Hi All,
I am very confused about the rules of the PhD data ownership, and I am hoping that someone out there might be able to help.
Basically, I have fallen out with my main supervisor, and have since gotten a new one. However, my old supervisor has blocked me from the lab and refuses to give me access to my data, which obviously means that I cannot finish without it. I'd like to mention that I have run a number of successful studies, and I am now towards the end of my PhD (all my data is collected and analysed, and I only have the writing-up left to do). The studies I have run were almost exclusively mine - of course my old supervisor has had discussions with me about the initial ideas and the design, but generally everything else was done my myself only (i.e. most of the design, the entire programming and script-writing, participant recruitment, data collection, data analysis, etc that was all done just by me). So can my old supervisor block me from my data and stop me from using it for my thesis write-up? As far as I understand, the experiments I have done are my intellectual property and him withdrawing my work from me equals to essentially 'stealing it' in a way and is illegal, but I wanted to double check that before?
Can anyone out there advise me on this please? Any opinions/tips would be much appreciated!
Thanks!

I think a big part of who owns your research will depend on who provides the funding for the study. If the university itself provided money for the study or for a studentship then typically they will retain the rights. This may be different however if your old supervisor funding everything from his own source of money. Have you spoken to your new supervisor about this? He will have a much better insight.

Hi, thank you for your reply, it is much appreciated. The funding came from the School. Also, I wanted to mention that I am happy for my old supervisor to stay as the last author on all the papers (as this is what we have planned before) and to be acknowledged in my thesis for all the work and support he gave me. I am not trying to cut him out of the work at all, I am just trying to finish writing up my thesis. My new supervisor says that legally I cannot be refused access to my data as this equates to stealing, but she also says (and I agree) that a legal battle will be long and tricky and we should try to avoid it at all costs. I really don't want to fight etc, I just want to write up my work and move on without causing anyone any trouble. I will go to the Head of the school with this issue to speak in confidence and see if they can persuade my old supervisor to release the data, but before I do that I wanted to see if anyone on this forum has had a similar experience or knows the legalities and technicalities of it! Thanks again for your help!

Check the terms and conditions of your studentship. Unless there is a specific statement stating the data is the property of the University, sponsoring company or sponsoring organisation then you are the intellectual property holder.

That said, leaving on good terms and avoiding any battles is the right way to go. You may own the data, but it is only common courtesy that you consult your supervisors (or former supervisors) before you use it if the data is still recent.

In my case, my supervisor wasn't really bothered so I ended up publishing most of it in journals myself.

Ian

Here goes - from the below link:


http://www.data-archive.ac.uk/create-manage/copyright/copyright-ownership


"For research undertaken by a Ph.D. student, that student is the copyright owner of data and outputs created."

That is unless there are specific terms and conditions applying to the studentship meaning a sponsor or the University holds intellectual property rights (i.e. by signing the terms and conditions of the studentship, the copyright is transferred).

This was the situation when I was doing my PhD.

Ian

Thank you for your reply, and for the link you posted; it is very helpful indeed!
I completely agree that leaving on good terms and avoiding the battle is the right way to go. I have been trying to do just that for a while, and the situation is still ongoing so I am not sure it will be successful, but I certainly hope so! Unfortunately since changing supervisors, my old supervisor is determined to block me from anything and everything, even though I have made it very clear that he is to remain on all of my papers as the lead author, and will be acknowledged in the thesis, etc, and that I appreciate the help he gave me and give him full credit for his support and ideas. Unfortunately he doesn't seem happy with it, and doesn't want me to finish which I cannot do unless he releases my data, hence my question. Now at least I have something to go by when I talk to the department again about this issue, so many thanks for your help! :)