Research work carries ownership and attribution questions that a generic freelance policy handles badly. This policy is written for research specifically.
The default
On full payment of a milestone, the rights in the deliverable produced for that milestone transfer to the client, unless the accepted proposal says otherwise.
Before payment, the expert retains all rights. A client who has not paid has no licence to use a delivered draft.
What the expert keeps
An expert always retains:
- the general knowledge, methods, techniques and skills used to produce the work. These are not transferable and no client acquires them;
- ownership of any pre-existing material they brought to the project, such as an analysis script, template or framework written before the engagement. The client receives a licence to use that material as part of the deliverable, not ownership of it;
- the right to be identified as the author where the client and the expert have agreed an authorship arrangement that provides for it.
What the client keeps
A client retains ownership of everything they supply: datasets, drafts, institutional material, proprietary information. Sharing it with an expert for a project is a limited licence for that project and nothing more.
Authorship
Authorship is not a commodity and Researchor does not treat it as one. Selling or buying authorship of academic work (paying to be named as an author on work you did not substantially contribute to, or accepting payment to remove your name from work you did) is prohibited by the Academic Integrity Policy and is not made legitimate by any IP transfer under this policy.
Where an expert's contribution meets the authorship criteria of the relevant field or publisher, that is a matter for the parties and the publisher to resolve honestly. Researchor takes no position on the outcome, but will act on a report that authorship was bought or sold.
Confidentiality
Both parties must treat material received through a project as confidential and use it only for that project. Do not publish, redistribute or reuse another party's material without their written permission.
Unpublished research data, participant data and pre-publication manuscripts are particularly sensitive. Treat them accordingly.
Third-party rights
You are responsible for having the right to share anything you upload. Do not upload copyrighted material you are not licensed to share, or personal data you are not authorised to disclose.
Reporting infringement
If you believe material on Researchor infringes your rights, write to [email protected] with:
- what the material is and where it is;
- what right you hold and how you hold it;
- your contact details;
- a statement that you believe the use is not authorised.
We will review it and, where appropriate, remove the material and notify the user who posted it.
Questions about this document go to [email protected], or through the contact form.