Introduction
1. Preparing a DMP
2. Documenting and Organizing Data
3. Storing Data and Data Security
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Software Licences

In the introduction of this course we have already touched upon the subject of licences, and we will deal with licences for your data again in the last chapter. At this point, however, it is important to mention that alongside your data also any custom developed scripts or software that you use should not only be documented but also be licensed. Failing to do so might impact badly on the reproducibility of your research. Jiménez RC, Kuzak M, Alhamdoosh M et al. advise the following:

Adopt a suitable Open Source licence to clarify how to use, modify and redistribute the source code under defined terms and conditions. Define the licence in a publicly accessible source code repository, and ensure the software complies with the licences of all third party dependencies. Providing a licence:

Clarifies the responsibilities and rights placed on third parties wishing to use, copy, redistribute, modify and/or reuse your source code;

Enables using the code in jurisdictions where ‘code with no licence’ means it cannot be used at all;

Protects the software’s intellectual property;

Provides a model for long-term sustainability by enabling legally well-founded contributions and reuse We advise choosing a OSI-approved Open Source Licence unless your institution or project requires a different licence. Websites like ‘Choose an open source license’ provide guidelines to help users to select an OSI-approved Open Source Licence. Organisations like the OSS Watch also provide advice on how to keep track of the licences of software dependencies. For reusability reasons, we also advise authors to disclose any patents and pending patent applications known to them affecting the software.

Clarifies the responsibilities and rights placed on third parties wishing to use, copy, redistribute, modify and/or reuse your source code;

Enables using the code in jurisdictions where ‘code with no licence’ means it cannot be used at all;

Protects the software’s intellectual property;

Provides a model for long-term sustainability by enabling legally well-founded contributions and reuse We advise choosing a OSI-approved Open Source Licence unless your institution or project requires a different licence. Websites like ‘Choose an open source license’ provide guidelines to help users to select an OSI-approved Open Source Licence. Organisations like the OSS Watch also provide advice on how to keep track of the licences of software dependencies. For reusability reasons, we also advise authors to disclose any patents and pending patent applications known to them affecting the software.

(Jiménez 2017)