Abstract

This study aimed to understand the application and types of Creative Commons Licenses (CCL) in Korean journals and to increase understanding of the state of open access in South Korea. The study collected and analyzed CCL-related information from the websites of 2,097 KCI journals and compared the findings with DOAJ journals and previous research. The results of the study are summarized as follows. Firstly, 18% (377 journals) of the KCI journals adopted CCL, and among them, approximately 90% (337 journals) were in the field of STEM. There were few academic journals applying CCL in humanities and social sciences fields. Secondly, the types of CCL adopted by KCI journals were NC licenses (90%), with CC BY-NC (85%) being the most common. This is a significant difference from DOAJ journals, where 52% of academic journals applied CC BY or CC BY-SA. However, fewer journals applied licenses of the ND licenses than DOAJ journals and Spanish journals. Thirdly, 44% (167) of the 377 academic journals that applied CCL were simultaneously for free in public databases and sold for a fee in commercial databases. 33% (125) were publicly available for free in public databases, and 9% (33) were sold in commercial databases.