What makes Open Science Open Science? The correct licensing of open science content is a decisive factor. It guarantees legally compliant re-usability. But how do we know which licence is the right one? Fortunately, there are a few online tools that can help and guide you step by step through the selection process.
Here are three tools that will help you select suitable licences for open publications, datasets, software and other material:
Creative Commons License Chooser
If it is clear that a Creative Commons licence is to be used, the Creative Commons License Chooser may be helpful. The tool supports the selection of a suitable licence for publishing texts or other materials. Simply answer a few questions, and a licence is then suggested based on your answers.
Licence Clearance Tool
The Licence Clearance Tool is a helper for selecting a suitable licence, for example for data sets or software. The tool can be used with an account or just a guest access. It offers two approaches for “clarification”: Firstly, clarification based on an existing resource, and secondly, clarification of compatibility with the licences of used resources based on a target licence. After selecting one of these approaches, an input mask is opened in which the type of resource is selected and certain information must be entered.
Public License Selector
The Public License Selector helps you select a suitable licence for the publication of software and data. A series of questions are asked for this purpose. These help to narrow down suitable licences or provide an indication if there are still questions that need to be answered before licensing.
If you would like more information on licensing Open Science content, the Open Economics Guide offers further useful reading tips:
- Using open content licences
- What you should bear in mind when publishing and licensing open data
- Publish open code under a suitable licence
- Publish OER under an appropriate licence
You can find more Open Science tools in the Open Economics Guide tool catalogue.