Licensing and permitted use

License and Use

Documentation, manuals, and measurement specifications on this site are released under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0). Hosted software is available for non-commercial academic and educational use. The platform is developed as an open, public-good research infrastructure.

Join the network How to Cite Resources

Documentation and specifications

CC BY-NC 4.0

Written materials on this site — including the manuals, the Self-Complexity Measurement Specification, the Identity Strength Index Specification, the Salience Measurement Specification, and the Identity Archetypes Operational Specification — are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license.

Under these terms, the documentation and specifications may be used by researchers, instructors, and students for non-commercial scholarship, teaching, and applied practice, with attribution.

Share
Copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format.
Adapt
Remix, transform, and build upon the material.
Attribution
Give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made.
NonCommercial
The material may not be used for commercial purposes without separate permission.

Full license text: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

Software

Non-commercial academic use

Hosted versions of the Everythingist Self-Space app and the research dashboard are made available for non-commercial academic and educational use. This includes use in coursework, supervised student projects, dissertation research, and grant-funded studies conducted by academic and non-profit institutions.

The source code for these tools is not currently distributed under an open-source license. Researchers interested in replication, extension, institutional deployment, or local installation are encouraged to make contact directly, and accommodations can usually be arranged.

Software questions: etcresearch@illinois.edu

Collaboration

Shaping what comes next

Collaborating on the platform

The platform is developed as a public good. The license terms above describe how the materials can be used — but the platform also has room to grow, and the network welcomes input from researchers who want to help shape what comes next.

Specific areas where input and collaboration are welcome:

Expanding identity recognition
New identity domains the platform should support — see the identity-domain list on the Join page for the current scope.
Emerging metrics
New self-complexity or identity-structure metrics the field is developing, where the platform can contribute measurement infrastructure or replication tools.
Methodological discussion
Network-wide conversations about hard measurement questions: longitudinal change, cross-cultural validity, intervention sensitivity, and how to handle them rigorously.
AI integration
Promising applications of AI to identity analysis — explored only where participant-data privacy can be preserved to the same standard as the current Self-Space app.

To start a conversation, sign up via the Join page or write directly to etcresearch@illinois.edu.

Attribution

How to cite

A consolidated list of recommended citations for the manuals, measurement specifications, the Self-Space app, and the research dashboard is maintained on a dedicated citation page. Use that page to pull the correct reference for each component of the ecosystem when preparing a manuscript, syllabus, or technical report.

Open Citation Page

Before using this in a study

Three things to do up front

Pin versions

Record version numbers

Document the version of the Self-Space app, the research dashboard, and each measurement specification in use at the time of data collection. Reporting these versions in the methods section keeps the work reproducible as the platform evolves.

Longitudinal designs

Watch for updates between waves

Major updates to the measurement specification or platform between collection waves can affect comparability across time points. Plan to either pin a single version across the full study or document any mid-study migrations and their analytic implications.

Get in touch first

Reach out before launching

For new studies, particularly those extending the framework into a new population or domain, an early conversation about version-specific guidance, planned changes, and recommended configurations is encouraged. Write to etcresearch@illinois.edu before the protocol is finalized.

CC BY-NC 4.0 is a well-established and widely accepted license for academic re-use and is the appropriate default for the documentation and specifications on this site. For institutional partnerships, sponsored-research agreements, or any formal arrangement that would invoke University of Illinois intellectual property, the University's Office of Technology Management and university counsel are the authoritative offices, and any binding terms would be coordinated through them.