QUT's Practical Data Management Guide

Queensland University of Technology has just published "Practical Data Management: A Legal and Policy Guide". This is a very useful resource for researchers and repository managers with an interest in managing legal rights in data.

The guide provides a detailed introduction to copyright covering what it protects, who owns it and how is relevant for data available in digital repositories.  It then considers other legal aspects of data management such as moral rights, confidential information and privacy. After looking at data management policies that all research projects should have in place, it covers what data management plans (DMP) should cover :

• ownership of the data to be generated
  
• who is responsible for managing the data
• address the legal controls applying to collection or use of the data 
  
• security to protect the data collected
• the long-term preservation of the data

It is highlighted that " [a] data management plan will need to be consistent with the research institution's IP policies and data management policies"