Open Science

Licences define the terms of use and sharing for different kinds of materials. A licence can be given e.g. to publications, teaching materials, research data, photographs and metadata. Creative Commons license system (CC licences) is the most commonly used system in the scientific world. For open software there are special licences.

The licence does not remove your copyright. The established practices of references and citations must be followed also when using licences. The author must be mentioned with the exception of CC 0 licence. You must always offer the information about the chosen licence and a link to the licence description. Possible modifications must be mentioned.

If there are multiple authors, all the authors must give their consent to using the licence.

CC BY (Attribution)

This licence lets others copy, distribute, present and modify the work freely, even for commercial purposes. The original author must be credited, and the author’s name, image or logo may not be modified or changed. CC BY is the most common open access licence and it is a very effective way of reaching wide audiences.

CC BY-SA (Attribution–Share alike)

Like CC BY, but all new works based on the original work may be distributed only under the same licence as the original work. Common in co-production projects such as Wikipedia and Tieteen termipankki (The Helsinki Term Bank for the Arts and Sciences).

CC BY-ND (Attribution–NoDerivatives)

Like CC BY, but the original work may not be shared with others in an adapted form. The work may be used only in its original form. This licence is suitable e.g. for works of art or publications where visual elements have an important role.

CC BY-NC (Attribution–NonCommercial)

Like CC BY but the original work or the new works based on it may not be used for commercial purposes other than in ways specified in the copyright law. The licence can be problematic as the law does not define exactly how commercial use should be understood. For example, a publication with this licence cannot be distributed in a commercial repository. This licence is recommended only in special cases when it is considered likely that the work will be commercially exploited.

CC BY-NC-SA (Attribution–NonCommercial–ShareAlike)

Like CC BY-SA, but the original work may not be used for commercial purposes. New works based on the original work can be distributed only under the same licence as the original work, but only for non-commercial purposes.

CC BY-NC-ND (Attribution–NonCommercial–NoDerivatives)

Like CC BY-ND, but the original work may not be used for commercial purposes. The work may not be shared with others in an adapted form and it may not be used for commercial purposes. This licence is common for audiobooks, podcasts and artworks when the author of the original work seeks to distribute the work widely but exactly in its original form.

CC 0 (Public domain)

The author of the original work waives all rights to the original work and places it in the public domain. Suitable e.g. for sharing metadata. Good scientific practice still recommends that the original author of the work be credited.