ZAPPGovernance

Intellectual Property and Licensing

Last update: March 2026

This is part of the ZAPP Governance Documents.

This document describes licensing policies for ZAPP resources and expectations for citation and publications related to the project.

1. Data Licensing

All data in the ZAPP Atlas are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.

This license permits sharing and reuse of data provided that appropriate attribution is given to:

• the original data creators, and
• ZAPP as the data resource.

2. Data Models, Standards, and Ontologies

Data models, ontologies, schemas, documentation, and other non-software artifacts are released under appropriate open licenses consistent with community standards and funder requirements.

License information is specified within each repository.

3. Code, Tools, and Documentation

ZAPP software, tooling, ontologies, knowledge graphs (KGs), documentation, and related resources are released under open licenses.

• Software is licensed under the Apache License 2.0 or another license approved by the Open Source Initiative (OSI).
• Ontologies, schemas, documentation, and other non-software artifacts are released under an appropriate open license consistent with community standards and funder requirements.

License information is clearly indicated within each repository.

5. Citation Policy

Citing the ZAPP Atlas as a Resource

When referencing ZAPP as a database, infrastructure, or data resource (e.g., in Methods sections, as a search resource, or for bulk data download), cite:

[Insert official ZAPP citation here]

Citing a Specific Atlas Entry

When referencing a specific image or record, cite:

• The individual entry (via provided citation tool)
• The data submitter and laboratory (as indicated on the record)
• The associated publication, if applicable

The Atlas provides a “Cite this entry” tool to generate the correct citation format.

Citing Software and Tools

When referencing ZAPP software or tools, cite:

• the relevant GitHub repository, and/or
• the associated publication listed in the repository documentation.

Repositories will include a recommended citation file when available.

6. Publications

This section applies to publications produced as part of the ZAPP project or supported by ZAPP funding.

MPI Inclusion

Publications reporting work funded by the ZAPP grant must include at least one MPI as an author.

Community Authorship

Community members and contributors may be offered co-authorship on publications when their contributions meet authorship criteria.

Authorship decisions should follow standard scholarly authorship guidelines (e.g., meaningful intellectual or technical contribution).

Authorship Order Guidelines

Authorship order will generally follow these principles:

• Lead author(s): ZAPP team member(s) who made the primary intellectual and writing contributions.
• Contributing authors: ZAPP team members and community contributors listed in order of contribution.
• Equal contributions: When contributions are equal, authors may be listed alphabetically.
• Senior authors: ZAPP MPIs.
• Internal Advisory Team: Members of the Internal Advisory Team may be included when appropriate and will be listed alphabetically (by last name) immediately before the senior authors.

Final authorship decisions remain the responsibility of the MPIs.