Dual-Licensing Template for ABI Research Software

A template for researchers and students to start software projects with a dual-licensing framework and academic attribution metadata.

This repository includes a pre-configured LICENSE.md file template and a machine-readable CITATION.cff file.

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Starting a New GitHub Repository

If you are launching a new software project, we recommend using this repository as a baseline template.

1. Click the Use this template button in the top-right corner of this page:

2. Select Create a new repository. GitHub will redirect you to the configuration page:

3. Configure your new repository settings:
   • Keep Start with a template set to ABI-Software/dual-licensing-example.
   • Keep Include all branches turned off.
   • Select the appropriate Owner (your personal account or your organisation) and enter your Repository name.
   • Add a project description (you can update this later).
   • Set the visibility to Public or Private based on your project's current confidentiality requirements.
4. Click Create repository.
5. Make sure the content in CITATION.cff is updated in your repository. Here is a page from Github on how to update the citation.cff.

You now have a clean repository populated with the correct dual-licensing text and a citation template. You are ready to begin developing your code!

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Applying to an Existing Repository

Transitioning an active, existing codebase to a dual-licensing model requires careful legal and technical compliance:

1. Verify IP Ownership: Ensure you have the legal right to license the code. Review the Intellectual Property Policy from the University. Remember that external contributions or viral dependencies may impact your licensing options.
2. Obtain Contributor Consent: You must get explicit, written agreement from 100% of the past authors/contributors who wrote code currently in the repository before changing the license terms.
3. Apply the New Licence: Copy the LICENSE file from this template into your root directory. Update your documentation to state that the dual-licensing model applies to all versions from this commit forward. Note: Do not delete historical open-source licences if that legacy code remains in your version history.
4. Add Academic Attribution: Copy and update the CITATION.cff file to ensure your team receives proper academic citation when your software is used by other researchers. Here is a page from Github on how to update the citation.cff