Springer’s Open Access Titles Move To New CC-BY 4.0 License
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London, 18 December 2013 Articles submitted to BioMed Central, Chemistry Central, and SpringerOpen journals from 03 February 2014 onwards will be subject to the newCC-BY 4.0 Creative Commons Attribution license. This also applies to open access articles published in the majority of Springer’s subscription-based journals using the Open Choiceoption. The new license is more digital-friendly, and includes a simplified attribution requirement.
For BioMed Central and Chemistry Central, this will mean works will be published under a combined Creative Commons Attribution license for published articles and Creative Commons CC0 waiver for published data, for instance, in tables and supplementary material. For SpringerOpen and Springer Open Choice, all content will fall under the CC-BY 4.0 license.
CC-BY is designed to allow for the benefits of open access to be truly realized in a digital world. With this version, research can benefit from more than a decade of input and improvement the CC-BY license has had. This updated version brings with it several benefits to authors, such as a simplified attribution requirement, a requirement that the person reusing a work indicate whether the work has been modified, the addition of specific database rights, a no endorsement clause, and much more.
CC-BY 4.0 is the most global, legally robust version of the “attribution license” produced by Creative Commons to date, and comes with many improvements. This new CC-BY 4.0 license is well-suited for use by governments and publishers of public sector information and other data, especially for those in the European Union.
In September 2013, BioMed Central and Chemistry Central transitioned to a combined license, using theCreative Commons CC0public domain waiver for data published and continuing to use the CC-BY 2.0 license for published articles. Aneditorial on this consultation and subsequent licensing change was published in BMC Research Notes.
Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) is a leading global scientific, technical and medical publisher, providing researchers in academia, scientific institutions and corporate R&D departments with quality content via innovative information products and services. Springer is also a trusted local-language publisher in Europe – especially in Germany and the Netherlands – primarily for physicians and professionals working in healthcare and road safety education. Springer published roughly 2,200 English-language journals and more than 8,000 new books in 2012, and the group is home to the world’s largest STM eBook collection, as well as the most comprehensive portfolio of open access journals. In 2012, Springer Science+Business Media generated sales of approximately EUR 976.3 million. The group employs more than 7,000 individuals across the globe.
