Hi everyone,

I’m in a bit pissed off but I’m not sure what to do about it so I’m asking for people’s advice here.

I’ve been under a rock mostly for a while writing up but in this last week I went to a talk by a postdoc in my lab (not my supervisor but working on a related topic). During the talk he displayed some of my images without any acknowledgement to me whatsoever.

Now this morning I receive an email from a lovely fellow student saying that my primary supervisor had given her images with the direction that she should use them in her thesis. She’s lovely because she sent me an email asking me if this was OK as she thought they were mine and if they were, how should she reference them.

My project is heavily imaged based so those images took a lot of my work to acquire so of course I want that work acknowledged. So that leads me to the question of who actually owns the data and what happens to it when I leave?

I actually talked to the IP manager and he admits that this is a grey area. Technically speaking the university owns the IP I generate while doing research but any images are copyrighted in my name.

But basically speaking I am concerned that my images that I have provided to some lab members for presentations will be shared around and used without acknowledgement or consent, especially after I leave when I am no longer around to see it and chastise anyone.

I think your IP manager is probably correct.

It's certainly expected for someone to acknowledge someone else's work in an external presentation (and could be classed as plagiarism if they don't), but I find often in smaller, department presentations this isn't always done. This may be due to time constraints, nervousness, forgetting or maybe they just didn't think they had to in that environment.

As for your supervisor passing around your work without your knowledge, it's partly their work too so I think this is allowed. It probably also happens quite frequently. It would be nice of them to let you know of course. I'm guessing if they asked first you would be fine with it, right? As long as the recipient acknowledged it.

My supervisor has recently asked if they could give something I've created to another student at another university. Personally I was flattered that someone was interested in my work and can find a use for it. If they ever publish their work off the back of it though, I expect my university or my supervisors will be acknowledged rather than me and I'm ok with that. It's enough for me to know it's mine.

Maybe try speaking to your supervisor or the image recipient if you have a problem with it and see what their thoughts are.