Tessera publishes most articles under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-ND 4.0) license. You are welcome to republish them.
A small subset of articles — typically those associated with specific paid-acquisition campaigns — are reserved under standard copyright. Each article's license is stated in the footer of the piece.
What CC BY-ND means in practice
You can republish a Tessera CC-licensed article on your website, in your newsletter, or in print, as long as you:
- Give credit — include "Originally published at Tessera" with a link back to the original article
- Preserve the article text — corrections to typos are fine; restructuring, summarizing, or editorial reframing is not
- Include the CC BY-ND notice at the end of the republished piece (see template below)
- Add a canonical link tag in your HTML pointing to the Tessera original — this protects everyone's SEO
If you do all four, you're republishing within our terms. No further permission needed.
Attribution template
We recommend the following credit line at the top or bottom of the republished article:
Originally published at Tessera by [Author Name]. Republished under CC BY-ND 4.0.
Technical: canonical link
Add this tag to the <head> of your republished page:
<link rel="canonical" href="https://tesseramag.com/category/[category]/[slug]" />
This tells search engines that the Tessera original is the source of record — preventing duplicate-content penalties for both of us.
What we ask you not to do
CC BY-ND has limits. Please don't:
- Republish on gambling, adult-content, "miracle cure" / supplement, get-rich-quick, or politically extremist websites. These are excluded contexts.
- Change article headlines to misleading or sensationalist alternatives. The headline is part of the article.
- Republish behind a paywall that requires payment to access content released under an open license.
- Imply contributor endorsement of a product, position, or organization not endorsed in the original article.
If we discover republication in an excluded context, we'll issue a takedown request. Repeat violators are blacklisted.
Articles that aren't CC-licensed
Some articles — typically those flagged in their footer as "All rights reserved" — are not available for free republication. These are usually pieces tied to specific marketing campaigns. If you'd like to license one of these, write to us at licensing@tesseramag.com.
Translations
Translations are considered derivatives under CC BY-ND and require permission. We're generally happy to grant translation rights for free with credit; write to us at translations@tesseramag.com.
Takedown requests
If you're a contributor and would like an article taken down or modified, or if you spot a Tessera article being republished in violation of these terms, email takedowns@tesseramag.com.
Why we chose this license
Tessera follows the licensing model used by The Conversation and Knowable Magazine. Open republication is how research-grade journalism builds reach without compromising editorial control. The CC license formalizes our position: we'd rather have careful republication than tight gatekeeping.