A license is a legal document that grants specific rights to a user to reuse and redistribute a material under some conditions. Any rights that is not granted by default by the licensor through the license can be asked. Licenses can be applied to any material (e.g. sound, text, image, multimedia, software) where some exploitation or usage rights exist.
License range from very open to very restrictive. The more restrictions, the more difficult it becomes to combine different licensed content - thus potentially preventing interoperability.
Learn more about Creative Commons licenses on our guide.
A file format is a standard way that information is encoded for storage in a computer file; however, not all formats have freely available documents, partly because some developers view their specification documents as trade secrets.
Within the context of Open Science, and for optional long-term archiving, files should not be compressed and should avoid proprietary or patent-encumbered formats and in favour of open formats based on documented standards. This ensures the access and re-usability of the content. Only unencrypted files should be published and archived. Examples of open file formats are:
Learn more about open and durable file formats in our research data management (RDM) guide.
Why should I use the CC-BY license for my written/creative content?
The CC-BY license is the most permissive license that also retains some rights for the creators - the only requirement is that someone who uses, modifies, or distributes the content attributes the original creator. Other attributes of Creative Commons licenses include No Derivatives (ND), Non Commercial (NC), and Share Alike (SA), which add additional restrictions that may limit the potential use and impact of your work. Preventing derivatives with ND strongly limits the impact and use of your work, since no one else will be able to build on what you have done. Similarly, while many researchers may prefer the NC limitation to prevent companies from commercialising or making money from their work, strictly defining commercial use is challenging. Furthermore, the intent of much publicly funded research is to lead to economic development through commercial use, which would be prevented by this license. Using an SA license allows reuse and distribution, but requires downstream works to apply the same license, limiting use and combination with other works.
A common fear when using CC0 is that the attribution requirement is dropped - however, proponents state that attribution is a key element in good scientific practice, regardless of copyright status of licence conditions of the quoted work.