Replication Commons Public License 1.0

I. PURPOSE AND SUMMARY

This Replication Commons Public License, hereinafter the License, seeks to inject and sustain transparency, sharing, replication, and collaboration in scientific and public-policy research. 

This License translates, into contractual form, the norms and behaviors of open, public-domain science, and extends these norms to all science and to non-academic spheres of research where transparency, peer review, and replication are far less frequent, but equally valuable. 

Via this License, we grant you the right to use and modify data, programs, and documents that we have labelled with this License.  If you publish work that builds on ours, you must also show and share your downstream work, including all materials necessary for its rapid, independent replication, just as we have done.  In addition, you must require the same of anyone who publishes after using your work.

The obligation to freely disseminate your work does not include an obligation to freely disseminate publications based on your work; this allows publication in closed journals, books, and other commercial media.

A consequence of the requirement for continued replicability of downstream work is that you cannot use licensed materials in a project that uses datasets, computer programs, or other property that cannot be freely displayed and distributed.

This License is a Public License.  It is publicly posted and maintained at replicationcommons.org, where it is made available for all to use via the Creative Commons Share-Alike License. 

In data science, the simple and painless way to accomplish sharing and replicability is to perform and deposit work in a public repository such as a GitHub, which provides free and open dissemination; documents the development of programs, datasets, and documents; and coordinates and records the contributions of collaborators.  Datasets also can be deposited at various academic repositories.  Software that supports Markdown makes it possible to combine data, code, and reporting into one easily updatable document. 

The preceding text is an informal summary.  The legally binding terms of the Replication Commons Public License appear below.

II. DEFINITIONS

“Copyrightable Material” means those parts of Work that are owned by the Project and that are subject to copyright and/or similar rights closely related to copyright, including Sui Generis Database Rights, without regard to how the rights are labeled or categorized.  For the purposes of this License, the use of Data created or modified by Copyrightable Material is deemed to be use of Copyrightable Material. 

“Data” and “Dataset” mean any collection of quantities, characters, or symbols, whether or not they have been translated into electrical or magnetic or quantum signals and recorded on electrical, magnetic, optical, or mechanical recording media.

“Downstream Work” means Work created by You that uses any of the Copyrightable Material contained in the Work covered by this License.

”Effective Label” means a notice that the use of an item or set of Copyrightable Material is protected by copyright or similar rights and is governed by a License.  An Effective Label may take the form of a statement (1) that is included in an item of Copyrightable Material; (2) that accompanies an item or items of Copyrightable Material at a website or other location where the Copyrightable Material is posted; or (3) that is posted within a Project, repository, website or other location where the Copyrightable Material is posted.  “Effectively Labelled” and “Effective Labelling” have the corresponding meanings.

“Failure of Replicability” means that a reasonably and appropriately competent person cannot, after 40 hours of work, reproduce Your Published results using the Work that You provide.

“Free” means openly and without cost; that is, without concealment behind a paywall, firewall, or other physical, social, or technical barrier; and without the imposition of monetary costs or other costs in time or effort that discourage widespread access.  “Freely” has the corresponding meaning.

“Licensed Material” means the Copyrightable Material that is covered by this License.

“Licensed Rights” means the rights, subject to the terms and conditions of this License, that the Licensor gives You via the License and that that Licensor has authority to license.

“Licensor” means the individual(s) or entity(ies) granting rights and imposing obligations under this License.

“Project” means the individual and collective resources, Data, and Work, including but not limited to Datasets, programming code, notes, and documents that can be found at a physical or virtual location, such as a repository, project, or website, that notifies viewers and users that its Copyrightable Material is governed by this License. 

“Public” means any person or persons who can (a) view or receive Work or (b) view or hear descriptions of Work.  “Public” includes but is not limited to persons who purchase the Work or purchase copies or descriptions of the Work, such as, for example, subscribers to journals, buyers of books, and buyers of reports.  “Public” also includes but is not limited to persons who view or obtain the work or reports of the work without a purchase, for example, volunteers who help create Work, persons who find Work on the internet or in libraries, persons who copy or receive free physical, electronic, or optical copies of Work, and independent persons who hear Work described in person or via an electromagnetic or acoustic broadcast. 

“Publication” means anything you Publish.

“Publish” means to make Work or a description of Work or a reference to Work, in whole or in part, available to the Public; or to allow others to make Work or a description of Work or a reference to Work, in whole or in part, available to the Public; or to privately provide Work or a description of Work or a reference to Work, in whole or in part, to persons who have the right to describe or give the Work to the Public.  “Publish” includes but is not limited to dissemination via scientific journals, dissertations, books, collections, magazines, newspapers, reports, pamphlets, press releases, announcements, testimony, tweets, text messages, on-line posts, videos, podcasts, websites, and in-person or recorded performances or presentations.  Publish does not include sharing of Work by and with registered students and auditors for exclusively educational purposes within the confines of an accredited educational institution. 

“Sui Generis Database Rights” means rights other than copyright resulting from Directive 96/9/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 1996 on the legal protection of databases, as amended and/or succeeded, as well as other essentially equivalent rights anywhere in the world.

“Source Data” means Data that are used in Work but that existed prior to their use in Work, as they existed prior to their use in the Work.

“Tools” means software and hardware, such as computers, programming languages and statistical analysis packages, that were used in the Work but that were not created during the Work and that can be obtained independently by the Public.

“Work” means everything necessary to allow another person to repeat the work immediately and to obtain the same results that are described, mentioned, or referenced in a Publication.  Work includes but is not limited to: (1) procedures (such as programs and algorithms); (2) resources (such as Datasets and Data representations created by procedures); (3) results (such as tables, figures, and statistical output); and (4) documentation (descriptions of procedures, resources, and results necessary to replicate the Work).   “Work” does not necessarily include Tools or Source Data but must include actionable linkages to, or information about how to obtain Source Data and Tools easily.  Work does not include Publication(s) that publicly reveal, announce, or describe Work.  Work also does not include work that is not necessary to replicate a Publication.  However, Work does include information that a person would need to understand to replicate Publication, even if such documentation must be created after the completion of the rest of the Work.

“You” means the individual or entity exercising the rights granted under this License.  “Your” has the corresponding meanings.

III.  LICENSOR

A.  The Licensor is the owner(s) of the Copyrightable Material whose use has been Effectively Labelled as being subject to this License. 

IV.  TERMS

A.  Use Constitutes Agreement.  By exercising the Licensed Rights described below, You automatically accept and agree to be bound by the terms and conditions of this Replication Commons Public License. 

B.  Contract.  To the extent this License may be interpreted as a contract, You are granted the Licensed Rights in consideration of Your acceptance of these terms and conditions, and the Licensor grants You such rights in consideration of benefits the Licensor receives from making the Licensed Material available under these terms and conditions.

C.  Licensed Rights.  Subject to the terms and conditions of this License, the Licensor hereby grants You the worldwide, royalty-free, non-sublicensable, non-exclusive, irrevocable Licensed Rights to:

(1) download, reproduce and share the Licensed Material, in whole or in part;

(2) adapt, modify, and augment the Licensed Material, and to share and license the results of any adaptation, modification, and/or augmentation to the Licensed Material that You perform.

D.  Requirement to Perpetuate the Licensed Rights and Obligations.  If You Publish Downstream Work that uses the Licensed Material, you must:

(1) upon or before Publication, make Downstream Work Freely available to the Public, at a Freely discoverable, electronically accessible location;

(2) within any Publication, provide a working URI or hyperlink to the location(s) of the Downstream Work;

(3) make the Public’s use of Your Copyrightable Material subject to the Replication Commons Public License or to a successor version of the Replication Commons Public License; provide a copy of this License or a linkage to a copy of this License; and Label said Copyrightable Material as being subject to the Replication Commons Public License; and

(4) indicate that you used previously created Licensed Material, identify the Licensor of the Licensed Material that you used, and provide a URI or hyperlink or, if necessary, other directions to the location where you obtained the Licensed Material that You used.

You may satisfy the conditions in Section IV(D) in any reasonable manner based on the medium, means, and context in which You share the Licensed Material.

E.  Fair Use.  Nothing in this License is intended to affect legally required copyright exceptions and limitations, including "fair use" or "fair dealing."

F.  Termination and Reinstatement of License. 

(1) Your License terminates automatically when you fail to abide by any of its terms. 

(2) Your license reinstates automatically if You cure Your failure(s) to abide with its terms within 30 days of Your discovering Your failure(s).

(3) Your License terminates automatically due to Failure of Replicability.

(4) In the case of termination resulting from Failure of Replicability, Your License reinstates automatically if You cure the cause or causes of the failure within 30 days of Your learning of the failure.

V. OTHER

A. To the extent possible, if any provision of this License is deemed unenforceable, it shall be automatically reformed to the minimum extent necessary to make it enforceable.  If the provision cannot be reformed, it shall be severed from this License without affecting the enforceability of the remaining terms and conditions. 

B.  Throughout the text of this document, words and phrases written with initial capital letters have the meanings assigned to them in Section II, Definitions, if those words and phrases have been defined in Section II.

C.  This License is a Public License.  It is publicly posted and maintained at the website, replicationcommons.org, where it is available for all to use via the Creative Commons Share-Alike License. 

VI.  DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES AND LIMITATION OF LIABILITY.

A. To the extent possible, the material covered by this License is offered as-is and as-available, and no representations or warranties of any kind are made concerning the licensed material, whether express, implied, statutory, or other. This includes, without limitation, warranties of title, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, absence of latent or other defects, accuracy, or the presence or absence of errors, whether or not known or discoverable. Where disclaimers of warranties are not allowed in full or in part, this disclaimer may not apply to you.

B.  To the extent possible, in no event will the Licensor be liable to you on any legal theory (including, without limitation, negligence) or otherwise for any direct, special, indirect, incidental, consequential, punitive, exemplary, or other losses, costs, expenses, or damages arising out of this License or use of the licensed material, even if the Licensor has been advised of the possibility of such losses, costs, expenses, or damages. Where a limitation of liability is not allowed in full or in part, this limitation may not apply to you.

C. The disclaimer of warranties and limitation of liability provided in this Section shall be interpreted in a manner that, to the extent possible, most closely approximates an absolute disclaimer and waiver of all liability.