Licences, copyright and re-use rights
We require a Licence to Publish for each article you publish with Oxford University Press. This page, and our Author Portal, will help you to make sure you select the right licence for your paper.
How do I select my licence to publish?
When your paper has been accepted for publication and has been sent to OUP, we will send you an email with a link to our Author Portal.
Here you will be guided through the steps to select your licence and pay any applicable charges.
For more information about available licences and possible publication charges, please see the author guidelines page of the journal you are publishing in.
We require just one licence for each article, signed on behalf of all authors, by the corresponding author.
Which licence should I choose?
Our journals offer different licence options, please see the Instructions to Authors page of the relevant journal for more information. Descriptions of the most common licences we offer can be found below.
Please note that turn-around times to publication can be very quick – it is not possible to revert to a standard licence once an article publishes Open Access – please do be sure that this is licence you require, and that funds are in place as required, before choosing this licence type. Details of our APC waiver policy can be found here, and we strongly encourage all applications for discretionary waivers must be made before acceptance.
| Licence type | Description |
|---|---|
| Standard licence | This licence gives OUP a sole and exclusive license for all published content, rather than asking authors to transfer ownership of their copyright. |
| Open Access CC BY |
This licence lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation. This is the most accommodating of licences offered. Recommended for maximum dissemination and use of licensed materials. Most journals charge a fee for Open Access publication, please check the Instructions to Authors page of the relevant journal. |
| Open Access CC BY-NC |
This licence permits users to use, reproduce, disseminate or display the article provided that the author is attributed as the original creator and that the reuse is restricted to non-commercial purposes i.e. research or educational use. Most journals charge a fee for Open Access publication, please check the Instructions to Authors page of the relevant journal. |
| Open Access CC BY-NC-ND |
This licence allows users to download and share the article for non-commercial purposes, so long as the article is reproduced in the whole without changes, and the original authorship is acknowledged. Most journals charge a fee for Open Access publication, please check the Instructions to Authors page of the relevant journal. |
| Government licence | Select this licence if at all material times during the creation of the article you were an employee of the Government of the United States of America, and the article was written as part of your employment. |
| Crown copyright licence | Select this licence if you are or were a UK Crown servant and the article has been written in that capacity. We have an arrangement with HMSO to enable us to publish your work while acknowledging that it is Crown Copyright. |
| Open Government Licence | Select this licence if you are or were a UK Crown servant and your article has been written as part of your employment by the UK Crown, and your article should be Open Access. The OGL is an open licensing model provided by The National Archives as tool for UK public sector bodies to license the re-use of their information and data. |
If you are an employee of the Canadian or Australian Crown we will provide you with a Standard licence template. Alternatively, if your department or organisation have any specific licensing requirements, we will be willing to consider the terms providing they are compatible with our publication policies.
More information about Creative Commons licences is available on our Open Access page.
Your institution might have a Read and Publish agreement with OUP, and you may be able to publish open access and the institution will pay the open access charge. Please note that Read and Publish deals do not cover any other charges that a journal may levy (such as page or colour fees) and exclusions may apply based on the journal you are publishing in or the article type you have submitted.
Find out if your institution is participating in one of these agreements and whether you are eligible.
If you find that you might have signed the wrong licence and want to change this, contact us.
What rights do I retain as an Oxford author?
- The right, after publication by Oxford University Press, to use all or part of the Article and abstract, for your own personal use, including your own classroom teaching purposes;
- The right, after publication by Oxford University Press, to use all or part of the Article and abstract, in the preparation of derivative works, extension of the article into book-length or in other works, provided that a full acknowledgement is made to the original publication in the journal;
- The right to include the article in full or in part in a thesis or dissertation, provided that this not published commercially;
What self-archiving policies do Oxford University Press operate?
We do not allow the posting of the final published version of articles on third party websites. However, for the majority of our publications we do operate a range of self-archiving policies, which allow authors to make versions of their articles available through their own websites, the websites and repositories of their institutions or funding bodies, or on other subject based repositories. These polices are specific to each journal, but details of these polices and their terms and conditions can be found in the Instructions to Authors page of the relevant journal. For more information, please see our author self-archiving policies.
What if I or someone else want to re-use material from a non-Open Access publication or for commercial purposes?
All requests to re-use material published in an Oxford University Press journal, whether in whole or in part, in another publication will be handled by Oxford University Press. Unless otherwise stated, any permission fees will be retained by the Journal concerned. Where possible, any requests to reproduce substantial parts of the article (including in other Oxford University Press publications) will be subject to your approval (which is deemed to be given if we have not heard from you within 4 weeks of the permission being granted).
To request permission, visit the relevant journal and locate your desired content. Click on ‘Order Permissions’ within the table of contents and/or at the bottom article’s abstract to open the Rightslink page. On the Rightslink page, select the way you would like to reuse the content. You will then need to create an account or login to your existing account. Finally, you will need to accept the terms and conditions and permission will be granted. You might be asked to pay a fee for this. For more details on how to use the Rightslink system, visit our Rightslink page.
For more information on obtaining permissions in preparing a manuscript for publication, visit our Permissions page.
