1.1. One of the best licenses you can use for your repository is a CC BY 4.0 license, specifying that “unless otherwise noted, this repository is under a CC BY 4.0 license”.
We recommend using a CC BY 4.0 license as a repository license for the following reasons:
- Creative Commons licenses are internationally recognised, well-established, and both human-readable and machine-readable;
- CC BY 4.0 licenses meet the definition of “open access” as defined in the Budapest, Bethesda, and Berlin declarations on open access;
- CC BY 4.0 is one of the most compatible licenses for interoperability purposes.
The following declarations and statements provide definitions of Open Access:
- Budapest Open Access Initiative (2002). (last accessed: 3 July 2018)
- Bethesda Statement on Open Access Publishing (2003). (last accessed: 3 July 2018)
- Berlin Declaration on Open Access (2003). (last accessed: 3 July 2018)
- Creative Commons (date unknown) Compatible Licenses. (last accessed: 3 July 2018)
- OpenMinTeD (date unknown) license Compatibility Matrix. (last accessed: 3 July 2018)
- Creative Commons UK (2017) Frequently Asked Questions on Creative Commons & Open Access. Zenodo. (last accessed: 3 July 2018), see “How should I license my work for the purposes of Open Access?”
Creative Commons provide guidance on how to select the most appropriate license for your work (depending on your sharing preferences), as well as how to mark your work once your appropriate license has been identified:
- Creative Commons (date unknown) license Chooser. (last accessed: 12 September 2018)
- Creative Commons (date unknown) Marking your work with a CC license. See section “Example: Website”
1.1.1. If you follow point 1.1 it means that the license applies to all “works” or other subject matter in the repository.
This includes:
- The repository as a copyright protected database (in case it qualifies);
- The repository as a suis generis database right protected database (in case it qualifies);
- The elements composing the database which can be:
- Not protected, such as a database of temperature measurements. In this case, as these data are not protected in themselves you don’t need a license. CC licenses are written in a way that you only have to accept them if you need permission to use something.
- Protected (e.g. a database of journal articles)
For University repositories, it is likely that several of these elements co-exist, but it could also well be that the repository is not a protected database. In either case CC licenses are a good choice because (avoiding technicalities) they only regulate the use if that use requires a permission. Under this point of view it could be said that CC licenses are self-contained to when permission is necessary.
See the following source for further details on the EU legislation regulating the legal protection of databases:
- European Commission (date unknown) Protection of Databases. (last accessed: 3 September 2018)
For confirmation of same see:
- Margoni, T., Caso, R., Ducato, R., Guarda, P. and Moscon, V. (2016) Open Access, Open Science, Open Society. In Loizides, F. and Schmidt, B., (eds) (2016) Positioning and Power in Academic Publishing: Players, Agents and Agendas. IOS. (last accessed: 1 October 2018) at p.82
1.1.2. However, this could become problematic, when, as in the case of University repositories, the owner of the repository (the University) and the owner of the journal article (the author unless they transferred the copyright) are different people.
Therefore, by using the recommended “unless otherwise noted” wording, you clarify that the elements that belong to third parties (e.g. journal articles) are distributed under their own license terms (which as you will see later, ideally is a CC0 or a CC BY).
It is important to license the repository as a database under an open access compliant license. This is because when a user uses aggregated data (such as in data analytics, text and data mining, etc.) in order to crawl, scrape or analyse the database, authorisation (e.g. a license or an exception if it exists) is often necessary. But if you have applied a CC BY to your repository this is already taken care of!
In order to meet the definition of open access as provided in the Budapest Declaration, users must be able to crawl the database:
- Budapest Open Access Initiative (2002). (last accessed: 3 July 2018)
- Guibault, L., Margoni, T. and Spindler, G. (2013) Conclusions and Recommendations in Guibault, L. and Wiebe, A. (eds) (2013) Safe to be open: Study on the protection of research data and recommendations for access and usage. OpenAIRE. (last accessed: 1 October 2018) at p.163/section 5.3
OpenAIRE provides a tool which tests online repository compliance with Open Science guidelines: Validator service.
1.2. The CC BY 4.0 license should be incorporated into the terms of service of the repository.
Terms of service are general rules about how a service, such as a website, can be used. These may include a multitude of conditions, such as privacy policies, limitations of liability, and codes of conduct. All users of the service have to agree to the terms of service.
Creative Commons provide guidance on how to integrate their licenses within your terms of service:
- Creative Commons (2018) Creative Commons Integration, from A to Z. (last accessed: 3 July 2018), see “Checklist for an ideal TOS”
1.2.1. The CC BY 4.0 license exists as a separate legal document from the terms of service.
As such, it must be incorporated by reference into the contractual, and broader terms of service which govern all uses of the repository. Creative Commons provide guidance on how to incorporate the CC BY 4.0 license into the repository terms of use.
Creative Commons provide guidance on how to integrate their licenses within your terms of service:
- Creative Commons (2018) Creative Commons Integration, from A to Z. (last accessed: 3 July 2018), see “Checklist for an ideal TOS”