For ‘All Rights Reserved’ to ‘Some Rights Reserved’: open licensing to scholarly publication

Abstract

Open licences serve as a crucial mechanism for safeguarding the rights of creators by granting authors increased authority over their work, encompassing aspects such as reproduction, distribution, performance, display, and adaptation. Creative Commons, among other open licences, not only affords legal safeguards to creators to prevent misuse or infringement but also the dissemination of academic knowledge and facilitates collaborative efforts. The adoption of open licences is on the rise within the realm of academic publishing, aiming to promote knowledge sharing and cooperation. Academic institutions are benefitting from novel open publishing models that enable researchers to share their findings with a wider audience while safeguarding their intellectual property through Creative Commons licensing. These models confer a competitive advantage to academic entities by empowering them to independently publish their research outcomes, which are often relegated to the realm of grey literature. The present article discusses a study that explores various open licensing models and their applications, elucidating their advantages for the academic community. It sheds light on the concept of open licensing in relation to copyright laws, safeguarding intellectual assets for communal use within academic communities.