About Data Ownership
Copyright is a form of intellectual property right which arises automatically if an original work is created. Copyright may affect the way data may be stored, shared and reused. You should ask yourself who the copyright holder of your datasets is, especially when you use existing data or when you collaborate with external parties.
Here’s a brief guide to determining what consent is necessary to reuse someone else’s data.
Officially VIB, as your employer, is considered the rights holder to the research data you create. You, as a researcher, have the primary responsibility for taking care of the data. Questions on data exploitation may be even more important than those of ownership. Who can use the data? Who can publish it? Who can provide it to third parties?
We strongly recommend that you deal with the issues around data exploitation at an early stage of your research project. Write down agreements between yourself, your supervisor, project members and other interested parties in your Data Management Plan.