Definition: Licensing agreement

Category: Statistical methodologies

A permit, issued under certain conditions, for researchers to use confidential data for specific purposes and for specific periods of time. This agreement consists of contractual and ethical obligations, as well as penalties for improper disclosure or use of identifiable information. These penalties can vary from withdrawal of the license and denial of access to additional data sets to the forfeiting of a deposit paid prior to the release of a microdata file. A licensing agreement is almost always combined with the signing of a contract. This contract includes a number of requirements: specification of the intended use of the data; instruction not to release the microdata file to another recipient; prior review and approval by the releasing agency for all user outputs to be published or disseminated; terms and location of access and enforceable penalties. http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/ramon/statmanuals/files/SDC_Handbook.pdf