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Copyright & User Licenses

Athena International Publishing is a global open access publisher of scientific, technical and medical (STM) information. This means that all content which is published on the Athena platform is freely available from the moment of publication. This policy describes the situation with regard to rights (publishing rights, end-user rights, etc.) for such open access content.

End-User Licenses

Creative Commons user licenses define how readers can reuse open access articles published on the Athena platform. Note that user licenses can differ per publication. In general, all content on the Athena platform is published under one of the following licenses:

CC BY (Attribution). Licensees may copy, distribute, remix, adapt and build upon the work, even commercially, as long as they credit the author or the licensor for the original creation. This is the most accommodating of the licenses offered.
CC BY-SA (Attribution-ShareAlike). Licensees may copy, distribute, remix, adapt and build upon the work, even commercially, as long as they credit the author or the licensor for the original creation and distribute any derivative works only under a license identical to (or not more restrictive than) the license that governs the original work. This license is often compared to "copyleft" free and open source software licenses. All works based on the original will carry the same (or less restrictive) license, so any derivatives will also allow commercial use.
CC BY-ND (Attribution-NoDerivatives). Licensees may copy and distribute the work, even commercially, as long as they credit the author or the licensor for the original creation and do not share any adaptations or derivatives of the original work (i.e. only verbatim copies of the work may be distributed).
CC BY-NC (Attribution-NonCommercial). Licensees may copy, distribute, remix, adapt and build upon the work, but only for non-commercial purposes and as long as they credit the author or the licensor for the original creation. Note that although any new works based on the original must also acknowledge the original creator and be non-commercial, it is not required to license such derivatives on the same terms.
CC BY-NC-SA (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike). Licensees may copy, distribute, remix, adapt and build upon the work, but only for non-commercial purposes, as long as they credit the author or the licensor for the original creation and distribute any derivative works only under a license identical to (or not more restrictive than) the license that governs the original work.
CC BY-NC-ND (Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives). Licensees may copy, distribute, remix, adapt and build upon the work, but only for non-commercial purposes, as long as they credit the author or the licensor for the original creation and do not share any adaptations or derivatives of the original work (i.e. only verbatim copies of the work may be distributed). This is the most restrictive of the licenses offered.

Please refer to https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ for a detailed overview of all Creative Commons user licenses and to a publication’s homepage for further details on which user license may apply to that publication. Note that once applied a Creative Commons user license is non-revocable and cannot be changed anymore. We therefore recommend Authors to check carefully if their funding body requires a specific license. See the Creative Commons wiki for more information about what to consider before applying a user license (both for licensors and licensees).

All Athena publications allow for deviating user licenses to be applied to individual articles to comply with government regulations or funding mandates. Authors which are required by mandate to deviate from the standard user license for a publication are requested to contact Athena International Publishing by sending an email to rights@athena-publishing.com immediately on acceptance of their article.

Copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, display, remix, adapt and build upon an original work and which grants exclusive rights to determine and decide whether, and under what conditions, the original work may be used by others. Hence it governs how Authors (as well as their employers or funders), Publishers and the wider general public can use, publish and distribute original content.

In order for Athena International Publishing to publish and disseminate content, we need publishing rights. For Athena-owned publications this is determined by a publishing agreement between the Authors and the Publisher. As Athena International Publishing is an open access publisher, this means that Authors sign an exclusive license agreement in which they retain copyright for their work but license exclusive rights to the Publisher. In this case, Authors have the right to:

Use their article, in full or in part, for a wide range of scholarly, non-commercial purposes, such as for use in classroom teaching (including distribution of copies, paper or electronic), distribution of copies (including through e-mail) to known research colleagues for their personal use (but not for commercial use), inclusion in a thesis or dissertation (provided this is not to be published commercially), use in a subsequent compilation of the Author’s works, extending the article to book-length form, preparation of other derivative works (but not for commercial use) and otherwise using or re-using portions or excerpts in other works. In all such cases it is expected that the Author includes a link to the final published version of the article on the Athena platform.
Share their article in the same ways as permitted to third parties under the relevant user license so long as it contains the applicable end-user license (refer to the previous section above) and a DOI-link to the final published article on the Athena platform.
Retain patent, trademark and other intellectual property rights (including research data).
Proper attribution and credit for the published work.

Exclusive rights granted to the Publisher under the publishing agreement between Authors and Athena International Publishing are:

The exclusive right to publish and distribute an article, and to grant rights to others, including for commercial use of the article.
The right to publish the article on our online platform and to apply the relevant user license under which readers can use and share the article.
The right to provide the article in all forms and media so that the article can be used with the latest technologies even after publication.
The authority to enforce rights on the article, on behalf of the Author(s), against third parties, for example, in the case of plagiarism or copyright infringements. If an Author becomes aware of possible plagiarism, fraud or copyright infringements, it is expected that he/she will inform the Editor of the publication who will in turn involve their Athena publishing contact with a request to liaise with our in-house legal department.

Note that third-party-owned publications may have different publishing agreements in which copyright can either be retained by the Authors or be vested in the third party (either a society or an institution) that owns the publication. Please refer to a publication’s homepage for further information on copyright for that publication. Also note that different publishing agreements may apply to Authors who are government employees (e.g. U.S. government employees whose works created within the scope of their employment are considered to be public domain, or commonwealth government employees for whose works "Crown copyright" may be asserted) or employees of certain inter-governmental organizations (e.g. the World Bank or World Health Organization). For such cases where Authors or publication owners cannot be the legal copyright holder of an article, changes to the default copyright statement for a publication may be necessary. Authors requiring an adjustment of this kind should indicate their status in the publishing agreement for the publication in question and are requested to inform Athena International Publishing by sending an email to rights@athena-publishing.com immediately on acceptance of their article. Note that changes to copyright statements cannot be made once an article has been published.