University software policies (2 minutes)

Universities employ researchers, who often create and use software in the course of doing research. That means that they create and use copyrighted works, activities governed by copyright law. Works created by employees as part of their work are normally owned by their employer. This is the default legally in many places, and is almost always stated in the employment contract as well. So, the university owns the software created by its employees, and because the employees also act on behalf of their employer, is responsible for any violations of copyright by their employees.

In practice, for example when submitting a paper to a journal, it is often assumed that scientists can transfer copyright ownership or otherwise give permission to the publisher to publish their work on behalf of the university, but strictly speaking there is usually no legal basis for this. Likewise, if scientists produce software as part of their scientific work, then that software is owned by the university, and publishing it as Open Source software, while often done, does not sit on solid legal footing.

Sharing scientific software offers great possibilities for collaboration, sharing of resources, and increased impact of the scientific work as well as of the software itself. Universities are increasingly aware of this, and have created or are creating policies to guide how they create and use research software. In this module we'll look into the why, how and what of university software policies.

Why?

• Ensure scientific software is properly licensed
  • Including the software your employees use!
• Increase collaboration
• Increase impact

How?

• Still in development
• TU Delft
• Astron
• NLeSC

What?

• Software quality
• Software development processes and tooling
• Adhering to others' licenses
• How to publish as Open Source
• Acceptable licenses
• Registering output
• Education of researchers in software development
• Acknowledge funding