Open data
As a good practice, it is advisable to apply a standardized and open license to open research data, as it ensures legal interoperability and the widest possible reuse. A reliable data repository or archive requires a specific license or a selection of alternative licenses for the data to be published, from which the researcher chooses the appropriate one. The repository or archive also assists in selecting the license when the researcher submits the data for opening and ensures the publication of the license along with the metadata and the data itself.
Commonly used standard licenses for research data include Creative Commons (CC) licenses, which offer various levels of permissions. CC licenses that comply with the open definition include:
- Attribution (CC-BY-4.0): Grants others the maximum freedom to use (copy, distribute, modify) the work, provided they give appropriate credit.
- Attribution-ShareAlike (CC-BY-SA-4.0): Same as CC-BY-4.0, but requires derivative works to be distributed under the same license.
- Public Domain Dedication (CC0 1.0): Waives copyright and related rights (e.g., databases).
Additionally, most repositories allow the Non-Commercial (CC-BY-NC-4.0) license if restricting the use of the data to non-commercial purposes is justified.
Code licenses
For code, there are specific licensing standards tailored to their unique characteristics. Creative Commons licenses are generally not as suitable for code publications as licenses specifically designed for code.
- Tool for choosing a code license:
- Guidelines from the Software Sustainability Institute for selecting a suitable software license:
Restricted data
A standard license is not suitable for data that requires usage restrictions. In such cases, a customized usage agreement (e.g., user agreement) is needed, which the receiving archive implements and under which it distributes the data.
