Rights To Your Research

Who Owns Your Research?

If you are an employee, student, or volunteer in a research lab, the ownership to the research project and the work that you do for it (e.g. experiments, manuscripts, data, etc) belong to your employer. But, that does not mean that you, as the author, have no rights to the work that you have created.

Moral Rights

Some of you may have heard of moral rights but for those who haven’t, moral rights are rights related to copyright. They are rights that are independent of an author's economic rights and cannot be purchased, transferred or waived as compared to copyright. The duration of an author’s moral rights can persist even after the author’s death, although in some countries, the duration can cease when the author dies or cease when copyright of the work ceases. So essentially, even if you eventually leave your lab, you still retain your moral rights as the author of the work.

Generally, moral rights enable an author to claim their right of attribution to authorship, to object to certain modifications of their work as well as other derogatory actions; and to provide a means of redress where infringement has been found. In short, moral rights protect an authors right of attribution, right not to have authorship falsely attributed and right of integrity of authorship.

As a researcher, your written works (such as manuscript drafts, reports and publications) and original experimental designs (including figures and diagrams) should be protected by moral rights.

Infringement Of Moral Rights

Examples of some infringing actions include:

* Falsely attributing authorship to a person who had no part in the writing. This includes adding a senior member of the lab to a manuscript for merely reading a draft of it.

* Attributing work to an author where the work has been modified without their consent and where the modification amounts to a distortion of the original work or it was not reasonable to make the modification.

* Attributing authorship in a way that is not reasonably and sufficiently prominent.

Consent

While moral rights cannot be transferred or waived, an author can consent to breach of their moral rights. This is usually done by written agreement between the parties. Some employers include such clauses in employment contracts so before signing employment contracts (or any agreement), do make sure to go over the documents carefully to know what you are agreeing to. If required, seek legal advice.

Remedies

If infringement has been found, a court may order relief including compensation in the form of damages, injunctions, declarations, removal/reversal of derogatory treatment, etc.

Useful References

* Article 6bis of the Berne Convention

* WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty 1996

* Copyright Act 1968 (Cth)

* Copyright Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42)

* Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (C. 48)