Open data in publications – non-copyrightability and attribution as drivers for equity, science and innovation

The mobilization of the wealth of existing biodiversity data is fundamental for the development of large, dynamic and multifaceted datasets and their historical baselines. Biodiversity data need to be reliably and persistently linked to their sources in literary works and in databases. For this purpose, biodiversity data in scholarly publications and their associated repositories have to be transformed to provide findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable resources as a core foundation of interlinked, federated information. Unclear rights and obligations form a substantial obstacle to the reuse and effective interlinking of data, and thus to scientific workflows. Therefore, it is key to understand and implement the legal, ethical and social foundations that are crucial for arriving at informed decisions on the access to and the transformation and reuse of such data. The aim of this article is to provide legal clarity to providers and users of such data, and to give recommendations arising from the analysis of the legal background and of community norms requiring attribution, transparency, and accountability. The goal of the resulting recommendations is to empower the biodiversity sciences and data community, including publishers, authors and users, to apply appropriate legal tools as well as language that will provide legal certainty, thereby accelerating the access to and annotation, extraction and reuse of data contained within publications, both legacy and prospective. The paper is the outcome of a workshop organized during the annual meeting of TDWG, the Biodiversity Information Standards organization, held in Sofia, Bulgaria in October 2022. Its focus was on legal and contractual obligations governing data within works and databases. It also addressed community norms, focusing on attribution as well as ethical and sociocultural principles.