Licenses applied on data and metada describe what can be legally done with data and how it can be reused. The absence of an explicit license can prevent others from reusing data or create misunderstandings on re-use, also when the data is in open access.
You should always use standard and well-known licenses, such as the Creative Commons: six licenses developed with the intentions on applying minimal restirctions on re-use.
Yet, not all licenses are suitable for research data:
- The non-derivative license (CC BY-NC-ND; CC BY-NC) should be avoided because preventing modification is not suitable for research data (here is an interesting debate about it)
- Share Alike (CC BY-SA) is encouraged, as it guaratees the openess of data
- Attribution (CC BY) is probably the best choice for your data, since it ensures that researchers reusing your data must cite the creator/s of the data, thus preserving its openess. When submitting a paper to a scientific journal, make sure to attach also a data statement.
- Public Domain (CC0) is the most open license: by using this license, you give up all rights to the research data that you have created. If you encounter this license on someone else’s data, it means that you do not need to cite the creator and are free to re-use the data as you prefer.
Here you can consult all licenses and see which one suits your data- Here you can learn how to license your research data.
When licensing data on Dataverse UNIMI, check its license management terms here