License Signing Guide

Need help with license signing? Our PDF guide walks you through it.

Retain copyright with a Creative Commons license

The corresponding author is responsible for completing and returning the signed Open Access Agreement to the editorial office or the publisher.

You can find the Open Access Agreement in Author Services once the article is accepted. For journals that have chosen not to use Author Services, the agreement is available from the journal’s editorial office.

All of Wiley’s fully open access journals and most* of Wiley’s subscription journals with the open access option publish open access articles under a Creative Commons license. With Creative Commons licenses, the author retains copyright and the public is allowed to reuse the content. You grant Wiley a license to publish the article and to identify as the original publisher.  Most* journals in our open access program offer one or more of three license types.  The selected license type will be indicated in the Open Access Agreement.

Choosing your Creative Commons License

All license types offered by Wiley require the author to be attributed for their work.

CC BY - Creative Commons Attribution License

Allows users to copy, distribute and transmit an article, adapt the article as long as the author is attributed. The CC BY license permits commercial and non-commercial reuse.

Download an example CC BY agreement

CC BY-NC - Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License

Allows users to copy, distribute and transmit an article, adapt the article as long as the author is attributed and the article is not used for commercial purposes.

Download an example CC BY-NC agreement

CC BY-NC-ND - Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License

Allows users to copy, distribute and transmit an article as long as the author is attributed, the article is not used for commercial purposes, and the work is not modified or adapted in any way.

Download an example CC BY-NC-ND agreement

Exceptions

*A limited number of society-owned journals have opted out of this license policy - for more information see our Open Access Without a Creative Commons License page.

The societies for which Wiley publishes may decide on a different policy. Wiley will continue to brief societies on any discussions held regarding funder agreements and the processing of the articles, appropriate acknowledgements with citation and linking to the final published version on the publisher's site, and clear licensing terms and conditions for the use of material protected by copyright.