National Centre for eResearch - MyExperiment (Case study)
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Contents |
OVERVIEW
This case study, commissioned by the Strategic Content Alliance as part of its IPR Toolkit is one of seven forming an analysis of publicly funded e-content initiatives, which demonstrate the flow of content, value and rights across the respective seven representatives of the Strategic Content Alliance (SCA) sponsors. The IPR Case Studies report co-ordinated by NaomiKorn Consulting is addressed to senior decision makers across public-sector bodies and aims at providing a coherent account of best practices of managing publicly funded e-content. It is licenced for use under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales Licence.
Background
The MyExperiment Virtual Research Environment (VRE), funded by JISC and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) enables scientific communities to share digital items associated with their research. In particular it uses Web 2.0 technologies in order to enable these communities to find, share and execute scientific workflows, which include text, diagrams and data, using a range of Creative Commons licences. If the user wants further access, and the ability to upload and share workflows, they will need to sign up. The software that powers Myexperiment.org is also downloadable so that a user can run their own instances of MyExperiment.
Key Content Features
- Multiple types of content: data, documents (literary works), diagrams (graphical works) and data compilations.
- Differentiation between content and meta-content: the users of the MyExperiment Virtual Research Environment upload content but also produce meta-content in the form of tags (i.e. text and compilations of hyperlink) and comments (text).
Key Value Gains
- Collective gains for the research community from incremental innovation.
- Individual gains for the researchers in terms of personal reputation, research visibility and citation.
- Better understanding of the ways in which e-science communities interact.
- Coordination gains from associating and linking researchers doing related work.
- Collaboration gains from the creation of scientific groups and communities of practice.
Rights ownership and obtained permissions
- The copyright in the MyExperiment website unless stated otherwise belongs to the University of Manchester and the University of Southampton
- The actual content of the site (workflows and other files) are licensed under one of the three available Creative Commons licences. The Universities of Manchester and Southampton do not obtain any special permission from the owners of the content uploaded on the MyExperiment service other than the ones awarded to the general public through the Creative Commons licences..
Terms of Access and Use
- The end user may both upload and download e-content. In the process of uploading e-content, the end-user also decides on the licence under which her work is to be made available.
- MyExperiment offers a range of only three of the Creative Commons licences:
- Creative Commons Attribution (CC_BY): this is a non-exclusive licence allowing the licensee to copy, distribute, transmit and adapt the original work under the condition that the work is attributed in the manner specified by the author of the work or the licensor and in accordance to the terms of the licence. The Creative Commons Attribution licence is the most liberal of all CC licences in the sense that it provides the maximum range of freedoms with respect to the work for the licensee.
- Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike (CC_BY_SA): this is a non-exclusive licence allowing the licensee to copy, distribute, transmit and adapt the original work under the condition that the work is attributed in the manner specified by the author of the work or the licensor and in accordance to the terms of the licence. The licensee is also allowed to build upon the original work provided she shares the resulting work under the same conditions. This is the default licence suggested by MyExperiment service as it is the licence most compatible with other open content licences.
- Creative Commons Attribution_No Derivatives (CC_BY_ND): This non exclusive licence allows the licensee to copy, distribute and transmit the work under the following conditions: (a) the work is attributed in the manner specified by the author of the work or the licensor and in accordance to the terms of the licence (b) the licensee does not alter, transform or build upon the work. This is the most restrictive for the licensee Creative Commons licence as it confers the most limited set of permissions to the licensee.
- MyExperiment offers only the Creative Commons licences that do not contain the Non-Commercial Licence Element. The inclusion of the Non Commercial Licence Element would not allow the end user to use the licensed work for any commercial purposes. There are three reasons why this option is not offered to the end user:
- Most of the Free/ Open Source Licences do not contain such a section and hence this is outside the culture of the communities that are most likely to use this content
- The less than clear definition of the Non Commercial element is a cause of concern. Besides the problem of setting its scope, it is not compatible with any other open content licences.
- The value for the copyright owner that licences the work does not come from direct commercial exploitation of the work and hence there is no point using a Non Commercial element.
- The uploading web page contains sections that allow the licensor to define in detail the form of attribution and even define the levels of access awarded to different users of the MyExperiment community irrespective of the licence that is to be chosen. The works that have been used for the file that is to be uploaded may also be defined ensuring thus a minimum of provenance.
- Various model of openness are adopted, depending upon the nature of the user and the type of the community. For example:
- Open from the beginning model (Bio-mathematicians). The objective is to communicate the research results as fast as possible with proper attribution of the originator of the results, so that other scientists are able to work with them. Hence, the licence with the least possible limitations of use is chosen. .In this case, more liberal CC licences (CC_BY) are offered
- Controlled model. (Social statisticians). The accuracy and integrity of the data is the primary objective in this case. Hence while there is need to communicate them, it is also necessary that the licensees do not make any changes or commercially use the data. In these cases, more restrictive licences are chosen (CC_BY_ND).
- Open but hierarchical model (Chemists): The hierarchical structure of this community is expressed in the levels of control claimed over the data: the higher the position of the researcher in the hierarchy the more likely is to use a restrictive licence. The lower someone in the hierarchy the more open the licences. In this case, CC_BY are permitted after a period of time.
- Open after a period of time (Astronomers): The six months period required before making the data available using the most liberal licence equals the innovation cycle in the field. After that period, the producer of the data has probably moved to the next innovation cycle and her data may be made freely available to the rest of the community. In this case, the CC_BY is offered.
Links to IPR Toolkit Resources as PDFs
Background papers
Reports
Practical tools
3.4 Top Tips for Issuing Licences
3.5 Top Tips for Requesting Licences
3.8 Template Email Permissions Form
3.9 IPR Template Permission Letter
3.10 Rights Management Template
3.12 Model Contractual Clauses for Requesting Permission from Staff
3.13 Example Consortium Agreement
3.14 Model Contractual Clauses for Requesting Permission from Students/Volunteers
3.15 Model contractual clauses for requesting permission from freelancers/subcontractors
3.16 Template Terms and Conditions of Service
Template policy statements
2.1 Draft Institutional IPR Policy Statements
2.2 IPR and Licensing Blue Print for Funding Bodies and Recipients of Funding
Related Digipedia links
IPR policy statement for the public sector
Orphan works and risk management
Web 2.0 and legal issues factsheet
Further information
General resources
Intellectual Property Office: Overview of the legislative framework and policy issues/developments regarding Intellectual Property Rights
Office for Public Sector Information: Information about Crown Copyright material, click use licence for reusing Crown Copyright material and access to the consolidated copyright legislation.
British Library Business and IP Centre: Provision of resources, support and advice relating to the creation and exploitation of IP within a business context
Licensing schemes and open content licensing initiatives
Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA)
Design and Artists Copyright Society (DACS)
Resources for health professionals
Resources for schools, colleges and universities
JISC Digital Media Online Image Finding Tutorial: Interactive tool providing information about how to find images online which can be used with the least amount of restrictions
Web2Rights Project: JISC funded project providing interactive copyright and other legal issues tools, resources and charts for use by JISC funded projects
JISC Casper: Interactive tools and associated resources for dealing with copyright issues in schools and projects who are reusing content
JISC IPR and Web2.0 Animation: IPR and Web2.0 animation commissioned by JISC and built around the Web2Rights project deliverables
Becta: Information about IPR for schools
JISC IPR Consultancy: Briefing documents about IPR and monthly IPR Newsletter
JISC Open Content Licences Overview Paper: Overview paper providing guidance about the use of open content licences for JISC funded projects
JISC Model Licence Interactive: Interactive tool which provides an overview of the benefits of the JISC Model Licence
TrustDR Project: JISC funded project providing supporting documentation relating to the establishment of a digital rights management system for repositories
JISC Legal: Support for HEIs and FEIs on legal issues
OSS Watch: Support for HEIs and FEIs on open source licences
Resources for the cultural heritage sector
Collections Link: Comprehensive resources relating to IP and licensing for cultural heritage bodies
Harvested links
- Copyright Essentials
- A Collections Trust factsheet providing an introduction to copyright law for the non-specialist collections manager. [?]
- Training Course: Copyright Essentials
- This training course provided by Museums Galleries Scotland offers an introduction to the principles of copyright within the context of caring for collections. It offers basic and practical training, [?]
- New guide to copyright for cultural heritage organisations
- The Collections Trust is delighted to announce the publication of a new guide to copyright for cultural heritage organisations. [?]
- Collections Management Network website
- Collections Management Network (CMNetwork) is a consortium of consultants, advisers and trainers with expertise in collections management. We work together to provide practical, authoritative, cost ef [?] <span id="fck_dom_range_temp_1287584946184_396" />
[[Role::newcomer]] [[Role::strategy manager]] [[Role::policy maker]] [[Role::project manager]] [[Role::content manager]] [[Role::acquisitions manager]] [[Goal::managing]] [[Goal::copyright]] [[Goal::IPR]] [[Goal::legal]] [[Level::basic]] [[Level::medium]] [[Level::deep]]
