De Gruyter opts for CC BY-NC-ND licence for OA

De Gruyter and its Versita business will publish all their open-access content under the uniform application of the CC BY-NC-ND Creative Commons licence.

This licence means that publications may be copied, disseminated, and otherwise made public by users, provided that: the name of the author/copyright owner is mentioned in the manner requested by the author/copyright owner; the publication and its content are not used in their open access format for commercial purposes; and that the publication and its content are not edited, modified, or otherwise changed.

The Creative Commons licence CC BY-NC-ND is already the basis for the publishing contract concluded recently between De Gruyter and the Max Planck Society for the publication of open-access books.

'With the use of this publication standard De Gruyter is catering to the wishes of researchers and scientific institutions. It provides for the widest possible dissemination of content while also ensuring that the rights of the copyright owners are protected,' said Sven Fund, CEO of De Gruyter. 'The uniform application of [this licence] offers authors a reliable foundation for publishing their works. It also enables them to apply for grants and subsidies without undue administrative effort.'

However, the move to CC BY-NC-ND may disappoint some champions of the CC BY licence condition, which allows commercial reuse and is mandated by some funding bodies.