Licensing and Copyright
Re-using and sharing data has legal implications. Only re-use or share data if you are certain you have the right to do so. Licensing your data makes it clear to potential re-users what they can and cannot do with the data, and how you should be acknowledged.
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University Policies and Procedures
The Research Data and Primary Materials Policy sets out requirements around making research data available for reuse, and around accessing research data created by other researchers that has not been licensed for re-use.
The Copyright Compliance Policy sets out the University’s position on the use of Third Party Material and associated copyright compliance requirements, but it does not set out the University’s position on the ownership of copyrighted material created by members of the University. That is addressed in the Intellectual Property Policy.
The Intellectual Property Policy addresses the creation, ownership, utilisation, commercialisation and sharing of IP developed within the University.
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Data licensing
A licence sets out the conditions under which your data can be reused. If you do not apply a licence to your data, no-one else can legally use it.
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In the Research Data and Primary Materials Policy, the University recommends the Creative Commons CC-BY licence, although exceptions are recognised where this licence will not be appropriate. This could include:
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specific licenses required by funders or journals
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licensing requirements of software or code. Creative Commons licenses are not suitable for these purposes and a large range of open licences have been developed to meet these needs. The ARDC Research Software Rights Management Guide outlines the different licenses available to give you the information to choose. A list of licenses is available from the Open Source Initiative .
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data collected includes sensitive or personal information which is not suitable for sharing.
If the default CC BY 4.0 licence is not used, the alternative licence used and justification for using it must be documented in your data management plan.
Click here to view a summary table outlining the Creative Commons licences available.
The University has a list of questions to consider before publishing data to assist you. If you are unsure about which licence to use, the ARDC’s Research Data Rights Management Guide may help or please contact Research Support at figshare@adelaide.edu.au.
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Get advice
If you have any questions regarding copyright, consult the Library's Copyright Advice website or contact the Copyright Coordinator.
For assistance or advice concerning data licensing, contact the Library at liaisonlibs@adelaide.edu.au.