[License metadata] | Production - Publishing, Journal default license is always stamped to an article even if the editor tries to remove it

[ajnyga]

Valid Title

• I have updated the title to accurately reflect the bug description

Description

In OJS 3.4 the journal default license is always stamped to the article metadata when it is published. The editor is not able to remove it.

The only way to remove the default license is to add some content to the license field. An empty space is enough which is another problem if the system allows an empty space as content.

If the license field is fully empty and you publish the article, the system will always add the default license.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Login with User/Role Editor
2. Navigate to Distribution settings and make sure the journal has a default license selected
3. Go to a submission in production stage and try to remove the default license
4. Publish the article and see the default license being stamped to the article metadata anyway

Expected Result

Editors should be able to leave the license field empty if the article does no have a license. This is very common especially with old content.

Actual Result

Editors can not leave the field empty because the system will just fill in the default license.

Environment Details

No response

Application Version

OJS 3.4

Logs

No response

Additional Information

No response

[asmecher]

The underlying problem is that OJS doesn't distinguish between an "intentionally empty" license field, and a submission whose license has not yet been assigned.

While we could chase down a technical distinction between the two cases, I think it might be better to set the field to a meaningful non-empty value.

For a journal that has some content with an unspecified license, for example, they could create a static page in OJS describing the rights for that era of content -- even if it's necessarily vague -- and then use that for the license URL of affected content.