Introduction
Data Licensing is an important part of sharing your data. In order to facilitate reuse of research data, it is imperative that end users know the terms of use for the database and the data content. Even if the funder requires you to open or share your data, a license is a courtesy to potential re-users so they know up front what they can do with it. It increases the likelihood that other researchers will consider your data for reuse, which is a positive for you. Simply releasing the data without a license creates ambiguity.
Data ownership at the University of Wyoming
According to the University of Wyoming Research Data Policy (2015), "All Research Data is owned by the University, except as otherwise provided by an agreement with a third party, a law, or University policy, such as copyright policy. Not including those copyrighted items which are covered in a different University regulation 3‐641.” Generally, however, these guidelines allow researchers to publish their data.
Choosing a license
There are many licenses available to choose from. There is no one-size-fits-all solution. It depends on the data type, what you will or will not allow others to do with it, what the funder or institution requires, what your discipline uses, even what your publisher requires. If you are publishing in WyoScholar, the standard licenses available are from Creative Commons. Below are the most common options.
Image courtesy of Research Outreach