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GAGE Facility Data License

June 12, 2025

Dear EarthScope/GAGE Community,

We are writing to inform you of an important update to the way we license data originating from EarthScope operated NSF facilities, e.g., GAGE and SAGE. This change is part of our ongoing commitment to open science, transparency, and clarity in data use.

What’s Changing

Effective immediately, all data originating from EarthScope operated facilities will be licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). For data that was provided to EarthScope facilities by a data provider the following two rules apply:

If data was previously released under a more restrictive license by a contributing data provider, that license still applies.
  • If data have a more permissive license or no explicit license at all, CC BY 4.0 will now apply by default. To clarify, this applies to:
    • Data with no license (i.e. previously “all rights reserved” by default).
    • Data that already had more permissive licenses.
    • Data previously marked “public domain.”

This policy ensures consistency across our holdings, supports broad reuse, and aligns with the open data aspirations and practices of the global geoscience community.

What is CC BY 4.0?

The Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license allows anyone to use, share, adapt, and redistribute data for any purpose, including commercial applications. The only requirement is that users provide appropriate attribution.

CC-BY-4.0 is one of the most open and flexible licenses available to public data. Under its terms, users are allowed to:

  • Reuse, share, adapt, and distribute the data for any purpose—including commercial applications.
  • Create derivative works (e.g. combine datasets, run simulations, develop new visualizations), even commercially.
  • Retain all uses irrevocably, as long as you follow the license terms.

To comply users must:

  • Credit the source of the data (e.g. an EarthScope operated facility or the original data provider),
  • Include a link to the data or its metadata (when available),
  • Reference the CC BY 4.0 license (e.g., “Licensed under CC BY 4.0” with a link to https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/),
  • Indicate if any changes were made to the data.

No additional permissions are needed for reuse under this license.

How We'll Support “BY”

To make proper attribution more straightforward, we will:

  • Tag metadata with licensing information,
  • Display license and citation information prominently in our data portals and downloads.
  • Provide a web page with further information on attribution for data that is obtained without metadata (e.g. RT-GNSS, miniSEED)

Example citation:

Geodetic Facility for the Advancement of Geoscience (2025). “XYZ GNSS Dataset.” Licensed under CC BY 4.0. https://doi.org/10.7283/XXXXXXX

What You Need to Do

  • If you are currently using data obtained from an EarthScope operated facility, please include proper attribution in any publications, software, or data products that incorporate our data.
  • If you are distributing or modifying data obtained from EarthScope, ensure you preserve the CC BY 4.0 license and provide appropriate credit.
  • If you are combining data obtained from EarthScope with data under other licenses, be sure to comply with all applicable licensing requirements.

Why This Matters

This transition ensures that all data originating from EarthScope operated facilities are reusable under a clear and open license, while ensuring the scientists, engineers, and institutions behind the data receive appropriate credit. It also simplifies legal and policy issues around data reuse and supports the growing culture of openness in geophysical research.

If you have any questions about this change or need help with attribution, please contact the EarthScope Data team at data-help@earthscope.org.

Thank you for your continued support in making geophysical data more accessible and impactful.

David Mencin, EarthScope Director of Data Services

 

Last modified: 2025-07-29  16:49:36  America/Denver