The CODATA-RDA Legal Interoperability Interest Group has studied the issues related to the intellectual property of data: the resulting outcome is a set of principles and practical implementation guidelines. They are offered as high-level guidance to all members of the research community—the funders, managers of data centers, librarians, archivists, publishers, policymakers, university administrators, individual researchers, and their legal counsel—who are engaged in activities that involve the access to and reuse of research data from diverse sources. The Principles are synergistic, so their greatest benefit is realized when they are considered together.
The following Principles on the Legal Interoperability of Research Data focus on all types of data that are used primarily in publicly funded research in government and academia:
- One: Facilitate the lawful access to and reuse of research data.
- Two: Determine the rights to and responsibilities for the data.
- Three: Balance the legal interests.
- Four: State the rights transparently and clearly.
- Five: Promote the harmonization of rights in research data.
- Six: Provide proper attribution and credit for research data.
The guidelines have been refined through two strenuous rounds of peer review and a penultimate version of the Principles and Guidelines for Legal Interoperability of Research Data has now been made more widely available <https://www.codata.org/uploads/Legal Interoperability Principles and Implementation Guidelines_Final2.pdf>. This document examines each of the six principles and provides guidelines for implementing these principles.
The Implementation Guidelines will be discussed and considered for adoption by the CODATA and RDA communities in sessions at SciDataCon <www.scidatacon.org/2016/> and the RDA Plenary https://rd-alliance.org/plenaries/rda-eighth-plenary-meeting-denver-co
Any final comments and suggestions for improvements (not wholesale revision) may be made by 23 September, after which a final version will be published.