NISO Publishes Recommended Practice on Metadata Indicators for
Accessibility and Licensing of E-Content
From:
"NISO" <niso-announce_at_niso.org>
*NISO Publishes Recommended Practice on Metadata Indicators for
Accessibility and Licensing of E-Content*
The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) has published a
new Recommended Practice on /Access License and Indicators/ (NISO
RP-22-2015) that defines metadata to be used to indicate free-to-read
content and a link to license terms for the use/re-use of that content.
Developed by the NISO Working Group on Access License and Indicators
(formerly Open Access Metadata and Indicators), the recommended practice
proposes the adoption of two core pieces of metadata and associated
tags: <free_to_read> and <license_ref>. The first tag would indicate
that the work is freely accessible during the specified timeframe (if
applicable). The second tag would contain a reference to a URI that
carries the license terms specifying how a work may be used.
Publishers provide articles that are free to read under a wide range
of re-use terms and licenses, explains Cameron Neylon, Advocacy
Director, PLOS, and Co-chair of the NISO Access License and Indicators
Working Group. Currently, publishers of hybrid journals have no simple
mechanism for signaling the free to read status of specific articles
or the re-use rights of downstream users. Funders find the lack of
information and cooperation between stakeholders creates difficulty in
determining whether a specific published article is compliant with their
policies. Authors have difficulty confirming whether they are compliant
with a given funder policy. Readers face the burden of figuring out what
they can and cannot do with specific articles. Aggregators and platform
or knowledgebase providers have no consistent mechanism for
machine-processing metadata and identifying the accessibility or rights
status. Adoption of <free_to_read> and <license_ref> metadata
designations will allow both humans and machines to assess the status of
content.
The combination of the two metadata tags can particularly be useful
in indicating the subtle nuances of different Open Access content,
states Greg Tananbaum, Consultant at SPARC and Co-chair of the NISO
Access License and Indicators Working Group. The indicators include a
date component so that content with access and re-use rights that change
over time can be adequately understood. This supports the existing
embargo practices in use by some publishers. By including URIs to
applicable licenses in the metadata, more detailed explanations of
rights can be made available.
The recommended metadata tags can easily be incorporated into existing
metadata distribution channels, encoded in XML, and added to existing
schemas and workflows, said Ed Pentz, Executive Director, CrossRef, and
Co-chair of the NISO Access License and Indicators Working Group.
Publishers and platform providers can also use the <free_to_read> tag
to automate the display of appropriate status icons to users and for
signaling or determining compliance with most funder and institutional
policies.
Adoption of these two metadata indicators can have a significant
positive impact on all the participants in the scholarly communications
chain, stated Todd Carpenter, NISO Executive Director. This NISO
Recommended Practice also complements a number of other related efforts,
including the CrossRef FundRef <http://www.crossref.org/fundref/>
service; the HowOpen Is It?
<http://www.plos.org/open-access/howopenisit/> guide developed by PLOS,
SPARC, and OASPA; EDItEURs ONIX-PL
<http://www.editeur.org/21/ONIX-PL/> specification for communicating
licensing term; and the Linked Content Coalition initiative
<http://www.linkedcontentcoalition.org/>.
/Access and License Indicators/ (NISO RP-22-2015) is available for free
download from the ALI Working Group webpage on the NISO website at:
www.niso.org/workrooms/ali/ <http://www.niso.org/workrooms/ali/>.
Cynthia Hodgson
Technical Editor / Consultant
National Information Standards Organization
chodgson_at_niso.org
301-654-2512
Received on Fri Jan 16 2015 - 10:38:41 EST