Choosing a Creative Commons licence and copyright statement for your thesis

Choosing a licence for your thesis

PhD students, registered for an Imperial College London degree, are now permitted to choose from any of the Creative Commons Licences when publishing their thesis on Spiral.  

If you don’t want to make a choice, publish your thesis using a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial Licence (CC BY-NC).

The following resources will help you select your preferred Creative Commons licence:

Selecting a matching copyright statement for your thesis

College’s Academic and examination regulations require all PhD students to include a copyright statement at the beginning of their thesis. Now that PhD students can publish their thesis under any Creative Commons licence, there are six licence specific copyright statements, one for each Creative Commons licence.

You should select the copyright statement that matches your choice of Creative Commons licence.

For example: if you wish to publish your thesis with an Attribution-ShareAlike Licence then you should pick the copyright statement that includes the wording “Unless otherwise indicated, its contents are licensed under an Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)”.

You should insert the copyright statement at the beginning of the examination copy of your thesis.

See Submission checklist for Imperial College degrees‌ [pdf] 

Licences

Attribution-NonCommercial Licence (CC BY-NC 4.0)

The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. Unless otherwise indicated, its contents are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Licence (CC BY-NC).

Under this licence, you may copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format. You may also create and distribute modified versions of the work. This is on the condition that: you credit the author and do not use it, or any derivative works, for a commercial purpose.

When reusing or sharing this work, ensure you make the licence terms clear to others by naming the licence and linking to the licence text. Where a work has been adapted, you should indicate that the work has been changed and describe those changes.

Please seek permission from the copyright holder for uses of this work that are not included in this licence or permitted under UK Copyright Law.

Attribution Licence (CC BY 4.0)

The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. Unless otherwise indicated, its contents are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY).

Under this licence, you may copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format for both commercial and non-commercial purposes. You may also create and distribute modified versions of the work. This on the condition that you credit the author.

When reusing or sharing this work, ensure you make the licence terms clear to others by naming the licence and linking to the licence text. Where a work has been adapted, you should indicate that the work has been changed and describe those changes.

Please seek permission from the copyright holder for uses of this work that are not included in this licence or permitted under UK Copyright Law.

Attribution ShareAlike Licence (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. Unless otherwise indicated, its contents are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA).

Under this licence, you may copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format for both commercial and non-commercial purposes. You may also create and distribute modified versions of the work. This on the condition that: you credit the author and share any derivative works under the same licence.

When reusing or sharing this work, ensure you make the licence terms clear to others by naming the licence and linking to the licence text. Where a work has been adapted, you should indicate that the work has been changed and describe those changes.

Please seek permission from the copyright holder for uses of this work that are not included in this licence or permitted under UK Copyright Law.

Attribution-NoDerivatives Licence (CC BY-ND 4.0)

The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. Unless otherwise indicated, its contents are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence  (CC BY-ND).

Under this licence, you may copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format for both commercial and non-commercial purposes.  This on the condition that; you credit the author and do not distribute modified versions of the work.

When reusing or sharing this work, ensure you make the licence terms clear to others by naming the licence and linking to the licence text.

Please seek permission from the copyright holder for uses of this work that are not included in this licence or permitted under UK Copyright Law.

Attribution-NonCommercial ShareAlike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. Unless otherwise indicated, its contents are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International Licence (CC BY NC-SA).

Under this licence, you may copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format. You may also create and distribute modified versions of the work. This is on the condition that; you credit the author, do not use it for commercial purposes and share any derivative works under the same licence.

When reusing or sharing this work, ensure you make the licence terms clear to others by naming the licence and linking to the licence text. Where a work has been adapted, you should indicate that the work has been changed and describe those changes.

Please seek permission from the copyright holder for uses of this work that are not included in this licence or permitted under UK Copyright Law.

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives Licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. Unless otherwise indicated, its contents are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International Licence (CC BY-NC-ND).

Under this licence, you may copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format on the condition that; you credit the author, do not use it for commercial purposes and do not distribute modified versions of the work.

When reusing or sharing this work, ensure you make the licence terms clear to others by naming the licence and linking to the licence text.

Please seek permission from the copyright holder for uses of this work that are not included in this licence or permitted under UK Copyright Law.

Choosing a Creative Commons Licence for your thesis (video)

Choosing a Creative Commons license for your thesis

Choosing a Creative Commons Licence for your thesis can appear complicated. This short video will describe the three steps involved: selecting the right Creative Commons licence for you, adding a matching copyright statement at the front of your thesis and selecting the same licence when you upload the final corrected version to Spiral.