Guides: Research Data Management: Ownership and Compliance

USC Obligations under Policy and Procedure

There are two USC policies that mention data management:

The Research – Academic Policy and Research Data and Materials – Procedure were approved in December 2012. Both documents outline the obligations of both researchers and faculty when collecting, analysing, storing and archiving research data.

Below is a brief summary of the obligations of the university, faculty and researcher concerning research data, but please see the relevant policy and procedure for more information.

University:

Provide data management services.
Provide safe and secure data storage facilities.

Faculty:

Ensure all research data and materials are maintained securely to prevent unauthorised access, destruction, alteration or removal, and meet security and confidentiality requirements.
Ensure appropriate rentention periods are observed for research data and materials.
Ensure appropriate access to materials by authorised researchers and staff.
Authorise the transfer of research data and materials to an external institution, person or entity if required.
Ensure that physical data is stored in accordance with the USC Records Management - Governing Policy.

Researcher:

Must maintain a catalogue of all research data in an accessible form.
Required to decide what research data and materials must be retained.
Must prepare a research data and materials management plan
Required to ensure that adequate backup, archival and monitoring strategies are in place to prevent the loss of research data and materials.

Research Data Management Compliance

Increasingly, funding bodies and publishers are expecting researchers to share or retain their research data.

The Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research (developed by the ARC and NHMRC) Section 2:

"The responsible conduct of research includes the proper management and retention of the research data. Retaining the research data is important because it may be all that remains of the research work at the end of the project. While it may not be practical to keep all the primary material (such as ore, biological material, questionnaires or records), durable records derived from the (such as assays, test results, transcripts, and laboratory and field notes) must be retained and accessible.

The researcher must decide which data and materials should be retained, although in some cases this is determined by law, funding agency, publisher or by convention in the discipline. The central aim is that sufficient materials and data are retained to justify the outcomes of the research and to defend them if they are challenged. The potential value of the material for further research should also be considered, particularly where the research would be difficult or impossible to repeat." (p.2.1)

The code identifies the following responsibilities of researchers:

Retain research data and primary materials for sufficient time to allow reference to them by other researchers and interested parties.
Manage storage of research data and primary materials in accordance with USC policy, including maintaining a catalogue of research data in an accessible form.
Maintain confidentiality of research data and primary materials.

Who owns the data?

“Ownership of research data and materials resulting from a research project hosted by USC resides with USC and not the researcher or funding body, unless subject to any written agreement between the researcher and USC or USC and a third party. Regardless of ownership, USC as the institution hosting the research remains the custodian of the research data, materials and records.”

USC Research - Academic Policy

Note: The Intellectual Property - Governing Policy states that students own the Intellectual Property they create in the course of their studies except where a student participates in a University Project.