creative commons license dissertation

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Submit and publish your thesis.

• The Graduate Thesis: What is it?
• Thesis Defences
• Deadlines and Fees
• Formatting in MS Word
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• Making Thesis Accessible
• Thesis Embargo
• Review and Release
• Your Rights as an Author
• Re-using Third Party Materials
• Creative Commons Licenses for Theses
• Turning Thesis into an Article
• Turning Thesis into a Book
• Other Venues of Publication

Choosing a Creative Commons license for your thesis

When submitting your thesis online, you can choose to apply a Creative Commons (CC) license to your work. This section explains what CC licenses are, how to choose and apply them to your thesis.

What is a Creative Commons License?

A Creative Commons license allows you, as a copyright holder, to give others permission to use and share your work online while still giving you credit.

Copyright and CC licenses are like siblings – related but with some important distinctions as CC licenses are built on top of copyright. CC licenses express very clearly: "I am the copyright owner, but you can do anything with my thesis (under these conditions)”

Copyright can protect your creativity and original ideas from uses you do not consent to. However, copyright can also be too restrictive.  For example, if someone wants to use and share your thesis, they will need your permission first in most cases. This permission-seeking process can take up time and be a barrier to your intellectual output reaching a wider audience.

With CC licenses, you can refine the extent of your copyright to allow others to re-use your work , at anytime and anywhere. Your moral rights of attribution will remain and you can continue re-using, sharing and publishing your thesis .

A CC license lasts for as long as copyright for the work exists, the work will then belong to the public domain 70* years after the creator’s death in Canada.

How does each CC license differ?

Every CC license has different components, according to the following four types of license elements, which include Attribution, ShareAlike, NonCommercial , and NoDerivatives . These work as specific attributes of Creative Common licenses and are shown below:

These elements can be used in six different ways to create the license combos that range from the most open (CC BY) to the most restrictive (CC BY-NC-ND):

Source: “ How to attribute Creative Commons Photos ” by Foter. Licensed under a  CC-BY-SA 3.0 license

Why should I consider a Creative Commons License?

Some pros of choosing a cc license for your thesis are:.

• A fully copyright-protected thesis despite being available online, cannot be reproduced or redistributed for future students’ research. Adding a CC license will facilitate better sharing of your work , increase the readership of your thesis, advance the scholarly discourse in your field, and contribute to the public good . (From CC Licensing your dissertations, Creative Commons )
• This short video by BCcampus also illustrates how CC-licensed materials can advance knowledge sharing .
• Creative commons licenses are machine-readable , which means that search engines can detect and display your work accordingly.

Some things to keep in mind:

• Once granted, the CC license cannot be revoked. The reason for this is that if you allow someone to re-use your work and then revoke permission, this could potentially be exploited in a lawsuit. However, as a copyright holder you can still publish a manuscript derived from your thesis and assign copyright to the publisher, or a different license to it.
• You must own or control copyright over your work to apply a CC license. If you are re-using third party materials in your thesis, prominently indicate which portions of your thesis are not covered by the CC license that you are assigning, or are covered by other licenses or trademark rights. (From Considerations for licensors, Creative Commons )
• If you are submitting a sandwich/integrated thesis that consists of published articles, you may have transferred copyright over your work to the publisher. This would affect your ability to assign a CC license to parts of your thesis or the whole thesis. For more details on publishing before or after graduation, see section Publishing from your thesis: Scenario 3 .

Which CC License should I choose?

Applying a CC license to your thesis is optional, so the choice is yours.

You need to ask yourself first:

• Do you want others to re-use your work and build upon it without having to ask your permission?
• Are you comfortable with others copying and remixing your work?
• Are you comfortable with others profiting from your work?

If you need help answering these questions and choosing a license, you can try the CC License Chooser quiz .

How do I apply the CC license to my thesis?

To apply a CC license to your thesis, indicate it in the following two places:

1. Select one of the 6 CC license types using the ProQuest ETD Administrator site when you submit your thesis.

Click on the “Creative Commons” tab on the side panel to see the full license descriptions and choose appropriately:

The CC license you choose will travel with your thesis when it is transferred to the U of T’s TSpace repository and will be displayed there. Here is an example of a thesis licensed under the CC BY license .

2. Add the CC license of your choice on the thesis title page, under the Copyright statement , e.g.:

© Copyright by Jane Ann Doe 2022 This work is licensed under  Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International

Adding CC license information directly on the title page will ensure that readers are aware of the license even if your thesis is shared or saved locally.

You can use the CC License Chooser  to generate the license statement and link for the thesis title page.

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Copyright and Dissertations, Theses, and Master's Reports

• Can I use this in my paper?

How do I license a paper with 3rd party content?

Licensing on proquest, licensing options in digital commons @ michigan tech, creative commons licenses.

• Should I file for copyright?
• Additional Resources

Additional Help

Need more help with licensing options? Contact the Graduate School at [email protected] 

Creative Commons License Chooser (beta)

Don't know what license you need? The Creative Commons License Chooser tool (beta version) is here to help. Follow the steps to select the appropriate license for your work. This site does not store any information.

The original License Chooser is also available here.

About Creative Commons

Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that helps overcome legal obstacles to the sharing of knowledge and creativity to address the world’s pressing challenges. 

Part of the Creative Commons mission is to provide  Creative Commons licenses  that give every person and organization in the world a free, simple, and standardized way to grant copyright permissions for creative and academic works; ensure proper attribution; and allow others to copy, distribute, and make use of those works

Librarians are available to answer your questions. Click on the Ask Us bubble for FAQs and contact options (chat, email, text, phone).

The information presented in this guide is intended for informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice.

The type of access and licensing option you choose (explained below) must be consistent with the permissions you have received from the copyright holders of all 3rd party content in your paper. Be sure to also mark 3rd party content with the appropriate copyright statements.

If you have not received permission to use someone else's content (images, figures, etc.), or if you are not sure you have permission to allow you choose certain access or licensing options, contact the Graduate School at [email protected]

When you deposit a master's thesis or dissertation on ProQuest, you will have the option to make the work available open access or traditional access through that platform. There is a fee associated with open access, but you are not required to make your work available in this manner even if you have selected open access on Digital Commons.

When you deposit your work in Digital Commons @ Michigan Tech , you will choose one of two access options:  

• Campus Access -  restrict access to your work to only those on Michigan Tech's campus
• Open Access -  distribute your work openly to the world

Your copyright is not impacted by your access option. No matter which option you choose, you still hold the copyright to your report, thesis, or dissertation and others must seek your permission to reuse it.

Do you want others to be able to reuse your work?

If the answer to this question is " Yes!" then make sure you choose the Open Access option. This means you may then choose a  Creative Commons license  (listed below). These optional, free licenses allow copyright holders to easily convey to others how their works may be shared or altered. Choosing one of the more restrictive Creative Commons licenses does not prevent you from providing additional permissions to others upon request.

What about my advisor?

After you submit your work to Digital Commons, your advisor will be able to review the work and the licensing options you have selected. Your advisor may request changes.

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• Last Updated: Oct 13, 2023 4:52 PM
• URL: https://libguides.lib.mtu.edu/copyrightTDR

• Dissertation Copyright
• Dissertation Embargo Guidelines
• Dissertation Templates
• ETD Administrator
• Formatting FAQs
• Sample Dissertation Title Page

Copyrighting your Dissertation

In the United States, you automatically own the copyright in your original creative authorship, such as your dissertation, once it is fixed in a tangible form ( i.e. , written down or recorded). United States law does not require you to include a copyright notice on your dissertation or to  formally register  with the U.S. Copyright Office in order to secure copyright protection over your work. However, there are some benefits to including a copyright notice and registering your work. See the  Copyright Guide  for more information or to schedule a consultation.

Including a Copyright Page in your Dissertation

Including a copyright page in your dissertation is optional but recommended. For details on how to format the copyright page, consult the  PhD Dissertation Formatting Guide  and the  PhD Dissertation Formatting Checklist .

Dissertations Based on Joint Work

• For dissertations based on joint work with other researchers, a unique and separate dissertation must be presented by each degree candidate. You must include a concise account of your unique contribution to the joint work, and remainder of the dissertation must be authored solely by you. Authorship of an entire dissertation by more than one degree candidate is not allowed.

Using Your Own Previously Published Material in Your Dissertation

University of Pennsylvania  policy  allows you to include your own previously published work or articles submitted for publication as part of the dissertation with the following conditions:

• You must obtain approval of the dissertation committee and Graduate Group Chairperson.
• You must obtain written permission from the copyright owner, which may be the journal, publisher, and/or any co-authors, unless you are the sole copyright holder (depends on your publishing agreement).
• You must upload any permission letters in ETD Administrator as an  Administrative Document  titled “Permission Letter – Do Not Publish.”
• Your dissertation must be formatted as a single document with consistent formatting and styles throughout. If you are using multiple previously published articles, make sure to make the formatting consistent with the rest of the document.

When using previously published or in press work, you must disclose this information in your dissertation in the following format :

• Under the Chapter title, list the full citation for the previously published/in-press article in the citation style used in your Bibliography.
• If it is a jointly authored article, describe your contribution to the work in a separate sentence.

Using Other Copyrighted Material in Your Dissertation

If you use third party copyrighted material (images, quotations, datasets, figures), you are responsible for re-use of that material (see the  Policy on Unauthorized Copying of Copyrighted Media ). In many cases, you may be able to use copyrighted material under the “ fair use ” provision of U.S. copyright law. Consult the  PhD Dissertation Formatting Guide  and the  PhD Dissertation Formatting Checklist  for information on how to submit written permission from a copyright holder. Typically, you will need to request a permission letter and upload the letter as an  Administrative Document  in  ETD Administrator .

If you still have questions regarding copyright and “fair use” refer to the  Penn Libraries Copyright Guide  or email  [email protected]  for further support.

Patent and Intellectual Property

Any inventions that you make as part of your research for your degree and disclosed as part of your dissertation, and any patent or other intellectual property rights arising therefrom, are governed by the policies of the University of Pennsylvania, including the  Patent and Tangible Research Property Policies and Procedures  and  Policy Relating to Copyrights and Commitment of Effort for Faculty.  For more information, please contact the  Penn Center for Innovation .

There are strict deadlines under U.S. and international law regarding the timing for filing patent applications and the public availability of your dissertation. Contact the  Penn Center for Innovation  to discuss whether there might be a patentable invention disclosed in your dissertation prior to deposit of your dissertation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do i have copyright over my dissertation .

Yes. According to US Copyright law, you have copyright immediately and automatically over any of your new, original works in a “fixed, tangible form” ( i.e. , written down, recorded, etc.). You do not need to register or to include a copyright symbol © or any other formal marks to secure your copyright, though there are some benefits to doing so. See the  Copyright Guide  for more information or email  [email protected]  for further support.

Should I register the copyright in my dissertation with the U.S. Copyright Office? 

It depends on what you want to do with your dissertation. There are  some benefits to registering the copyright  in your dissertation depending on your future goals. However, keep in mind that you automatically have copyright over your dissertation without formally registering. To learn more about formally registering the copyright in your dissertation, see the  Copyright Guide  or schedule a consultation.  

Should I pay ProQuest to register my copyright?

Note that you already have copyright over your dissertation, but if you would like to  formally register your copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office , you can pay ProQuest to do it for you (you will have the option in ETD Administrator). For less cost, you can register it yourself on the  copyright.gov  web page. Information on registering your copyright is available in the  Copyright Guide . Please keep in mind that if portions of your dissertation are comprised of previously published co-authored material,  you cannot  register your copyright through ProQuest. 

What is a Creative Commons license?

A copyright license grants permission for someone else to use your copyrighted work.  A  Creative Commons  license is one type of copyright license. It works hand in hand with your copyright. It is not an independent type of copyright. By using a Creative Commons license you are telling the world under what circumstances they are able to use your work without asking your permission each and every time.  You can only add a Creative Commons license to your work if you are the copyright holder, and have not transferred your rights to someone else (like a publisher).

You may choose to apply a Creative Commons license to your dissertation by adding it to the copyright notice page; see the  PhD Dissertation Formatting Guide  for an example. V isit the  Creative Commons website  to review all the licenses in full detail and select one that fits your needs. 

Refer to the  Services for Authors Guide  or  schedule a consultation  to learn more about using a Creative Commons license on your dissertation.

I want to use copyrighted materials in my dissertation. Is that okay?

It depends. If the materials you wish to incorporate into your dissertation are copyrighted, you will need to do a  fair use analysis  for each item you use to determine if you can proceed without getting permission. If you do not feel that you can make a good “fair use” case, you will need to  request permission  from the copyright holder and provide all permission letters as  Administrative Documents  in ETD Administrator. Just because you are using the work for educational purposes does not automatically mean that your work is “fair use” or that you have permission to use the work.  Request a consultation  to learn more about fair use and other copyright considerations.

I want to use my own previously published materials in my dissertation. Is that okay?

It depends. If the materials you may wish to incorporate into your dissertation are published in a journal or other publication, you may need to seek permission from the journal, publisher, or any co-authors. These permission letters must be uploaded as supplementary material in ETD Administrator before the deposit date. Please refer to your publication agreement for further information.

Additionally, using previously published materials as part of your dissertation requires approval of the dissertation committee and Graduate Group Chairperson.

I would like to know more about publishing, copyright, open access, and other/related issues. How can I find out more?

The Penn Libraries offers a range of workshops and presentations on these topics (and other digital skills related topics)  throughout the year . Groups can request a number of these workshops for classes or other group settings. For personal discussions about copyright, fair use, Creative Commons, scholarly publishing, and other related topics, please  contact your subject librarian  for support and further referrals. For more general information about these and related topics, review the  Penn Libraries’ guides  by keyword or subject.

University Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Copyright for Graduate Students: Theses and Dissertations

• Public Domain
• Creative Commons Licensing
• Obtaining Copyright Permission
• International Materials
• State and Federal Governmental Materials
• University Policies on Copyright
• Depositing Your Dissertation/Thesis in IDEALS

Copyright Questions?

Copyright law can be difficult and confusing. This webpage is meant to provide you with guidance, but not legal advice.

Should you have further questions, please do not hesitate to ask Sara Benson, the Copyright Librarian, for assistance. Sara can be reached at 217-333-4200 or [email protected]

Scholarly Communication and Publishing

Some Copyright Ground Rules

• General Concepts
• What Does Copyright Protect?
• A work created today (or, more specifically, after 1989) is protected under copyright  as soon as it’s created  and is (generally) protected for the lifetime of the creator, plus 70 years (could be even longer for some works).
• There is no special symbol  (such as the copyright symbol) necessary on the protected work since 1989--it is protected simply because someone created it and wrote it down or recorded it.
• If more than one person created a work, they might be  joint owners of a work  (see "Copyright Ownership" on the right).
• When copyright expires, the work becomes  public domain .
• Ideas can’t be copyrighted, only the tangible expression in a fixed medium of the idea can.  
• Facts can't be copyrighted, either.
• You may use any copyrighted material under the  “ fair use ”  doctrine, within fair use guidelines.
• If something  looks copyrighted, assume it is.
• Copyright protects an author's right to reproduce (copy), distribute (license), make derivatives of the work, publicly display and perform the work
• This means that if you wish to make a copy of a copyrighted work (unless it is considered a  " fair use ")  you must  get permission  from the owner of the work
• You also generally cannot publicly display a copyrighted work (say a movie or work of art) unless you have permission to do so or a recognized  "copyright exception"  exists

Copyright Ownership

• The Author Is The Initial Owner
• Ownership Can Be Assigned or Transferred
• Works Can Be Made Available Under Terms More Favorable Than Copyright Allows
• Joint Ownership of A Copyrighted Work

If you wrote an essay or article, you are the owner of that article unless and until you contract away your rights (such as in a publishing agreement).

Giving away the bundle of rights that constitute copyright is often called a grant. If the transfer is exclusive it has to be in writing. In books/articles, this usually occurs in a publishing agreement.

The Creative Commons has developed a series of licenses that allows copyright holders to retain control over their works, but still make them available under terms more favorable than copyright allows.  Essentially, under the creative commons licenses, owners of copyright have allowed others to use their work with certain limitations specified in the creative commons license.

More information about the  creative commons  license is available on their website at  www.creativecommons.org .

 A work is considered joint if it meets these conditions:

both or all the authors intend that their contributions be merged into a single work;

this intention exists at the time of creation of the work.

No written contract is necessary to create a joint work. Each author owns an undivided portion of the entire work.  So, one author can grant another person permission to use the work without the agreement of the author author.  The only obligation is to share in any profits received. 

For some additional information about copyright in the music industry, please see the LibGuide on  Copyright Resources for Music .

The Basics of Copyright

Common Questions & Answers

Q: Should I put some sort of copyright notice on my work?

A:  It is wise to do so because even though it is not required, many people misunderstand basic copyright law rules. So, putting a notice on your work will remind others not to use it unless they have an exception applies to general copyright rules or they have obtained your permission first.  

Q:  As long as something is for educational use, I'm not violating copyright laws, right?

A: Unfortunately, no. Although there is a limited exception for face-to-face teaching, not all educational uses of copyrighted works will fall under that exception and fair use is decided on a case-by-case (not a blanket exception) basis.

Q:  How do I know FOR SURE that something is a fair use?

A:  That's a tough one. Unfortunately, it is hard to know when something is a fair use for sure because, ultimately, the court decides fair use cases on a case-by-case basis. Generally, we should exercise our good faith judgment and consider risk assessment when making fair use determinations.  But, this does not mean that we shouldn't exercise our fair use rights.  We should do so in a considered way.

Q: What role does licensing play in specific copyright questions?

A: A very large role. Essentially, you can contract away (through licensing) any of your copyright rights. So, for instance, if I write a journal article but if I assign my copyright entirely to the journal publisher, then I no longer have any right to share my article either publicly or privately without the permission of the journal.

The content for this page originated with the School of Music's Copyright LibGuide .  

Except where otherwise indicated, original content in this guide is licensed under a   Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license . You are free to share, adopt, or adapt the materials. We encourage broad adoption of these materials for teaching and other professional development purposes, and invite you to customize them for your own needs.

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• KU Libraries
• Subject & Course Guides
• Copyright Resources
• Copyright for Dissertations and Theses

Copyright Resources: Copyright for Dissertations and Theses

• Getting Started
• Using Copyrighted Works in Scholarship
• Copyright and Teaching
• Copyright Considerations for Authors
• Public Performance Rights for Screening Media

Copyright Considerations for Theses and Dissertations

Copyright affects the author of a thesis or dissertation in two ways:  1) As a user of copyrighted material within the thesis or dissertation and 2) As the copyright owner of the thesis or dissertation. 

In addition to the general resources for all authors on the Getting Started , Using Copyrighted Works in Scholarship and Copyright Considerations for Authors tabs on this guide, this page includes information and resources that address common copyright concerns of authors of theses and dissertations. 

KU Libraries’ Shulenburger Office of Scholarly Communication & Copyright is happy to assist KU faculty, staff, and students with questions concerning copyright and fair use of copyrighted materials, in consultation with the KU Office of the General Counsel as needed. Contact us at [email protected] for assistance.

There are guides for graduate scholars from other institutions that you might find helpful, though they will not have a KU perspective:

• Theses and Copyright (MIT)
• Copyright on Campus:  Copyright Concerns of Graduate Researchers (University of Florida)
• Copyright and Fair Use: Copyright Concerns of Students (ATLA)

Using Previously-Published Materials as Chapters

In some disciplines, it's common to include entire articles that were published previously solely by the author or sometimes with co-authors as chapters in the thesis or dissertation.  In the case of co-authored material, each co-author has full copyrights to the entire work, unless there are contractual reasons why this is not the case, such as when an author is an employee of a project that claims copyright in any publications resulting from the research funded by the project.  The issue is that most article publication agreements transfer the author's copyrights to the publisher.  This gives the publisher control over how the work is used and distributed.  This means that authors may not have the rights to include their previously-published work as chapters in their thesis or dissertation without asking permission from the publisher first.

There's a handy list of publishers and their default policies at the bottom of the University of Florida's Copyright Concerns of Graduate Researchers resource. 

KUMC Graduate Students :  Graduate Studies at KUMC has posted instructions about how to cite previously published work and how to submit copyright permissions.   See page 18 of the KUMC Formatting Guidelines for more information.

How do you know if you can include your previously-published work?

Does the article have a creative commons license.

• Authors can include the work as long as they use the work in accordance with the Creative Commons license.

Don't have the publication contract or aren't sure what the contract terms mean?  Try this first: 

• Find the article on the journal web site and click on the Permissions link.
• On the resulting screen, the requestor will usually be asked if they are the author of the article and how they intend to use it. 
• Select "Reuse in a thesis/dissertation"  and complete the rest of the information requested.
• Read the resulting screens carefully to see if the article can be used in the thesis or dissertation. 
• If not, see Asking for Permission , below, for some tips.

Did the publication contract include language that allows the author to use the work after it's published in a new work or specifically in a thesis or dissertation? 

• This is often the case in disciplines where articles are included in theses/dissertations, but not always.  If the contract allows, the author can include the work as long as it is used in accordance with the terms of the publication contract.

Publication agreement doesn't allow the author to use their article in a new publication?  

The author will need to ask the publisher for permission to reuse the article.  See Asking for Permission , below, for some tips.

Asking for Permission

Getting permission takes time; do this as soon as you know you want to use the article.

• Find the Contact information for the journal.  This is often found on the journal website in an About... , Contact or Permissions menu.
• Your name and when you are planning on graduating.
• Indicate that you are the author of the article and that you want to include it in your thesis or dissertation.
• Ask what you need to do to obtain permission.
• Send an email with the subject "Permissions Needed" and include the information above in the email message. 
• If you are very close to graduation, contact the publisher's Permissions department by phone rather than email. 

Author as Copyright Owner

One of the graduation requirements at KU is the completion of the Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD) Release Form .  In the Copyright section of that form, you will certify that your work does not, to the best of your knowledge, infringe upon copyrights owned by someone else, through, but not limited to plagiarism, unapproved reproduction of materials or improper citation.

Generally, an author has the copyrights to their thesis or dissertation from the moment that it is fixed in a tangible format, such as a Microsoft Word file, or a printed copy. 

• According to the KU Intellectual Property Policy , the University of Kansas does not claim copyright in theses or dissertations produced by KU students, except for those special circumstances defined in the policy.
• Authors don’t have to include a copyright statement--e.g. Copyright 2019 Jane Smythe-- in the work, though it’s sometimes helpful because it makes it clear who has the copyrights to the work. 
• As the copyright owner of your thesis or dissertation, you need to decide whether you are going to register your work with the U.S. Copyright Office.  See the section below:  Registering Your Copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office

Registering Your Copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office

How to register.

As part of the ProQuest submission process, authors can choose to register their copyright with the U.S.Copyright Office. We generally suggest that people register their copyrights if they can afford to do so.  

• The cost is $75 if ProQuest registers the copyright for the student.  Many students choose this because of the convenience.
• The cost is $ 45 if the author registers themselves by going to the U.S. Copyright Office website and registers the copyright using the Standard form.

Why register?

According to the U.S. Copyright Office publication Copyright Circular #1 , pg. 7, there are several reasons why authors should register their copyright:

• Registration establishes a public record of the copyright claim.
• Before an infringement suit may be filed in court, registration is necessary for works of U.S. origin.
• If made before or within five years of publication, registration will establish prima facie evidence in court of the validity of the copyright and of the facts stated in the certificate.
• Registration allows the owner of the copyright to record the registration with the U.S. Customs Service for protection against the importation of infringing copies. For additional information, go to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection website at https://www.cbp.gov/.

Embargoes of Theses and Dissertations

One of the decisions that the author of a thesis or dissertation must make as they prepare to graduate is whether to delay the release of the thesis or dissertation for a period of time after graduation.  This decision is often a balance between the need to make the work as visible as possible , and the desire to protect the work because the author wants to publish that research in journal articles or books, because of pending patents, or because the research is sensitive.

If an embargo is needed, KU's Embargo Policy for Theses and Dissertations spells out the circumstances under which an embargo may be requested and the process for doing so.

• First, the student must submit the Electronic Thesis and Dissertation (ETD) Release Form to the school/College office. Embargo requests need to be approved by the Director of Graduate Studies in the author's department, the Department Chair, or the Committee Chair.  If an embargo is approved, this form will ensure that the thesis or dissertation file is protected from public view.  Keep in mind that the title, abstract, and keywords entered during the ProQuest submission will be visible, even if the file is protected.
• Second, during the online submission process to ProQuest/UMI , in the Publishing Options section, the student must select I want my work to be available in ProQuest as soon as it is published > No, I have patents pending, or another reason why I need to delay access to the full text of my work , then select the embargo term.  If an embargo has been approved, this step will ensure that public view of the work is temporarily restricted in the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database.

Embargoes may be renewed before the expiration date by filling out the Embargo Renewal form for the KU ScholarWorks copy AND , for the ProQuest copy, by contacting ProQuest at [email protected] or by phone at 1-800-521-0600 at least one month before the embargo expires .

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Copyright and publishing your dissertation: step 4: address publication issues.

• Understand Copyright Basics
• Step 1: Consider Whether You Need Permission
• Step 2: Seek Permission If Needed
• Step 3: Address Non-Copyright Law & Policy Concerns
• Step 4: Address Publication Issues
• Additional Resources and Support

STEP 4: Address Publication Issues

⇒ Address publication issues

• Your dissertation will be available through ProQuest and published open access online in eScholarship . Step 4 helps you consider your rights as an author when your dissertation is published in this manner. You should also consult the UC Berkeley Graduate Division's  Dissertation Filing Guidelines  for more on publishing your dissertation.

⇒ Should you register your copyright?

• As explained in the Understand Copyright Basics page, copyright is automatically created once your original work is fixed in a tangible medium (such as being saved on your computer hard drive or in cloud storage).  You continue to own copyright in your dissertation  unless and until you transfer your copyright to another party. Thus, you do not need to register copyright in your dissertation in order to be the copyright holder.
• However, registering copyright in your dissertation offers distinct advantages ( see p. 7 of the Copyright Office circular ). First, registering your work creates public record evidence that you are indeed the author and owner. Second, registration allows for greater enforcement of your copyright against an infringer or plagiarist, enabling you to file suit and later making available statutory damages (set out in  Title 17, Section 504  of the U.S. Code), which range from $750-$150,000 plus attorney's fees per copyright infringement. 
• So, it may be in your best interest to register copyright for your dissertation. You can register copyright through the  Copyright Office's website for a fee of $35 , or through the ProQuest ETDAdmin system when you submit your PDF;  doing so through ProQuest costs $55 .

⇒ Can you publish open access immediately?

What happens once you submit your dissertation electronically.

As a UC Berkeley student, once your dissertation is submitted electronically through the ProQuest online administration system , it will thereafter be published open access online in  eScholarship  and electronically via the Library catalog. 

UC's  system-wide Office of Scholarly Communications explains more about this process generally ( check out their  Open Access Dissertations & Theses  page). For the UC Berkeley-specific publishing protocol, please review the Graduate Division's  Dissertation Filing Guidelines .  

Advantages to Publishing Open Access Immediately

Making your work available to be read online immediately in eScholarship or ProQuest has advantages.  

First, it clearly establishes when your work was created and published, which are powerful resources in preventing or combating plagiarism. Others will be able to discover your prior publication.  

Second, it can help build your academic reputation. O nce your dissertation is published open access, researchers around the world will be able to read and download your wo r k , and can begin citing yo u in their own publications.  (Check out  these studies  on the advantages of open access publishing on citation.) Citation of your dissertation by others can be offered as evidence of research significance in employment reviews.  

For more on the value of immediate open access, please see: 

UC Berkeley Graduate Division's  guidance letter , in which they explain  that,  "Knowledge of the work of younger scholars may be increased by promoting discovery beyond limited professional networks."  Likewise, research available through searches on the Internet can  promote professional contacts  international in scope and interdisciplinary in reach.

There's also a great overview of the value of publishing dissertations open access in  Hillary Corbett,  ETDs and the Consequences of Openness .

⇒ When might you want to delay open access publication?

What are embargoes.

Embargoes are a delay in making your work available online. You should consult the UC Berkeley Graduate Division's  Dissertation Filing Guidelines  for an explanation of when embargoes are appropriate. 

Pending patent applications, privacy disclosures, professional ethics concerns

You may wish to consider embargoing when publishing open online immediately would risk "disclosure of patentable rights in the work before a patent can be granted, similar disclosures detrimental to the rights of the author, or disclosures of facts about persons or institutions before professional ethics would permit."  (See the Dissertation Filing Guidelines linked above.)

Cultural Heritage Sites, Personal Risks

• You may also wish to consider an embargo if there is substantial concern that disclosure of geographic locations or persons could put the materials at those sites or particular individuals at risk. For instance, perhaps you have a situation where disclosure of a burial site could subject artifacts to looting. Alternatively, perhaps your scholarship could threaten the safety of individuals in militaristic regimes who could be punished for having spoken out. These are concerns and precautions to discuss with your dissertation chair in considering an embargo.

Publisher or discipline-specific requirements

You should check with your advisors and the field of publishers you are considering about their recommendations.

Certain publishers in particular disciplines may consider dissertations to be prior publications, and/or limit their consideration of a subsequent manuscript based on the dissertation for a first book deal. Some authors may therefore wish to embargo due to concern that open access availability of their dissertations will impact consideration of subsequent publications that they base upon their dissertations. 

Studies and analysis of these issues

• Recent studies show that academic publishers typically view prior  open access publication as a means to improve acceptance for a book deal  due to increased awareness of your work. While numbers vary significantly by discipline, a  2013  study on electronic theses and dissertations  indicates that more than 90% of university presses will consider an open access ETD for publication. (See also a  2011 survey  supporting the same.)  Ke ep in mind, too, that your dissertation will be revised and rewritten significantly if/when you shape it into a manuscript for a first book. Most publishers accordingly view this as entirely new work. 

For a comprehensive review of these issues, and to address questions you may have about the impact on future publishing of your dissertation being open, check out: Cirasella, J., & Thistlethwaite, P. (2017).  Open access and the graduate author: A dissertation anxiety manual.  In K. L. Smith & K. A. Dickson (Eds.), Open access and the future of scholarly communication: Implementation (pp. 203-224). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. 

⇒ Do you want to license your work?

A license beyond fair use.

As a condition to  graduation, and in support of the purpose of graduate education to make your work available for other scholars, UC Berkeley's Graduate Division requires that you make your work available online in eScholarship. (Again, please review the  Graduate Division's  Dissertation Filing Guidelines .)

As with any other copyrighted work, other scholars can make fair use of your dissertation in their own research.  Since you own copyright over your dissertation, however, you can decide whether you want to license your work beyond what fair use already allows.

Consider your choices

There are several reasons why you might wish to license your work. One reason could be to contribute to knowledge building and scientific or artistic progress. Certainly, people can already make fair use of your material, but by licensing it you are encouraging thus facilitating their use of your work. Another reason might be that making it easier for other people to use your material could translate into them using your work more often--which means being cited more often, and  increasing your scholarly impact and profile . 

On the other hand,  some publishers  might treat your dissertation as a prior publication, which you might not want to license even further than fair use already allows. 

So, before you decide to license your dissertation, consult with publishers in your field and your dissertation advisors to assess whether licensing could impact your ability to secure a subsequent first book contract. Usually your first book is substantially different from your dissertation after significant required editing, but it is always best to explore the contours of publishing in your discipline.

How to license your work

If you do wish to license your dissertation,   one option is to use a  Creative Commons  license. Creative Commons licenses allow copyright holders to prescribe the scope of uses (beyond fair use) that others are able to make of their work--while still retaining copyright ownership for the creator (that is, you are licensing your work for others to use, not transferring your copyright ownership).  

If you choose to use a Creative Commons license, be sure to make the selection both in ProQuest and include a notation on your copyright page in the dissertation, itself, that your work is being licensed. This way, when people find your dissertation on eScholarship, they will see a "badge" showing the license, and will also be able to refer back to the written license in your document, itself.

Jump to Workflow Steps

Step 1:  Do you need permission?

Step 2:  Seek permission if needed.

Step 3:  Address non-copyright concerns.

Step 4:  Address publication issues.

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Licensing Your Thesis For Reuse: Creative Commons (CC)

• Introduction
• Theses and Copyright
• Creative Commons (CC)
• How do I apply CC licenses to my works?

The Basics on Creative Commons (CC)

What is creative commons.

Creative Commons  is an internationally recognized non-profit organization whose objective is to generate resources that facilitate the sharing of information, knowledge, and creative products.

Creative Commons licenses  are known around the world. By using them, the creator of a work can clearly indicate to the public what permissions they are granting for the use of their work.

There are six Creative Commons licenses. Each one is presented below, from least to most restrictive.

Grants public permission to make copies of your thesis, share them with others, create derivative works, and use your thesis for commercial purposes, with the condition that you always receive attribution as the author of the work.

Grants public permission to make copies of your thesis, share them with others, use it for commercial purposes, and create derivative works, as long as those derivative works carry a license that is identical to the one assigned to your thesis. Additionally, any person who uses your thesis must recognize you as the author of the work.

Grants public permission to make copies of your thesis, share them with others, and create derivative works, but does not allow others to use your thesis for commercial purposes. Additionally, any person who uses your thesis must recognize you as the author of the work.

CC BY-NC-SA

Grants public permission to make copies of your thesis, share them with others, and create derivative works, as long as those derivative works carry a license that is identical to the one assigned to your thesis. However, others are not allowed to use your thesis for commercial purposes. Additionally, any person who uses your thesis must recognize you as the author of the work.

Grants public permission to make copies of your thesis and share them with others. Also allows others to use your thesis for commercial purposes. However, the creation of derivative works is not allowed. Additionally, any person who uses your thesis must recognize you as the author of the work.

CC BY-NC-ND

Grants public permission to make copies of your thesis and share them with others. However, others are not allowed to use your thesis for commercial purposes, and the creation of derivative works is not permitted. Additionally, any person who uses your thesis must recognize you as the author of the work.

For more information on the different licenses, choosing the one that's right for you, and applying it to your work, click  here .

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Fair use, copyright, patent, and publishing options.

• Is information that you plan to include from others considered “fair use” and are you acknowledging these sources correctly?
• Embargo of online copies
• Creative Commons license
• Has a patent application been filed (or will one be) on the basis of your thesis or dissertation research?
• Register for copyright?
• Supplementary materials
• Make your work discoverable on search engines?
• Make your work accessible to people with visual disabilities

1. Is information that you plan to include from others considered “fair use” and are you acknowledging these sources correctly?

You are responsible for acknowledging any facts, ideas, or materials of others that you include in your work. You must follow the guidelines for acknowledging the work of others in the “Code of Academic Integrity and Acknowledging the Work of Others” (published in the Policy Notebook for the Cornell Community ) .

If you use any copyrighted material in the dissertation or thesis, it is your responsibility to give full credit to the author and publisher of work quoted. The acknowledgment should be placed in a footnote at the bottom of the first page of the paper or chapter. Additionally, you must determine whether use of the material can be classified as a “fair use” by performing an analysis of your use of each copyrighted item. The Cornell Copyright Information Center’s Fair Use Checklist ) is a helpful tool for performing this analysis. (See also, Copyright Law and the Doctoral Dissertation: Guidelines to Your Legal Rights and Responsibilities , published by ProQuest, or The Chicago Manual of Style , published by the University of Chicago Press.)

If your use of material is not considered a “fair use,” you must obtain written permission from the copyright owner. Two copies of each permission letter must be submitted with the dissertation or thesis. ProQuest has specific requirements for the content of the permission letter. For these guidelines, consult the ProQuest Doctoral Dissertation Agreement form (published by ProQuest).

If you have already published or had accepted for publication part of your own dissertation or thesis material in a journal, depending on the terms of your publication agreement, it may be necessary to write to that journal and obtain written authorization to use the material in your dissertation.

2. Embargo of online copies

The value of your dissertation extends well beyond your graduation requirements. It’s important that you make an informed decision about providing online access, via ProQuest and eCommons, to your work. This decision can expand the visibility and impact of your work, but it can also shape the options available to you for publishing subsequent works based on your dissertation.

ProQuest’s ProQuest Dissertations and Theses (PQDT) database indexes almost all dissertations published in the U.S. and provides subscription access online to the full text of more recent dissertations. ProQuest also sells print copies of dissertations, paying royalties to authors, when they exceed a minimum threshold. Authors retain copyright in the works they submit to ProQuest.

eCommons is a service of the Cornell University Library that provides long-term, online access to Cornell-related content of enduring value. Electronic theses and dissertations deposited in eCommons, unless subject to embargo, are freely accessible to anyone with an internet connection. When submitting to eCommons, you retain copyright in your work. Ph.D. dissertations and master’s theses submitted to ProQuest are automatically submitted to eCommons, subject to the same embargo you select for ProQuest.

Electronic copies of dissertations in PQDT or eCommons may be made accessible immediately upon submission or after an embargo period of six months, one year, or two years. You may wish to consider an embargo period which helps address publishers’ interests in being the first to publish scholarly books or articles, while also ensuring that scholarship is accessible to the general public within a reasonable period of time. Your decision should be made in consultation with your special committee.

3. Creative Commons license

Creative Commons licenses provide authors with a straightforward and standardized means of prospectively granting certain permissions to potential users of the author’s material. Authors may request proper attribution, permit copying and the creation of derivative works, request that others share derivative works under the same terms, and allow or disallow commercial uses. Authors may even choose to place their works directly into the public domain. You will have the option of selecting a Creative Commons license when you upload your dissertation or thesis to ProQuest, and your choice will automatically be applied to the copy of your work in eCommons.

4. Has a patent application been filed (or will one be) on the basis of your thesis or dissertation research?

Cornell University Policy 1.5 governs inventions and related property rights. Inventions made by faculty, staff, and students must be disclosed to the Center for Technology Licensing at Cornell University (CTL). Theses and dissertations describing patentable research should be withheld from publication, in order to avoid premature public disclosure.

Use the delayed release (embargo) option if a patent application is or will be in process, noting the reason for the delay as “patent pending.” If you have any questions, please contact Cornell’s Center for Technology Licensing at 607-254-4698 or [email protected] .

5. Register for copyright?

Copyright law involves many complex issues that are relevant to you as a graduate student, both in protecting your own work and in referencing the work of others. Discussion of copyright in this publication is not meant to substitute for the legal advice of qualified attorneys. A more detailed discussion of copyright law can be found in the publication from ProQuest entitled Copyright Law and the Doctoral Dissertation: Guidelines to Your Legal Rights and Responsibilities by Kenneth D. Crews.

Copyright protection automatically exists from the time the work is created in fixed form and the copyright immediately becomes the property of the author. Registration with the United States Copyright Office is not required to secure copyright; rather it is a legal formality to place on public record the basic facts of a particular copyright. Although not a condition of copyright protection itself, registering the copyright is ordinarily necessary before any infringement suits can be filed in court.

To register a copyright for your dissertation or thesis, register online or download printable forms . You may also request forms by mail from the Information Section, U.S. Copyright Office, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20559, or contact them by telephone at 202-707-3000.

Doctoral candidates: You may authorize ProQuest to file, on your behalf, an application for copyright registration. This option will be presented to you as part of the submission process.

6. Supplementary materials

If supplementary materials (audio, video, datasets, etc., up to 2GB per file) are part of your thesis or dissertation, you may submit them as supplementary files during the online submission process. For help selecting long-lived file formats, note ProQuest’s guidance in their document, “Preparing Your Manuscript for Submission (Including Supplemental Files).” File formats for which ProQuest does not guarantee migration may still have a high likelihood of preservation in Cornell’s digital repository; please see the eCommons help page for further guidance.

Do not embed media files in the PDF version of your thesis or dissertation, as this can significantly increase the size of the file and make it difficult to download and access. Include a description of each supplementary file in the abstract of your thesis or dissertation. You may include an additional supplementary file containing more detailed information about the supplementary materials as a “readme” file or other form of documentation; this is particularly advisable for data sets or code. The Research Data Management Service Group ( [email protected] ) offers assistance in preparing and documenting data sets for online distribution.

7. Make your work discoverable on search engines?

ProQuest offers authors the option of making their graduate work discoverable through major search engines including Yahoo, Google, Google Scholar, and Google Books. If you chose the Search Engine option on their dissertation “paper” publishing agreement or within ProQuest’s PROQUEST ETD Administrator (electronic submission service), you can expect to have your work appear in the major search engines.

If you change your mind and do not want your work to be made available through search engines, you can contact customer service at [email protected] or 800-521-0600 ext. 77020. In addition, if you did not initially adopt this option but now want your works made available through this service, contact the customer service group to change your selection.

Please note that search engines index content in eCommons, regardless of the choice you make for ProQuest.

8. Make your work accessible to people with visual disabilities

When creating a PDF version of your thesis or dissertation it is important to keep in mind that readers may use assistive technology such as screen readers to access your document.  Follow best practices to ensure that your thesis or dissertation is accessible to everyone.  These resources may be helpful:

• Cornell CIT’s guidance for creating accessible PDFs
• Checking accessibility using Acrobat Pro
• Embedding alternative text for images in Word
• Save a Word doc as an accessible PDF

Office of Scholarly Communication

University of California

• Campus Resources
• Open Access Strategies at UC
• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Scholarly Communication
• Who’s covered by which policy?
• Presidential OA Policy
• Systemwide Academic Senate Policy
• UCSF Academic Senate Policy
• Publisher Communications
• Policy History
• OA Policy Implementation
• Other OA Policies & Legislation
• Understanding Copyright

Creative Commons Licenses

• Funding Models
• Peer Review

Home » Scholarly Communication Topics » Creative Commons Licenses

On this page:

• Overview of Creative Commons licenses

Depositing an article for the UC open access policies

Publishing an article open access with a publisher, sharing preprints.

Creative Commons (CC) licenses are a way for creators to encourage broad dissemination of their work by indicating to readers that the work can be reused and by specifying the conditions for that reuse. In the 20 years since CC licenses were first released, they have been used to license over 2 billion copyrighted works. Popular websites and services using CC licenses include Wikipedia, Flickr, Khan Academy, and OpenStreetMap. Open access scholarly publications also frequently use CC licenses.

CC licenses mix and match a few different elements that specify the terms under which works can be reused. None of the licenses restrict typical reuse of a work that would normally be allowed by law without a license, e.g. redistributing parts of a work that aren’t protected by copyright or engaging in fair use by translating a work for personal study. Below is a list of the elements that may be incorporated into a CC license:

Since all the licenses require attribution, and the ND and SA options are mutually exclusive, combining these elements can only result in six different possible CC licenses. 

• CC BY . Either the original work or a derivative work can be shared, with appropriate attribution, for commercial or noncommercial purposes. This the most open of the six licenses, permitting the broadest sharing and reuse.
• CC BY-NC . Either the original work or a derivative work can be shared with appropriate attribution, but only for noncommercial purposes.
• CC BY-ND . The original work can be shared with appropriate attribution, for commercial or non-commercial purposes. If someone creates a derivative work, like a translation, the license does not permit them to share that derivative work.
• CC BY-NC-ND . The original work can be shared with appropriate attribution, but only for noncommercial purposes. No derivative works can be shared. 
• CC BY-SA . The original work or derivative works can be shared, with appropriate attribution, for commercial or noncommercial purposes. Any derivative works must also use a CC BY-SA license.
• CC BY-NC-SA . The original work or derivative works can be shared with appropriate attribution, but only for noncommercial purposes. Any derivative works must also use a CC BY-NC-SA license.

CC licenses cannot be revoked. Authors can re-share their work with a different license, but anyone who downloaded the work with the previous license can still use it under the terms of that earlier license. If a user wants to use a work in a way that goes beyond what the CC license allows or what the law otherwise allows (e.g. fair use), they must contact the copyright holder for separate permission.

Note: CC0 is a Creative Commons tool that designates Public Domain Dedication, or “no rights reserved.” Rather than a license, CC0 is a complete waiver of the author’s copyright ownership and any related rights, including the right to require attribution. As with the licenses, this dedication to the public domain cannot be revoked. The use of CC0 is often recommended for data sharing because it reduces barriers to data reuse that might be caused by the attribution requirement of a license like CC BY. You can read more about this in our blog post, CC BY and data: Not always a good fit .

When authors participate in the UC OA policies by uploading their articles to eScholarship (UC’s institutional repository and publishing platform), they are asked to choose a CC license. Authors can choose any of the six CC licenses above, or they can choose not to apply a license. If authors opt out of a CC license, the default rules of copyright law control how an article can be used. In the United States, that means the full text of the article usually cannot be shared on another website, nor can translations of the article, but some uses are allowed under exceptions like fair use.

The UC Academic Senate strongly encourages choosing a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license when depositing a scholarly article, to encourage maximum dissemination and use of UC scholarship. Articles shared with a CC BY license can be:

• Shared on course, conference, lab, news, and other websites;
• Reproduced in print coursepacks, even when they are sold by commercial copy shops;
• Translated into other languages, and shared by their translators;
• Excerpted and combined with publications that use a different CC license (without implying the original author’s endorsement of the new work). 

Articles that are published open access on a journal’s website are often published under a Creative Commons license. For journals that are fully open access, the publisher typically chooses a license that applies to all the articles in the journal. In PLOS journals, for example, all articles are published under a CC BY license. In other journals, particularly journals where only some articles are available open access, an author may be able to choose the license. The license choices that are available vary depending on the publisher, but CC BY is usually one of the options.

When an author can choose which license the publisher uses to publish their article, the UC Academic Senate recommends choosing a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license , which encourages maximum sharing and reuse . Articles published with a CC BY license can be:

• Excerpted and combined with publications that use a different CC license (without implying the original author’s endorsement of the new work).

UC authors retain broad rights to reuse the full text of their articles through UC’s open access policies . Authors at other institutions, however, may be granting exclusive rights to control commercial or other use of their articles to their publishers if they choose a license more restrictive like CC BY-NC. To learn more about how this works for authors at institutions that do not have an institutional OA policy, you can read the blog post “ Exclusive licence to publish – now here’s a thing ” at the Coalition S website.

Preprints are journal articles that have not yet gone through peer review. Authors commonly share their preprints on preprint servers designed for this purpose, most of which are discipline-specific. arXiv , bioRxiv , EarthArXiv , and EcoEvoRxiv are all examples of preprint servers, and there are many more . Authors share their preprints for a variety of reasons, including to speed up dissemination of their work and to get early feedback prior to publication. 

Authors sharing their preprints can often choose among a variety of CC licenses, or can choose not to apply a CC license at all. Authors should understand the policies of the journals they are likely to publish with and the policies of their research funders before depositing a preprint. 

Many funders do not explicitly address preprints, but some do. For example, the Gates Foundation and the NIH encourage (but do not require) sharing preprints with a CC BY license.

Publisher policies also vary. Springer Nature encourages authors to share their preprints, and adds that authors may choose “any license of their choice for the preprint including Creative Commons licenses.” The preprint policies of Elsevier , Taylor & Francis , and Wiley allow sharing, and are silent about CC licenses. SAGE , on the other hand, notes that while they do not have a policy against preprint sharing generally, “some journals do not allow submissions from papers that are already available on a preprint server,” and advises authors to check the policies of individual journals. Preprint sharing policies can typically be found on journal websites, and are collected in Sherpa Romeo as well. 

Assuming there are no conflicts with relevant funder or publisher policies, an author may choose to share their preprint under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license to encourage maximum dissemination and reuse. Articles shared with a CC BY license can be:

If an author chooses to share their preprint without a CC license, or with a more restrictive license like CC BY-NC-ND, they will have later opportunities to share their work more openly. For example, as described above:

• Authors may publish the final version of the article open access with their publisher under a CC BY license; or
• If the author is a University of California employee, they can participate in UC’s open access policies by sharing the accepted manuscript version of their article with the license of their choice in eScholarship after peer review.

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Formatting your Thesis and Dissertation:Tools,Tips and Troubleshooting

• I am a new Graduate Student at Florida Tech!
• Thesis and Dissertation Templates
• Learn About Zotero
• Formatting Landscape Pages
• Line Spacing
• Page Numbers
• Page Break and Section Breaks
• Table of Contents or Figures
• Figures Turning Black
• Margin issues with Tables
• Page numbers not appearing
• PDF to PDF/A
• Section Breaks
• Landscape Page Numbers
• Troubleshoot LaTeX formatting issues
• Copyright and Creative Commons Licenses Primer
• Do I need to embargo my thesis or dissertation?
• I'm ready to submit my electronic copy - now what do I do?
• What is the process for obtaining print copies of my thesis or dissertation?

Creative Commons Licensing

Copyright FAQs

Who owns the copyright to my thesis/dissertation?

As noted in the Open Access Policy from the Office of Graduate Programs, any copyrights associated with the thesis remain with the author or other copyright holder . As a condition of being awarded the degree, however, the student grants the university a royalty-free non-exclusive right to reproduce and distribute the thesis, in whole or in part and in any format.

Who owns the intellectual property in my thesis/disseration?

As per Policy No. 2517, Intellectual Property Policy for Students , of the Student Handbook:

Intellectual property developed by students is owned by Florida Tech if the students were employees and paid by internal or external funds at the time of discovery, and the discovery was made within the normal scope of their employment.

In addition, intellectual property developed by students is owned by Florida Tech if the student inventor made substantial use of university facilities to make the discovery. Substantial use of university facilities means extensive non-reimbursed use of either university laboratories and/or computational facilities or human resources. The use of these facilities must be important to the creation of the intellectual property and does not include incidental use of facilities or extensive use of a facility commonly available to all students (such as libraries and offices) or any facility used by students for routine tasks.

The student inventor will be treated by Florida Tech as an inventor as described in faculty policy and the Faculty Handbook.

Will adding my thesis to the Scholarship Repository limit my ability to subsequently publish my research?

A research paper from the July 2013 issue of College & Research Libraries (Ramirez, Dalton, McMillan, et al) cited various studies indicating that instances of publishers rejecting scholarly papers in the areas of science and technology on the basis of pre-existing on-line theses are very rare.  The same paper found that, in the area of the humanities, a clear majority of journal editors and a majority of university press directors did not automatically dismiss papers derived from on-line theses.  If you are concerned your contributing your thesis to Florida Tech's Scholarship Repository will jeopardize future opportunities to publish your work, you may wish to consult with your thesis advisors or librarians regarding the policies of journals in your field of study.

How do I know whether the material I'm using is protected by someone else's copyright?

Did you create the material? If not, you will need to identify the owner of the work's copyright and determine whether the work's copyright protection has expired. You may find the following publication of the U.S. Copyright Office helpful: " How to Investigate the Copyright Status of a Work ." (PDF)

What if I created the material? Is it possible that I no longer own the copyright to my own work?

Yes. If your work has been published, you may have transferred the copyright to the publisher. Check your publishing agreement: if the publisher owns the copyright to your work, you will need to request permission to reprint it in your thesis and elsewhere.

Is there a way for me to retain my copyright when I submit an article for publication?

You may be able to negotiate which rights you transfer to a publisher before you sign a publishing agreement. The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) has developed an  author addendum  that students may find useful in negotiating the rights that they transfer.

Where can I learn more about copyright?

A good place to start is the Copyright Research Guide .

Open Licenses

Here are resources that will allow you to explore the various types of open data licenses available and how to apply them to data. 

Project Open Data (U.S. Government):

• Open License Requirements for U.S. Government Works

Creative Commons: 

• Zero License (CC0) CC0 is a "no rights reserved" license that allows owners of copyrighted materials and database-protected content to waive their interests and place their works in the public domain. This allows others to use, build upon, and transform works as they wish.
• Attribution License (CC BY) The CC BY License gives others the same rights as the CC0 license, provided that the original creator is credited for thier work.
• Attribution Share-Alike License (CC BY-SA) Similar to the CC BY License, the CC BY-SA requires others to credit the original creator for their work. The CC BY-SA contains an additional measure that requires new works derived from the original work to be licensed under identical terms as the original work.

Open Data Commons: 

• Open Data Commons "Open Data Commons is the home of a set of legal tools and licenses to help you publish, provide and use open data."

Licenses available through the Open Data Commons include:

• Open Data Commons Open Database License (ODbL)
• Open Data Commons Attribution License (ODC-By)
• Open Data Commons Public Domain Dedication and License (PDDL)
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Copyright & Publishing for Graduate Students: Creative Commons Licenses

• Copyright & Fair Use
• Author Rights
• Open Access

Creative Commons Licenses

Creative Commons Licenses allow you indicate to the public what kinds of uses you allow for your copyrighted work.  They are not an alternative to copyright; they work alongside copyright and enable you to modify your copyright terms to best suit your needs.  You can ask that others who use your work simply attribute your work, you can restrict use to non-commercial purposes, or you can allow or deny derivatives of your work.  You can also specify that anyone who uses your work must in turn license their own work in the same way. 

Read more on the Creative Commons website:  http://creativecommons.org .

When you upload your thesis or dissertation you will have the option of applying a creative commons license to your work. 

Get Creative - The Origins of Creative Commons Licenses

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• JET Library

ETD Submission Guide

• More about Creative Commons Licenses
• ETD Publishing Overview
• Quick Links & ETD Support
• Process for Thesis
• Process for Dissertation
• For Administrators

When Do I Need a Creative Commons License?

If you plan to file and pay for U.S. formal copyright - which is described on the Process for Dissertation/Process for Thesis tabs of this guide - then you do not need to file for a Creative Commons license. You only need to have one or the other, NOT BOTH. While not as robust, a Creative Commons license is a FREE alternative to protecting your work in an open access environment, and the information below can help you choose which option works best for you.

What is a Creative Commons license?

Visit the Copyright Basics LibGuide  to learn about Copyright.

• Choosing a CC License
• New User Considerations
• About CC Licenses

CC Licenses and Use

Foter. (ND). Copyright Commons Licenses. Retrieved from  https://www.wur.nl/en/article/What-are-Creative-Commons-licenses.htm CC-BY-SA

A Tale of 6 Licenses

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• Last Updated: Nov 6, 2023 12:51 PM
• URL: https://molloy.libguides.com/etd

Pumerantz Library Research Guides

Research assistance, subject guides, & useful resources, theses and dissertations: reusing copyrighted material.

• Introduction
• Writing Your Thesis or Dissertation
• Reusing Copyrighted Material

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What Do I Need Permission For?

You generally DO need permission to:

• Reuse a survey or assessment instrument created by another person
• Reprint a table, figure, or image from a book or journal article
• Reprint a copyrighted image from the Internet (assume all images are copyrighted unless stated otherwise)
• Make modifications to a copyrighted image or an image released under a Creative Commons No Derivatives license
• Reprint copyrighted images or images released under a Creative Commons Non-Commercial license in a book, journal, or other commercial venue

You generally DO NOT need permission to:

• Quote brief excerpts from a scholarly work
• Reprint images released under a Creative Commons license
• Make modifications to images released under Creative Commons licenses that do not contain " No Derivatives "
• Reprint images released under Creative Commons licenses that do not contain " Non-Commercial " in a book, journal, or other commercial venue
• Reuse any work that is in the public domain

Finding Permission-Free Images

Pumerantz Library's Medical Images & Videos research guide has a section dedicated to resources for finding public domain and Creative Commons-licensed images. 

You can also limit Google Images searches to images you can freely reuse or modify for commercial or noncommercial purposes:

Citing Images

A citation for an image or figure should have the following:

• Title of the image
• Author or creator of the image
• Source of the figure or image 
• Copyright or Creative Commons license
• "Reprinted with permission from [Copyright holder]' (if relevant)
• Description of any modifications to the image (if relevant)

Sample citations for Creative Commons images can be found here .

If the original source is a book or journal, include the full citation for the source, not just a URL (even if you originally retrieved the work online). More information about book and article citations can be found on the Pumerantz Library's Citation Style research guide .

If the original source is a website, embed the link to the title rather than typing out the full URL in the citation.

How Do I Request Permission to Reuse Material?

Who owns the copyright?

• Journal articles: The copyright owner is usually the journal (or the journal's publisher), not the author. 
• Books: The author usually retains the copyright, but the publisher generally handles reprint requests. 
• Websites: This can be tricky to determine. Some websites create all their own content, including images, and own the copyright on everything on the site. Other websites, like blogs or aggregator sites, may use images and other content from multiple sources. You can paste the image's URL into a reverse image search to track down the original copyright owner.

How do I contact the copyright owner?

• Journal articles: You can often find a link on the article's website that says something like "Get rights" or "Request permissions." This will take you directly to a page where you can request permission. If not, you can usually find a "Contact us" link on the journal's home page and submit the request that way.
• Books: You can contact the publisher using the mailing address listed on the copyright page of the book or look for a "Contact us" or "Request permissions" link on the publisher's website.
• Websites: If you are fairly sure the website is the original owner of the content you want, use the "Contact us" form or other contact information listed to submit your request. If the website is not the owner, try to find contact information for the original creator--a link to the owner's site is often embedded in their name, if it is listed.

How long does it take to hear back?

It depends! In some cases, you will hear back in a few days. Other times, you may hear back in weeks, months--or never. It is a good idea to give yourself at least a month or two if you can.

Will I be charged a fee to reuse material?

Again, it depends on the copyright owner. Many creators and publishers will allow students to reuse items in their theses or dissertations for free. Others may charge a nominal fee or fees ranging in the hundreds of dollars.

What are my options if permission is denied or too expensive--or if I just never hear back?

It is a good idea to have a backup plan, like another permission-free image or a brief written description of the desired figure (in your own words) to use instead. If only the original material will work, you can consider appealing (once, and politely) to the copyright owner. If this does not work, you may need to cut the material altogether.

Can I just redraw the figure myself? Then I'll have the rights to the image, right?

No. This is legally murky at best (if you redraw the image in a completely different way) and shady/illegal at worst. Use one of the solutions listed above instead.

Copyright and permissions can be difficult to navigate. If you need help, please email  Kelli Hines  or use the icons above to contact one of the reference librarians.

Even More Research Guides

• << Previous: Writing Your Thesis or Dissertation
• Next: Submitting Your Work >>
• Last Updated: May 22, 2024 12:37 PM

Copyright on Campus: Theses & Dissertations

• Introduction
• Copyright Law Basics
• Public Domain
• Theses & Dissertations
• Author Rights
• Showing Movies in Class and on Campus
• Copyright & Data Management
• Copyright in Special Collections
• Open Education

Publisher Policies

Students often receive mixed messages when it comes to including a published paper in a dissertation, or publishing from the dissertation beyond graduation. Both of these scenarios are common and familiar to publishers, but there might be specific guidelines or requirements such as:

• Be transparent. Include a brief explanation when you submit your publication. More often, journals use plagiarism detection software; letting them know your work is out there and publicly available will help sidestep any questions.
• Include a citation to the published work in your thesis or dissertation, and/or a citation to the thesis/dissertation in the resulting publication.
• Specific rules for formatting.
• Resource: Publisher Policies MIT Libraries has compiled a list of major publishers with links to relevant policies

Reusing Material

Theses and dissertations often use charts, graphs, images, and quotes from other journal articles, books, or websites. When doing this, be aware that most content is protected by copyright, though it's likely fine for you to use these materials if you can do one of the following:

• Use public domain content. If you are including factual data presented in a straightforward way (e.g., a simple bar graph or pie chart showing the results of an experiment), it's very likely the figure does not meet the minimum threshold for creatively and is not protected by copyright.
• Use openly licensed content. Open access journal articles and books, as well as other media labeled with a Creative Commons license, 
• Decide your use is "fair." Fair use is a specific provision within U.S. Copyright Law that allows for limited use of in-copyright material without seeking permission. In general, quotations from the work of others should be no longer than is necessary to support the scholarly point you wish to make. In the case of images, you should be sure that the pictures you reproduce are closely tied to your research goals and are each made the subject of specific scholarly comment. More on fair use .
• If you're not sure about relying on fair use, you can often seek permission. Most of the time, this means navigating to the publisher's website or a journal article page and finding a link to "rights" or "permissions." Many publishers allow graduate students to use content without charge, with the understanding that if you publish your work formally in future, you may need to obtain permission again and pay a fee. It's a good idea to get permission in writing, but even an email is sufficient.

From Dissertation to Publication - FAQ on Your Rights as Author

Who owns the copyright of a thesis or dissertation?

You do! The copyright of a thesis or dissertation belongs to you as the author. Under the U.S. Copyright Act, works are automatically copyrighted at the moment they are fixed in a tangible form, including residing on your computer's hard drive. You continue to own that copyright until you transfer it to another party.  A transfer of copyright must be in writing.  If parts of a work have already been published and copyright in those other works was transferred to someone else (e.g. a publisher), copyright of those parts remains with whom it was transferred to.

Who owns copyright in work produced as part of a team or in a lab?

Whenever a group undertakes a project or research, it is best to have a discussion up front, including the faculty advisor or chair, to clarify how copyright, patents and other intellectual property will be managed and who will retain and manage rights for all portions of the project. Be sure to consider not only publications arising from the project, but also data sets, software, websites, user interfaces, specifications, and any other outputs. It is always best to make sure that faculty make clear to graduate students and others working for them how research outputs will be owned or used in order to avoid confusion. In circumstances where grant funds or University funding is significantly invested in the project or research, other ownership interests may be at play, which should be discussed and understood.

Do I need to register my copyright?

You do not need to register with the Copyright Office in order to enjoy copyright protection. Such protection is automatic, coming into effect at the moment a work is fixed in a tangible form. However, registration has certain advantages.  First, if your work is registered you have strong evidence that you are the author of the work and the owner of its copyright. Also, registration is necessary to enforce a copyright against an infringer or plagiarist. For full detail, read the U.S. Copyright Office circular " Copyright Basics ". The benefits of registration are outlined on Page 7.

Registration can be completed online directly (for a fee of $45) through the Copyright Office website  or through ProQuest (for a fee of $55) who will register the copyright for you and in your name.

Can I use previously published articles of my own in my work?

It depends. You will need to review the agreement you signed with the publisher of our previously published article. Most agreements require you to transfer your copyright to the publisher. If this is the case, you must request permission from the publisher to "reprint" the article as a chapter in your dissertation. However, some agreements specify that you retain the right to reprint the article in your dissertation. The chart below details several publishers' policies with respect to reusing your own previously published work in a thesis or dissertation; however, you should always review the terms of any agreement you signed.

Why do I have two publishing agreements to review and sign, and what do I need to understand about them?

University of Florida dissertations are distributed by both ProQuest/UMI and the UF Libraries. Both will make your work available and preserve it for the future (ProQuest through its Dissertations and Theses database and print sales if you choose to allow that, and the UF Libraries through its institutional repository, the IR@UF ). In return for those services, both ProQuest and the UF Libraries require you to certify that the work is your own and that you are not infringing the rights of others. These agreements also provide a mechanism for all parties to recognize your rights as an author.  

Please note, by signing these agreements you still retain copyright, including the right to publish your work; the licenses you give to ProQuest/UMI and to the UF Libraries does not preclude publishing any part of your dissertation in another form or prevent you from transferring your copyright to some other party at a later date. A license is a permission you give to others to use your work in ways that would otherwise not be permitted by copyright law; they are not a transfer of your copyright.

The agreement with UF Libraries requires that you give a license to UF to put your dissertation in the IR@UF and distribute it in a way that allows other scholars to read it and use it for non-commercial purposes, as long as they do not make changes to your work and always give you credit. This license is designed to enable scholarship and to protect you from plagiarism. The agreement with ProQuest/UMI  grants ProQuest the non-exclusive right to reproduce and disseminate your work according to the conditions you elect in the agreement, including whether to make your work available after a specified embargo period and whether to make it available open access. 

Both publishing agreements allow students to elect to make their dissertations available immediately or after a specific limited period of time known as an embargo. An embargo may be appropriate and desired when a student wants to allow time to explore publishing part of it in other forms, if the dissertation contains material for which a patent might be sought, or if it includes other sensitive or confidential information.

What is open access, and how does it apply to my thesis or dissertation?

Articles, books, theses and dissertations are said to be "open access" when they are "digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions." By making publications open access, the widest sharing of ideas and research results is made possible, which is generally done either by publishing in open access journals or depositing them in open access repositories such as PubMed Central, arXiv, or the IR@UF. University of Florida policy is for all new dissertations to be available open access through the IR@UF, either immediately or after an embargo period. 

Will journal or book publishers consider publishing my work if it is based on an open access thesis or dissertation?

Recent surveys  show that a majority of journal editors and university presses would accept submissions of articles and book manuscripts that were based upon theses or dissertations, even if they are available in an open access repository. This is in part because most publishers consider theses and dissertations to be "student work" that will require substantial editing and revision before being published in article or book form. The chart below summarizes the policies of some publishers regarding the publication of new works from a thesis or dissertation.

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• Last Updated: Jan 30, 2024 4:37 PM
• URL: https://guides.uflib.ufl.edu/copyright

Creative Commons

Tag: dissertation, new stanford electronic dissertation program enables cc licensing.

Last November, Stanford started accepting digital dissertations for the first time, allowing students to opt out of hundreds of dollars in printing and processing costs. The new program also enabled CC licensing, allowing students to make their work available under a license of their choosing. Of the 60 doctoral students who submitted their dissertations electronically,…

CC Licensing Your Dissertations

PhD students slave for years on researching, writing, and drafting a final product, usually text, that marks the culmination of their candidacy for the highly esteemed doctoral degree. This product is then reviewed by a tenured member of the faculty in their domain of expertise, or a small committee of said members. Upon passing this…

The Pursuit of Efficient Copyright Licensing

Herkko Hietanen, project lead for CC Finland, has made his 320 page dissertation available online under the CC BY-NC-ND license, titled The Pursuit of Efficient Copyright Licensing — How Some Rights Reserved Attempts to Solve the Problems of All Rights Reserved: The dissertation contributes to the existing literature in several ways. There is a wide…

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May 23, 2024

Paul Byrnes joined Emory in 2008 and guided efforts on faculty salary competitiveness, tuition planning and graduate student funding.

Paul Byrnes, vice provost for academic finance, will serve as the next senior vice chancellor of finance and administration at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, effective July 1.

Byrnes joined Emory as senior director of business services in 2008 before becoming the associate dean for finance and operations and chief business officer for the James T. Laney School of Graduate Studies in 2015. In 2018, he was appointed vice provost for academic finance within the Office of the Provost.

During his career at Emory, Byrnes led a wide range of initiatives focused on improving the university's financial and operational sustainability. He championed efforts to expand funding for graduate student stipends, revamp the tuition planning process, develop faculty salary equity and competitiveness analyses, and implement student lifecycle measures to complement Emory’s graduation and retention efforts.

Ravi V. Bellamkonda, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs , describes Byrnes as a collaborative team leader and strategic analyst who worked with Office of the Provost staff, academic deans and chief business officers across campus to continuously improve administrative structures and optimize financial and operational resources.

"We are grateful for Paul and his commitment to ensuring Emory properly stewards its finances and resources,” says Bellamkonda. “We will miss his valuable insights and dedication to collaborating with schools and units across the institution but are excited for him to serve in a senior leadership role at a flagship public university.”

• Economics and Finance
• Office of the Provost

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By exercising the Licensed Rights (defined below), You accept and agree to be bound by the terms and conditions of this Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License ("Public License"). To the extent this Public License may be interpreted as a contract, You are granted the Licensed Rights in consideration of Your acceptance of these terms and conditions, and the Licensor grants You such rights in consideration of benefits the Licensor receives from making the Licensed Material available under these terms and conditions.

Section 1 – Definitions.

• Adapted Material   means material subject to Copyright and Similar Rights that is derived from or based upon the Licensed Material and in which the Licensed Material is translated, altered, arranged, transformed, or otherwise modified in a manner requiring permission under the Copyright and Similar Rights held by the Licensor. For purposes of this Public License, where the Licensed Material is a musical work, performance, or sound recording, Adapted Material is always produced where the Licensed Material is synched in timed relation with a moving image.
• Copyright and Similar Rights   means copyright and/or similar rights closely related to copyright including, without limitation, performance, broadcast, sound recording, and Sui Generis Database Rights, without regard to how the rights are labeled or categorized. For purposes of this Public License, the rights specified in Section   2(b)(1)-(2)   are not Copyright and Similar Rights.
• Effective Technological Measures   means those measures that, in the absence of proper authority, may not be circumvented under laws fulfilling obligations under Article 11 of the WIPO Copyright Treaty adopted on December 20, 1996, and/or similar international agreements.
• Exceptions and Limitations   means fair use, fair dealing, and/or any other exception or limitation to Copyright and Similar Rights that applies to Your use of the Licensed Material.
• Licensed Material   means the artistic or literary work, database, or other material to which the Licensor applied this Public License.
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• Share   means to provide material to the public by any means or process that requires permission under the Licensed Rights, such as reproduction, public display, public performance, distribution, dissemination, communication, or importation, and to make material available to the public including in ways that members of the public may access the material from a place and at a time individually chosen by them.
• Sui Generis Database Rights   means rights other than copyright resulting from Directive 96/9/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 1996 on the legal protection of databases, as amended and/or succeeded, as well as other essentially equivalent rights anywhere in the world.
• You   means the individual or entity exercising the Licensed Rights under this Public License.   Your   has a corresponding meaning.

Section 2 – Scope.

• reproduce and Share the Licensed Material, in whole or in part; and
• produce and reproduce, but not Share, Adapted Material.
• Exceptions and Limitations . For the avoidance of doubt, where Exceptions and Limitations apply to Your use, this Public License does not apply, and You do not need to comply with its terms and conditions.
• Term . The term of this Public License is specified in Section   6(a) .
• Media and formats; technical modifications allowed . The Licensor authorizes You to exercise the Licensed Rights in all media and formats whether now known or hereafter created, and to make technical modifications necessary to do so. The Licensor waives and/or agrees not to assert any right or authority to forbid You from making technical modifications necessary to exercise the Licensed Rights, including technical modifications necessary to circumvent Effective Technological Measures. For purposes of this Public License, simply making modifications authorized by this Section   2(a)(4)   never produces Adapted Material.
• Offer from the Licensor – Licensed Material . Every recipient of the Licensed Material automatically receives an offer from the Licensor to exercise the Licensed Rights under the terms and conditions of this Public License.
• No downstream restrictions . You may not offer or impose any additional or different terms or conditions on, or apply any Effective Technological Measures to, the Licensed Material if doing so restricts exercise of the Licensed Rights by any recipient of the Licensed Material.
• No endorsement . Nothing in this Public License constitutes or may be construed as permission to assert or imply that You are, or that Your use of the Licensed Material is, connected with, or sponsored, endorsed, or granted official status by, the Licensor or others designated to receive attribution as provided in Section   3(a)(1)(A)(i) .

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• Moral rights, such as the right of integrity, are not licensed under this Public License, nor are publicity, privacy, and/or other similar personality rights; however, to the extent possible, the Licensor waives and/or agrees not to assert any such rights held by the Licensor to the limited extent necessary to allow You to exercise the Licensed Rights, but not otherwise.
• Patent and trademark rights are not licensed under this Public License.
• To the extent possible, the Licensor waives any right to collect royalties from You for the exercise of the Licensed Rights, whether directly or through a collecting society under any voluntary or waivable statutory or compulsory licensing scheme. In all other cases the Licensor expressly reserves any right to collect such royalties.

Section 3 – License Conditions.

Your exercise of the Licensed Rights is expressly made subject to the following conditions.

Attribution .

If You Share the Licensed Material, You must:

• identification of the creator(s) of the Licensed Material and any others designated to receive attribution, in any reasonable manner requested by the Licensor (including by pseudonym if designated);
• a copyright notice;
• a notice that refers to this Public License;
• a notice that refers to the disclaimer of warranties;
• a URI or hyperlink to the Licensed Material to the extent reasonably practicable;
• indicate if You modified the Licensed Material and retain an indication of any previous modifications; and
• indicate the Licensed Material is licensed under this Public License, and include the text of, or the URI or hyperlink to, this Public License.
• You may satisfy the conditions in Section   3(a)(1)   in any reasonable manner based on the medium, means, and context in which You Share the Licensed Material. For example, it may be reasonable to satisfy the conditions by providing a URI or hyperlink to a resource that includes the required information.
• If requested by the Licensor, You must remove any of the information required by Section   3(a)(1)(A)   to the extent reasonably practicable.

Section 4 – Sui Generis Database Rights.

Where the Licensed Rights include Sui Generis Database Rights that apply to Your use of the Licensed Material:

• for the avoidance of doubt, Section   2(a)(1)   grants You the right to extract, reuse, reproduce, and Share all or a substantial portion of the contents of the database, provided You do not Share Adapted Material;
• if You include all or a substantial portion of the database contents in a database in which You have Sui Generis Database Rights, then the database in which You have Sui Generis Database Rights (but not its individual contents) is Adapted Material; and
• You must comply with the conditions in Section   3(a)   if You Share all or a substantial portion of the contents of the database.

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• Unless otherwise separately undertaken by the Licensor, to the extent possible, the Licensor offers the Licensed Material as-is and as-available, and makes no representations or warranties of any kind concerning the Licensed Material, whether express, implied, statutory, or other. This includes, without limitation, warranties of title, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, absence of latent or other defects, accuracy, or the presence or absence of errors, whether or not known or discoverable. Where disclaimers of warranties are not allowed in full or in part, this disclaimer may not apply to You.
• To the extent possible, in no event will the Licensor be liable to You on any legal theory (including, without limitation, negligence) or otherwise for any direct, special, indirect, incidental, consequential, punitive, exemplary, or other losses, costs, expenses, or damages arising out of this Public License or use of the Licensed Material, even if the Licensor has been advised of the possibility of such losses, costs, expenses, or damages. Where a limitation of liability is not allowed in full or in part, this limitation may not apply to You.
• The disclaimer of warranties and limitation of liability provided above shall be interpreted in a manner that, to the extent possible, most closely approximates an absolute disclaimer and waiver of all liability.

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• This Public License applies for the term of the Copyright and Similar Rights licensed here. However, if You fail to comply with this Public License, then Your rights under this Public License terminate automatically.

Where Your right to use the Licensed Material has terminated under Section   6(a) , it reinstates:

• automatically as of the date the violation is cured, provided it is cured within 30 days of Your discovery of the violation; or
• upon express reinstatement by the Licensor.
• For the avoidance of doubt, the Licensor may also offer the Licensed Material under separate terms or conditions or stop distributing the Licensed Material at any time; however, doing so will not terminate this Public License.
• Sections   1 ,   5 ,   6 ,   7 , and   8   survive termination of this Public License.

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• The Licensor shall not be bound by any additional or different terms or conditions communicated by You unless expressly agreed.
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• For the avoidance of doubt, this Public License does not, and shall not be interpreted to, reduce, limit, restrict, or impose conditions on any use of the Licensed Material that could lawfully be made without permission under this Public License.
• To the extent possible, if any provision of this Public License is deemed unenforceable, it shall be automatically reformed to the minimum extent necessary to make it enforceable. If the provision cannot be reformed, it shall be severed from this Public License without affecting the enforceability of the remaining terms and conditions.
• No term or condition of this Public License will be waived and no failure to comply consented to unless expressly agreed to by the Licensor.
• Nothing in this Public License constitutes or may be interpreted as a limitation upon, or waiver of, any privileges and immunities that apply to the Licensor or You, including from the legal processes of any jurisdiction or authority.

Creative Commons is not a party to its public licenses. Notwithstanding, Creative Commons may elect to apply one of its public licenses to material it publishes and in those instances will be considered the “Licensor.” The text of the Creative Commons public licenses is dedicated to the public domain under the   CC0 Public Domain Dedication . Except for the limited purpose of indicating that material is shared under a Creative Commons public license or as otherwise permitted by the Creative Commons policies published at   creativecommons.org/policies , Creative Commons does not authorize the use of the trademark “Creative Commons” or any other trademark or logo of Creative Commons without its prior written consent including, without limitation, in connection with any unauthorized modifications to any of its public licenses or any other arrangements, understandings, or agreements concerning use of licensed material. For the avoidance of doubt, this paragraph does not form part of the public licenses.