User-centric data publishing (Alpha)
  • User-centric data publishing
    • Introduction
    • Who is this toolkit for?
    • How to use this toolkit
    • Dictionary of data terms
  • Contents
  • Section 1. Building the foundation for open data
    • A basic introduction to open data
    • Understanding our rights to access data
    • Open data maturity
      • Resources: Open data maturity
    • Ethics and transparency
  • Section 2. Planning for impactful open data initiatives
    • An introduction to the Data Landscape Playbook
    • Play one: Explore the problem and how data can address it
    • Play two: Map the data ecosystem
    • Play three: Assess the policy, regulatory and ethical context
    • Play four: Assess the existing data infrastructure
    • Play five: Plan for impact when designing your data initiative
  • Section 3. A user-centric approach to publishing
    • Understanding the user journey
      • The use case
      • Understanding different user needs
      • Targeting intended audiences
    • Engaging effectively with data users
      • Two-way communication and feedback
      • From data to story
    • Building communities around open data use
      • Characteristics of an open data user community
        • Purpose
        • Community enabler(s)
        • Collaborative method
        • Other observations
      • The current landscape of open data user communities
      • Engagement with data communities
    • Resources: User-centric publishing
  • Section 4: Publishing guidance for new data publishers
    • Open data licensing
    • The FAIR principles of data access
      • FAIR data assessment tools
    • Data quality and metadata
      • Tools and frameworks to help you assess open data quality
    • Publishing data on the web
  • Thank you
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  1. Section 4: Publishing guidance for new data publishers

Open data licensing

Our definition of ‘open data’ is data that anyone can access, use and share, but importantly, open data must be published under an appropriate open licence for it to be truly open

PreviousSection 4: Publishing guidance for new data publishersNextThe FAIR principles of data access

Last updated 2 years ago

An open licence is one that places very few restrictions on what anyone can do with the content or data that is being licensed. You can choose to make your content or data available under one of three levels of licence:

  • A public domain licence which has no restrictions (technically, you waive your rights to the content or data).

  • An attribution licence that says that reusers must give attribution to you.

  • An attribution and share-alike licence which says that reusers must give attribution and share any derived content or data under the same licence.

A must be clear on three aspects:

  • What the user can do.

  • What the user must do.

  • What the user cannot do.

There are a number of templates available with standard terms included, for example:

  • – templates and standard wording for open and non-open licences for creative content and data.

  • – templates and standard wording for open database licences.

  • – an open data agreement from Linux Foundation designed to make it easier to share and collaborate with open data.

For further guidance on data licensing, why not check out our ?

good licence
Creative Commons
Open Data Commons
Community Data License Agreement – Permissive, Version 2.0 - CDLA
‘Data licences’ resource list