Open Access and Licensing

How Camtree uses open research approaches to maximise access to knowledge

Camtree: Open Research and Open Access

Camtree is committed to the idea of teacher knowledge as a global public good.  We recognise that teachers are the people who generate practice knowledge, and should be recognised for doing so; but that their knowledge is too valuable to be anything but open - for other teachers to learn from and so that learners around the world can benefit.   We draw on the UNESCO model of 'Open Science' to guide our work.

That's why the Camtree Digital Library is free to use: there are no subscriptions or 'paywalls' acting as barriers to access the teacher research that we publish.
UNESCO Open Science Model
Camtree is committed to be 'open' in all aspects of our work.  For example:
  • The Camtree Digital Library is free to access and individual authors can publish free of charge 
  • We are open about our review process, sharing our quality criteria with authors 
  • We encourage the use of non-proprietary formats for publication
  • We publish work in the Camtree Digital Library under Creative Commons licences
  • We offer access to library content via the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH)
  • We release our software under open licences

Creative Commons Licensing

CC-BY Attribution Licence
By default, Camtree licences library content under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 International Licence, also known as an ‘Attribution licence’. This means you, as a reader, are free to: 
  • Share: copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format for any purpose, even commercially.
  • Adapt: remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.
But you must do so under the following terms:
  • Attribution: You must give appropriate credit , provide a link to the licence, and indicate if changes were made . You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
  • No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
There are some collections in the Camtree Digital Library where content may have been licensed differently: for example, using a 'Non-Commercial' Creative Commons licence.  This is made clear in the library.

A strong argument for the CC-BY licence is the flexibility it offers when integrating content into educational training programmes and materials, and enabling local translations and adaptations.  This is crucial in low-to-middle-income countries, where removing financial and legal barriers not just to read, but to reuse, is essential.