The OSSP intellectual property framework is structured to increase the transparency of the research process, encourage collaboration, and streamline material and information transfer between researchers and across institutions

The greatest obstacle to the adoption of open research practices is the complicated, and non-standardized, system of contracts and agreements to which academic researchers and the intellectual property they produce, are held.

To address these, we have developed a simple intellectual property framework built upon the BY-NC-SA 3.0 license developed by Creative Commons for all written/textual content published within, or by, members of the OSSP community.  This includes research project proposals, research log entries, comments/messages, peer-review feedback, and final reports.

We are currently developing a similar licensing framework for research materials (e.g. chemical compounds, cell lines) that will enable researchers to purchase or request materials from their peers through a 'one-click' system.  This framework will ultimately be built upon the foundation laid out by the Simple Letter Agreement, and the Uniform Biological Material Transfer Agreement.