Licenses for publicly available ISIMIP data



Assigning a license

After the embargo period (see the Workflow for contributions to ISIMIP), model output data is published in the ISIMIP repository, where it is immediately made publicly available according to the restrictions of the license assigned to them.

Licenses on datasets are a non-trivial topic, you can check some readings on the topic here, here and here (in German). You should also keep in mind that model licenses are different to model output licenses.

As of ISIMIP3, we encourage the use of the CC0 - Public Domain Dedication for all model output. Under CC0, all copyright interests and database rights are waived, so we consider this perfectly suitable to use with ISIMIP data. Working under the CC0 waiver allows anyone to use the data for derivative work in any way and for any purpose, including commercial purposes. Regardless of the legal implications, we request to follow our terms of service, including the correct form of attribution of the datasets. For more information, see the CC0 FAQs.

For ISIMIP2 (and Fast Track), ISIMIP's preferred license for output data was the CC BY 4.0, but some modelling groups selected other Creative Commons (CC) licenses. You can find every available model output license information in the tables below (ISIMIP2b, ISIMIP2a, FastTrack) and in our ISIMIP model data base (most up to date). The modelling groups with individual model restrictions in Fast Track are listed here.

There are nuances to license inheritance, depending on whether parts of the source data used appear identically in your simulation data. Before assigning a license to a data set of your own creation, please check the licenses of all data sets you used in its creation, as some licenses are inherited (e.g., CC BY-SA 4.0). In addition, given that ISIMIP data might be derived from other data sets, those rights also have to be considered.

Please clarify the legal consequences of licensing with your own institutions before assigning any license to your simulation data, as the database producer right is often not with the researchers. If you are associated to PIK, this issues are covered in the Open Science Policy of the Institute (https://www.pik-potsdam.de/en/output/software-data-models/open-source/PIKOpenSourceOpenDataPolicyMay2019.pdf).

IMPORTANT: Creative Commons (CC) licenses cannot be revoked. Please choose your license carefully.

Types of licenses for ISIMIP data in our repository

Just as licensing ideas have evolved, ISIMIP has also recommended different types of licenses along time. In the table below you will find some details on the licenses currently assigned to output data in our ISIMIP repository (or ESGF server).

License type Simulation round Comments
Creative Commons Zero (CC0) ISIMIP3a / ISIMIP3b Preferred license for all model output
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) ISIMIP2b / ISIMIP2a / ISIMIP Fast Track Preferred license for all model output
Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Not preferred, but applicable for individual models on request
Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) Not preferred, but applicable for individual models on request

Licences used in ISIMIP2b

Unrestricted use (CC BY 4.0) Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0)
ALBM WaterGAP2
BioScen1.5-SDM-GAM
BioScen1.5-SDM-GBM
CLM4.5
CLM5.0
DBH
GEPIC
H08
JULES-W1
LPJ-GUESS
LPJmL
mHM
MPI-HM
ORCHIDEE
PCR-GLOBWB
PEPIC
SWIM-NVE
SWIM-PIK
VIC-NVE

Licences used in ISIMIP2a

Unrestricted use (CC BY 4.0) Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0)
APECOSM LPJ-GUESS
Atlantis (Southeastern Australia) MATSIRO
BioScen1.5-SDM-GAM mHM
BioScen1.5-SDM-GBM WaterGAP2
BOATS WaterGAP3
CARAIB
CGMS-WOFOST
CLM-Crop
CLM4
DBEM
DBH, JULES_W1
DBPM
DLEM
ECOMAG
EcoOcean
EPIC-Boku
EPIC-IIASA
EPIC-TAMU
EwE (Adriatic Sea)
EwE (Baltic Sea)
EwE (Catalan Sea or NW Mediterranean Sea)
EwE (Cook Strait, New Zealand)
EwE (East Bass Strait, Australia)
EwE (Mediterranean Sea)
EwE (North Sea)
GEPIC
H08
HBV-IWW
HBV-JLU
HBV-PIK
HYMOD-JLU
HYMOD-UFZ
HYPE
IAPRAS-DSS
JULES-B1 (formerly JULES_UoE)
LPJ-GUESS
LPJmL
Macroecological (Jennings)
MPI-HM
ORCHIDEE
ORCHIDEE-CROP
OSMOSE (Northern Humboldt)
pAPSIM
PCR-GLOBWB
pDSSAT
PEGASUS
PEPIC
PRYSBI2
SWAP
SWAT-CMA
SWAT-IITGN
SWAT-SGGW
SWAT-TAMU
SWAT-UFZ
SWAT-VUB
SWBM
SWIM-CMA
SWIM-NVE
SWIM-PIK
VIC
VIC-CMA
VIC-HHU
VIC-IITGN
VIC-NVE
VIP
VISIT

Licences used in ISIMIP Fast Track

Unrestricted use Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0)
DBH LPJ-GUESS
JULES EPIC
H08 SDGVM
MacPDM VIC
JeDi ORCHIDEE
VISIT PCR-GLOBWB
pDSSAT IMAGE
DAYCENT MATSIRO
PEGASUS MARA
DIVA MIASMA
LPJmL VECTRI
Hybrid LMM
WBM
GEPIC
MPI-HM