By the end of July authors submitting to SSRN via our Web site Submission experience will be able to choose exactly how their work may be shared and reused. Instead of one implicit set of terms in which all rights are reserved, you will now get a new menu as part of Submission: this will offer the standard Creative Commons licences, a public domain option, or the choice to stay with the current default option and keep all rights reserved.
Why we’re doing this
This change gives authors much more fine-grain control over exactly how their work can be shared and re-used by others. It also means that for grant-funded research where the funder has stipulated preprinting under a CC BY, authors can now easily select a CC BY licence at the point of submission.
We will again emphasize that this is an option, not a requirement. In the past, authors always retained their rights on SSRN, governed by the language in our terms and conditions. For those who do not wish to select a CC licence for any reason, selecting All Rights Reserved will provide the same protection as before but now made a little clearer and more explicit. The licence you choose will be displayed on the Abstract page, so all readers of your work understand any rights you have decided to share.
Your new SSRN Licence options
Attribution (CC BY). The most open licence. Anyone can share, remix, or adapt your work, including for commercial purposes, as long as they credit you.
Attribution, Non-Commercial (CC BY-NC). Same freedoms, but commercial use requires your permission.
Attribution, No Derivatives (CC BY-ND). Others can share your work as is and must credit you but can’t distribute an adapted or remixed version.
Attribution, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND). The most restrictive Creative Commons licence: sharing only, non-commercial only, no adaptations.
CC0 (Public Domain Dedication). You waive your rights worldwide. Anyone can copy, modify, and distribute your work, including commercially, without asking permission or giving attribution. There’s a separate CC0 option for US Government employees, reflecting that work produced in the course of Federal employment is already public domain within the US.
All Rights Reserved. You keep full control. Anyone wanting to share, remix, or reuse your article needs your permission first. If you’re not sure which licence you want, this is the best default as you can change your mind and choose a more permissive licence later.
One thing to know before you choose
You can make your licence more permissive after posting (say, moving from All Rights Reserved to CC BY), but you can’t make it more restrictive, so please choose with that in mind. As shown in the graphic below, you can move right to the less restrictive options but not left to the more restrictive options.
We’re excited to be able to offer our users more explicit controls about the licensing terms for their work on SSRN, and this is something that authors and funders have been requesting for a while. We’d love to hear your thoughts on this new functionality so please let us know what you think at ideas@ssrn.com