[BOAI] Report on the implementation of open content licenses in developing and transition countries is released

[Iryna Kuchma]

(This message is being sent to multiple lists; please excuse duplication)

Dear all,

We have produced the Report on the implementation of open content licenses
in developing and transition countries. We tried to gather information from
a broad spectrum of research institutions in order to get a better
understanding of the current state of the implementation of open content
licenses. Open content licenses or some explicit statement attached to the
article when it is published in an open access journal or deposited in an
open access repository help to refer to a specific type of libre open
access. These licenses / statements make it clear to the reusers what they
are permitted to do with published and deposited articles (including data).
An organization’s or journal’s licensing policy (including policy on re-use
and redistribution) shall be clearly stated and visible on the web site. We
looked at the web sites of 2,041 open access journals and 218 open access
repositories from eIFL network countries
http://www.eifl.net/cps/sections/country. And this report highlights the
best practices in using open content licenses by open access journals and
open access repositories in developing and transition countries. The report
was produced in the framework of the EIFL-OA advocacy programme supported by
Open Society Institute and the Wellcome Trust.

Some general findings of the survey are below and you can download the
report here:
http://www.eifl.net/cps/sections/services/eifl-oa/docs/report-on-implementation.


Some general findings of the survey:

Using open content licenses by open access journals:

- We identified 337 open access journals that use open content licenses.
- There are two types of Creative Commons licenses, which are used – either
the most liberal Creative Commons Attribution license or the most
restrictive Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works.
- Most open access journals use Creative Commons Attribution license (321
open access journals in Armenia, Bulgaria, China, Egypt, Macedonia, Nigeria,
Poland, Russia and South Africa).
- 16 open access journals in Bulgaria, Estonia and South Africa use Creative
Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works.

Using open content licenses by open access repositories:

- We identified 3 open access repositories that use open content licenses:
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike (2 repositories in
China and Poland) and Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial (1
repository in South Africa).
- Some repositories in Botswana, Poland and South Africa recommend the
depositors to use Creative Commons licenses.

We welcome any feedback you have and would like to add new case studies on
using open content licenses by open access journals and open access
repositories in developing and transition countries. Please tell us about
them!

Sincerely,
Iryna Kuchma
EIFL Open Access programme manager
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