Who may access research data?
No matter whether data is research, financial, or administrative data, there are reasonable levels of controls that can and should be placed regarding access. Research data will include preliminary and raw data that are the building blocks of scholarly publications. Such data are also the foundation of intellectual property and its protection. Financial data may contain information that neither an institution nor individuals may wish to be generally known. This might include salary information as well as data that is used to create cost and pricing analyses, facilities and administrative cost rate calculations and negotiations, and the like. Similarly, administrative data may contain information, such as the content of subcontract negotiation notes and reports related to conflicts of interest or research misconduct that is really of valid use to a restricted group.
Essentially normal access to data can be set for as follows:
Research Data:
- Funding Sponsor – Sponsor access may be limited by the terms of the award document. In some cases, sponsors will want access to all research data. Sometimes, sponsors may agree or even propose in their terms and conditions that their access be limited to copies of intended publications or copyrightable materials. Much will depend upon the nature of the work being done and whether the sponsor intends to further develop the research.
- Intellectual Property Licensees – Companies that licenseLicense
An agreement by which the owner of intellectual property permits the use, performance, and/or sale of the intellectual property by another party. Such use is generally made available for some form of financial compensation. inventions or software will need access to the data upon which the intellectual property is based. Frequently companies will license inventions resulting from basic research that are not fully developed and ready to market as a product. In order to engage in the development of such licensed technology, the company will need access to the research data. This will be addressed in the license and specifically covered by the terms of a Confidential Disclosure Agreement.Confidential Disclosure Agreement
A document executed between institutions permitting the exchange of information that is confidential to one or both parties. The scope of the confidential information will be defined as well as the period during which information will be considered confidential. The latter will give the company access to the data but also prohibits the company from further sharing the data with other parties. - Institution – The institution will need access to the data for several reasons. First, as noted previously in the section on Ownership, the institution is responsible to sponsors to provide the data or access to it should the sponsor make a valid request. Second, there could be lawsuits pertaining to the data and the institution will be regarded as the owner. Third, there may be administrative actions that require institutional access to research data. These actions could include cases of research misconduct, conflicts of interest, or possibly disputes between or among researchers that require institutional intervention.
- Others – If federal funding is involved in sponsoring the research, members of the public may seek access to research data by using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). This was discussed previously in the Ownership section. While such use of the FOIA may be attempted, there are clear rules promulgated by the Office of Management and Budget that confine fulfilling such FOIA requests to that data that is used by federal agencies in their formulation of federal policy. The FOIA can also be used to gain access to funded proposals, but the background data that was used in creating the proposal is not similarly accessible.
Who may access research data continues –>
