Licences
In order to extend the reusability of research data beyond the scope of copyright law, and thus enable much wider dissemination of works, open content licenses can be used to clearly define specific rights.
What types of licenses are available?
By using standardized open content licenses, rights holders can determine how a work may be used (e.g. copied, stored, edited, or made digitally accessible).
Below you will find a list of free licenses that are widely used:
- Creative Commons (CC): suitable for text, images and data
- GNU General Public License (GPL): for software
- Open Data Commons (ODC): for databases
- Community Data License Agreement: for data
The Creative Commons (CC) license model is the most widely used one. It offers the possibility of issuing a license that complies with the so-called Berlin Declaration on Open Access; but it also gives the possibility to define licenses that place more restrictions on the reuse of scientific works.
The License Chooser developed by Creative Commons can help you choosing the right CC license. If you have further questions, please contact the Service Point for Publications.
You can also find detailed information on rights and licenses for the publication of research data on the website forschungslizenzen.de, published by the German Archaeological Institute (DAI), or on the website forschungsdaten.info.