Completion of License Document Suite
Post-Uploading Activity
When the dataset(s) have been populated with the prepared data files and all of the associated supporting documentation, the next most important activity is the completion by the Data Owner or their authorised representative of the License document suite. This consists of three parts; the License Agreement Form, the License Terms and Conditions of Use and finally the License Access Guestbook. Each part plays an important role in ensuring that the data deposited with the ADA is managed correctly and that access is granted only to those persons who are deemed to have valid and genuine reasons for accessing the material. The License document suite not only helps to establish the access conditions for your data, but it also records these, and as such this set of documents will be saved as part of the Submission Information Pack (SIP) in the ADA’s archive.
Component Parts
The three component parts to the License document suite and additional detailed information can be found in the linked sections below.
The License Agreement Form.
This form, when signed by the copyright holder/Data Owner or their authorised representative provides the ADA with the authority to both archive the data (as the Submission Information Package) and to redistribute the data on behalf of the Data Owner based upon the satisfaction of certain access criteria. This component of the License therefore establishes a contract between the Data Owner or their authorised representative and the ADA as the Data Custodian. There are a number of specific access types that can be selected for the redistribution of the data, however, where these do not meet the data owner’s requirements for access, then Non-Standard Access conditions can be agreed with the ADA Director.
The License Terms and Conditions of Use Selection Information Document.
This document describes the terms and conditions that the secondary user is required to adhere to in order to both access and reuse the data. It establishes a contract between the Data Owner or their authorised representative and the secondary user. There are a series of Creative Commons (CC) License Terms and Conditions of Use and also ADA Standard Terms and Conditions of Use that are available for Data Owners to use. If any of these do not meet the requirements of the Data Owner, a bespoke set of Non-Standard Terms and Conditions of Use can be agreed with the ADA Director. For example, many organisations will have their own corporate License Terms and Conditions of Use that are legally required by the organisation and which they would prefer to use instead of the ADA Standard Terms and Conditions of Use.
The License Access Guestbook Selection Information Document.
If you the Data Owner require your data to be restricted, meaning that secondary users need to request access to the data by completing a License Access Guestbook, then this document details the basic standard question set that the secondary user is required to answer in support of the access request. It allows for the basic compilation of statistics on the user and their intended use of your data. There are standard ADA License Access Guestbooks that can be selected for use with any restricted dataset(s), or where more detailed or specific information is required, a set of Non-Standard License Access Guestbook questions can be developed by you, in conjunction with the ADA. These Guestbooks can then be added to the Dataverse application for attachment to a dataset(s). For Data Owners who have multiple datasets, you can create a License Access Guestbook that is common to all of your datasets.
Submitting the completed License document suite
Once completed, the License Agreement Form should be printed and signed (or electronically signed) by the person holding the copyright for the information, this is typically the Data Owner but not always. For example, a University may hold the copyright and therefore the person signing the form should be at a sufficiently high level to hold the authority. The form should then be scanned and uploaded (or uploaded if electronically signed) to the corresponding dataset in the same manner as all other Supporting Documentation. Remember that License Document Suite documents have a specific prefix as per the standard ADA File & Folder Naming Conventions.
Where any Non-Standard License Terms and Conditions of Use (Undertaking Form) and/or License Access Guestbook question sets are required, these too should be uploaded with the License Agreement Form for review and agreement by the ADA Director.