Building the Infrastructure for Data Access and Reuse in Collaborative Research: A Legal Analysis

Another one from the domain of open knowledge but this time from the other side of the globe….

Researchers from Queensland University of Technology (QUT) have released a report entitled 'Building the Infrastructure for Data Access and Reuse in Collaborative Research: A Legal Analysis'. This has been produced as a result of two different QUT projects: Open Access to Knowledge (OAK) Law and Legal Framework for e-Research.

The announcement explains that the report:

"examines the legal framework within which research data is generated, managed, disseminated and used. It provides an overview of the operation of copyright law, contract and confidentiality laws, as well as a range of legislation - privacy, public records and freedom of information legislation – that is of relevance to research data. The Report considers how these legal rules apply to define rights in research data and regulate the generation, management and sharing of data. The Report also describes and explains current practices and attitudes towards data sharing. A wide array of databases is analysed to ascertain the arrangements currently in place to manage and provide access to research data. Finally, the Report encourages researchers and research organisations to adopt proper management and legal frameworks for research data outputs. It provides practical guidance on the development and implementation of legal frameworks for data management with the objective of ensuring that research data can be accessed and used by other researchers."

I must admit that I have only scanned this so cannot give an accurate review but at 274 pages we can probably safely assume that it is pretty comprehensive!

Librarians' top concerns

SCONUL (the Society of College, National and University Libraries) recently released the Top Concerns Survey 2007. It showed that 42% of SCONUL members considered "Compliance (e.g. licensing, copyright, FOI, DDA, digital rights, health and safety)" to have been a high concern in the last 3 months. Compliance wasn't the highest ranked concern though. The areas scoring most highly were:

• e-environment;
• space and buildings;
• staffing and HR management; and
• policy and strategy

First postgraduate qualification in information rights

Thanks to Sarah Higgins who brought the Information and Rights Practice LLM course at Northumbria University to my attention.

The course covers the Data Protection Act 1998, the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 together with the common law duty of confidence and the right to privacy protected by the ECHR.

You can find more details at the university’s website.

The Blawg may be quiet for a while as I’m off on my holidays. Au revoir!

Latest issue of FOI Journal out

Just a quickie!

The latest issue of Open Government has just been published. The journal's aim is to publish research and communications related to Freedom of Information (FOI) legislation from the perspective of academics, practitioners and FOI users. At only two years old it is a relatively new jounrnal (for obvious reasons!)

Handy FOI Resource

I came across this useful Freedom of Information resource today:

http://www.informationhandyman.com/BlFOIResources.htm

If you have any questions about Freedom of Information, you could make a useful start here. Alternatively you could send your query to the DCC on info@dcc.ac.uk as we'd be happy to help you.