Exclusions to the Open Policy

Work that must be openly licensed under the CC BY 4.0 license includes both new content created and existing, pre-OpenEPI content, modified to be OpenEPI compliant. Only work that is developed, in full or in part, by the entity aspiring to be OpenEPI compliant, is required to be licensed under the CC BY 4.0 license. Pre-existing copyrighted materials licensed to, or purchased by the entity from third parties, including modifications of such materials, remain subject to the intellectual property rights the organizational entity receives under the terms of the particular license or purchase.

Generally, this policy implementation change will not apply to datasets that contain personally identifiable information (PII), datasets that contain information of relevance for national security interests, or review articles and other works of synthesis or opinion/analysis where the entity is invited to contribute on a specific topic. There are many valid reasons to restrict data access. In addition to the above mentioned reasons, access may be restricted in cases where consent has not been given for release, when the data can be defined as confidential commercial information, or in situations where there are sound public reasons (e.g. protection of endangered species, archaeological sites). The use of anonymization techniques, data sharing agreements, and safe havens where data can be accessed in controlled and secure circumstances (e.g., data trusts) are key in such cases.

That being said, the greatest benefits come when data is open and complies with both the FAIR and CARE principles (for further reading on CARE: https://www.gida-global.org/care), supporting the widest possible reuse, and reuse at scale.

When specific legal or ethical restrictions prohibit public sharing of a data set, the entity aspiring for OpenEPI compliance must indicate how others may obtain access to the data.