4 Acknowledging Creative Commons and public domain sources

Written sources with a Creative Commons licence

For paraphrases and direct quotes:

  • Create footnotes using the footnote tool in Pressbooks.
  • Construct references according to your citation style.
  • Add the hyperlinked Creative Commons licence type at the end of your footnoted reference, regardless of the citation style.
Tip: When you add a footnote in Pressbooks, you can format the text in the visual editor to add italics and hyperlinks after the footnote has been inserted.

 

Examples

Footnotes in the text

Derosa and Jhangiani (n.d.) ask us to consider our hopes and vision for higher education when planning an open pedagogy project.[1]

Wiley and Hilton (2018) state that “the connection between open educational resources and open pedagogy marks a significant departure from the way the term was used in the 20th and early 21st centuries”.[2]

Reference list entries

  1. Wiley, D. & Hilton, J. (2018). Defining OER-enabled pedagogy. International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning19(4). http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/3601/4724 CC BY 4.0
  2. Derosa, R., & Jhangiani, R. (n.d.). Open pedagogy. In E. Mays (Ed.), A guide to making textbooks with students. Rebus Community, https://press.rebus.community/makingopentextbookswithstudents/chapter/open-pedagogy/ CC BY 4.0

Note: For accessibility purposes these reference list entries have the resource titles hyperlinked, and the URLs not linked.

Tip: While copyright generally restricts using direct quotes from written resources unless permission is given, you can generally use lengthy direct quotes from Creative Commons licenced sources, except when there is a non-derivative licence element (-ND). Consult the RMIT Open Publishing Team for clarification if required.
Note: When you are paraphrasing or quoting from a Creative Commons text, there is no need to add ‘adapted from’, as convention assumes this to be the case for written resources, and this will be covered in the copyright statement in the front matter of the book.

References for adapted Creative Commons works

If the Creative Commons source is itself an adaptation, you must also refer to the original work. Add a forward slash and the words ‘is a derivative of’, followed by the hyperlinked title of the original work, as highlighted in the example below.

Example

Reference for a derivative work with details of the original work placed after the reference

Evans, R., Mihalicz, M., & Sterling, M. (n.d.). Indigenous lifeways in Canadian business-ECO. eCampusOntario. https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/ecoindigenousbusinesstopics/ CC BY-NC 4.0 / is a derivative of Indigenous lifeways in Canadian business

Figures, data or embedded media with a Creative Commons licence 

Creative Commons licensed figures, embedded media or data in a table will require a correctly constructed attribution. Use the RMIT University Creative Commons Attribution Builder.

Place the attribution in brackets below the material as outlined in Chapter 11: Captions for figures, table and media.

 

Examples

Embedded YouTube video with attribution placed in brackets below the figure, data or embedded media

ED Talks – Open Educational Resources (3:14 mins)

(Ed Talks: Open Education Resources by College of Business and Law, RMIT University and James Galpa-Grossklag is licenced under CC BY 4.0)

Table with attribution in brackets below the table

Table 5: External wall temperatures vs air temperature, 16 January 2022, 12:00pm

Location Measured wall temperature Adjacent air temperature
North west wall 39oC 32oC
North east wall 38oC 33oC
South west wall 28oC 31oC
South east wall 27oC 31oC

(Adapted from “Building surface temperature variations” by Jake SmithThermoBuild is licensed under CC BY 4.0)


Figure with attribution in brackets after the caption below the image

 

river with mist
Birrarung (Yarra River) at Deep Rock Historic Swimming Hole (“Birrarung at Deep Rock Historic Swimming Hole” by Carrie Thomas is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

Sources in the public domain

There are two circumstances where source material may be in the public domain:

  1. The original work has been placed in the public domain by the rights holder.
  2. Copyright on the original work has expired.

The original work has been placed in the public domain by the rights holder.

Some work placed in the public domain by the rights holder may carry the specific public domain mark, CC0. Where source materials have this, then acknowledge them as described for Creative Commons sources, including the hyperlinked public domain mark. Use the RMIT University Creative Commons Attribution Builder.

Copyright on the original work has expired

If the resource which is in the public domain does not have a CCO mark, then simply acknowledge it as for a non-Creative Commons licensed source. See Chapter 9: Using Copyright Material and Trademarks With Permission.

License

Icon for the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

RMIT Open Press Style Guide Copyright © 2022 by RMIT University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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