License your data

If you are considering depositing your data in a repository, first examine your rights and obligations (patents, contract with the funder, consortium agreement, etc.). Then make sure that the terms of use of the repository comply with these rights and obligations.

Pay particular attention to the fact that this repository must allow you to add a license for the re-use of your data. A license is an authorisation given by the author to use or exploit his or her work under certain conditions. It preserves the author's copyright by always imposing the obligation of attribution (citing the source). Many repositories opt for a Creative Commons (CC) license for your data.

The Creative Commons license:

"Creative Commons licenses are standard contracts between the author of a work and the user. They are a type of free license that aims to indicate in advance the permissions granted by the author, thereby facilitating reuse. Granted by the author, these permissions may relate to the use, sharing, or modification of the work. They are legally valid internationally" (source : Glossaire établi par le groupe juridique du GTSO Couperin, we translate).

Thus, Creative Commons provides free legal tools that indicate what can and cannot be done with a resource, thanks to their various sharing options.

Six licenses are possible, combining four basic elements: attribution/citation of the author (BY), adaptations (ND), commercial use (NC) and the principle of “share-alike” or sharing with an identical license (SA).

CC licenses are ready to use and known worldwide.

(Illustration : Bezjak S., et al., Open Science Training Handbook (1.0), Zenodo, 2018, CC0)