Creative Commons (CC) Licensing

Open access (OA) is a set of principles and practices through which scholarly research and literature is freely available online.

Open Access authors have the opportunity to publish in a few ways. The most common are known as “Green” or “Gold” Open Access.

GREEN: Making a version of the manuscript freely available in a repository.

GOLD: Making the final version of the manuscript freely available immediately upon publication by the publisher.

See our Open Access LibGuide for more information.

• It improves education by giving everyone access to the latest research.
• It allows taxpayers to see the results of research paid for with public funds.
• It accelerates discovery as researchers can build on the findings of others more easily.

• Authors retain their copyright.
• Authors share their data with the article.
• Articles have no embargo period.
• Add a CC license that enables text and data mining.
• More efficient, equitable, and collaborative

Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials that are freely accessible to everyone and can be retained, reused, revised, remixed, and redistributed.

• OER are always Open Access, but not all OA materials are OER.
• OA means accessing without cost but not necessarily copyright free.
• OER means that the copyright owners made the resources free for use. Usually licensed with a CC License.

• Lower the financial burden for students.
• Provide Immediate access to class materials.
• Diverse voices can be added and reflected
• Improve student engagement and success.

"5.2 OER, Open Textbooks, and Open Courses” by Creative Commons. CC BY 4.0

"5.4 Creating and Sharing OER” by Creative Commons. CC BY 4.0