Data: legal issues

27 May 2014

Marianne Renkema

Issues

Research data retention

Data protection

Privacy

Ownership

Retention of research data

As starting point for new research

For verification purposes

To protect patents

As evidence in case of academic misconduct

To meet requirements

Requirements

To keep your data for a certain period

Data must be available upon request

Data must be deposited in a repository

Sequence or trial must be registered before publication

…

By the university

The Wageningen Code of Conduct for Scientific Practice:

Raw research data are stored for at least five years. These data are made available to other scientific practitioners at request.

Raw research data are archived in such a way that they can be consulted at a minimum expense of time and effort.

By intergovernmental bodies

2007: OECD Principles and Guidelines for Access to Research Data from Public Funding:

“The value of data lies in their use. Full and open access to scientific data should be adopted as the international norm for the exchange of scientific data derived from publicly funded research.”

Dutch central government

Deposit the data in DANS within three months after publication of the end report

By funders

Source: European Landscape Study of Research Data. SIM4RDM (2012) http://www.sim4rdm.eu/sites/default/files/uploads/documents/SIM4RDM%20landscape%20report%20final%2025.01.12.pdf

By disciplines and learned societies

American Psychological Association

Medicine

Bio-informatics

By Journals

Survey on data policies of journals (JoRD project)

Results of Journal Survey

Total no. of Journals surveyed 371

Total no. of Journals with data sharing policies 162

Total no. of Journals that make sharing a requirement of publication

31

Total no. of Journals that enforce the policies 27

Total no. of Journals that state consequences for non compliance

7

Available upon request?

Krawczyk M, Reuben, E (2012) (Un)available upon request: field

experiment on researchers’ willingness to share supplementary

materials. Accountability in research 19(3): 175–86.

doi:10.1080/08989621.2012.678688

Economics (N = 200)64% responded44% sent their data

Savage CJ, Vickers AJ (2009) Empirical Study of Data

Sharing by Authors Publishing in PLoS Journals. PLoS

ONE 4(9): e7078. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0007078

Clinical trials (N=10)70% responded10% sent data

Public availability?

Alsheikh-Ali AA, Qureshi W, Al-Mallah MH, Ioannidis JPA (2011) Public Availability of Published Research Data

in High-Impact Journals. PLoS ONE 6(9): e24357. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0024357

N=500 first 10 original research papers of 2009 from 50 original research journals

with the highest impact factor

88% Some statement on data availability

30% Not subject to any data availabilty policy

59% Did not fully adhere (of the remaining 70%)

9% Made raw data available (of all articles)

Reluctance to share

• Authors are not confident about the data or interpretation

• Researchers are more concerned with losing advantage than advancing science

Data Protection

Two situations:

A researcher wants to protect his own data

A researcher wants to use data from other people

Legal situations

No legal protection

Protection by copyright

Protection by database right

No legal protection

Raw data or facts

Government data

The effort in producing data

Keep them secret

●Not ethical

Contract with funding agent or employer

Protection by copyright

The form in which data are presented

The selection or structure

Copyright or authors’ rights

Economic or exploitation rights

Exclusive right to:

●Publish the work

●Duplicate/reproduce the work

Moral or personality rights

Right to oppose to:

●your work being published without your name or with a different title

●Radical changes that harm your good name

http://www.ivir.nl/legislation/nl/copyrightact.html

Copyright notice

Automatic protection

Duration:

●Until 70 years after author's death

●Until 70 years after publication (anonymous work)

A copyright notice is not required, but it…

●Makes clear that the work is copyright protected

●Shows who the copyright owner is

Copyright 2010, John Johnson

© John Johnson 2010

Copyright owner

Initially:

Creator

Employer of the creator (art 7 Aw)

Copyright can be given away, sold, inherited, waived, claimed by funding agent, ...

What if data is copyright protected?

Can you use the data without consent?

Can you publish the data without consent?

Can you use a figure of table with data from someone’s publication in your own publication without consent?

Database right

The legal definition of a database comprises three essential elements:

the database must consist of independent items

the database must be searchable or systematically arranged so that the individual items can be traced

there must have been a substantial investment in the database (obtaining, presenting, and/or verifying the data)

Protection of the investment in time and money

Duration 15 Years

Example 1: USDA Nutrient database

Example 1: USDA Nutrient database(2)

Example 2: Scopus (bibliographic database)

Example 2: Scopus (2)

Database right: required permissions

The producer’s consent is required for the following actions:

retrieving (i.e. copying or downloading) substantial portions of the database

repeatedly and systematically retrieving non-substantial portions of the database

reusing (i.e. publishing) substantial portions of the database

Exceptions: government database; scientific use (not reuse)

Back to the two situations

A researcher wants to protect his own data

●Don’t publish

●Publish (about) the data and make data available on request

●Publish about the data, make data freely available and make a rights statement or licence (“terms of use”)

A researcher wants to use data from other people

●He can download and use the data

●He cannot publish the data(base) without permission

Privacy

Personal Data Protection Act

Living persons

The data should be anonymized if possible

The purpose for which the data is necessary must in any case be clearly specified

No more data may be collected than is necessary to achieve that purpose

You need consent of the individual

Why license research data?

Clarity

No license:

Is the data protected or not?

Do I need to ask permission for use and reuse?

Types of licenses

Source: Alex Ball, 2011. Presentation on Data licensing.

Licensing options

Most repositories or databases use a standard license or have a terms of use statement.

Bespoke licences

●e.g. DANS repository (Conditions of use)

Standard licenses

●Creative Commons (see UniProt)

●CC0 most used

●Open Data Commons

Data made available via DANS

https://easy.dans.knaw.nl/ui/datasets/id/easy-dataset:50991/tab/1

UniProt (http://www.uniprot.org/help/license)

DRYAD: research data repository

Ownership: Case

Who is the owner of the data?

What would you do in a situation like this?

Further reading

De Cock Buning, M., Ringnalda, A., van der Linden, T. (2009). The legal status of raw data: a guide for research practice. Utrecht: SURF Foundation. http://www.knowledge-xchange.info/Default.aspx?ID=461

Ball, A. (2012). ‘How to License Research Data’. DCC How-to Guides. Edinburgh: Digital Curation Centre. http://www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/how-guides/license-research-data

Questions?