Intellectual property and research data

Discuss ownership, confidentiality and eventual publication with your supervisors early. Specific permissions and policies matter alongside the short framework statements.

Intellectual property

§1.4 states that the University owns IP relating to work produced as part of postgraduate research and directs students/supervisors to the University IP Policy. §6.7 separately describes staff ownership of scholarly copyright and rights retention. These are not interchangeable rules about every student’s thesis or collaboration.

Ask the relevant University research-support/IP contact through your DoS or Operations Team for the applicable policy and advice where publishing, commercialisation, sponsor rights or agreements are involved. The wiki has not independently adjudicated ownership.

Personal data

§1.5 requires compliance with data-protection legislation, the University’s Data Protection Code of Practice/Policy Statement and associated procedures. Ethical approval does not remove these obligations. Use University data-protection guidance and School advice for the actual handling arrangements.

Thesis publication

Theses become public after successful examination and deposit, unless an approved embargo applies. §6.1 cautions against participant-identifying information, signatures/email addresses and unauthorised third-party content. Seek Library/Repository advice about permissions and redaction before submission; do not infer a blanket prohibition on all legitimate quotations or licensed material from a short summary.

Thesis embargo and open access explains restrictions on availability; an embargo is not a substitute for proper consent, anonymisation or permission. Writing and referencing covers attribution and the official AI guidance on not uploading research/personal/proprietary data.

Sources: Framework §§1.4–1.5, 6.1, 6.7, pp. 8, 62, 69–70. Policy pointers · Thesis confidentiality.

Research integrity and ethics · Writing and submitting your thesis