Do I own the data or not?
…and we’re back to the data ownership quandry…
Just when I think I may have heard all the different types of questions and situations that may arise in the context of data ownership – I hear a new one. When I first heard the situation I’m going to share with you in a moment – I thought nah.. this must be a one-off. But then I heard it again from a different individual and situation – so it MUST be a “thing”! When I’m honest with myself, look back, and contemplate my own situations – I’m left wondering too!!!
So let’s work through a research situation. You have been hired onto a project as a graduate student – working towards your MSc. You’re SO excited and happy about this wonderful opportunity you have. You work with your supervisor and lab group to create the most appropriate experimental design to answer your research question, and begin your data collection. You heard about the Semantic Engine and created your data schema to match your data collection. Two years down the road and you’re ready to move on – your thesis is complete and you’ve graduated. What about your data? What do you do with it?
The BIG question here – WHO owns this data? The supervisor – who is the PI on the research project you’ve been hired onto? OR you as the data collector and analyser? Hmmm…… When you think about these questions – the next question becomes WHO is responsible for the data and what happens to it? I would love to hear what readers think about this? Email me at edwardsm@uoguelph.ca if you have an opinion.
OK what are my thoughts? I’ll let you know on my next blog post 🙂
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