Clarivate SkyRiver – Open Metadata Policy

Executive Summary 

This policy establishes SkyRiver’s approach to open bibliographic metadata: making metadata as open, interoperable, and reusable as possible while preserving contributor trust, source provenance, licensing obligations, and platform integrity. Its core intention is to position SkyRiver as a shared metadata ecosystem for the academic library community, where openness is the default ambition, but not at the expense of legal, contractual, ethical, privacy, or operational safeguards. 

The policy defines how SkyRiver-created, contributed, enriched, special collections, and third-party metadata should be licensed, exposed, and reused. It favors CC0 for SkyRiver-created metadata and encourages CC0 for community contributions wherever possible, while allowing CC-BY where attribution is required and preserving restrictions attached to third-party or sensitive records. It also makes a clear distinction between reuse rights and technical access: openly licensed metadata may be reusable under its license, but API, bulk download, high-volume export, and automated access may still require authentication, registration, rate limits, terms of use, monitoring, or commercial arrangements. 

Overall, the policy is designed to balance open reuse with responsible stewardship. It commits SkyRiver to clear license and provenance transparency, contributor consent and control, standards-based interoperability, machine and bulk access where appropriate, and proportionate safeguards against misuse. It also establishes a governance model with community advisory input so that policy interpretation, exceptions, and material changes remain transparent, accountable, and aligned with library community expectations. 

​​Table of Contents 

1. Purpose 

Clarivate is committed to enabling open, interoperable, and reusable bibliographic metadata through the SkyRiver platform in ways that support collaboration, trust, and shared value across the global academic library community. 

Policy position 

SkyRiver supports open reuse of bibliographic metadata where rights permit. Open reuse does not mean unrestricted technical access. SkyRiver distinguishes between metadata license, contributor consent, provenance, and platform access controls so that metadata can be reused confidently while restricted, licensed, or sensitive content remains appropriately protected. 

2. Core Principles 

a. Openness by Default

• Clarivate will keep metadata sharing and reuse as open as possible, limiting restrictions only where legal, contractual, ethical, or privacy considerations make that necessary. 

• When SkyRiver creates metadata directly, that metadata will be openly reusable under a CC0 license. 

• When SkyRiver enhances a CC0 record, the record will remain CC0. 

• SkyRiver will not enhance records contributed under CC-BY. 

• When a library contributes metadata under an open license, that metadata can be reused under the terms of the open license. 

• When metadata comes from another source with restrictions, SkyRiver will preserve those restrictions rather than override them. 

• SkyRiver will not support mixed-provenance records. 

• What this means in practice: 

• The platform will clearly show which records are open and which are restricted, including the license and source information needed to support confident reuse. 

• Metadata identified as CC0 or CC-BY will be available for reuse, export, API access, and bulk download under its applicable license, unless access must be limited for legal, contractual, privacy, security, platform integrity, or abuse-prevention reasons. Technical access may require authentication, registration, rate limits, or terms of use. 

• Any restriction will be traceable, justified, and communicated clearly rather than applied arbitrarily. 

b. Standardized Open

• Default license: 

• CC0 (public domain dedication) for SkyRiver-created metadata. 

• Alternative (when required): 

• CC-BY, where attribution is required by the contributing institution or applicable source terms. 

• Contributions from organizations with an open metadata policy: 

• As contributors, organizations with an open metadata policy are encouraged to make their records available under CC0 wherever possible to support the widest possible reuse across the community. 

• SkyRiver will limit supported open contribution licenses to CC0 and CC-BY, except where licensed third-party metadata requires different treatment. Non-commercial license variants will not be used as a default contribution model because they are difficult to define consistently, enforce reliably, and reconcile with broad open reuse. 

c. Clear Rights Transparency 

• All metadata records will include clear license and provenance information. 

• This helps users understand: 

• Source of the record; 

• Applicable license; 

• Any reuse requirements. 

d. Respect for Contributor Control (Consent-driven model)

• Participating institutions retain control over whether to contribute metadata and what license applies to the metadata they contribute, from options that fit SkyRiver’s overall metadata policy and support shared stewardship of an open ecosystem. 

• SkyRiver does not claim ownership of contributed records and will recognize the role participating institutions play in creating and sharing metadata. 

• Contributors are responsible for ensuring that they have the necessary rights, permissions, partner agreements, and internal approvals to contribute metadata under the selected license. Where records originate from partner libraries, consortia, vendors, national bibliographies, or other third-party sources, the contributing institution must confirm that contribution and reuse through SkyRiver are consistent with those source arrangements. 

e. Interoperability & Standards

• Metadata is exposed using: 

• Standard formats (e.g., MARC, BIBFRAME, KBART, linked data models) 

• Documentation and schemas are openly published. 

• Where feasible, SkyRiver will preserve records in their contributed format and support standards-based conversion or crosswalks for downstream use. This may include maintaining MARC and BIBFRAME representations in parallel, enabling libraries to contribute, discover, copy, or export metadata in the format most appropriate to their local workflows. 

• SkyRiver will continue to evaluate linked-data access models, including scenarios where metadata may be referenced, resolved, or reused through live linked-data services rather than fully migrated into a central catalog, where such models are technically practical and legally appropriate. 

f. Machine and Bulk Access

• Metadata will be accessible through community-relevant, standards-based channels, including: 

• APIs; 

• Bulk download; 

• Standard protocols (e.g., OAI‑PMH); 

• SkyRiver application; 

• SkyRiver may support different contribution and access models depending on contributor readiness, technical capability, and rights constraints. These may include direct record contribution, protocol-based search or retrieval, API-based access, or other approved integration patterns. 

g. Attribution best practice  

• For CC0 metadata: 

• If a record is used under CC0 license, users are not legally required to credit the source when they reuse it.  

• However, within the SkyRiver community, attribution is encouraged as a shared norm and good professional practice, because it helps preserve trust, provenance, and recognition of institutional contribution, while remaining non-binding for CC0 records. 

• In summary, attribution is encouraged as a best practice. 

• For CC-BY metadata: 

• SkyRiver will treat records contributed under CC-BY as open, reusable metadata with a mandatory attribution requirement. 

• Unlike CC0, reuse of CC-BY metadata records requires users to credit the source. 

• This allows reuse while ensuring that contributing institutions receive appropriate attribution. 

• When a user copies and modifies a record, the resulting local version is controlled by the adopting institution, subject to the applicable license and any source restrictions. SkyRiver will seek to preserve original source attribution and provenance in the copied record where technically feasible, even when attribution is encouraged rather than legally required. 

h. Legal and Ethical Boundaries

Open metadata may be restricted when: 

• Required by third-party licenses; 

• Subject to contractual obligations; 

• Sensitive or privacy-related data is involved; 

• Records subject to third-party data-use restrictions, redistribution limitations, contractual controls, or other source policies that restrict open reuse will not be accepted into open contribution workflows unless the contributor can confirm that reuse through SkyRiver is permitted. SkyRiver may exclude, filter, suppress, or restrict such records at contribution, ingestion, indexing, export, API, or bulk-access stages. 

3. Metadata Categories & Licensing 

Metadata Type	License
SkyRiver-created bibliographic records	CC0
Enriched / AI-generated metadata	CC0 (unless derived from restricted sources)
Contributed library metadata	Contributor-selected (CC0 preferred / CC‑BY)
Third-party aggregated metadata	Original license retained and enforced according to source terms; may be excluded from open API, export, or bulk download where required
Special collections / archival metadata	CC0 or CC-BY where contributed by the holding institution; other terms only where required by third-party rights, donor agreements, or contractual restrictions

 

4. Reuse Rights 

To support discovery, interoperability, and innovation across the community, metadata identified as CC0 or CC-BY may be reused under the applicable license terms. Reuse rights describe what the license permits; they do not automatically guarantee unrestricted technical access to every SkyRiver service, API, or bulk download channel. 

• Copy, modify, and redistribute metadata; 

• Integrate into systems, services, and AI models; 

• Use openly licensed metadata for lawful purposes permitted by the applicable license, subject to attribution requirements, source restrictions, and SkyRiver platform access controls; 

• Access to SkyRiver APIs, bulk download services, and high-volume export workflows may be made available to participating institutions, approved partners, non-participating academic institutions, vendors, or other third parties through authenticated channels, registration processes, rate limits, terms of use, or commercial arrangements, as appropriate. 

Access matrix 

The following matrix clarifies how reuse rights differ from technical access to SkyRiver APIs, bulk download services, and high-volume export workflows. 

User type	Reuse of CC0 / CC-BY metadata	API, bulk, or high-volume access
Participating SkyRiver institutions	Yes, under applicable license terms	Authenticated platform access, subject to applicable service terms, permissions, and safeguards
Non-participating academic institutions	Yes, where metadata has been obtained lawfully and used under applicable license terms	May require registration, approval, authentication, rate limits, or terms of use
Approved partners	Yes, under applicable license terms and partner obligations	Governed by partner terms, approved use cases, authentication, monitoring, and access controls
Commercial vendors and aggregators	Yes, where metadata has been obtained lawfully and used under applicable license terms	Subject to approved access terms, registration, rate limits, monitoring, and, where appropriate, commercial agreement
Users of restricted or third-party metadata	Only as permitted by source terms, contributor consent, or applicable agreement	Excluded or controlled according to source terms, contributor requirements, contractual restrictions, and platform safeguards

5. Responsibilities of Users 

To help sustain an open and trustworthy metadata ecosystem, users should: 

• Respect applicable licenses and attribution requirements; 

• Preserve license, attribution, and provenance metadata when redistributing records or integrating records into downstream systems, services, discovery tools, analytics workflows, or AI/LLM-related applications. 

• Not remove or obscure source, license, or restriction information, and not attempt to access, harvest, or use restricted metadata outside permitted platform channels. 

• Comply with any applicable access terms for high-volume use, including API access, bulk download, automated harvesting, redistribution, or use in model training, evaluation, enrichment, or other AI-enabled workflows. 

• Ensure that any copied, edited, enriched, or redistributed record continues to carry applicable license, source, and provenance information where technically feasible, including attribution required for CC-BY records and recommended attribution for CC0 records. 

• The assignment or presence of a SkyRiver identifier does not confer Clarivate ownership of the underlying bibliographic metadata or contributed record. 

6. Platform Commitments 

Clarivate commits that SkyRiver will serve the library community through platform practices that strengthen openness, trust, interoperability, and shared stewardship across institutions and networks: 

• Keep metadata reuse as open as possible, so that participating institutions, partners, and downstream users can support discovery, collaboration, and innovation without unnecessary barriers. 

• Respect institutional contribution and control, recognizing that contributor trust, provenance, and sustained community participation depend on clear acknowledgment of the role participating institutions play in creating and sharing metadata. 

• Enable collaboration across systems and networks by supporting interoperability across environments that libraries rely on to share, enrich, and reuse metadata. 

• Help sustain an open metadata community shaped by collaboration, transparency, and the shared stewardship of participating institutions, ecosystem partners, and the wider library community. 

• Protect platform integrity and responsible reuse by applying proportionate safeguards such as authentication, rate limits, monitoring for abuse, exclusion of restricted metadata from open channels, and clear terms for automated harvesting, redistribution, and AI/LLM-related use. 

• Maintain metadata quality and integrity by applying minimum quality standards to records contributed to SkyRiver. Record quality will be evaluated using established Ex Libris assessment criteria, including an Ex Libris scoring methodology and related documented requirements. Contributed records must satisfy the applicable quality threshold, which may be reviewed and updated periodically with community input. Records that do not satisfy the applicable threshold may be rejected, removed, suppressed, or otherwise excluded from the catalog, with notice to the contributing institution and, where appropriate, information to support remediation. 

• Introduce capabilities in phases, recognizing that supported contribution methods, access channels, formats, API capabilities, bulk workflows, and linked-data services may evolve over time as partner integrations, legal review, technical architecture, and community requirements mature. 

7. Governance 

Clarivate will maintain a structured governance model for the SkyRiver metadata policy that combines clear internal accountability with meaningful community participation. Governance will guide policy interpretation, licensing rules, contributor requirements, provenance practices, access principles, exception handling, and material policy changes. 

Governance body 

Clarivate will establish a SkyRiver Metadata Governance Advisory Group to provide structured community input on the metadata policy and its implementation. The group will advise on licensing policy, contributor rules, provenance requirements, access principles, exception handling, and material policy changes. It will also help test whether the policy remains practical, credible, and aligned with library community expectations. 

• Membership — The advisory group will include representatives from participating academic libraries, consortia, metadata practitioners, library leaders, licensing or legal experts, technical interoperability experts, and Clarivate product and policy stakeholders. Membership should reflect a mix of institution types, geographies, consortial and standalone libraries, and implementation perspectives. Clarivate participants will support implementation and accountability but should not be the sole voice in policy interpretation or material change review. 

• Eligibility and rotation — Contribution to SkyRiver does not automatically confer membership in the advisory group, and subscription or participation status does not guarantee a permanent seat. Contributors, subscribers, consortia, and other community stakeholders may be eligible for rotating representation, with selection designed to balance contributor perspectives, subscriber needs, geographic diversity, metadata expertise, and strategic partnership considerations. 

• Decision rights — Clarivate will retain final accountability for policy adoption and platform implementation. Material changes to licensing, API or bulk access principles, contributor requirements, provenance practices, or exception categories will be reviewed with the advisory group before adoption. Where Clarivate makes a decision that differs from advisory input, it will document the rationale and communicate the decision to participating institutions through appropriate governance or contributor channels. 

• Review cadence — The advisory group will meet at least twice annually, with additional review sessions convened when material policy, licensing, access, legal, contributor, or product implementation changes are proposed. The metadata policy will also be reviewed when new categories of metadata, reuse models, or access workflows create material implications for contributors or downstream users. 

• Escalation and exception review — Participating institutions may escalate concerns about policy interpretation, contributor rights, provenance handling, access restrictions, restricted metadata, or exception decisions through a documented governance channel. Escalated issues will be reviewed by Clarivate policy and product owners and, where materially relevant to the community, brought to the advisory group for review. Exceptions to the open-by-default model must be traceable, justified, documented, and periodically reviewed. 

• Transparency and evidence of community input — Major policy reviews will include evidence of community input, such as summaries of advisory feedback, customer consultation themes, expert review findings, and resulting policy changes. Clarivate will periodically test the policy with selected customers and independent experts, including critical reviewers, to identify ambiguity, operational friction, competitive vulnerabilities, and unintended consequences. 

• Partner review of material changes — Where appropriate, Clarivate may invite selected contributors, strategic partners, or external experts to review material policy proposals before finalization, particularly where changes affect contributor rights, licensing models, access methods, governance expectations, or legal interpretation. Such review will be managed in accordance with confidentiality, legal, and commercial requirements. 

• Quality standards oversight — The advisory group will provide input on metadata quality standards, including the scoring approach, criteria, and thresholds. Record quality is assessed using an established Ex Libris scoring algorithm. Thresholds and criteria may be refined in alignment with advisory input and evolving community expectations. Records below the defined threshold may be removed from the catalog, with notification to the contributing institution.