Nikhef institutional policies on Research Data Management

The Dutch National Institute for Sub-atomic Physics Nikhef, via its mission and through the programmes, projects, and collaborations that it operates and subscribes to, is a significantproducer of scientific research data, and transfer of this knowledge to third parties, i.e., industry, civil society and general public, is an integral part of Nikhef’s mission. Nikhef is committed to ensuring careful management and optimal exploitation of the research data, both in the short term and the long term, in alignment with the principles on data management of NWO, and in accordance with this Policy.

NWO-Institutes-Data-Management-Policy-Framework.pdf2017-11-24  NWO Institutes Data Management Policy Framework
NikhefRDMPolicy-v4-20171207.docx2017-12-08  NikhefRDMPolicy v4 20171207
NikhefRDMPolicy-v4-20171207.pdf2017-12-08  NikhefRDMPolicy v4 20171207

Licensing

Data and software needs to be given a license to enable re-use: without such a license, formally, none of it can be re-used at all, even though you public it on the web and it is accessible! Appropriate licenses vary, and if you have made additions or changes to existing data or software, the license is almost always determined already. For new data and software, a license needs to be assigned by you (i.e. Nikhef, since the IPR usually lies with the Institute, and not you as an individual).

For data, follow your experiment’s guidance, and in absence thereof, “CC-BY” is usually preferred - except if the data is sensitive (dual-use) or has specific commercial value. For software that we want to be re-used publicly, the most preferred license is Apache 2.0.

For guidance and alternatives, use the NWO-I DCC License Tool (by Reinder Reindersma). Tools are provided as part of the NWO-I Shared Digital Competence Centre (DCC).