Licenses – Data Days Autumn 2025

Research data: Rights and Licenses Aysa Ekanger University Library, UiT 21 October 2025 This presentation is licensed under CC BY 4.0, unless otherwise specified for specific elements. What can I do with others’ data? What do I want others to be able to do with my data? Am I obliged to share my data in a specific way? Research data management at UiT: Rights •As a general rule, UiT has the right to take ownership and right of use of all research data generated by employees in positions at UiT •Rights to use and publish research data shall not be transferred to commercial actors without UiT retaining the rights to make the data available for reuse in teaching and research Digital research data •Numbers •Text •Source code •Images •Sound •Film Related rights: •Photograph right •Copyright •Database right (Norwegian Copyright Act) •Making copies •Making available to the public •Extracting substantial parts •Reusing substantial parts Reflection/discussion: •What kind of data do you work with? •Do you reuse data where someone else may own the rights? •Do you reuse previously published data? A license is… «a legal instrument for a rights holder to permit a second party to do things that would otherwise infringe on the rights held» Ball, A. (2014). 'How to License Research Data'. DCC How-to Guides. Edinburgh: Digital Curation Centre) Example license Research data management at UiT: Licenses •Research data shall be equipped with licenses for access, reuse, and redistribution. •The licenses should be internationally recognised and place as few restrictions as possible on the access, reuse and redistribution of the data. •The researcher must ensure that licenses and applicable conditions are complied with when using or sharing thirdparty data. Internationally recognized licenses for open research data •Creative Commons •Open Data Commons •Licenses for software, e.g. GNU, Apache 2.0. •You can reuse data without asking the rights holder for permission. •You have to respect the license conditions. Conditions in Creative Commons licenses -Attribution (BY) -NonCommercial (NC) -ShareAlike (SA) -NoDerivatives (ND) SOME rights reserved CC BY 4.0 CC BY-NC 4.0 CC BY-SA 4.0 CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 CC BY-ND 4.0 CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 CC0 Public Domain Dedication -For maximal re-use -NB! Still ethical obligation to give credit. NO rights reserved Exercise: Attribution •Keep, if stated: •Rights holders and other parties to be named •Copyright notice •Disclaimer •Link to the material •Indicate if changes have been made (and keep indications of previous changes) •License name and link Tuomi, Maria W., 2023, "Replication Data for: The increase of an allelopathic and unpalatable plant undermines Reindeer pasture quality, diversity and current management in the Norwegian tundra", https://doi.org/10.18710/WZ5RSE, DataverseNO, V1. Licensed under CC BY 4.0. Attribution stacking •Example of a dataset with many attributions: https://doi.org/10.18710/NMKI2B •CC0 helps to avoid attribution stacking To sum up -Research data may be protected by IP rights -Standard international licenses help rights holders and users -Check the licenses for others’ data BEFORE you use the data -Remember proper attribution! -For your own data –use licenses with as few restrictions as possible. -If you are unsure which license to use, discuss it with your data curator (email [email protected]) •UiT Research Data Portal: https://uit.no/forskningsdata •Email: [email protected] More information and help References •Ball, A. (2014). ‘How to License Research Data’. DCC How-to Guides. Edinburgh: Digital Curation Centre. Available online: http://www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/howguides •Bast, R. & K. Smart (2023). Research software licensing guide. Available at https://research-software.uit.no/blog/2023-software-licensing-guide/ •Carroll, M.W. (2015). “Sharing Research Data and Intellectual Property Law: A Primer”. PLoS Biol 13(8): e1002235. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002235 •How do I know if my research data is protected? Guide for researchers from OpenAIRE.https://www.openaire.eu/how-do-i-know-if-my-research-data-isprotected •Principles and guidelines for management of research data at UiT