Glossary

11.2 Open access and creative commons

14 min read•august 19, 2024

Open access and Creative Commons are revolutionizing how art history is shared and studied. These models make research freely available online, removing barriers like paywalls. They allow wider access to images, texts, and resources crucial for studying art.

For cultural heritage institutions, offer a way to make collections more accessible while retaining some control. This enables greater discovery and reuse of materials, fostering new forms of creativity and engagement with cultural heritage.

Open access basics

  • Open access is a publishing model that provides free, immediate, and unrestricted online access to scholarly research and creative works
  • Aims to remove barriers to accessing knowledge, such as paywalls and subscription fees, making research more widely available and discoverable
  • Differs from traditional publishing models, which often require readers to pay for access to content or restrict access to subscribers only

Definition of open access

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  • Refers to the practice of making research outputs, such as journal articles, books, and datasets, freely available online without any access restrictions or paywalls
  • Enables anyone with an internet connection to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, and link to the full text of open access works
  • Promotes the idea that research should be accessible to all, regardless of their ability to pay or institutional affiliation

Goals of open access

  • Increase the visibility, readability, and impact of research by making it more widely accessible and discoverable online
  • Accelerate the pace of scientific discovery and innovation by enabling researchers to build upon existing knowledge more easily and efficiently
  • Promote greater transparency, reproducibility, and accountability in research by making the underlying data, methods, and results openly available for scrutiny and verification
  • Facilitate collaboration and knowledge sharing across disciplinary and geographic boundaries, fostering interdisciplinary research and global partnerships

Open access vs traditional publishing

  • Traditional publishing models often require readers to pay for access to content through subscriptions, paywalls, or individual article purchase fees, limiting access to those who can afford it
  • Open access eliminates these financial barriers, making research freely available to anyone with an internet connection, regardless of their ability to pay or institutional affiliation
  • Traditional publishing models often transfer ownership from authors to publishers, restricting authors' ability to reuse or share their own work, while open access allows authors to retain copyright and grant users certain reuse rights
  • Open access articles tend to have higher citation rates and greater impact than traditionally published articles, as they are more easily discoverable and accessible to a wider audience

Creative commons overview

  • Creative Commons (CC) is a nonprofit organization that provides a set of free, easy-to-use copyright licenses that allow creators to specify how their work can be used, shared, and remixed by others
  • CC licenses provide a standardized way for creators to grant permission for others to use their work while still retaining certain rights and protections
  • Using CC licenses can help to promote the sharing, reuse, and adaptation of creative works, fostering collaboration, innovation, and cultural exchange

What are creative commons licenses?

  • Legal tools that allow creators to specify how their work can be used, shared, and adapted by others, while still retaining certain rights and protections
  • Consist of a set of standardized copyright licenses that are free to use and easy to understand, with clear, human-readable terms and machine-readable metadata
  • Enable creators to grant permission for others to use their work in specific ways, such as for non-commercial purposes only or with attribution, without the need for individual negotiations or agreements

Types of creative commons licenses

  • CC BY: Allows others to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the licensed work, even commercially, as long as they credit the original creator
  • CC BY-SA: Similar to CC BY, but requires adaptations of the licensed work to be released under the same or a compatible license
  • CC BY-ND: Allows others to redistribute the licensed work, even commercially, but prohibits the creation of adaptations or derivatives
  • CC BY-NC: Allows others to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the licensed work for non-commercial purposes only, with credit to the original creator
  • CC BY-NC-SA: Similar to CC BY-NC, but requires adaptations of the licensed work to be released under the same or a compatible license for non-commercial purposes only
  • CC BY-NC-ND: The most restrictive CC license, allowing others to download and share the licensed work with credit to the original creator, but prohibiting any adaptations or commercial use

Benefits of using creative commons

  • Increases the visibility and impact of creative works by making them more easily discoverable and shareable online
  • Facilitates collaboration and innovation by enabling others to build upon and adapt existing works in new and creative ways
  • Reduces legal uncertainty and transaction costs associated with obtaining permissions and negotiating individual
  • Promotes a culture of openness, sharing, and community-building around creative works, fostering a more vibrant and participatory cultural ecosystem

Open access in art history

  • Open access is particularly important for art history, as it enables scholars, students, and the general public to access high-quality images, texts, and other resources that are essential for studying and appreciating art
  • Makes it possible for researchers to study works of art that may be physically inaccessible or dispersed across multiple collections and institutions, facilitating comparative analysis and cross-cultural research
  • Helps to democratize access to art historical knowledge and resources, making them available to a wider and more diverse audience beyond the traditional academic community

Importance of open access for art history

  • Enables scholars and students to access high-quality images and texts that are essential for studying and analyzing works of art, regardless of their location or institutional affiliation
  • Facilitates the creation of , databases, and other tools that can help to preserve, organize, and make accessible vast amounts of art historical information and documentation
  • Promotes cross-disciplinary research and collaboration by making art historical resources more easily discoverable and usable by scholars in related fields such as history, anthropology, and cultural studies
  • Helps to engage the public with art history by making resources and educational materials more widely available and accessible online

Challenges of open access in art history

  • Copyright and licensing issues can be complex and challenging, particularly for works of art that may have multiple rights holders or unclear provenance
  • and online publishing can be costly and time-consuming, requiring significant investments in technology, expertise, and infrastructure
  • Ensuring the quality, accuracy, and reliability of open access resources can be difficult, particularly in the absence of traditional peer review and editorial processes
  • Balancing the need for open access with the need to protect the privacy, , and intellectual property rights of artists, collectors, and institutions can be a delicate and ongoing challenge

Examples of open access art history resources

  • The Getty Research Portal: A free online search platform providing access to digitized art history texts from a consortium of international institutions
  • The Metropolitan Museum of Art's : Makes high-resolution images of over 400,000 works in the museum's collection available for free and unrestricted use
  • Smarthistory: A free, open educational resource that provides high-quality, peer-reviewed essays, videos, and other multimedia content on art history for learners and educators worldwide
  • The Collections: A digital platform that provides access to over 50 million digitized items from European museums, libraries, and archives, including art, artifacts, books, and other cultural heritage materials

Creative commons for cultural heritage

  • Creative Commons licenses can be a valuable tool for cultural heritage institutions seeking to make their collections more accessible and usable online while still retaining control over how they are used and shared
  • Using CC licenses can help to promote the discovery, reuse, and remixing of cultural heritage materials by scholars, educators, artists, and the general public, fostering new forms of creativity, learning, and engagement
  • Adopting CC licenses can also help cultural heritage institutions to fulfill their public missions of preserving and providing access to cultural heritage, while also reducing the administrative burdens and costs associated with managing permissions and licensing requests

Advantages of creative commons for cultural heritage

  • Increases the visibility and discoverability of cultural heritage collections online by making them more easily searchable and shareable across platforms and networks
  • Enables cultural heritage institutions to grant permission for certain uses of their materials (e.g., non-commercial, educational) without the need for individual negotiations or agreements, reducing administrative burdens and costs
  • Facilitates the creation of new works, adaptations, and interpretations of cultural heritage materials by scholars, artists, and the public, fostering creativity, innovation, and cultural vitality
  • Promotes cross-cultural understanding and exchange by making cultural heritage materials from diverse contexts and communities more widely accessible and usable online

Considerations when using creative commons licenses

  • Cultural heritage institutions should carefully consider which CC license(s) are most appropriate for their collections and goals, balancing the desire for openness with the need to protect sensitive or culturally significant materials
  • Institutions should ensure that they have the necessary rights and permissions to apply CC licenses to their collections, particularly for materials that may have complex or uncertain copyright status or involve multiple rights holders
  • Implementing CC licenses may require updates to institutional policies, workflows, and metadata practices to ensure that licensing information is clearly communicated and consistently applied across collections and platforms
  • Institutions should provide clear guidance and education to users about the terms and conditions of the CC licenses applied to their materials, as well as any additional permissions or restrictions that may apply

Case studies of cultural heritage institutions using creative commons

  • The Cleveland Museum of Art's Open Access Program: Releases high-resolution images and metadata for over 30,000 works in its collection under a CC BY license, enabling free and unrestricted use by scholars, educators, and the public
  • The Netherlands' Rijksmuseum: Provides free access to high-resolution images of over 700,000 works in its collection for any purpose, including commercial use, under a CC0 dedication
  • The Walters Art Museum: Makes over 36,000 images of artworks in its collection available for free download and use under a CC BY-SA license, with the goal of promoting education, research, and creative reuse
  • The British Library: Releases over 1 million images from its collections into the public domain using the CC0 public domain dedication, enabling free and unrestricted use by researchers, artists, and the public worldwide

Impact of open access and creative commons

  • Open access and Creative Commons licenses have the potential to transform the way that art historical research is conducted, disseminated, and used, making it more accessible, discoverable, and impactful
  • By removing barriers to access and enabling the free flow of knowledge and resources, open access and CC can help to democratize art history, making it more inclusive, participatory, and relevant to a wider audience
  • Adopting open access and CC can also help to promote public engagement with art history, fostering new forms of learning, creativity, and cultural participation beyond the traditional academic sphere

Increased accessibility of art historical research

  • Open access makes art historical research more easily discoverable and usable by scholars, students, and the public worldwide, regardless of their location, institution, or ability to pay
  • Enables researchers to access a wider range of sources and materials, including high-resolution images, primary texts, and datasets, that may have previously been difficult or costly to obtain
  • Facilitates the creation of new tools and platforms for searching, analyzing, and visualizing art historical data, such as digital archives, databases, and mapping projects
  • Helps to reduce inequalities in access to art historical knowledge and resources, particularly for scholars and students in under-resourced institutions or regions

Potential for broader public engagement

  • Open access and CC can help to make art history more accessible and engaging for a wider public audience, beyond the traditional academic community
  • Enables the creation of new forms of public scholarship, such as , interactive timelines, and multimedia guides, that can help to contextualize and interpret art historical knowledge for a general audience
  • Facilitates the use of art historical materials in education, journalism, and creative projects, helping to enrich public understanding and appreciation of art and cultural heritage
  • Promotes cross-disciplinary collaboration and knowledge exchange between art historians and practitioners in fields such as museums, libraries, and cultural heritage institutions, fostering new forms of public engagement and impact

Role in democratizing knowledge and education

  • Open access and CC can help to democratize access to art historical knowledge and resources, making them available to a wider and more diverse audience beyond the traditional academic community
  • Enables the creation of open educational resources (OERs) for art history, such as textbooks, course materials, and multimedia content, that can be freely used, adapted, and shared by educators and learners worldwide
  • Helps to reduce barriers to education and lifelong learning in art history, particularly for students and learners in under-resourced institutions or regions
  • Promotes a more inclusive and participatory model of knowledge production and dissemination in art history, one that values the contributions and perspectives of a wider range of scholars, practitioners, and communities

Implementing open access and creative commons

  • Implementing open access and Creative Commons in art history requires careful planning, collaboration, and resources, as well as a commitment to ongoing education, advocacy, and support
  • Institutions and individuals should develop clear policies and workflows for managing open access publications and CC-licensed materials, ensuring that they are properly attributed, described, and preserved over time
  • Choosing the right tools and platforms for open access and CC is critical, as is ensuring that they are user-friendly, accessible, and interoperable with other systems and standards in the field

Best practices for open access publishing

  • Develop clear and consistent policies for open access publishing, including criteria for what types of materials should be made open access, under what conditions, and with what licenses
  • Ensure that open access publications are properly peer-reviewed, edited, and formatted, with appropriate metadata and persistent identifiers to facilitate discovery and citation
  • Provide clear guidance and support for authors on how to comply with open access policies and best practices, including how to retain necessary rights and apply appropriate licenses to their work
  • Monitor and assess the impact of open access publications using metrics such as downloads, citations, and altmetrics, and use this data to inform ongoing improvements and advocacy efforts

Choosing the right creative commons license

  • Consider the goals and values of the institution or project, as well as the needs and expectations of key stakeholders, when selecting a CC license
  • Use the CC license chooser tool to help determine which license is most appropriate based on criteria such as whether commercial use or adaptations should be allowed, and whether adaptations should be shared under the same license
  • Ensure that the chosen CC license is compatible with any other licenses or restrictions that may apply to the material, such as third-party content or funder requirements
  • Clearly communicate the terms and conditions of the CC license to users, both human-readable and machine-readable, and provide guidance on how to properly attribute and use the material

Tools and platforms for open access and creative commons

  • Institutional repositories: Online archives for collecting, preserving, and providing access to the scholarly and creative outputs of an institution, often using open access and CC licenses (e.g., DSpace, Fedora)
  • Open Journal Systems (OJS): A free and open-source software platform for managing and publishing open access journals, with built-in support for CC licensing and metadata
  • Omeka: A free and open-source web publishing platform for creating online exhibitions and collections, with plugins for managing open access and CC-licensed content
  • Creative Commons Search: A tool for discovering CC-licensed content across multiple platforms and repositories, including images, music, and videos

Critiques and limitations

  • While open access and Creative Commons have many benefits for art history, there are also valid concerns and limitations that need to be acknowledged and addressed
  • Ensuring the quality, reliability, and sustainability of open access and CC-licensed resources requires ongoing investment, oversight, and community engagement
  • Balancing the goals of openness and accessibility with the need to protect sensitive or culturally significant materials, as well as the intellectual property rights of creators and rightsholders, can be a complex and context-dependent challenge

Concerns about quality and peer review

  • Some scholars and institutions may be hesitant to embrace open access publishing due to concerns about the quality and rigor of peer review processes in open access journals or platforms
  • Ensuring that open access publications meet the same standards of quality and reliability as traditional publications requires clear policies, procedures, and criteria for peer review, as well as ongoing monitoring and assessment
  • Providing appropriate training, support, and recognition for peer reviewers and editors working on open access publications can help to ensure the sustainability and credibility of these processes over time
  • Developing and promoting community-based standards and best practices for open access publishing in art history can help to address concerns about quality and build trust in these models

Sustainability of open access models

  • Developing and maintaining open access publications and platforms requires significant and sustained investment of resources, including funding, staff time, and technical infrastructure
  • Many open access initiatives rely on grant funding or institutional support, which can be unpredictable or limited over time, leading to concerns about long-term sustainability
  • Exploring alternative funding models, such as community-based or collaborative funding, can help to diversify and stabilize support for open access initiatives over time
  • Advocating for policies and incentives that recognize and reward open access publishing, such as tenure and promotion criteria or funder requirements, can help to create a more sustainable ecosystem for open access in art history
  • Applying open access and CC licenses to art historical materials can be complex and challenging, particularly for works that may have multiple creators, rightsholders, or cultural sensitivities
  • Ensuring that open access and CC-licensed materials are properly attributed, contextualized, and used in accordance with any relevant cultural protocols or community norms requires careful planning and ongoing communication with stakeholders
  • Developing clear policies and procedures for managing copyright and intellectual property in open access and CC-licensed materials, including processes for seeking permissions, resolving disputes, and handling takedown requests, is critical for building trust and accountability
  • Engaging in ongoing education and advocacy around copyright and intellectual property issues in art history, particularly as they intersect with open access and CC, can help to promote a more nuanced and collaborative approach to these challenges

Future of open access and creative commons

  • As open access and Creative Commons continue to evolve and mature in art history, there are many exciting opportunities and challenges on the horizon
  • Emerging technologies and platforms, such as linked data, machine learning, and virtual reality, have the potential to transform the way that art historical knowledge is created, shared, and experienced in open and collaborative ways
  • Sustaining and expanding the impact of open access and CC in art history will require ongoing advocacy, education, and community-building efforts, as well as a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion in these spaces
  • Linked open data: Connecting and integrating art historical data across multiple sources and platforms using standardized, machine-readable formats and ontologies, enabling new forms of discovery, analysis, and visualization
  • Machine learning and computer vision:

Key Terms to Review (18)

Copyright: Copyright is a legal framework that grants creators exclusive rights to their original works, allowing them to control how these works are used and distributed. This concept is crucial in protecting the intellectual property of artists, authors, and other creators, ensuring that they can benefit from their creations while also balancing public access to cultural heritage and digital resources. Copyright plays a vital role in the management of digital assets, the categorization of metadata, and ethical considerations in the sharing of cultural materials.
Creative commons licenses: Creative Commons licenses are a set of standardized legal tools that allow creators to grant specific permissions regarding the use, sharing, and distribution of their work while retaining some rights. These licenses facilitate the sharing and reuse of creative content in a way that promotes open access and collaboration among users, enabling a more accessible cultural landscape. By using these licenses, creators can clearly communicate what others can or cannot do with their work.
Crowdsourcing: Crowdsourcing is the process of obtaining ideas, services, or content from a large group of people, often via the internet, to leverage collective intelligence and resources. This approach empowers individuals to contribute their knowledge and skills, leading to collaborative outcomes that can enhance creativity, efficiency, and problem-solving across various fields.
Cultural Sensitivity: Cultural sensitivity refers to the awareness, understanding, and respect for cultural differences and the importance of these differences in interactions and representations. It is crucial in the digital realm where cultural heritage and artifacts are shared or recreated, as it promotes inclusive practices that honor the values, beliefs, and histories of diverse communities. This awareness can guide ethical decision-making in areas such as representation, data collection, and collaboration.
Digital archives: Digital archives are collections of digital materials that have been preserved and made accessible for research, education, and cultural heritage purposes. These archives utilize technology to store and organize various types of digital content, such as documents, images, videos, and audio files, ensuring that they can be easily accessed and shared by communities and researchers alike. Digital archives often emphasize collaboration and open access principles, allowing for community-driven projects to flourish and facilitating the use of Creative Commons licenses to promote broader sharing and reuse of content.
Digitization: Digitization is the process of converting analog information into a digital format, making it accessible for use in digital systems. This transformation not only preserves the original content but also enhances its usability for various applications, enabling efficient storage, retrieval, and sharing across digital platforms. By turning physical objects, texts, and images into digital representations, digitization plays a crucial role in the management and dissemination of cultural heritage, scholarly works, and open-access resources.
Europeana: Europeana is a digital platform that provides access to millions of digitized items from European cultural heritage institutions. It serves as a crucial resource for researchers, educators, and the general public by aggregating content such as books, music, images, and videos while promoting the use of standardized metadata and open data practices.
Fair Use Doctrine: The fair use doctrine is a legal principle that allows limited use of copyrighted material without permission from the copyright owner, under specific circumstances. This doctrine plays a crucial role in balancing the rights of creators and the public interest, enabling activities like criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research. Understanding this doctrine is essential in the context of open access and creative commons, as it influences how content can be shared and reused within these frameworks.
Inclusivity: Inclusivity refers to the practice of ensuring that all individuals, regardless of their background or identity, have equal access to opportunities and resources. This concept is essential in fostering diverse participation and representation, which is particularly relevant in areas such as open access and creative commons, where sharing knowledge and creative works can empower underrepresented voices and communities.
Licensing Agreements: Licensing agreements are legal contracts that grant permission from one party to another to use certain intellectual property under specified conditions. They play a critical role in protecting the rights of creators while allowing others to use, distribute, or reproduce their work. This system helps balance the interests of content creators and users, promoting the sharing of knowledge and cultural heritage while ensuring fair compensation and recognition for the original creators.
Metadata standards: Metadata standards are formal guidelines that dictate how to create, manage, and use metadata for digital objects, ensuring consistency and interoperability across different systems and platforms. These standards are crucial for organizing information in virtual environments, enhancing searchability, and facilitating better communication among users and institutions. By providing a structured way to describe digital content, they improve access to cultural heritage resources and support collaboration among various stakeholders in the digital landscape.
Moral rights: Moral rights refer to the personal rights of creators to protect their non-economic interests in their works, including the right to attribution and the right to integrity. These rights enable artists to maintain a connection to their work and ensure it is not altered or used in ways that could harm their reputation. They are often distinct from economic rights, which focus on the financial aspects of copyright and licensing.
Online exhibitions: Online exhibitions are digital presentations of art, artifacts, or cultural heritage collections that can be accessed over the internet. These exhibitions utilize various digital tools and platforms to showcase items in an engaging way, often allowing for enhanced interaction and accessibility for a global audience. They can include multimedia elements such as videos, audio guides, and interactive features that enrich the viewer's experience.
Open access initiative: The open access initiative is a movement aimed at making research outputs and scholarly publications freely accessible to everyone without financial, legal, or technical barriers. This initiative promotes the idea that knowledge and academic work should be shared openly to enhance collaboration, innovation, and the dissemination of information across various fields.
Open data policies: Open data policies are frameworks and guidelines established by organizations or governments to promote the sharing, accessibility, and usability of data for public use. These policies aim to enhance transparency, foster innovation, and support research by making datasets available in a format that is easily discoverable and understandable by anyone. By encouraging the free exchange of information, open data policies align closely with concepts like open access and Creative Commons licenses.
Public domain: Public domain refers to creative works that are not protected by copyright, meaning they can be freely used, shared, and built upon by anyone without seeking permission. Works enter the public domain for various reasons, such as the expiration of copyright protection or being deliberately placed there by the creator. Understanding public domain is crucial when discussing copyright laws and licensing frameworks as it defines what can be freely accessed and utilized in creative endeavors.
Smithsonian Open Access: Smithsonian Open Access is an initiative launched by the Smithsonian Institution to make its vast collections, including millions of digital images, available for public access and use without restrictions. This program aligns with the broader movement toward open access and Creative Commons, promoting transparency, collaboration, and creativity in cultural heritage and education.
User-generated content: User-generated content refers to any form of content, such as text, videos, images, and reviews, created and published by individuals rather than by professional creators or organizations. This type of content empowers users to contribute their voices and perspectives, fostering community engagement and collaborative storytelling across various digital platforms.
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