Selecting an open license: Options when opening your publications and data
Abstract
Poster created for Love Data Week 2024, updated for Open Access Week 2025. "To be considered “open”, publications, data, and software should clearly state how they can be used and shared by others. In most cases, Creative Commons licenses are used because they are simple and widely known, but the legal language of the similar Open Data Commons licenses can be considered more relevant for datasets, and other licenses such as MIT and GPL are more appropriate for software and code."
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•Publications: CC BY-SA •Databases: ODbL •Software: GNU GPL •Technical works: CC0 •Databases: PDDL •Software: MIT-0 Selecting an Open License Options when opening your publications and data To be considered “open”, publications, data, and software should clearly state how they can be used and shared. In most cases, Creative Commons licenses are used because they are simple and widely known. The legal language of the similar Open Data Commons licenses is more relevant for databases, and other licenses such as MIT and GPL are more appropriate for software and code. These licenses require citation for reuse, with no other restriction. Derivatives versions must indicate changes and do not imply endorsement of the original author. This works well for publications and software, but attributions may become difficult to maintain for merged datasets. These licenses waive copyright on works, laying no restrictions on sharing and adaptation for new works. This is mainly used for data, software, and technical publications (posters, manuals). This makes data and code reuse much easier. Other researchers will still cite their sources (not doing so is plagiarism), but no longer need to worry about the compatibility of licenses. •Publications: CC BY •Databases: ODC-By •Software: MIT License Attribution licenses These require citation for reuse, and any new works produced through this reuse must be shared under the same license. It forbids the addition of technological restrictions such as DRM software. This is aligned with copyleft principles. Public domain dedication Share-alike licenses To learn more about copyright and licensing, check our guides: Licenses may further restrict the usage of publications, data, or software, and sometimes merge various conditions. Most institutions allow some level of flexibility. One such licence term is “non-commercial” (CC BY-NC), which is frequently attached to open access books but not recommended for other outputs due to its limiting nature. Another is “no derivatives”(CC BY-ND), which is considered contrary to the principles of open science. Other licenses KATHRYN & SHELBY CULLOM DAVIS LIBRARY [email protected] Guillaume Pasquier & Catherine Brendow, 2025 This document is shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.10572542 More questions about licenses? Ask a Librarian! [email protected] Not applicable to creative works.