- Most definitions of open access include public rights to reuse open access research—to translate it into new languages, include it in new compilations, adapt it for use in a new context (teaching in a seminar, for example), and so on.
- Copyright law gives authors a set of exclusive rights, including the right to distribute their work to the public and to authorize others to share and adapt their work.
- Authors can enable public reuse by assigning an open license to their work, such as the Creative Commons Attribution license (CC-BY). This license permits anyone who encounters the work to share and reuse it in a variety of ways, as long as the user gives proper attribution to the author.
- Other licenses place additional conditions on reuse, permitting only non-commercial use, for example.
- Authors who hold copyright in their work can assign open licenses for free. However, most traditional publishers require a transfer or exclusive license from authors whose works they publish, at which point only the publisher can assign an open license to the article.
- Some publishers charge substantial fees to authors who want to assign open licenses to their published works. This cost reflects the publishers’ business model (including its costs and profits), not the cost of assigning a license, which can be done at no cost. See more in the Pathways to OA section of this guide.
More on this topic: Copyright Resources at UVA