What is CC BY?

The most compatible of the public copyright licenses, CC BY (Creative Commons Attribution), is defined by Creative Commons, a non-profit organization that provides legal tools for the sharing and use of creative works and research. For maximum dissemination and use of Licensed Content, a CC BY license is recommended. All PLOS content is licensed under CC BY, which means anyone can use and reuse it as long as the original source and authors are credited.

The CC BY license is suitable for publicly funded research because it maximizes the potential for both economic and scholarly impact, protects the rights of the author, and has a long-standing degree of merit and credit suitable for scholarship Reinforces tradition.