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Open Educational Resources (OER): Attribution

Open Attribution Builder

Below is the Open Attribution Builder from Open Washington. This is a cool web tool that helps you to:

  • Build consistent and concise attributions for citing open material that you find and use.
  • Attribute yourself when you create something and want to share.

​It allows you to enter the following data:

  • Title and the URL for the work you are citing
  • Author name and author URL (website)
  • Organization name and organization URL
  • Project name and project URL
  • CC license type.

As you fill out the form, the app will provide the attribution information which can be copied and pasted into your own work containing the CC material. 

Click the about open attribution builder menu on the top right panel to learn more. Includes both CC licenses and public domain designations.

Attribution: Best Practices

 Example: attributing a photo:  

Attribution 1. 
"Creative Commons 10th Birthday Celebration San Francisco" by tvol is licensed under CC BY 2.0.  

1.1. The above is an ideal attribution because it has:
Attribution 2. 
Photo by tvol / CC BY 
2.1. The above is a good attribution since it has:
  • Title --> Title is not noted (it should be) but at least the source is linked.
  • Author --> "tvol"
  • Source --> "Photo" - linked to original Flickr page
  • License --> "CC BY" - linked to license deed.

Attribution 3.

Photo: Creative Commons 

3.1. This is an incorrect attribution because:

  • Title --> not noted.
  • Author --> Creative Commons is not the author of this photo.
  • Source --> No link to original photo.
  • License -->There is no mention of the license, much less a link to the license. "Creative Commons" is an organization.

 

Adapted from "Best practices for attribution" is licensed under CC BY 4.0

  Attributing a material you modified  

"Creative Commons 10th Birthday Celebration San Francisco"  by tvol is licensed under CC BY 2.0 / Desaturated from original. 

This is a good attribution because:

  • Title, Author, Source and License --> are all noted.
  • Modification --> "Desaturated from original".
Adapted from "Best practices for attribution" is licensed under CC BY 4.0

  Attributing a derivative work  

This work, "90fied", is a derivative of "Creative Commons 10th Birthday Celebration San Francisco" by tvol, used under CC BY. "90fied" is licensed under CC BY by [Your name here].

The above is a good attribution for derivative work because:
  • Original Title, Author, Source, and License --> are all noted.
  • Derivative --> "This work, "90fied", is a derivative of..."
  • New author of the derivative work --> is also noted.

Note: If you're at a point where you are licensing derivative works, go to Marking your work with a CC license.

Adapted from "Best practices for attribution" is licensed under CC BY 4.0