8/12/2019 When Should Written Collaboration Agreements Exist

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When Should Written Agreements Exist?

Collaborations, in an ideal world, would be handled through a handshake and an understandingof each collaborator’s responsibilities. There are many reasons why this is not the best way tomanage collaborations. It is best, and absolutely necessary in complicated projects, to set fortheach party’s rights and responsibilities in writing. More than likely when rights andresponsibilities are discussed, consideration must not only be given to those pertaining toresearchers, but also to the rights and responsibilities of their institutions. Written agreements arenot just a good idea, but they are often a requirement imposed by employing institutions or

external research sponsors.

Unless institutional or research sponsors require otherwise, many researchers operate on thebasis of unwritten understandings concerning the following aspects of a collaboration:

Authorship and credit: Where will the results be presented and/or published? Who will beincluded as authors? What will be the order of co-authors? Who will have the final authority toapprove presentations or publications?

Research Accountability: What type of access will members of the collaboration have to each

other’s original data and/or notes? How frequently will the members of the collaboration meet todiscuss and evaluate their results?

More often than not, written agreements are required when institutional rights andresponsibilities are affected. Some of the research-related issues that should be covered in thevarious types of agreements follow:

Intellectual Property: The concern here would involve rights to patentable inventions discoveredin the performance of the research. It might also cover situations in which inventions are jointlyowned by the collaborating institutions. Copyright is handled differently than patents primarilybecause copyright law automatically gives ownership to the creator of the given work. Although

copyright ownership can be negotiated, it is more likely that the agreement would includemention of license rights than a transfer of ownership.

Use of Data: Data are traditionally owned by the institution and/or researcher developing orcollecting them, and collaborating institutions need to ensure that their researchers have access tothese data. Use of data may be limited in certain cases for proprietary reasons (e.g. the data maybe included in an invention disclosure that has not yet been incorporated into a patentapplication). In general, however, collaborating institutions and researchers have an interest insharing data to ensure success of the project. The sharing of data is essential to the submission offuture grant applications and the publication of scholarly work that appropriately recognizes the

contributions of the collaborators.

Data Retention and Preservation: Once project information and data are collected, analyzed andreported, it is vital that they be maintained after the project closes. If a project is funded by anexternal sponsor, it is almost a certainty that data retention will be a requirement of the award.Even if sponsored funding is not involved, data should be retained to permit verification of theresearch results and the record of inventions and inventorship, as well as to provide backgrounddata for future research. Agreements covering data retention may also call for the destruction of materials or the return of materials to the providing party at the end of a project.