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Open Educational Resources: Citing OER

Citing OER

As with any source, OER should be cited. Because most OER use a Creative Commons (CC) license, remember that all CC licenses require attribution. It is important to give credit for the work and allow others to easily find the original work. ​

Citing OER

The easiest way to remember how to cite an OER is by memorizing TASL:

T = Title. Sometimes this can't be found. 
A = Author. This tells people who to give credit to. It can be a username, company, pseudonym. 
S = Source. This links people to the original source. 
L = License. This links to the CC license deed that the source is licensed under. 

 

Example of a Copied Work

example OER image


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

  • Title: "Creative Commons 10th Birthday Celebration San Francisco"
  • Author: "tvol" - linked to his profile page
  • Source: "Creative Commons 10th Birthday Celebration San Francisco" - linked to original Flickr page
  • License: "CC BY 2.0" - linked to license deed

 

Example of a Derivative Work

If you edited the work, put in the beginning or a the end of the citation “Adapted from …” or “This work is a derivative of…”. Then add your license at the end or the beginning of the citation.

derivative work example

 

This work, "90fied", is a derivative of "Creative Commons 10th Birthday Celebration San Francisco" by tvol is licensed under CC BY 2.0. "90fied" is licensed under CC BY by [Your name here].

  • Derivative: "This work, "90fied", is a derivative of..."
  • Original Title, Author, Source, License
  • New Title, Author, Source, License of the derivative work is also included

 

Attribution:

Best practices for attribution by CC Wiki is licensed under CC BY 4.0. (Links to an external site.)

Below are two tools that can assist you in creating OER citations.