2. Steps in Making a Map for a Journal Figure

2.7. Licensing

Can you cite your data? Are you allowed to publish it?

More and more often, publishers are asking for proof of their ability to publish the data legally. This means that the data either need to be open licensed or you need a document giving you permission to use the data in a publication. You decide the license for the data you create. Where people typically get hung up is on data they download from the internet. When you do this, look for the data's license statement, readme file, or metadata to find the license and save that information alongside the data files. I often put relevant license information, source, and date I downloaded it in a .txt file in the same folder with the data to have the information ready when I need it..

Some journals want to know who made the maps you include in your submission to avoid reproducing images that belong to someone else - i.e. maps you find online and want to use.