Information about rights and licensing

Promote, and require where appropriate, the inclusion of information about rights and licensing in the metadata of all research data and other research-relevant digital objects from public funding as part of the implementation of Research Data Management principles.

Policymakers should strive to:

1. Establish Clear Guidelines and Mandates:

• Create detailed guidelines that standardise the licensing of government works for reuse.
  • New Zealand Government Open Access and Licensing (NZGOAL) provides guidance for agencies on releasing copyright and non-copyright material, recommending the use of Creative Commons licenses and clear 'no-known rights' statements for non-copyright material.

• Require that metadata of deposited research data be open under licenses like Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication (CC0) or equivalent, in line with the FAIR principles. e.g. Horizon Europe specifies that metadata must be open under CC0 or equivalent, ensuring machine-actionable accessibility. 

2. Integrate Licensing Information into Metadata Standards: 

• Ensure that all research outputs include comprehensive metadata detailing rights and licensing information

• Encourage the use of machine-readable licenses to facilitate automated processing and compliance checking.

3. Provide Training and Support (see  Pillar F)

• Offer training sessions and resources to help stakeholders understand the importance of including rights and licensing information in metadata.

• Create tools and templates to assist in the application of appropriate licenses and the accurate recording of licensing information in metadata.

4. Monitor Compliance and Provide Incentives

• Implement systems to ensure adherence to policies requiring rights and licensing information in metadata.

• Provide recognition or funding advantages to researchers and institutions that consistently comply with these requirements.

Promoting the inclusion of information about rights and licensing in the metadata of research data and digital objects from public funding presents several challenges. 

• Different scientific disciplines often use varying metadata standards, making it challenging to ensure the uniform inclusion of rights and licensing information.

• Researchers may lack knowledge or training on how to appropriately include rights and licensing information in metadata, particularly for complex or sensitive datasets.

• Many existing data repositories lack the capability to enforce or validate the inclusion of rights and licensing metadata, requiring updates or new systems to support compliance.

• Determining and documenting appropriate rights and licensing information can be difficult, especially for datasets involving multiple contributors, sensitive data, or data from collaborative international projects.

• Ensuring researchers consistently include this information requires clear policies, enforcement mechanisms, and incentives, which may be absent or underdeveloped in many institutions

• Interoperability Challenges: Aligning licensing metadata with international frameworks and ensuring compatibility with machine-readable formats adds additional complexity.