Safeguarding Research Data

Copyright, Data Use / Sharing
 

When working with research partners, e.g., any project where you are not the sole researcher - you'll need to know who on the team owns the copyright to your research outputs - and all copyright owners will need to come to an agreement about how the project's data may be used or shared with others after the project ends. 
 

• If your research partner(s) are from other institutions and/or other copyright jurisdictions - be aware that they likely have different requirements with respect to data security, data governance, privacy, consent forms, research ethics, copyright and more.
   

It may be in the best interests of the group to negotiate a formal agreement detailing the uses/sharing options will be permitted with respect to your joint intellectual property. Every member would need to sign this at the outset of the project  - ideally in consultation with a legal expert as well as other campus responsible departments such as RIO, the Privacy Office, and the Research Ethics Board. 

For more information on this topic see the Copyright & Research Data at Douglas College page in the College Copyright Guide.

Teams Groups at Douglas College

The approach

1. The best approach to storing shared project data in SharePoint is to create a Team in Microsoft Teams.
    
   1. Files stored within a Team can be shared with Team members to whom a Team creator provides access.
   2. Files stored within a Team can be shared with anyone directly from SharePoint.
       
2. We recommend that you back up your files to a different storage medium on a regular basis.
    
   1. You can save multiple versions of your files in an archive folder but if you choose to do so you must adhere to a strict naming convention so as to avoid confusion - e.g., which file actually is the "final" version?
       
   2. Word, PowerPoint, and Excel documents have built-in version control so that you can keep a record of all your file versions over time within a single file. The old versions are not automatically deleted by the system so you could revert to a previous version at any point provided you don't delete them yourself at any point. 
       
   3. Teams and Sharepoint files - if deleted - will be wiped from the system within 30 days so be very certain about deleting content from there.
      
       
3. How to set up One Drive so that it’s mapped to your local computer:
    
   1. Instructions: https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/tech/how-to-add-onedrive-to-file-explorer
   2. YouTube Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaUwIkOhdaE

Details / Explanation
 

1. Teams and OneDrive store data in SharePoint through different interfaces, each with its specific advantages.
   
2. If you want to Share a file with someone who is does not belong to a Team you’ve created, open a folder in SharePoint:

This will open the folder in a traditional SharePoint interface:
 

From there you can choose Manage Access:

You can also Manage Access directly from Teams by clicking the three dots next to a file name and choosing Manage Access:

Clicking on the plus sign on the next screen will allow you to grant access to a non-team member:

External Research Partners

Access
 

Please contact the IT Service Desk for assistance if you want to provide people outside of Douglas College with access to your Teams group.  CEIT can setup guest accounts for research team members who are not College employees.