Licensing & Scale Developer Guide

Information for scale developers who want to make their instruments available through OpenScales.

Our Mission

OpenScales aims to legally distribute machine-readable scale definitions to ensure that researchers, clinicians, and software developers are using scales, scoring, and items as closely as the scale developers intended. By encoding scales in a standardized format (OSD), we reduce transcription errors, scoring mistakes, and inconsistencies that arise when each lab re-implements an instrument from scratch.

We maintain a primary OpenScales repository that includes scales meeting one of these criteria:

  1. Explicitly released into the public domain by their developers (or created as U.S. government works).
  2. Published under a Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY 4.0) or equivalent.
  3. Relicensed to us by the developers or rights holders under a public domain or CC BY license.

Any scale in the OpenScales repository is available to use and redistribute without seeking further permissions, for any purpose (including commercial), and including incorporating the items in another publication — subject only to attribution requirements where applicable.

We understand that many scale developers have other preferences about how their instruments are distributed and used. We respect these preferences and offer several ways to participate. You do not need to release your scale as fully open to work with us.

Repositories

OpenScales organizes scales into repositories based on their licensing status.

Repository What It Means
OpenScales Fully open. Anyone can use, redistribute, translate, and incorporate the items for any purpose including commercial use, with attribution. Scales here are Public Domain, CC0, or CC BY 4.0. These scales are included in all OpenScales platforms, including PEBL and PEBLHub.
PhenX Toolkit The PhenX Toolkit distributes hundreds of freely available research protocols authored by other researchers. We have automatically translated their scale definitions from REDCap format into OSD, and link to the original PhenX protocol pages for full documentation. PhenX scales are free to use for research; see individual protocol pages for details.
Restricted Scales we have permission to distribute but with some limitation. This includes scales licensed under CC BY-NC (non-commercial restriction), scales granted as "free for research use" by their developers, scales requiring author contact or approval for certain uses, and scales where we are still clarifying the licensing status. Always check the license and license_explanation fields on individual scales in this repository.
External Links Scale is hosted by the developer (on their website, GitHub, or OSF). We list the scale in our catalogue with metadata and a link, but do not redistribute the definition file.
Commercial (PEBLHub) Scale is distributed for a fee through PEBLHub under a revenue-sharing arrangement with the developer. Available only to paid PEBLHub accounts.

Licensing Options for Scale Developers

The following options describe different ways you can make your scale available through OpenScales. Choose the option that best fits your situation and preferences.

Option A: CC BY 4.0 (OpenScales Repository) — Recommended

You license your scale under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International. Anyone can use, adapt, translate, and redistribute your scale for any purpose — including research, clinical practice, commercial platforms, and republication — provided they give appropriate attribution.

This is our recommended license because it provides the widest reach for your instrument while ensuring you always receive credit. Your scale will be included in all OpenScales platforms and distributions.

See Why we recommend CC BY over CC BY-NC below.

Option B: Public Domain / CC0 (OpenScales Repository)

You waive all rights and place your scale in the public domain. No attribution is required (though citation is always appreciated in academic contexts). This provides maximum freedom for users.

Option C: CC BY-NC 4.0 (Restricted Repository)

You license your scale for non-commercial use with attribution. Commercial use requires your separate written permission.

Note: CC BY-NC scales are placed in our Restricted repository, not the primary OpenScales repository. This is because the meaning of "non-commercial" is ambiguous in practice (see FAQ below), and we cannot include these scales in commercial platforms like PEBLHub without additional permissions. We encourage developers to consider CC BY 4.0 instead.

Option D: Free for Research Use (Restricted Repository)

You allow us to include and distribute your scale definition, but with restrictions you specify. We host the .osd file in our Restricted repository. Common restrictions include:

  • Free for research and clinical use — No permissions needed for academic research or clinical practice. Commercial use requires your approval.
  • Translations restricted — The scale can be used freely in its original language, but new translations require your written approval.
  • No modifications — The scale must be used exactly as defined; users may not create shortened, adapted, or modified versions.
  • Notification requested — You would like to be informed when researchers use your scale.

What we need from you: A written statement specifying exactly which restrictions apply, and confirmation that you hold the rights to grant this permission.

Option E: Self-Hosted with Catalogue Listing (External Links)

You host the .osd file yourself and we link to it from our catalogue. This gives you full control over the file: you can update items, fix errors, or remove the scale at any time. Hosting options include:

  • Your own website — You host the .osd file on your lab or institutional website.
  • GitHub or GitLab — You maintain a public repository with the .osd file. This provides version history and makes updates transparent.
  • Open Science Framework (OSF) — You upload the .osd file to an OSF project, which provides a DOI and persistent hosting.

What we need from you: The URL where the .osd file is hosted, plus basic metadata (scale name, citation, description) for our catalogue listing.

Option F: Available on Request (Restricted Repository)

You distribute the scale privately to researchers who contact you directly. We list your scale in our catalogue with:

  • Scale name, description, and citation
  • Your contact information (with your permission)
  • Any conditions for obtaining the scale

This option is appropriate when you want to track who is using your scale, require a data-use agreement, or want to vet researchers before granting access.

Option G: Commercial Distribution via PEBLHub

You work with us to distribute your scale for a fee through PEBLHub, our online research platform. This is appropriate for scales where you or your institution want to generate revenue from commercial use while still making the instrument accessible.

How it works: We establish a revenue-sharing arrangement. The scale is available only to paid PEBLHub accounts. You retain all rights to the instrument. Please contact us to discuss terms.

Why We Recommend CC BY over CC BY-NC

Many scale developers instinctively choose a "non-commercial" license because they want to prevent companies from profiting unfairly from their work. This is an understandable concern, but in practice, the non-commercial restriction often causes more problems than it solves — and rarely achieves the goal the developer intends.

The problem with "non-commercial"

The term "non-commercial" has no clear legal definition in this context. Creative Commons themselves acknowledge that the boundary between commercial and non-commercial use is ambiguous. This creates real uncertainty for users:

  • Is a hospital that charges patients commercial? What about a non-profit hospital?
  • Is a university research lab commercial when the university receives grant overhead?
  • Is a therapist in private practice using the scale with clients commercial?
  • Is an open-source software platform (like PEBL) commercial if it is also sold to commercial users?
  • Is a pharmaceutical company using the scale as an outcome measure in a clinical trial commercial?
  • Is a government agency commercial?

Faced with this ambiguity, cautious researchers and institutions simply avoid using NC-licensed scales rather than risk a licensing dispute. This reduces the reach and impact of your instrument without providing meaningful protection.

What non-commercial restrictions actually prevent

In our experience, the scenarios that NC restrictions actually block are rarely the ones developers worry about:

  • Textbook publishers cannot reprint your items in a commercial textbook (but they would need to contact you anyway for a quality reproduction).
  • Assessment platforms (like PEBLHub) cannot include your scale without negotiating separate permission, even if they serve primarily academic researchers.
  • Meta-analysis tools and research infrastructure cannot bundle your scale if they charge any fees.

Meanwhile, the things developers typically do want to prevent — someone claiming authorship, distributing a modified version without credit, or misrepresenting the scale — are already prevented by CC BY 4.0, which requires attribution and indication of changes.

What you are not giving up

Licensing your scale under CC BY 4.0 does not mean:

  • You lose ownership or authorship — you remain the creator and are always credited.
  • Anyone can claim they wrote it — attribution is legally required.
  • Someone can modify it and pass it off as the original — changes must be indicated.
  • Your citation count decreases — if anything, wider availability increases citations.
  • Companies will "steal" your work — no one profits from distributing a free questionnaire. The value is in the research results, not the items themselves.

What you might be giving up

We want to be honest: there are some commercially developed scales and tests that are licensed to clinicians on a fee-per-use basis. If your scale is one of these, or if you aspire to this model, then a fully open CC BY license would indeed give up that revenue stream.

We currently do not support fee-per-use distribution, but we may work with scale developers in the future via PEBLHub to offer this kind of service (see Option G above). Such scales can still be implemented in the .osd format and distributed with restrictions through our Restricted repository or through a commercial PEBLHub arrangement.

However, for the vast majority of academic scales — those developed in university labs, published in journals, and used primarily in research — there is no realistic commercial revenue to protect, and the non-commercial restriction serves only to limit the scale's reach.

The bottom line

Psychological scales are not like songs, photographs, or software — they generate value through use, not through sale. The more widely and easily your scale can be used, the more it is cited, validated across populations, and ultimately contributes to science. CC BY 4.0 maximizes this while protecting your credit.

If you have previously published under CC BY-NC and would like to relicense to CC BY 4.0, we are happy to help facilitate that process.

Common Situations

"I published my scale in a journal article — can I still contribute?"

Almost certainly yes. Normally, the first public presentation of your scale is copyrighted by you as the author — this includes preprints, conference presentations, theses, and the manuscript you submitted to the journal. Even if you subsequently published the scale in a copyrighted journal, you likely retain the right to relicense the scale content on any terms, because the publisher's copyright typically covers the article text and typesetting, not the underlying instrument you created.

Many publishers (Elsevier, Wiley, Springer) acquire copyright over the article text but not over the underlying instrument. If you published the items as a table or appendix in the article, check your publishing agreement to confirm, but in most cases the scale items remain your intellectual property.

If your article was published in an open-access journal under a CC license (e.g., PLOS ONE, Frontiers), the items included in the article are already openly licensed. However, note that some CC BY articles deliberately exclude the scale items (e.g., "items available from the first author") — in that case, the items themselves are not covered by the article's CC license.

"I have co-authors — do they all need to agree?"

Yes. All rights holders must agree to the licensing terms. If you developed the scale with co-authors, you will need their written agreement (a simple email confirming consent is sufficient).

"My institution may own the rights"

Some institutions claim intellectual property rights over instruments developed by their employees. Check with your institution's technology transfer or IP office if you are unsure.

"I want to contribute translations but not the original items"

If you have developed a validated translation of an existing scale, you can contribute just the translation. We will add it to the existing scale definition if the original language version is already in our repository. You must have the right to distribute the translation (some scale developers require approval for translations).

"My scale has proprietary scoring or norms"

Items and scoring can have different licensing. You might choose to openly license the items and response format while keeping proprietary scoring algorithms, norm tables, or clinical interpretation guidelines separate. Let us know what you are comfortable sharing and we will structure the .osd accordingly.

"What if I license you my scale and my publisher/co-author/institution objects?"

We will remove it from the repository if you ask us to. We have no interest in distributing a scale against the wishes of its rights holders. If a dispute arises after you have contributed a scale, simply let us know and we will take it down promptly while the situation is resolved.

"Can I contribute a scale I use but did not author?"

No. Although many scales are widely re-used, published, and re-implemented freely — including on sites like the APA PsycTests database — and publishers typically ignore this unauthorized reuse because the instruments have no real commercial value, we cannot simply redistribute copyrighted material without authorization from the rights holder.

Scale items may fall under the fair use doctrine of copyright law when used in research contexts. However, publishers have asserted copyright over instruments such as the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), and while this is widely disputed and copyright probably does not apply to the use of an instrument, it is more likely to apply to the republication of the instrument's text — which is exactly what we do when we include items in an .osd file.

If you know of a scale you would like to see included, the best path is to contact the original developers and point them to our licensing options. We are happy to work with scale authors to get their instruments properly licensed and included.

Getting Started

Ready to contribute? Here is how to proceed:

  1. Decide which licensing option (A through G above) fits your situation.
  2. Contact us with your scale name, preferred licensing option, and any questions.
  3. If you want to create the .osd file yourself, see our technical contribution guide for the file format and submission process.
  4. If you prefer, we can create the .osd file for you from your published materials — just send us the items, response options, scoring rules, and any norms.

Questions? Open a GitHub issue and we will be happy to help.