitted
SA – Adaptations must be shared under the same terms
This license allows reusers to copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in unadapted form only, for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator.
CC BY-NC-ND includes the following elements:
BY – Credit must be given to the creator
NC – Only noncommercial uses of the work are permitted
ND – No derivatives or adaptations of the work are permitted
Commercial use is defined as “primarily intended for or directed towards commercial advantage or monetary compensation”.
This webpage was written using material from the Creative Commons website under a CC-BY licence, and the ‘Creative Commons, the 5Rs, and OER’ PowerPoint slides created by David Wiley, Lumen Learning under a CC-BY licence.