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<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> <meta charset="utf-8"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1, shrink-to-fit=no"> <title>Chapter 9 The LICENSE file | Bioconductor Packages: Development, Maintenance, and Peer Review</title> <meta name="author" content="Kevin Rue-Albrecht"> <meta name="author" content="Daniela Cassol"> <meta name="author" content="Johannes Rainer"> <meta name="author" content="Lori Shepherd"> <meta name="description" content="The license field should preferably refer to a standard license (see wikipedia) using one of ’s standard specifications. 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justify-content-between"> <h1> <a href="index.html" title="">Bioconductor Packages: Development, Maintenance, and Peer Review</a> </h1> <button class="btn btn-outline-primary d-lg-none ml-2 mt-1" type="button" data-toggle="collapse" data-target="#main-nav" aria-expanded="true" aria-controls="main-nav"><i class="fas fa-bars"></i><span class="sr-only">Show table of contents</span></button> </div> <div id="main-nav" class="collapse-lg"> <form role="search"> <input id="search" class="form-control" type="search" placeholder="Search" aria-label="Search"> </form> <nav aria-label="Table of contents"><h2>Table of contents</h2> <ul class="book-toc list-unstyled"> <li><a class="" href="index.html">Welcome</a></li> <li class="book-part">Package Submissions</li> <li><a class="" href="submission-overview.html">Overview</a></li> <li><a class="" href="bioconductor-package-submissions.html"><span class="header-section-number">1</span> Bioconductor Package Submissions</a></li> <li class="book-part">Package Development Guidelines</li> <li><a class="" href="develop-overview.html">Overview</a></li> <li><a class="" href="package-name.html"><span class="header-section-number">2</span> Package name</a></li> <li><a class="" href="general.html"><span class="header-section-number">3</span> General Bioconductor Package Development</a></li> <li><a class="" href="important-bioconductor-package-development-features.html"><span class="header-section-number">4</span> Important Bioconductor Package Development Features</a></li> <li><a class="" href="readme.html"><span class="header-section-number">5</span> The README file</a></li> <li><a class="" href="description.html"><span class="header-section-number">6</span> The DESCRIPTION file</a></li> <li><a class="" href="namespace.html"><span class="header-section-number">7</span> The NAMESPACE file</a></li> <li><a class="" href="news.html"><span class="header-section-number">8</span> The NEWS file</a></li> <li><a class="active" href="license.html"><span class="header-section-number">9</span> The LICENSE file</a></li> <li><a class="" href="citation.html"><span class="header-section-number">10</span> The CITATION file</a></li> <li><a class="" href="sysdep.html"><span class="header-section-number">11</span> The INSTALL file</a></li> <li><a class="" href="docs.html"><span class="header-section-number">12</span> Documentation</a></li> <li><a class="" href="data.html"><span class="header-section-number">13</span> Package data</a></li> <li><a class="" href="tests.html"><span class="header-section-number">14</span> Unit tests</a></li> <li><a class="" href="r-code.html"><span class="header-section-number">15</span> R code</a></li> <li><a class="" href="other-than-Rcode.html"><span class="header-section-number">16</span> Fortran / C / C++ / Python / Third-Party Code</a></li> <li><a class="" href="shiny.html"><span class="header-section-number">17</span> Shiny apps</a></li> <li><a class="" href="non-software.html"><span class="header-section-number">18</span> Non-Software Packages</a></li> <li><a class="" href="gitignore.html"><span class="header-section-number">19</span> The .gitignore file</a></li> <li><a class="" href="conclusion.html"><span class="header-section-number">20</span> Conclusion</a></li> <li class="book-part">Bioconductor Package Maintenance</li> <li><a class="" href="package-maintenance.html">Overview</a></li> <li><a class="" href="git-version-control.html"><span class="header-section-number">21</span> Git Version Control</a></li> <li><a class="" href="versionnum.html"><span class="header-section-number">22</span> Version Numbering</a></li> <li><a class="" href="troubleshooting-build-report.html"><span class="header-section-number">23</span> Troubleshooting Build Report</a></li> <li><a class="" href="debugging-cc-code.html"><span class="header-section-number">24</span> Debugging C/C++ code</a></li> <li><a class="" href="deprecation.html"><span class="header-section-number">25</span> Deprecation Guidelines</a></li> <li><a class="" href="package-end-of-life-policy.html"><span class="header-section-number">26</span> Package End of Life Policy</a></li> <li><a class="" href="branch-rename-faqs.html"><span class="header-section-number">27</span> Branch Rename FAQs</a></li> <li class="book-part">Package Reviewer Resources</li> <li><a class="" href="reviewer-resources-overview.html">Overview</a></li> <li><a class="" href="review-expectation.html"><span class="header-section-number">28</span> Review Expectations</a></li> <li><a class="" href="reviewtools.html"><span class="header-section-number">29</span> Reviewer Resources and Tools</a></li> <li><a class="" href="review-volunteer-chapter.html"><span class="header-section-number">30</span> Volunteer to Review</a></li> <li class="book-part">Appendix</li> <li><a class="" href="use-devel.html"><span class="header-section-number">A</span> Using the ‘Devel’ Version of Bioconductor</a></li> <li><a class="" href="long-tests.html"><span class="header-section-number">B</span> Long Tests</a></li> <li><a class="" href="querying-web-resources.html"><span class="header-section-number">C</span> Querying Web Resources</a></li> <li><a class="" href="c-fortran.html"><span class="header-section-number">D</span> C and Fortran code</a></li> <li><a class="" href="cmavericks-best-practices.html"><span class="header-section-number">E</span> C++/Mavericks Best Practices</a></li> <li><a class="" href="man-links.html"><span class="header-section-number">F</span> Debug: Links in Rd files</a></li> <li><a class="" href="booknews.html"><span class="header-section-number">G</span> NEWS</a></li> </ul> <div class="book-extra"> <p><a id="book-repo" href="https://github.com/Bioconductor/pkgrevdocs">View book source <i class="fab fa-github"></i></a></p> </div> </nav> </div> </header><main class="col-sm-12 col-md-9 col-lg-7" id="content"><div id="license" class="section level1" number="9"> <h1> <span class="header-section-number">9</span> The LICENSE file<a class="anchor" aria-label="anchor" href="#license"><i class="fas fa-link"></i></a> </h1> <p>The license field should preferably refer to a standard license (see <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_free_software_licences">wikipedia</a>) using one of <i class="fab fa-r-project"></i>’s <a href="https://www.r-project.org/Licenses/">standard specifications</a>.</p> <p>Licenses restricting use, e.g., to academic or non-profit researchers, are not suitable for <a href="https://bioconductor.org"><em>Bioconductor</em></a>. Core Bioconductor packages are typically licensed under <code>Artistic-2.0</code>.</p> <p>To specify a non-standard license, include this <code>LICENSE</code> file in your package (containing the full terms of your license) and use the string <code>file LICENSE</code> in this <code>License:</code> field. The LICENSE file if provided should match the <code>License</code> field in the <a href="description.html#description-license">Description file</a></p> <p>The package should contain only code that can be redistributed according to the package license. Be aware of the licensing agreements for packages you are depending on in your package. Not all packages are open source even if they are publicly available.</p> </div> <div class="chapter-nav"> <div class="prev"><a href="news.html"><span class="header-section-number">8</span> The NEWS file</a></div> <div class="next"><a href="citation.html"><span class="header-section-number">10</span> The CITATION file</a></div> </div></main><div class="col-md-3 col-lg-2 d-none d-md-block sidebar sidebar-chapter"> <nav id="toc" data-toggle="toc" aria-label="On this page"><h2>On this page</h2> <ul class="nav navbar-nav"><li><a class="nav-link" href="#license"><span class="header-section-number">9</span> The LICENSE file</a></li></ul> <div class="book-extra"> <ul class="list-unstyled"> <li><a id="book-source" href="https://github.com/Bioconductor/pkgrevdocs/blob/devel/license-file.Rmd">View source <i class="fab fa-github"></i></a></li> <li><a id="book-edit" href="https://github.com/Bioconductor/pkgrevdocs/edit/devel/license-file.Rmd">Edit this page <i class="fab fa-github"></i></a></li> </ul> </div> </nav> </div> </div> </div>  <footer class="bg-primary text-light mt-5"><div class="container"><div class="row"> <div class="col-12 col-md-6 mt-3"> <p>"<strong>Bioconductor Packages: Development, Maintenance, and Peer Review</strong>" was written by Kevin Rue-Albrecht, Daniela Cassol, Johannes Rainer, Lori Shepherd. It was last built on 2024-12-02.</p> </div> <div class="col-12 col-md-6 mt-3"> <p>This book was built by the <a class="text-light" href="https://bookdown.org">bookdown</a> R package.</p> </div> </div></div> </footer><script> (function () { var script = document.createElement("script"); script.type = "text/javascript"; var src = "true"; if (src === "" || src === "true") src = "https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/mathjax/2.7.9/latest.js?config=TeX-MML-AM_CHTML"; if (location.protocol !== "file:") if (/^https?:/.test(src)) src = src.replace(/^https?:/, ''); script.src = src; document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0].appendChild(script); })(); </script><script type="text/x-mathjax-config">const popovers = document.querySelectorAll('a.footnote-ref[data-toggle="popover"]'); for (let popover of popovers) { const div = document.createElement('div'); div.setAttribute('style', 'position: absolute; top: 0, left:0; width:0, height:0, overflow: hidden; visibility: hidden;'); div.innerHTML = popover.getAttribute('data-content'); var has_math = div.querySelector("span.math"); if (has_math) { document.body.appendChild(div); MathJax.Hub.Queue(["Typeset", MathJax.Hub, div]); MathJax.Hub.Queue(function() { popover.setAttribute('data-content', div.innerHTML); document.body.removeChild(div); }) } } </script> </body> </html>