Two questions will determine the answer to the question:

1. What is the exact copyright statement? That is, do you own the copyright or does the journal? And what is the exact Creative Commons license?

2. Are you writing a master's thesis or a dissertation?

If you are the copyright holder, then the good news is that you own the copyright and you can do whatever you want with this article, including using it in your thesis or your dissertation!

If the journal or publisher is the copyright holder and you are writing a master's thesis, then you are good to go as long as you attribute the article appropriately. A citation at the beginning is usually the way most people do it, e.g. "This chapter was originally published as an article under a Creative Commons [license type]: [citation]

If the journal or the publisher is the copyright holder and you are writing a dissertation, check to see if there is a NC parameter on the Creative Commons License. This is a "non-commercial" restriction on reuse. If there is no NC parameter, then it is fine to reuse the article in your dissertation following the attribution guidance above. If you do have a NC parameter on your Creative Commons license, you may have to request additional permission for the article to be used in a dissertation that will appear in ProQuest, which may sell printed copies of the dissertation, which counts as a commercial reuse. We can offer additional advice about this if it applies to you.

Please feel free to write to us if you need additional assistance with this question.