Working for a Research-Friendly IPR Framework in the UK

Abstract

Research institutions and individual researchers in many countries are facing intellectual property issues which are changing the way in which the results of research are disseminated, how those results are used and by whom, and how current research feeds into future research. Some of the key questions which will be determined in part at least by intellectual property issues are: ð€ƒ access: will the text and data in research papers be accessible and under what licensing conditions? ð€ƒ publication: how will text and data be published, in journals or held in personal or institutional repositories? ð€ƒ ownership: will authors, employers, funders or publishers claim ownership of text and/or data? ð€ƒ re-use: will owners restrict re-use, even for academic purposes? ð€ƒ management: how will text and data silos be managed and by whom? ð€ƒ preservation: how will text and data be preserved and by whom? These are key questions both for the current generation of researchers and also for future generations whose work may be helped or hindered – even prevented – by decisions being made now. The benefits flowing from today’s biomedical research would be impossible to achieve without the strong action taken by the research community a few years ago in opening the Human Genome Database for use without restriction. The commercial forces which almost locked away the genome data could lock away equally valuable research results in the future if the academic community does not ensure that appropriate intellectual property rights remain within the academic community. When commercial interests control rights in content generated within the academic sector, it is sometimes due to academic neglect of IPR issues. The work described in this chapter is informing the UK academic community of possibilities for the good management of research text and data.