Assigning Creative Commons Licenses to Research Metadata: Issues and Cases
📝 Abstract
This paper discusses the problem of lack of clear licensing and transparency of usage terms and conditions for research metadata. Making research data connected, discoverable and reusable are the key enablers of the new data revolution in research. We discuss how the lack of transparency hinders discovery of research data and make it disconnected from the publication and other trusted research outcomes. In addition, we discuss the application of Creative Commons licenses for research metadata, and provide some examples of the applicability of this approach to internationally known data infrastructures.
💡 Analysis
This paper discusses the problem of lack of clear licensing and transparency of usage terms and conditions for research metadata. Making research data connected, discoverable and reusable are the key enablers of the new data revolution in research. We discuss how the lack of transparency hinders discovery of research data and make it disconnected from the publication and other trusted research outcomes. In addition, we discuss the application of Creative Commons licenses for research metadata, and provide some examples of the applicability of this approach to internationally known data infrastructures.
📄 Content
Assigning Creative Commons Licenses to Research Metadata: Issues and Cases Marta POBLET a,1, Amir ARYANIb, Paolo MANGHIc, Kathryn UNSWORTHb, Jingbo WANGd , Brigitte HAUSSTEINe, Sunje DALLMEIER-TIESSENf, Claus-Peter KLASe, Pompeu CASANOVAS g,h and Victor RODRIGUEZ-DONCELi
a
RMIT University
bAustralian National Data Service (ANDS)
c ISTI, Italian Research Council
d Australian National University
eGESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences
fCERN
g IDT, Autonomous University of Barcelona
hDeakin University
iUniversidad Politécnica de Madrid
Abstract. This paper discusses the problem of lack of clear licensing and
transparency of usage terms and conditions for research metadata. Making
research data connected, discoverable and reusable are the key enablers of the new
data revolution in research. We discuss how the lack of transparency hinders
discovery of research data and make it disconnected from the publication and other
trusted research outcomes. In addition, we discuss the application of Creative
Commons licenses for research metadata, and provide some examples of the
applicability of this approach to internationally known data infrastructures.
Keywords. Semantic Web, research metadata, licensing, discoverability, data
infrastructure, Creative Commons, open data
Introduction
The emerging paradigm of open science relies on increased discovery, access, and
sharing of trusted and open research data. New data infrastructures, policies, principles,
and standards already provide the bases for data-driven research. For example, the
FAIR Guiding Principles for scientific data management and stewardship [23] describe
the four principles—findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability—that
should inform how research data are produced, curated, shared, and stored. The same
principles are applicable to metadata records, since they describe datasets and related
research information (e.g. publications, grants, and contributors) that are essential for
data discovery and management. Research metadata are an essential component of the
open science ecosystem and, as stated in [17], “for a molecule of research metadata to
1 Corresponding Author: marta.pobletbalcell@rmit.edu.au
move effectively between systems, the contextual information around it - the things
that are linked to, must also be openly and persistently available”.
Yet, finding relevant, trusted, and reusable datasets remains a challenge for many
researchers and their organisations. New discovery services address this issue by
drawing on open public information, but the lack of transparency about legal licenses
and terms of use for metadata records compromises their reuse. If licenses and terms of
use are absent or ambiguous, discovery services lack basic information on how
metadata records can be used, to what extent they can be transformed or augmented, or
whether they can be utilised as part of commercial applications. Ultimately, legal
uncertainty hinders investment and innovation in this domain.
The rest of this paper is organised as follows: Section 1 presents the most widely
adopted research metadata protocols and practices; Section 2 provides some global
figures about the types of licenses used for research metadata; Section 3 identifies the
main stakeholders; Section 4 reviews the most common choices for metadata licenses
and discusses both advantages and disadvantages of such choices; Section 5 offers six
compact case studies from different research data services. Finally, the conclusion
raises some questions to guide future work.
- Research metadata protocols and practices
A number of instruments covering the management of research metadata are currently available. For example, the Open Archives Initiative (OAI) developed the Protocol for Metadata Harvesting OAI-PMH to facilitate interoperability between repositories and metadata service providers [14]. OAI-PMH enables harvesting the metadata of open access repositories such as PubMed, Arxiv, HAL, the Wikipedia [5], or the World Bank’s Open Knowledge Repository (OKR).
The Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) promotes interoperability and reusability in metadata design and best practices by developing semantic standards and recommendations, model-based specifications, and syntax guidelines, such as the Singapore Framework for Dublin Core Application Profiles or the DCMI Abstract Model.2 The RIOXX Metadata Guidelines,3 implemented by more than 50 institutional repositories in the UK [22], have adopted NISO’s “Recommended Practice on Metadata Indicators for Accessibility and Licensing of E-Content”4 to add a tag (<license_ref>) with a reference to a URI carrying the license terms [13]. The main goal is to provide a mechanism of compliance with the RCUK policy on open access. While the adoption of these instruments paves the way for technical st
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