UK

FACT SHEET ON
CREATIVE COMMONS & OPEN SCIENCE V.0.1
This information guide contains questions and responses to common
concerns surrounding open science and the implications of licensing data
under Creative Commons licences. It is intended to aid researchers, teachers,
librarians, administrators and many others using and encountering Creative
Commons licences in their work.

What is Open Science? from other forms of protection (like the EU sui
generis database right, also known as the ‘SGDR’,
Open Science is the movement to make for non-original databases).
scientific research and data accessible In these cases, using a Creative Commons
to all for knowledge dissemination and licence such as a CC BY could signal to users
public reuse. that you claim a copyright in the non-original data
despite the law, and perhaps despite your real
How should I licence my data for intention.

the purposes of Open Science? Finally, if your data is in the public domain world-
wide, you might state simply and obviously on the
We recommend you use the CC0 Public material that no restrictions attach to the reuse
Domain Dedication, which is first and of your data and apply a Public Domain Mark.
foremost a waiver, but can act as a
licence when a waiver is not possible. PUBLIC DOMAIN MARK LOGO

CC ZERO LICENCE, ‘NO RIGHTS

RESERVED’ LOGO

When in doubt, consider which use may be appro-

priate according to the chart below:

By applying CC0 to your data you enable every-

one to freely reuse your data as they see fit by
CC0 & PUBLIC DOMAIN LICENCES
waiving (giving up) your copyright and related WHICH LICENSE TO USE AND WHEN
rights in that data.

You should keep in mind that there are many situ-

ations in which data is not protected as a matter
of law. Such data can include facts, names, num-
‘Creative arrangement’ ‘Creative arrange-
bers – things that are considered ‘non-original’ of data is original, but ment’ of data is not
and part of the public domain thus not subject to any copyright has been original; the author
copyright protections. Similarly, your database waived and content is acknowledges this
made available and communicates
(which is a structured collection of data) might copyright-free the data is in the
be considered ‘non-original’ and thus ineligible for public domain
copyright, and it might additionally be excluded

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But I would like attribution when from selling your dataset to others for a profit.
However, it might also prohibit someone using
others use my dataset. In that the dataset in their research if they intend to
case, shouldn’t I use a CC BY li- eventually publish that research. This is because
cence? most academic journals are commercial busi-
nesses that charge some sort of fee for access
We recommend that you avoid using a to their content, hence, such use could qualify as
CC BY licence. Here’s why: ‘commercial’. Consequently, using a non-commer-
cial licence prevents researchers from using your
While attribution is a genuine, recognisable data in work destined for publication. This can
concern, not only might using a CC BY licence be subsequently affect the dissemination, recogni-
legally unenforceable when no underlying copy- tion, and impact of your dataset.
right or SGDR protects the work, but it may also
communicate the wrong message to the world.
A better solution is to use CC0 and simply ask BECAUSE WHO DOESN’T LOVE A
for credit (rather than require attribution), and GOOD VENN DIAGRAM?
provide a citation for the dataset that others
can copy and paste with ease. Such requests are
consistent with scholarly norms for citing source
materials.

Legally speaking, datasets that are not subject NON-COMMER- COMMERCIAL

CIAL USE USE
to copyright or related rights (and are thus in the
public domain) cannot be the object of a copy-
right licence. Despite this, agreements based in
contract law may be enforceable. Creative Com-
ACADEMIA
mons licences, however, are copyright licences.
Therefore, where the conditions for a copyright or
related right are not triggered, copyright licences,
such as the CC BY licence, are unenforceable. Please also consider that the current definition
of ‘Open Access’ in the relevant international
In some cases, however, rights may exist (like the declarations states that limiting reuse to
sui generis database right previously mentioned), non- commercial activities does not comply
and permission for others to use your dataset with ‘Open Access’ (see the Berlin Declaration,
may be legally required. These rights are meant to Bethesda Statement on Open Access Publishing,
protect the maker’s investment, rather than orig- and Budapest Open Access Initiative).
inality. As such, database rights do not include
the moral right of attribution. So by using a CC Ultimately, the decision is yours. However, the
BY licence, you signal to users that you restrict better open science practice is to avoid restrict-
access to your dataset beyond the protections ing use of your dataset to only non-commercial
provided by the law. We are not saying that this use.
cannot be done, we are just saying that if you
choose to do this, you should make sure you fully I’m uncomfortable permitting
understand what it entails.
use of my research for any and
all purposes. Should I use a ‘No
I’m uncomfortable with others
Derivatives’ (ND) licence for my
using my research for commercial
dataset?
purposes. Should I use a non-com-
mercial licence for my dataset? We recommend you avoid using a ‘No
Derivatives’ licence. Here’s why:
We recommend you avoid using a
non-commercial licence. Here’s why: Similar to how a non-commercial licence might
restrict meaningful reuse of your dataset, a ND
For legal purposes, drawing a line between what licence can have the same effect: it may prevent
is and is not ‘commercial’ can be tricky; it’s not as someone from recombining and reusing your
black and white as you might think. For example, data for new research. For data to be truly Open
if you release a dataset under a non-commercial Access, it must permit these important types of
licence, it would clearly prohibit an organisation reuse.

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What happens if I use ‘Share Alike’ It sounds like you’re really push-
(SA) licensed material in my work? ing for the use of CC0 for open
Does that mean I have to make my science datasets.
work available under the same SA Exactly. Data is only open if anyone is
licence? free to use, reuse, and distribute it. This
Not necessarily, but it depends on how means it must be made available for both
you use the SA licensed content. commercial and non-commercial purpos-
es under non-discriminatory conditions
A ‘Share Alike’ CC licence applies only to the con- that allow for it to be modified.
tent licensed as SA that you have used. It does
not require you to also make your work available When data is made available for all reuse, others
under a SA licence, so long as you have not com- can create new knowledge from combining it.
bined the independent works into one new work This leads to the enrichment of open datasets
(known as a ‘derivative’ work). and further dissemination of knowledge. Accord-
ingly, CC0 is ideal for open science as it both
When using SA content in your work, be sure to protects and promotes the unrestricted circula-
maintain the SA licensing information in regards tion of data.
to the content used. This can be done by pro-
viding the SA licensing information next to the And remember, it’s bad science not to cite the
content in your work and by designating it as SA source of data you use. To help others cite your
when listing the other restricted content in your data include a citation that users can copy and
rights statement. paste to give you credit for your hard work.

For example, if you include a CC BY-SA dataset

in your research, you do not have to licence the For example, the citation for this
entire body of work under a CC BY-SA, but the CC document is:
BY-SA dataset must retain the original licence.
However, if you create a new dataset by combin-
ing two existing datasets, one of which belongs ‘Fact Sheet on Creative Commons and
to you and the other is licensed under a CC BY- Open Science’, Creative Commons UK,
SA, then the new work (a derivative work) must DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.840652, CC BY 4.0,
be licensed CC BY-SA. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/
We understand that might be confusing, so by/4.0/
here’s an illustration to help:
After reading this document, should you still wish
to use CC BY make sure to include the citation
NAVIGATING MULTIPLE LICENCES for your dataset so others may cite your work
AND MAINTAINING RIGHTS INFO with ease.

RESEARCH PAPER ‘Fact Sheet on Creative Commons and Open Science’, Cre-
YOUR NAME, © 2017 ative Commons UK, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.840652, CC BY
YOUR NAME 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
AND RIGHTS
INFO

DATASET, CC BY-SA
CITATION This resource is published under a Creative Commons
FOR
Attribution Licence.
DATASET
AND CC
Support for this publication was provided through the
LICENCE
University of Glasgow’s College Strategic Research Major
Initiatives Fund (ES/M500471/1). This guide is for infor-
mational purposes only and may not apply to your specific
case. It does not constitute legal advice.

The font used is Cooper Hewitt, an open source typeface

designed by Chester Jenkins and commissioned by the
Cooper Hewitt museum.
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Citations and other useful links
» ‘About the Licenses’, Creative Commons, https://crea- ‘Global Open Access Portal’, United Nations Educational,
» 
tivecommons.org/licenses/, CC BY 4.0 Scientific and Cultural Organization, http://www.unesco.
org/new/en/communication-and-information/por-
‘Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in
»  tals-and-platforms/goap/open-science-movement/
the Science and Humanities’, Open Access Max-Plank-
Gellschaft, 22 October 2003, https://openaccess.mpg. ‘How to Cite Datasets and Link to Publications’, Alex Ball
» 
de/Berlin-Declaration & Monica Duke, DDC How-to Guides, Edinburgh: Digital
Curation Centre, 2015, http://www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/
» ‘Best practices for attribution’, Creative Commons, how-guides/cite-datasets
https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/Best_practic-
es_for_attribution, CC BY 4.0 ‘How to License Research Data’, Alex Ball, DCC How-to
» 
Guides, Edinburgh: Digital Curation Centre, 2014, http://
» ‘Bethesda Statement on Open Access Publishing’, www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/how-guides/license-re-
Scientists and Scientific Societies Working Group, 20 search-data
June 2003, http://legacy.earlham.edu/%7Epeters/fos/
bethesda.htm ‘Licensing Open Data: A Practical Guide’, Naomi Korn and
» 
Prof Charles Oppenheim, June 2011 version 2.0, http://
» ‘Budapest Open Access Initiative Declaration’, Budapest discovery.ac.uk/files/pdf/Licensing_Open_Data_A_Practi-
Open Access Initiative, 14 February 2002, http://www. cal_Guide.pdf, CC BY-NC-SA
budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/, CC BY 3.0
‘The Problem of the Yellow Milkmaid: A Business Model
» 
» CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication, Creative Perspective on Open Metadata’, Harry Verwayen, Martijn
Commons, https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/ Arnoldus and Peter B. Kaufman, November 2011, http://
zero/1.0/ pro.europeana.eu/files/Europeana_Professional/Publica-
tions/Whitepaper_2-The_Yellow_Milkmaid.pdf, CC BY-SA
» ‘CC Factsheet’, Creative Commons, https://wiki.creative-
commons.org/wiki/CC_Factsheet, CC BY 4.0 ‘Promoting your articles to increase your digital identity
» 
and research impact’, Jon Tennant, March 2017, http://
» Definition of Budapest compliant open access, Open blog.scienceopen.com/2017/03/promoting-your-arti-
Access Working Group, https://access.okfn.org/defini- cles-to-increase-your-digital-identity-and-research-im-
tion/2/, CC BY 3.0 pact/
» ‘Europeana Publication Policy v1.0: A guide for aggre- ‘Public Domain Mark’, Creative Commons, https://crea-
» 
gators and data providers on metadata and content tivecommons.org/choose/mark/, CC BY
requirements’, Europeana, 20 November 2014, http://
pro.europeana.eu/files/Europeana_Professional/Aggrega- ‘Safe to be Open: Study on the Protection of Research
» 
tion/Europeana%20-%20Publication%20Policy.pdf, CC Data and Recommendations for Access and Usage’, Nil
BY-SA Dietr, Lucie Guibault, Thomas Margoni, Krzysztof Siewicz,
Gerald Spindler, Andreas Wiebe, https://papers.ssrn.com/
‘Frequently Asked Questions’, Creative Commons,
»  sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2391280, CC BY 4.0
https://creativecommons.org/faq/, CC BY 

The production of this fact sheet has been supported by CREATe, University of Glasgow.

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