Create & Receive

Legal Aspects: Data Transfer

The transfer of research data and the associated files should be legally secured in a data archiving agreement. Such an agreement covers not only details related to copyright, usage, and data protection, but also regulates technical and organizational matters.

Possible/key aspects of an archiving agreement:

1. Subject of the agreement (what data/documents are involved?)
2. Property and usage rights (which rights are transferred to the data-holding institution?)
3. Warranties (Data providers ensure that they possess all necessary rights to share the data and that no third-party rights hinder the contractual use of the materials)
4. Archiving (Exact identification of the files and the data provider)
5. Liability (under which circumstances is the data-holding institution liable?)
6. Succession of rights (under which circumstances do the data rights transfer to the data-holding institution?)
7. Data protection (commitment to relevant data protection regulations by both the data-holding and data-providing institutions)
8. Duration of the agreement (specification of the period during which the agreement is valid)
9. Applicability of the agreement (under which circumstances does the agreement or parts of it lose/retain its validity?)
10. Place of fulfillment and jurisdiction

Source: Jensen, Uwe (2012): Leitlinien zum Management von Forschungsdaten: Sozialwissenschaftliche Umfragedaten. GESIS Technical Reports, 2012/07 (https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-320650).