Creative Commons
An introduction to Creative Commons licensing of copyrighted works.
Additional Resources
-
Creative CommonsCreative Commons provides authors with a set of licenses that allow them to share and re-use their work legally.
-
Six licenses for sharing your workThis printable brochure provides information on the six Creative Commons licenses.
-
Types of open accessThis library guide provides information about the main models of OA.
-
Marking your work with a CC licenseThis guide explains the process of how to display a CC license on your own work.
-
Best practices for attributionOne condition of all CC licenses is attribution. This guide provides explanation and examples of CC attribution.
-
Creative Commons license chooserThis chooser helps you determine which Creative Commons License is right for you in a few easy steps.
-
Open Washington attribution builderUse this tool to create Creative Commons attributions.
Sources for Openly Licensed Work
Sometimes it's difficult to easily find CC-licensed content in the wild, but it can help to search directly in collections, databases, repositories that specialize in openly licensed content. Here is a list of some places that provide access to openly licensed academic and teaching resources. You will find these sources grouped by resource type.
Images
-
Google Image SearchTip: Do a search, click on the "gear" (right side of the page), select Advanced Search, filter Usage Rights by License.
-
CC SearchCreative Commons CC Search tool finds openly licensed images across the internet.
-
CC Search Browser ExtensionDownload this browser extension to use CC Search right from your browser. The extension also provides licensing code that you can embed in work.
-
Flickr CommonsA collection of Flickr images with open licenses.
-
Wikimedia CommonsA database of freely usable, fully downloadable media files.
Videos
Audio
-
FreesoundFree audio snippets and samples. Great for podcasts and projects in need of sound effects.
-
SoundCloudTip: Do a search, click on "Sounds" from the left sidebar, then filter by license.
-
How to Attribute Creative Commons PhotosAn infographic on Creative Commons and proper attribution.
-
Best Practices for AttributionA help guide from the Creative Commons Wiki.
Open Educational Resources
-
Open Textbook LibraryA curated list of faculty-reviewed affordable, quality textbook solutions. All textbooks in this library are complete and openly licensed.
-
OER CommonsOER Commons offers a comprehensive infrastructure for curriculum experts and instructors at all levels to identify high-quality OER and collaborate around their adaptation, evaluation, and use to address the needs of teachers and learners.
-
OpenStaxOpenStax is a nonprofit educational initiative based at Rice University. They publish high-quality, peer-reviewed, openly licensed college textbooks that are absolutely free online and low cost in print.
-
LibreTextsLibreTexts is an online platform for the construction, customization, and dissemination of open educational resources (OER)
Open Scholarship
-
Iowa Research OnlineUniversity of Iowa's Institutional Repository
-
Disciplinary repositoriesScroll down to the "disciplinary repositories" section for databases to deposit disciplinary research.
-
Pubmed CentralPubMed Central® (PMC) is a free full-text archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature at the U.S. National Institutes of Health's National Library of Medicine (NIH/NLM).
-
ASAPbio preprint server directoryThis comprehensive list of pre-print servers can help you find scholarly manuscripts in a variety of disciplines.
- Last Updated: Jun 2, 2025 11:29 AM
- URL: https://guides.lib.uiowa.edu/creativecommons
- Print Page