Updated 28 september 2023

In 2021, the OpenEdition steering committee approved the use of a licensing policy based on Creative Commons (CC) 4.0 licenses on all four of its platforms. Since March 2023, the policy took effect for all metadata on the four platforms and for all content published on Calenda. The other platforms will be rolled out gradually, starting with OpenEdition Journals, then OpenEdition Books, and finally Hypotheses.

The decision was part of OpenEdition’s mission to further open science and FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable)—particularly the last one, which OpenEdition has placed at the core of its strategy. The new programme is the result of public policy recommendations, research funding agencies, and major research directories, including Plan S, French Plan for Open Science (PNSO), Agence nationale pour la recherche (ANR), the European Research Council (ERC), the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), and the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB).

The licensing policy has several objectives:

• Clarify the status of all documents and metadata published.
• Inform the community of the terms and conditions of content use and reuse.
• Allow content to be reused.
• Allow editorial teams to publish content under the recommendations of the Plan S program and payment agreements.

The new policy is as follows:

• All metadata related to the content of an OpenEdition platform is covered by a CC0 notice.
• A specific license will be recommended for every website hosted on OpenEdition Books, OpenEdition Journals, Hypotheses, and Calenda. However, contributors may choose to apply a license with different restrictions. If no license is selected, the recommended license will apply by default.

Licensing recommendations and options on OpenEdition platforms

 OpenEdition - policy implemented

 • All metadata related to the content of any OpenEdition platform is covered by a CC0 statement.

 Calenda - policy implemented

• Default license for the platform and announcements: CC0
• Possible licensing exception by announcement: CC BY