Rights and copyright

RIGHTS RELATED TO RESEARCH DATA

Rights related to research data may include, for example:

• Who is allowed to use the data and how.
• Who has the authority to decide on the use of the data.
• Who decides what happens to the data after the research is completed.

Making agreements is important to reduce the risk of problems. Agreements can be verbal or written, but written agreements are easier to refer back to later. The agreement can be informal, but the University of Jyväskylä provides ready-made, customisable templates for certain types of agreements—it's recommended to use them.

When should rights be agreed upon?

• If you are a student collecting research data for a research group or project.
• If you are given access to previously collected data or part of it.
• If you are collecting research data for a thesis done in collaboration with a company, organisation, or any other partner.
• If you are collecting data together with a thesis partner.

What should be agreed upon?

• When more than one researcher is involved in the dataset:
  • Agree on the rights and responsibilities related to data, as well as research goals.
  • Examples: research group, joint thesis work.
  • It’s recommended to make a written agreement.
• When data collection is carried out on behalf of or in collaboration with an organisation:
  • Agree on rights and responsibilities related to the data, as well as research goals and expectations.
  • Example: collaboration with a company.
  • It’s recommended to make a written agreement.
• Who decides what happens to the data after your thesis is completed?
  • If the data is collected together with other researchers or in collaboration with an organisation, it’s important to agree on who decides what happens to the data after your thesis is finished.
  • Examples: research group, joint thesis work, company collaboration.
  • Will the collected data be handed over to a research project or partner organisation?
  • Making such an agreement is especially important if you plan to pursue further studies / research, and hope to continue working with the same dataset after your thesis!
• When you are given access to previously collected data:
  • You will usually be informed about how the data may be used and what you need to consider in terms of handling and storing it.
  • Examples: archived or published datasets.
  • In some cases, you may need to accept a separate usage agreement with specific terms; in others, you accept the terms by downloading the data from a data archive.

How to make an agreement?

• Students working on a joint thesis can use the Student Co-operation Agreement template available on JYU’s intranet (Student project agreements—Intranet Uno).
  • If your faculty has its own agreement template for joint theses, you can use that instead.
• For collaboration with a company, you can use the Project Agreement template also available on JYU’s intranet (Opiskelijaprojektisopimukset—Intranet Uno).

Commitment

If a research project at the University of Jyväskylä provides access to a dataset containing personal data (including pseudonymised data) to a JYU student who is not employed by the university, a Commitment-agreement to processing personal data must be made.

• The commitment is intended for situations where a student processes personal data on behalf of the (data) controller.
• The use of the commitment requires that the University of Jyväskylä (JYU) remains the controller also for the processing carried out by the student (i.e., the data is not transferred from one controller to another).
• You can download the Commitment template from JYU Intranet page Contracts when processing personal data > Templates > Commitment.

RESEARCH PERMIT

Sometimes research requires a permit, for example, if the research involves an educational institution or a company, and students or staff from that organization participate in the study. Research permit practices vary, so it’s important to discuss them with your supervisor and always check the requirements directly with the target organisation. For example, the University of Jyväskylä has its own guidelines regarding when a research permit is required and how to apply for one: Research Permit | University of Jyväskylä. Or, if you are recruiting participants from a specific school, you must first request permission from the city or municipality’s Education Department. Once that permission is granted, you must then obtain a permit from the school itself.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright refers to the author's right to determine how their work may be used.

Your research data may involve copyright issues, for example, if:

• You study published works or other materials protected by copyright, such as images, videos, games, artworks, newspaper articles, photographs, poems, choreographies, or songs.
• You collect creative outputs from research participants, such as stories, drawings, or diary entries.

Copyright does not mean that a work cannot be analysed, commented on, or observed.

• Copyright protects the form of expression of a work, meaning that making a public copy of the work is prohibited without the copyright holder’s permission.
  • For example, if you were to use a screenshot from a YouTube video in your thesis, that published screenshot would be a public copy of a copyrighted work. However, works can be cited (more on this below).
• Copyright does not protect the information or ideas contained in a work.
  • This means researchers are free to make observations about the content and describe them in their own words.
  • If the work is published, such as a film, book, or article, you can use it as a source as long as you properly cite and reference it.

How is copyright established?

A created work becomes protected by copyright if it exceeds the threshold of originality. In practice, this threshold is easily met as long as the work is independent (that is, not a copy of an existing work) and sufficiently original, meaning another person would likely not create exactly the same work.

• Copyright protection does not require registration or publication of the work.
• The quality of the work or the amount of effort put into it is irrelevant.
• In other words, a poem forgotten in a drawer, a child’s drawing, a choreography, a computer game, or a blockbuster movie can all be protected by copyright.
• Copyright is valid for a specific period of time—most commonly during the author’s lifetime and 70 years after their death.
• In addition to copyright, there are so called related rights, which are akin to copyright, but narrower. These may apply, for example, to ordinary photographs that are not considered artistic photographs.

Research data is not protected by copyright.

• You do not hold copyright to the raw data you collect, such as interviews or survey answers.
  • However, if you create something new and original based on the data—for example, a database—that database may receive legal protection similar to copyright. In most cases, however, Master's thesis students do not turn their datasets into databases.
• If you use existing research data, it is good scientific practice to cite the dataset appropriately, just as you would cite copyrighted material. Learn more: Citing Archival Data.

Studying copyrighted works

A thesis is a public document, and copyrighted material cannot be published freely.

However, quotes—that is, direct excerpts—from published works may be used if their use is justified:

• The quote must have a relevant connection to the thesis text. In other words, the quote should be an object of discussion or analysis in the text. The quote must not be too short or too long in a way that distorts the original content.
• A published image that exceeds the threshold of originality can be included in a thesis as an image quote, if the image has a direct connection to the text and its inclusion is justified—for example, to support analysis or conclusions presented in the text. In such cases, permission from the copyright holder is not required. This is known as the Right to quote.
  • For example, if you are studying paintings, you could include an image of the artwork in your thesis as an image quote.
• Remember appropriate citations and references.

What if the work exceeds the threshold of originality, is unpublished, and it has been collected directly from research participants?

• Agree with the participants on whether you can publish direct quotes or image quotes of their works in your thesis (read also about agreements below). Moreover, be sure to consider personal data protection and privacy when quoting the participants. You can read more about this in the section: Personal Data.

Learn more on the copyright for images in Aalto ImagOA Guide.
 

Should I make an agreement?

A separate agreement on copyright is not always necessary.

• For example, if you collect newspaper articles or published photographs as your data, proper citation is sufficient.
• Create a separate document listing the bibliographic details of the collected works (author, publication date, etc.).

However, if you collect copyrighted works directly from research participants (for example, diary entries, photographs, written texts), you should make a separate agreement with the participant regarding copyright.

You should agree on matters such as:

• Ownership–who owns the work?
• How the work will be used in the research.
• Whether the work will be returned to the participant.
• Whether direct quotes from the material may be used.
• Whether the work can be shared in other ways.
• Whether the author’s name will be mentioned (consider data protection).
• How long the researcher is allowed to store the material.
• Whether the work may be modified. 

Sources (in Finnish):

• Tekijänoikeus.fi
• Kopiosto, Sanasto, Kuvasto ja Teosto
• Tietoarkiston Aineistonhallinnan käsikirja

TERMS OF SERVICE AND USE

If you have access to existing research data, stored in, for example, an archive or repository; or if you collect data from online databases, platforms, or media: always first familiarize yourself with the terms and conditions governing the use of the data.

Digital and physical archival material, data archives and repositories

• Each archival institution and data archive defines the terms related to the use, processing, storage, and distribution of the data. In order to access data, you need to accept the terms of use.
• Archival material may be subject to usage or publishing restrictions due to legislation, and you must adhere to those restrictions.
• Some materials, for example, may have single-use rights, meaning that reproductions must be returned or destroyed after use and cannot be saved for use in future research.
• You might need to apply for specific usage rights to access some documents.

Online platforms, media, and databases

• Terms of Service or Terms of Use define what you are allowed to do with the content of the platform, media, or database.
• For example, the terms dictate whether you are allowed to save material for yourself, share it further, or publish copies of it.
• The terms may explicitly prohibit certain types of use.

Research data may also be licensed under a Creative Commons (CC) license. A CC license specifies how the material may be used, whether it can be modified or shared, and whether commercial use is permitted. Different types of CC licenses are introduced on the Creative Commons website.