Open Access (OA) refers to free and unrestricted access to academic publications for anyone interested, regardless of their location. OA also ensures that research results can be reused as flexibly and freely as possible.
Readers benefit from OA because they can access academic publications immediately and without paywalls. Authors of OA publications benefit because OA publications are generally read and cited more frequently than non-OA publications.
With gold open access, the definitive version of the publication is published immediately in open access. Authors are often required to pay publication fees (article/book processing charges, APCs or BPCs).
In many cases, Goethe University's Open Access publication fund can cover publication fees for journal articles. Furthermore, anticipated publication costs can be declared in research grant applications to many funding institutions.
There is a growing number of journals and publishers that offer OA publishing free of charge to both authors and readers. Unlike Gold OA, authors are not required to pay any publication fees. What is known as Diamond Open Access is the simplest and fairest form of OA for all involved. The University Library therefore supports numerous Diamond OA initiatives.
Under ‘hybrid Open Access’, publishers offer authors the option to ‘buy out’ their articles in return for a fee. The articles are then published immediately in Open Access in a journal that is not otherwise OA.
Hybrid OA is only supported by Goethe University’s OA Publication Fund if the publishers plan to gradually convert their journals entirely to OA as part of transformational agreements.
The following publishers currently offer affiliates of Goethe University the option of publishing via hybrid OA without charge:
If a journal or publisher offers no or no affordable direct OA option, authors still have the option of making certain versions of their manuscript available OA in parallel with or at a later date than the publisher’s version. This is referred to as ‘green Open Access’, or ‘self-archiving’. Authors incur no costs in this process.
One example are preprints: long before an article appears in a journal, authors make the manuscript version submitted to the publisher available on discipline-specific preprint servers.
Preprint servers have already become very well established in many disciplines and are rapidly gaining popularity in others:Sometimes a journal or a publisher does not offer any or no affordable direct OA option. In many cases authors still have the option to make certain manuscript versions available in OA either concurrently to the publisher’s version, or after a delay. This is called “green Open Access” or “self-archiving”. No costs for authors incur.
Furthermore, for many journals (and in some cases for edited volumes), there is the option of making the so-called author-accepted manuscript (AAM, also known as a ‘postprint’) freely accessible. German copyright law allows authors to publish AAMs in open access 12 months after the publication of a journal article, for example on Goethe University’s repository.
Funding institutions that require open access publications as a condition of funding also accept self-archived AAMs. We are happy to assist you in making your publications freely accessible through our self-archiving service.
Creative Commons licences (CC licences) are what make publications ‘truly’ open access. They preserve authors’ rights to their publications whilst facilitating reuse by the academic community in the research cycle.
CC licences are internationally recognised standard licence agreements. They have become the norm for OA publications in publishing houses. Authors can often select a suitable licence, which the publisher then assigns on their behalf.
Research funding institutions encourage publication under open licences or even specify particular CC licences as a compulsory part of their open access mandate.
When publishing via repositories, discipline-specific repositories or academic blogs, authors assign the CC licence themselves. The process is very simple: all that is required is to include the appropriate licence reference in a suitable place within the document (cover page, header or footer, legal notice).
A licence reference consists of:
CC licences are made up of various components. Depending on the combination, the license allows for more or less restricted reuse. There are six different CC licences (see below).
For academic publications, we recommend the CC BY (Attribution) licence. This is the ‘freest’ CC license and allows reuse in line with the Open Access principles set out in the Berlin Declaration.
If a publisher does not offer this licence, we recommend choosing the ‘next-freest’ licence. See the overview of the gradation of CC licences.
In the following table, you will find, for each of the six CC licences:
The following information an resources can help you in selecting a suitable licence. You can use this information and resources to select the appropriate licence for a publication with a publisher. For publications you publish yourself (e.g. on the repository), you can apply a valid licence reference.
| CC licence | License name | Effect of license | Supplement |
|---|---|---|---|
 CC BY 4.0 |
Attribution | The authors of the work and the original source must be acknowledged. |
Licence note PDF attachment (ca. 90KB) |
 CC BY SA 4.0 |
Attribution-ShareAlike |
The authors of the work and the original source must be acknowledged. The work itself and any derivative works may only be redistributed under the terms of this licence. |
Licence note PDF attachment (ca. 90KB) |
 CC BY ND 4.0 |
Attribution-NoDerivatives |
The authors of the work and the original source must be acknowledged. The work must not be redistributed in any altered form, e.g. in an abridged version or as a derivative of the original. |
Licence note PDF attachment (ca. 90KB) |
 CC BY NC 4.0 |
Attribution-NonCommercial |
The authors of the work and the original source must be acknowledged. The work may not be reused for commercial purposes. |
Licence note PDF attachment (ca. 90KB) |
 CC BY NC ND 4.0 |
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives |
The authors of the work and the original source must be acknowledged. The work may not be reused for commercial purposes. The work must not be redistributed in any altered form, e.g. in an abridged version or as a derivative of the original. |
Licence note PDF attachment (ca. 90KB) |
 CC BY NC SA 4.0 |
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike |
The authors of the work and the original source must be acknowledged.
The work may not be reused for commercial purposes. The work itself and any derivative works may only be redistributed under the terms of this licence. |
Licence note PDF attachment (ca. 90KB) |
Copyright law stipulates that a work may not be reused without the author’s consent. Exceptions include the citation right or the right to reproduce works for private use or for research and educational purposes. When publishing through a publishing house, authors contractually transfer usage rights to the publisher, meaning that the publisher can usually determine how the work is used.
CC licences grant certain rights of further use on a blanket basis, depending on the licence chosen. This means there is no need to negotiate a separate contract with authors or publishers for each use, which is entirely in keeping with the idea of open access.
No. As the author of a publication, you retain full ownership of the rights to your work.
In fact, this often means you retain more rights than you would under a conventional publishing contract. CC licences simply grant various rights of reuse on a blanket basis. Authors therefore neither lose their rights nor forfeit the opportunity to use their works in other ways.
In an academic context, reuse can take many different forms, for example:
No. The CC licence always requires that the authors be credited, including reference to the licence and a link to the original. Any new work derived from another work must therefore include a reference to the author, the licence and the source of the original work.
It is always possible to object to the use of one’s own work in an unwanted context. This can initially be done in a straightforward manner (by contacting those responsible). At the creator’s request, a statement may also be included indicating that the creator does not endorse the use of the work. Legal action is also an option.
If a work is used in an extremist context, licensors are not obliged to tolerate this.
Those who adhere to correct and sound academic practice cite the authors’ names and the source of a referenced publication in the list of references. However, these are ‘merely’ referrals or quotations. CC licences permit the use of the publication beyond this, for example through the aforementioned possibilities for reuse. The care with which researchers maintain their academic citations can be regarded as the ideal practice of “attribution” in the CC context.
The CC-BY licence is the freest CC licence (apart from CC-0). It enables Open Access in the spirit of the Berlin Declaration and enables the widest possible re-use of research results. The work may be reused in its entirety: It may, for example, be redistributed on the Internet or in print, elements may be extracted and integrated into another work, the work may be translated and the translation distributed. Commercial use of the work is also possible.
The CC-BY licence is (apart from CC-0) the most open CC licence. It enables open access as defined in the Berlin Declaration and permits the widest possible reuse of research results. The work may be reused in its entirety: for example, it may be redistributed online or in print; elements may be extracted and incorporated into another work; the work may be translated and the translation distributed. Commercial use of the work is also permitted.
Initially, it may seem contradictory to allow third parties to make commercial use of a publication that is freely accessible. However, commercial use may well be desirable:
For that matter, there is no risk that a publication not excluded from commercial use will disappear behind a paywall. After all, the original publication is CC-licensed and remains freely available.
In addition, the CC-BY-SA licence provides an adequate alternative to licences containing the NC component. It ensures that any reuse of the publication complies with the terms of this licence at all times – meaning the publication remains freely accessible.
Information specifically regarding the NC component (though not limited to academia) can be found in the official Creative Commons FAQ and in this booklet from irights.info (dt.).
ND (No Derivatives) prohibits the distribution of a publication that has been altered in any way – distribution, dissemination or reuse is permitted only as an exact copy. Many researchers choose this option because they fear that third parties might misrepresent their work and then pass off this version as the original publication. There is also a fear that parts of the publication could be extracted and inserted into other publications.
Both fears are unfounded. Any alterations must be clearly indicated, and the original authors as well as the source of the original publication must be cited. This citation makes it possible to detect any manipulation of the original publication or attempts at plagiarism.
Where this does not happen, the licence terms are breached – a copyright infringement. The same could happen under the terms of ‘normal’ copyright law. The integrity of the original work is therefore no more at risk than it is under conventional publication conditions.
The assignment of the ND component may also exclude forms of use that are desirable. Examples include the compilation of works in anthologies, databases or meta-studies. Translations that extend the reach of the publication are also considered adaptations.
From 1 July 2026, the CC BY licence will be a funding requirement for all open-access articles funded by the GU publication fund. For open-access books, the CC BY or CC BY-SA licences are already a funding requirement.
If you are using grants to fund an open-access publication, certain requirements may apply. For example, the EU funding programme HORIZON EUROPE stipulates that articles must be published under a CC-BY licence.
Check the reqiurements of your funding organisation. We will gladly support you under openaccess[at]ub.uni-frankfurt.de.
Please enquire whether different contractual terms may be applicable to your publication. If specific licences are a prerequisite for granting financial support for the publication, most publishers will accept a corresponding reference and amend the contract accordingly.
You must not have previously transferred the rights of use for your publication to a third party. This is usually the case if you have transferred the ‘exclusive rights’ to the publication to the publishing house under a publishing contract.
However, if you have only transferred “non-exclusive rights” contractually – or if the publication has not yet been published at all – you can, in most cases, grant a CC licence.
Yes, like any other publication, dissertations can also be published under a Creative Commons licence.
Feel free to contact the Open Access team.
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zuletzt geändert am 17. April 2026
