Feature Request/Idea: Add license info to DDI exports

[jggautier]

Overview of the Feature Request
With the ability to add and use predefined licenses (#7920), information about a dataset's predefined license is not being included in the DDI Codebook metadata exports and should be included.

But we need to figure out how best to add license information to the export. What elements and/or attributes in the XML document should be used? Will the DDI community update the schema to add license information in a more machine-readable, less ambiguous way, and when might they? Or could the Dataverse community agree to use the existing schema to add license information and when the schema is updated, update again to follow it?

What kind of user is the feature intended for?
(Example users roles: API User, Curator, Depositor, Guest, Superuser, Sysadmin)
All users

What inspired the request?
The addition of the ability to add predefined licenses (#7920)

What existing behavior do you want changed?
The DDI Codebook XML export and DDI Codebook HTML export should include information about a dataset's predefined license.

Any brand new behavior do you want to add to Dataverse?

Any related open or closed issues to this feature request?

• 6650 export import mismatch #6669 was the last time the DDI export was changed.
• In the DDI group's Jira board, there's an issue at https://ddi-alliance.atlassian.net/browse/DDICODE-62 with conversation about how to add license information using the DDI Codebook schema.

[jggautier]

Some more info:

• One of the changes made in the Dataverse pull request at 6650 export import mismatch #6669 was to include Terms of Use metadata in a way that followed the DDI Codebook schema. This is because when the CC0 waiver is applied to a dataset, the Dataverse software adds the string "CC0 Waiver" to the Terms of Use field. This won't be the case with the "multiple license" PR, and even the fact that a dataset is using the CC0 waiver will not be expressed in the DDI Codebook exports.

• The discussion in the DDI Jira issue at https://ddi-alliance.atlassian.net/browse/DDICODE-62 was initially about adding license information about the metadata (not the data that the metadata is describing), but the discussion moves to adding licenses at the study level, too. Folks working on ICPSR and on the CESSDA Data Catalog discuss the need for DDI Codebook to hold license information in a machine-readable and unambiguous way. ICPSR uses DDI-C's "copyright" element, but others have pointed out that a copyright can be different than a license.

  Wendy Thomas, who leads the DDI Technical Committee, proposed adding a new license element, where I think the license URI can be added. I'm not sure if the committee has settled on that proposal and, if so, how soon the DDI-C schema would be updated to include that element.

[jggautier]

It looks what depositors enter in the Terms of Use field is also missing from the DDI exports of installations running more recent versions of Dataverse. In Harvard Dataverse (v6.1), see the export for this dataset, whose latest version was published on Mar. 14, 2024.

I can find datasets in installations running v5.10 where Terms of Use are still included in the DDI exports, such as the DDI export at https://dorel.univ-lorraine.fr/api/datasets/export?exporter=ddi&persistentId=doi:10.12763/6VN9YO.

I was going to open a new GitHub issue about making sure that Terms of Use metadata is added to the DDI exports, but I wonder if the scope of this issue, about adding predefined licenses, can be broadened so that we consider adding Terms of Use, too.

[jggautier]

Actually, the GitHub issue at #9871 already includes the Terms of Use field, so I'm going to close this one.