FOCUS: Research data from the legal standpoint

Are research data proprietary? What are the conditions for this data to be freely re-used? What is a free licence? Are researchers allowed to keep their research data confidential? These are just a few of the questions facing researchers, research support staff and institutions considering the issue of making their research data open. Responses for this issues were provided by Agnès Robin, senior lecturer in private law authorised to supervise research at the University of Montpellier, and Laura Tomasso, doctor of private law, during an exchange session on research data law at the Recherche Data Gouv ecosystem seminar held in June 2023 (Also see the news item on this seminar).

"There is a right of ownership for structured data in a dataset," explains Agnès Robin. "However no similar property right over data in general exists in the same way as there is no general property right covering information. Clearly there are also ambiguities linked to the use of the word 'data' as such. This means the rights involved can differ according to whether the data were obtained, created or generated by a machine or if they were processed or structured. The conditions for the reuse of research data also depend on a number of factors but the sine qua non condition for reuse is that the data needs to have been made public(*)", continues Agnès Robin.

These examples demonstrate how legal issues involving research data can arise at several levels. It is not always easy for researchers who are not experts in the legal field to apply the right principles despite the help to scientific communities already provided by research support staff,

To provide support and advice on the legal aspects of opening up research data, a specific mission has been set up as part of the Recherche Data Gouv ecosystem. Its aim is to provide researchers and support staff with the right legal information as well as a legal monitoring service and informational links on technology transfer for research results in terms of opening data, source codes and software.

Agnès Robin has been asked to lead this mission which will be made up of an internet platform and a monitoring unit. The first version will shortly be made available to the public.

(*) Article L 533-4 of the French Research Code states:

"Once the data from a research activity, financed at least 50% by grants allocated by the state, by regional or local authorities or public institutions, by grants from national funding agencies or by European Union funds, are no longer protected by specific rights, or special regulations, and they have been made public by the researcher, the research establishment or organisation, they can be freely reused."