Learning objectives

When you have completed this lesson, you will be able to:

Identify the legislation, rules or guidelines you need to adhere to when managing research data in your project.
Understand the importance of discussing rights to data in your project, and in particular with your supervisor.
Locate the UCPHs policy on research data management, as well as information about rules for working with personal data.

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Why clarify requirements, rights and responsibilities when managing data?

Before you start working with data in your project, it is important to consider whether there are any requirements, restrictions to or conditions for your work, so that you know what you can and cannot do with the data. For example, who can access the data and under what conditions? Can you keep (a copy of) the data after project end? And who will be responsible for storing any data that should be kept after project end? In the video below, Professor Peter Sandøe (of the Faculty of Science and Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences), gives examples of why addressing requirements, rights and responsibilities is a good idea.

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For English subtitles, please look for the CC icon in the lower right corner of the video and press English.

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Four things to consider

Here are four things to think about at project start concerning requirements, rights to and responsibilities for research data:

1. Identify whether there is legislation relevant to your project

Depending on the data type(s) in your project, there may be legislation you have to adhere to when managing data. The most well-known example of this is the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that is applicable to projects in which personal data is processed. The GDPR poses rules for whether, when and how personal data can be collected, processed, preserved, and shared with others. When you work with personal data, you will therefore have to examine what the GDPR means for your project. You can learn more about the GDPR in the separate online course ‘GDPR for students’ and in lesson 4 ‘Ethical and legal approvals’.

2. Investigate local policies or guidelines for research data management

Some requirements for data management are captured in policies and guidelines at the place where you study and/or carry out your project. Relevant for you as a UCPH student, is the UCPH Policy for Research Data Management. This policy describes the overarching rules at UCPH, along with the responsibilities you have as a student.

There may also be local guidelines that apply to your project. The place where you collect your research data, such as a hospital or museum, or the place where you conduct your research project, such as a department at UCPH or a company, may also have rules for how you can work with data. Likewise, if you are part of a research group, the group may have guidelines, for example on how to document your project and where to store the data.

Investigate whether such local rules are in place.

3. If you reuse existing data, check the data providers’ rules

When planning to reuse already existing data in your project, it is important to check whether the data providers pose requirements before you start working with the data. You may need to adjust your plans for working with data accordingly. Here are three examples of rules:

Example 1: Data provider policies
When you obtain data from organisations such as Statistics Denmark, the Danish National Archives and the World Health Organisation you should investigate whether they have data policies that describe how data can be extracted and processed.

Example of a data provider policy: The World Health Organisation’s policy on the use and sharing of WHO’s data

Example 2: Data licenses
You should be aware that there may also be conditions for the reuse of data that you can download from online databases or data repositories. These data sets may be freely accessible and downloading them may not require any contact with the person or organisation that produced the data, but this does not mean you can do whatever you want with the data.

Requirements for data management may be captured in data licenses associated with the data deposited in databases. Data licenses are standardised texts that explain data reuse rules. In the examples below, you can find an open government license for a data set on UK housing prices and a Creative Commons By Attribution (CC-BY) license for the dataset on homicide and sexual offence rates. Both licenses state that the data set can be adapted and shared, but that the data source must be acknowledged when doing so.

Example 1 of a data license: A dataset on UK housing prices published on data.gov.uk that refers to an open government license for data reuse. The license explains that the data may be copied, adapted and exploited (also commercially), but that credit should be provided to the data authors when doing so.

Example 2 of a data license: A number of datasets on homicide and sexual offense rates published on data.europe.eu that refers to a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (“CC-BY“ in short). This license explains that the data may be share and adapted, but that credit should be provided to the data authors when doing so.

Example 3: Collaboration agreements
When collaborating with other institutions or companies in your project, there may be a collaboration agreement (contract) that outlines who has the rights to data, and who is responsible for what data management activity.

Example of a collaboration agreement: A template for a research collaboration agreement at Harvard University.

4. Agree on the rights to and responsibilities for the research data you collect in your project

Lastly, if you collect or generate research data in your project, including code, software and physical material, it is important to discuss with your supervisor what you can and cannot do with the research data. Among others, clarify:

Who should have access to the data during and after the project?
Should the research data be preserved or destructed after project end?
Can the data be shared with others after project end and under what conditions can they be reused by others?
Who is responsible for the data after the project ends?
Are you allowed to keep a copy of the research data and possibly reuse it in a future project?
Can the data form the basis of a research publication, and if so, who has the right to publish these data and be an author on the publications?

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Requirements, rights and responsibilities in practice

How to clarify rights to research data
Professor and supervisor Peter Sandøe, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, presents examples on how he clarifies rights to research data with his students.

Rights and responsibilities when working with data from a private company
Jakob Riber Rasmussen, Faculty of Science, carried out his Master project in collaboration with a private company, FOSS. He had two supervisors: one at FOSS and one at the university of Copenhagen. In his project, Jakob built models using data that he received from FOSS. In the video, Jakob explains what agreement was made with FOSS to regulate rights to data.

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Test yourself

Check whether you captured the main points of this lesson:

Quiz: Requirements, Rights and Responsibilities

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Continue with your DMP

Please continue working on your project’s data management plan (DMP) by answering the questions in section 3: Requirements, Rights and Responsibilities data.

3.a Are there any policies or guidelines you will have to adhere to in your project? If so, please list them here.

3.b Will you reuse already existing data/material? If yes, are there any rules for what you can and cannot do with the data? Describe the rules in brief.

3.c Will you produce your own data/material?If yes, describe what you and others can and cannot do with the data/material.

If you haven't begun filling out your DMP yet, you can find the DMP template here: UCPH DMP Template for Students

Please remember to discuss the data management plan with your supervisor at the start of your project. Keep the DMP stored along with your data.

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Practical tips and resources for addressing requirements, rights and responsibilities

Read UCPHs policy for research data management to see what is required from students when they carry out their own research projects during their Bachelor’s or Master’s degree programme or when they contribute to existing research projects at UCPH. Discuss these requirements with your supervisor if you are unsure how to adhere to the policy.

If you plan towork with personal data, take the short online course ‘GDPR for students’ and read the rules and regulations for working with personal data available on the study information pages of your study programme under Planning your studies > Rules and dispensations > How to collect and process personal data.
Discuss the section ‘four things to consider’ above with your supervisor at the start of your Bachelor or Master project to figure out what is relevant in your project. You and your supervisor may find the checklist for supervisors and students on issues to consider in Bachelor and Master projects useful for inspiration about additional issues to discuss. It was produced by UCPH’s Practice Committee and many points on this checklist relate to rights and responsibilities in the project, including to research data.

Note down any conclusions about requirements, rights, and responsibilities in your DMP, and refer to any contracts made for your project (for example with companies or data providers). Documentation is key! Make sure you keep the DMP stored along with your data. In this way you will always be able to go back and remind yourself of the rules applying and agreements made in your project.

Check this course’s RDM Glossary for definitions of terms used in this lesson and the other lessons.

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Published in 2024