Licencje Creative Commons
Creative Commons licences
A Creative Commons licences (CC) licence is a standard open licence that allows authors to specify the terms of use of their work, such as the obligation to acknowledge authorship (BY), a ban on commercial use (NC), a ban on modification of the work (ND) or the obligation to make derivative works available under the same licence (SA).
Levels of openness
Free licence – a licence that grants users four basic freedoms in the use of a work, i.e. everyone has the right to use the work for any purpose (including commercial purposes), copy and distribute the work, modify and create derivative works, and distribute modified versions (including commercially). Free licences include:
- CC BY,
- CC BY-SA.
Open licence – a licence that grants broad rights to use a work, such as copying, distributing and modifying, but may contain certain restrictions, e.g. on commercial use or the creation of derivative works. Open licences include:
- CC BY-ND,
- CC BY-NC,
- CC BY-NC-SA,
- CC BY-NC-ND.
Creative Commons Zero licence
The Creative Commons Zero (CC0) licence is the most open of the licences developed by Creative Commons. Its most important features include:
- the creator waives all copyrights to the work, including the right to attribution;
- the work enters the public domain, as far as permitted by the law of the country concerned;
- the author's name does not have to be given, although it is welcome as a form of recognition of their work;
- the work may be freely used, i.e. copied, modified, distributed and used commercially without any restrictions.
Licence comparison
| Licence | Attribution | Commercial use | Creation of derivative works | Maintaining the same conditions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CC0 | No* | Yes | Yes | No |
| CC BY | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| CC BY-SA | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| CC BY-ND | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| CC BY-NC | Yes | No | Yes | No |
| CC BY-NC-SA | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| CC BY-NC-ND | Yes | No | No | No |
For more information about the licences, visit the Creative Commons website.
Tips
In many cases, the choice of the appropriate licence depends on the openness policy of the publisher. Before publication, it is worth familiarising yourself with the terms and conditions under which works can be made available in the selected journal. The requirements of the grantor or funding body may also have a significant impact on the choice of licence.
National Science Centre (NCN)
The National Science Centre's policy includes guidelines on the selection of licences for both scientific publications and research data:
- publications may be made available under any Creative Commons or other open licence (compliant with open access principles), with the NCN recommending the use of the CC BY 4.0 licence;
- basic research data sets related to publications should be made available under a CC0, CC BY 4.0 or equivalent licence.
Source information
Policy of open access to publications resulting from projects, internships, scholarships, scientific activities and research components (NCN Director's Order No. 39/2025 of 26 June 2025) and a letter extending the new rules to ongoing projects (Letter from the Director of the NCN of 26 June 2025).
Licence selection
- You can select and customise a Creative Commons licence for your work using the License Chooser tool available at CreativeCommons.org.