Licensing helps others understand how they can reuse your research. It protects your rights while supporting open and responsible sharing. A Creative Commons (CC) licence is one of the best ways to do this.
On this page:
- What a Creative Commons licence is
- What you can license
- Types of licences
- Applying a licence to your research
- Further help and support
What a Creative Commons licence is
A Creative Commons licence is a simple way to let others know how they can use your work. It allows you to:
- keep your copyright
- give permission for reuse, with clear conditions
- choose whether others can adapt, share or use your work commercially
There are six types of Creative Commons licences. All require users to credit you, but you can add extra restrictions if you want.
Creative Commons licences are free and widely used for open access research. Many open access policies specifically require you to use a specific licence- often a CC BY licence.
What you can license
You can license a wide range of research outputs, including:
- journal articles and conference papers
- datasets and metadata
- images, figures and artwork
- software and code
- teaching materials and presentations
Types of licences
There are six types of Creative Commons licences. This allows you to choose the terms others must follow when they reuse your work. For example, you can allow reuse with:
- full credit to you
- no commercial use
- no changes
The licence types are listed here from most to least permissive.
| Licence type | What others can do with your work |
|---|---|
| CC BY | Use, share, and adapt your work for any purpose, as long as they credit you |
| CC BY-SA | As above, but they must share any adaptations under the same licence |
| CC BY-NC | Use and adapt your work for non-commercial purposes only, with credit |
| CC BY-NC-SA | As above, and they must share adaptations under the same licence |
| CC BY-ND | Share your work unchanged, for any purpose, with credit |
| CC BY-NC-ND | Share your work unchanged and for non-commercial use only, with credit |
Applying a licence to your research
You do not need to apply or pay for a Creative Commons licence. They are free and simple to use.
To apply a Creative Commons licence to your work:
- use the Creative Commons licence chooser to select a licence that matches how you want people to use your work.
- add a statement to your work that includes:
- the name of the licence (for example, CC BY 4.0)
- a link to the licence
- a copyright statement, if needed
- the appropriate licence logo, if you wish
- publish or share your work.
Once you mark your work with a licence and make it public, the licence is active. You do not need to register it or inform Creative Commons.
Further help and support
If you have questions or need advice on licensing, please contact the Open Access team.