Transform your research outputs from being accessible to reusable
You have established that it is a good idea for you to open your research work. Open licences provide the legal framework to allow other people to make use of your research data and other research outputs to which an open licence has been applied.
Why you should licence your research outputs
Any research output is not considered open access if it is simply made available on the internet with no licence; one of the key tenets of open access is that potential users should be able to understand how they are permitted to use an output and whether they need to seek permission for their intended use.
Licenses allow your research output to be shared and re-used under flexibly, legally sound terms: it lets potential users know how it can be re-used, mined, combined, broken-up or re-distributed.
How do I make good decisions about open licences?
Different elements come together to inform your decision regarding your choice of open licence for your research outputs:
- Are you the sole creator and can make your own choice?
- If you are a co-author or editor, have all co-authors been notified and agreed to the licensing terms?
- Do you use third-party material with existing rights?
- Does your research funder have a policy relating to open licences?
When given a choice, generally researchers can tend to choose licences conservatively. However using more restrictive open licence choices could be potentially damaging to the re-use of your work. Using a No-Derivative restriction (the user cannot change, crop or build upon the work) for example prevents translation of work your, stops re-users from fixing errors in data and prevents a dataset being enriched with additional data e.g. that a user is contributing themselves as open data. A non-commercial provision is also problematic primarily because of a lack of clarity around what constitutes “commercial” usage.
Open access and third-party copyright
Guidance on managing copyright under UKRI open access policy explains good practice for researchers who need to manage copyright for third-party content in an open access monograph, book chapter, or edited collection. Many of the approaches and considerations presented also apply to including third-party content in a research article.
If you have queries regarding copyright issues or need help in managing third-party copyright get in touch with the University Copyright Officer.
The impacts of open licenses which are not fully open
Open means anyone can freely access, use and share for any purpose (source: Open Knowledge Foundation). This means while lots of licenses aim to be "open", the terms they include may fall short of actually being "open" data, or can make reuse of their data very difficult. The Open Data Institute's article 'What are the impacts of non-open licences?' explains some common licence terms and outlines consequences for the reuse of data in applying licence terms such as 'non-derivative', 'non-commerical' and 'sharealike' requirements.
What open licence options are available to me for my original research work?
The Creative Commons Licences
The Creative Commons (CC) licences may be applied to any type of copyrighted work. The only types of work for which CC does not recommend is licenses are computer software and hardware and you can read more on this below. This means CC licences apply to: Written Content, Visual Arts, Audio and Audio-Visuals, Data and Databases as well as Educational Materials.
The CC licences offer a series of baseline rights with attribution as a core requirement, together with three other licence elements that can be added as specific restrictions:
- Non-Commercial (NC): The user cannot make money from the work.
- No Derivatives (ND): The user cannot change, crop, or build upon the work.
- ShareAlike (SA): The user can adapt the work but must license their new creation under the exact same CC license.
Together these licences form six distinct licences: CC BY; CC BY-SA; CC BY-NC; CC BY-ND; CC BY-NC-SA and CC BY-NC-ND.
Open licensing research data
The Creative Commons licences are suitable for research data and the most commonly used. The most permissive Creative Commons Attribution Licence (CC BY) is a good choice that will suit most requirements, allowing research data to be enriched and integrated and errors fixed.
Open Data Commons (ODC) has produced three open solutions specifically for data, datasets and databases.
- Open Database Commons Attribution Licence ODC-By
- Open Data Commons Open Database Licence ODC-ODbl
- Open Data Commons Public Domain Dedication and Licence (PDDL)
The ODC licences apply only to database rights and any copyright in the database structure. They do not apply to the individual contents of the database. The latest version of the CC licenses (4.0) apply to database rights and all copyright and neighbouring rights in the database structure as well as the contents.
There is a persuasive argument that research data should be released with a CC0 (Creative Commons Zero) Waiver or Open Data Commons Public Domain Dedication and Licence (PDDL) rather than a Copyright licence. A CC0 waiver allows creators to voluntarily place their work in the public domain. Attribution of ownership is not a requirement of reuse under this waiver. However, CC0 does not negate users of the data from following established research community norms upholding academic integrity by crediting the data creator(s).
Facts cannot be copyrighted. A dataset only has copyright if it has creativity in content (e.g. a collection of photographs not unstructured facts) or creativity in structure (i.e. originality in how the elements or structure is arranged). It is asserted that under CC0, there is no improper or ambiguous assertion of copyright when none may in fact be applied, and potential users need not fear legal actions taken in relation to their reuse. If your dataset only contains facts or dates then you should consider dedicating it to the public domain.
For a step-by-step guide on choosing an open licence for your research data and further information on copyright and database rights and the relevant open licenses that you can use, see our guide Help with choosing an Open Data Licence for your research data.
An important note on licensing your software
Creative Commons licenses should not be used for licensing software because they were not designed for that purpose. Instead software developers should use appropriate licenses like those collected by the Open Source Initiative or Free Software Foundation. You can check your options at choosealicense.
The University of Bristol have addressed some common questions that academics and researchers have about licensing software as open source through a short document on Open Source Software Licensing FAQs.
How do I apply an open licence to my research work?
Open licenses, code, and tools are available to the public free of charge, without obligation. You do not need to register to apply an open licence to your material; it is legally valid as soon as you apply it to any material you have the legal right to licence.
Ulster University have developed a short guide ‘How do I apply an open licence to my research data?’ This guide provides information on applying licences to a range of content types relevant to research work.
Open licenses are irrevocable
It is important to bear in mind that open licenses are irrevocable. Once you apply a CC licence to your material, anyone who receives it may rely on that licence for as long as the material is protected by copyright and similar rights, even if you later stop distributing it. It is therefore important to be clear on your options for choosing an open licence before attaching an open licence to your work.
What do I need to know about Ulster's policies?
Ulster University has introduced a Rights Retention Policy for Scholarly Works and upon acceptance for publication, staff members grant Ulster University a non-exclusive, irrevocable, worldwide, sublicensable licence to make the accepted manuscript version of their journal articles and conference papers publicly available on the date of publication under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence without an embargo. Ulster University Open Access and PURE Policy recommends an CC BY licence be applied to all research outputs unless there are commercial or other restraints.
Ulster University's Research Data Management Policy does not prescribe the use of any particular open licence for research data. The most appropriate licence will depend on the nature of the material and related requirements. However, the Creative Commons Attribution Licence (CC BY) is widely used for the licensing of datasets and is a good choice that will suit most requirements. Increasing numbers of funders and publishers are mandating that any licence applied to a dataset be no more restrictive than CC BY i.e. the data should either dedicated to the public domain with a CC0 Waiver or equivalent licence or have a CC BY licence. If you deposit in PURE Datasets, we will encourage you to use the CC BY licence. There is one exemption: CC licenses are not suitable for licensing software.
