Ten simple rules for licensing biomedical data resources

Biomedical research increasingly depends on integrating and reusing data from multiple sources, yet data licensing practices in biomedical domains often lag behind software licensing in maturity and clarity. Vague or overly restrictive licenses hinder data sharing, integration, and downstream innovation. Here, we present ten simple rules to guide data licensing decisions for biomedical data resources, covering the use of standard licenses, explicit and machine-readable documentation of terms, clear handling of derivatives, and sustainability models that do not rely on restricting access. These rules aim to help data stewards, curators, funders, and researchers make licensing decisions that maximize openness, reuse, and impact, while protecting sensitive information and respecting contributor rights.