Open Access License Policy
Author agreements:
In order for us to do our job of publishing and disseminating your research article we need publishing rights. For open access articles we use an exclusive licensing agreement in which authors retain copyright in their article.
User licenses:
Users or readers of your article also need to be clear on how they can use the article. For open access articles we offer authors a selection of user licenses to choose from and the options depend on the journal in which you choose to publish. For subscription journals, the user rights are generally defined by subscription licenses. (Read more).
Details of the open access user licenses are set out below:
Open Access Articles
For all open access articles, published in either an Elsevier Open Access journal or via our Open Access Article option, we offer different Creative Commons user licenses.
We are continuously working with our authors to provide the best range of license options. The choice is dependent on the journal in which you choose publish. Please refer to the journal's homepage for specific details.
Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY):
Lets others distribute and copy the article, to create extracts, abstracts, and other revised versions, adaptations or derivative works of or from an article (such as a translation), to include in a collective work (such as an anthology), to text or data mine the article, even for commercial purposes, as long as they credit the author(s), do not represent the author as endorsing their adaptation of the article, and do not modify the article in such a way as to damage the author’s honor or reputation.
Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA):
For non-commercial purposes, lets others distribute and copy the article, to create extracts, abstracts and other revised versions, adaptations or derivative works of or from an article (such as a translation), to include in a collective work (such as an anthology), to text and data mine the article, as long as they credit the author(s), do not represent the author as endorsing their adaptation of the article, do not modify the article in such a way as to damage the author’s honor or reputation, and license their new adaptations or creations under identical terms (CC BY NC SA)
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC-BY-NC-ND):
For non-commercial purposes, lets others distribute and copy the article, and to include in a collective work (such as an anthology), as long as they credit the author(s) and provided they do not alter or modify the article.
Please note: For authors publishing open access in either an Open Access journal or via Open Access Articles, your Accepted Author Manuscript (AAM) and preprint will also be governed by the same user license you have chosen for your final published journal article.
Open Archive
Elsevier also provides access to archived material through our Open Archives. These articles are published in a subscription journal and after a journal-specific embargo period, Elsevier enables these articles to become open access.
Once the articles have been made open access, they will have specific user rights defined by a bespoke license tailored for the research environment, detailed below:
Open Archive articles: are protected by copyright and may be used for non-commercial purposes. Users may access, download, copy, display, redistribute, adapt, translate, text mine and data mine the articles provided that:
- They cite the article using an appropriate bibliographic citation (i.e. author(s), journal, article title, volume, issue, page numbers, DOI and the link to the definitive published version on ScienceDirect)
- They maintain the integrity of the article
- They retain copyright notices and links to these terms and conditions so it is clear to other users what can and cannot be done with the article
- They ensure that, for any content in the article that is identified as belonging to a third party, any re-use complies with the copyright policies of that third party
- Any translations, for which a prior translation agreement with Elsevier has not been established, must prominently display the statement: "This is an unofficial translation of an article that appeared in an Elsevier publication. Elsevier has not endorsed this translation."
| Copying or downloading articles, or linking to such postings, for further redistribution, sale or licensing, for a fee |
| Copying, downloading or posting by a site or service that incorporates advertising with such content |
| The inclusion or incorporation of article content in other works or services (other than normal quotations with an appropriate citation) that is then available for sale or licensing, for a fee |
| Use of articles or article content (other than normal quotations with appropriate citation) by for-profit organizations for promotional purposes, whether for a fee or otherwise. |
| Use for the purposes of monetary reward by means of sale, resale, license, loan, transfer or other form of commercial. |
For permission to use documents beyond permitted here, visit our Support & Contact website.
Green Open Access
Elsevier has a Green Open Access policy, which outlines how authors can self-archive their accepted author manuscript (AAM) or preprint on their personal website or institutional repository.
When an institution has an open access policy or mandate that requires authors to post, and an agreement with Elsevier to use journal specific embargo periods which typically range from 12-24 months, then they can also facilitate author self-archiving.
Author accepted manuscripts posted in compliance with our policies can be made publicly available on the following user agreement (or license):
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC-BY-NC-ND): for non-commercial purposes, lets others distribute and copy the article, and to include in a collective work (such as an anthology), as long as they credit the author(s) and provided they do not alter or modify the article.
It is also possible to text mine this content. For more information email TDMsupport@elsevier.com
If you require your AAM to be published under a different user agreement, please email universalaccess@elsevier.com.
