Via API, datasets can be created in an invalid state when it comes to license/terms

[pdurbin]

What steps does it take to reproduce the issue?

Follow docs to create a dataset...

curl -H X-Dataverse-key:3e2b87bf-6652-47f1-b0bb-ddc0aa1a9106 -X POST http://localhost:8080/api/dataverses/root/datasets -H Content-type:application/json --upload-file dataset.json

... using this file: dataset.json

I created this JSON file with the following EasyDataverse code:

dataset.citation.title = "My Dataset"
dataset.citation.subject = ["Other"]
dataset.citation.add_author(name="Durbin, Philip")
dataset.citation.add_dataset_contact(name="Durbin, Philip", email="philip_durbin@harvard.edu")
dataset.citation.add_ds_description(value="My description.")

What happens?

The dataset is created in an invalid state when it comes to license/terms. See the screenshot below. It is set to "Custom Dataset Terms" but "Terms of Use" is empty.

What did you expect to happen?

The dataset should be assigned the default license, which is CC0 out of the box.

Which version of Dataverse are you using?

The latest in the develop branch: d70de2c

Any related open or closed issues to this bug report?

• Ensure that datasets published using the Dataverse APIs include a license or have Terms of Use #9148
• Creating Datasets via API Should Use Default License - if None Specified #9364
• 9148 Ensure that license/terms are set via API (create/update/publish) #9568

Screenshots

[jggautier]

Related:

• Ensure that datasets published using the Dataverse APIs include a license or have Terms of Use #9148

[jggautier]

@sbarbosadataverse asked me to list unpublished datasets in Harvard Dataverse that may have been created using the API and that have no license and nothing in the Terms of Use field. These were all created between June 2024 and January 2025:

• https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.7910/DVN/UG3VZP
• https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.7910/DVN/TZPLY0
• https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.7910/DVN/EUNYVO
• https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.7910/DVN/YW4IJG
• https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.7910/DVN/U2G3OD

[pdurbin]

I'm using the Semantic API to create a dataset with this...

{
  "http://purl.org/dc/terms/title": "Pediatric Asthma",
  "http://purl.org/dc/terms/creator": {
      "https://dataverse.org/schema/citation/authorName": "Sullivan, James"
  },
  "https://dataverse.org/schema/citation/datasetContact": {
    "https://dataverse.org/schema/citation/datasetContactEmail": "sully@mailinator.com"
  },
  "https://dataverse.org/schema/citation/dsDescription": {
    "https://dataverse.org/schema/citation/dsDescriptionValue": "A dataset about pediatric asthma."
  },
  "http://purl.org/dc/terms/subject": "Medicine, Health and Life Sciences"
}

... and I wasn't easily able to figure out how to specify a license.

From REST Assured, I ended up calling UtilIT.updateLicense after creation to set the license.