Starting with new publications and major revisions released after January 1, 2024, UF/IFAS is releasing EDIS publications under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license.
Open-access will allow people to share and reuse our publications more easily, increasing our audiences, our reach, and our impact, without introducing noticeable changes to our publishing process.
For our purposes, the most restrictive Creative Commons license is the best option, since is not very different from the “educational uses” our current copyright statement permits:
The documents contained on this website are copyrighted by the University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) for the people of the State of Florida. UF/IFAS retains all rights under all conventions but permits free reproduction by all agents and offices of the Cooperative Extension Service and the people of the State of Florida. Permission is granted to others to use these materials in part or in full for educational purposes, provided that full credit is given to UF/IFAS, citing the publication, its source, and date of publication.
The Creative Commons license has the advantage of being standardized and machine-readable. This allows us to apply for inclusion in indexes and directories like the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ).
What does this mean for me?
Easier Sharing and Reuse
All EDIS publications fall under UF/IFAS copyright. This means that only UF/IFAS administration can approve publication permissions.
But for Creative Commons licensed publications, even though UF/IFAS will still hold the copyright, there are additional uses allowed.
Any person or platform can use an EDIS publication that has a CC BY-NC-ND-4.0 license, with the following restrictions:
BY: They must give proper attribution to UF/IFAS,- NC: It can only be used for non-commercial purposes, and
- ND: No derivative works are allowed. Derivative works include adaptations such as translations, abridged or expanded versions, infographics, or videos.
BY: They must give proper attribution to UF/IFAS,Stricter Recordkeeping
We are already vigilant about permissions for assets used in EDIS publications. But when we apply the Creative Commons license to each publication, we must ensure we aren’t infringing on any contributors’ rights. That means that we must ensure that elements like images and tables for which UF/IFAS does not hold the copyright are attributed correctly. We rely on authors to provide complete and correct attribution.
Additionally, as we develop new EDIS documents for release under this license, we must be certain that we have the right to use any assets not just in the publication, but also in its revisions and derivative works such as translations and infographics.
We are developing a Qualtrics form for conveniently recording permissions and documentation. Your ICS editor will direct you to it during copyediting if appropriate, or you can contact ICS editorial staff for more information.
Open-access Policies
EDIS is aligning its editorial practices to adhere to the principles of open-access publishing. In support of this, we have updated the EDIS About the Journal page and made some clarifications. This includes our open-access policy, copyright policy, and self-archiving policy.
Best Management Practices
The Creative Commons license permits the posting of copies online and our open-access policy affirms that authors may self-archive their EDIS submissions.
However, it is not good practice to repost an EDIS article on a UF/IFAS or Florida Extension website for any reason. Follow the guidance outlined in Best Management Practices for EDIS Publications to help ensure that Ask IFAS remains the single source of our most up-to-date and relevant resources.
Implementation
For now, only new publications and major revisions will have the Creative Commons license. All the other publications will still only have UF/IFAS copyright applied. When we’ve assessed any impact of the license change on our web traffic and reach, we may begin applying the CC license to the rest of the publications on Ask IFAS, probably as they cycle through sunset review.
For More Information
- About CC Licenses – Creative Commons
Describes the six different types of Creative Commons licenses and what they allow re-users to do. - Creative Commons Licenses (psu.edu)
A general summary specific to academic audiences. - Open Content – A Practical Guide to Using Creative Commons Licenses/The Creative Commons licensing scheme – Meta (wikimedia.org)
In depth article for Wikipedia editors, with useful charts and references - Amnesty International Permissions
See their excellent Frequently Asked Questions section concerning reuse of their CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 materials.
Featured image credit: Casimiro – stock.adobe.com
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