Intellectual Property
The University of British Columbia has several policies referring to intellectual property, including:
These policies apply equally to all students, faculty and staff, regardless of their position at the University. Whether undergraduate student or full professor, everyone has equal rights and obligations. The policies also apply to others connected with the University, such as visiting faculty or researchers who develop intellectual property using University facilities or with funds administered by the University.
The policies generally apply to scholarly work conducted while you are enrolled at or employed by the University. Copyright and other intellectual property rights to scholarly and literary works—including books, lecture notes, laboratory manuals, artifacts, visual art and music—produced by those connected with the University belong to the individuals involved. Publishers of these works may acquire copyright as a condition of publication.
Scholarly Integrity – Policy 85
Background & Purposes
The University recognizes that teaching, research, scholarship and creative activity are most likely to flourish in a climate of academic freedom. The University community has always recognized the necessity for maintaining the highest ethical standards in the conduct of Scholarly Activities. Individuals are expected to assume direct responsibility for the intellectual and ethical quality of their work. The University of British Columbia has developed this Policy to communicate expectations, increase awareness of integrity issues, and encourage scholars (be they students or members of faculty and staff) to assume personal responsibility.
The purposes of this Policy are:
- to promote scholarly integrity among scholars, in order to maintain and enhance the value of impartiality that universities offer society;
- to proscribe activities which breach generally acceptable standards of scholarly conduct; and
- to provide a process for dealing with allegations of Scholarly Misconduct in a timely manner.
1. Scope
1.1. This Policy applies to all full-time and part-time faculty, staff and students of the University and any person (including clinical faculty and visiting professors) who teaches, conducts research, or works at or under the auspices of the University.
2. General
2.1. Individuals are personally responsible for the intellectual and ethical quality of their work and must ensure that their Scholarly Activity meets University standards.
2.2. Members involved in Scholarly Activity must not commit Scholarly Misconduct.
2.3. The University will investigate allegations of Scholarly Misconduct in a timely, impartial and accountable manner and take appropriate action, including any necessary steps to preserve evidence, when it becomes aware of allegations of Scholarly Misconduct. Investigations are always subject to the principles of Natural Justice.
3. Definitions
3.1. “Fabrication” means invention or forgery of research data or citations.
3.2. “Falsification” means alteration, selective omission or misrepresentation of research data or citations.
3.3. “Investigative Committee” means a committee appointed by the Vice-President for the purpose of investigating a particular allegation.
3.4. “Natural Justice” is comprised of two main principles:
- the decision maker is impartial; and
- the respondent is provided with a fair hearing (i.e. the respondent is informed of the allegation made against him or her; is provided with an opportunity to respond to the allegation; and has the right to be represented).
3.5. “Plagiarism” means the presentation of the thoughts, writings or inventions of another as one’s own or the presentation of thoughts, writings or inventions without proper scholarly attribution.
3.6. “Principal Investigator” means the person who has primary responsibility for a research project. In the case of a project funded by an external or internal grant, this will normally be the holder of the grant. In the case of a project that is not funded, this will normally be the initiator of the project. The Principal Investigator is usually the supervisor of the research team (which may include other researchers) and is usually a faculty member.
3.7. “Scholarly Activity” means teaching, research, scholarship or artistic/creative activity carried out in the course of a faculty, staff or student’s work or studies at the University and includes activities that would be appropriate for inclusion on a curriculum vitae or in an Annual Report to a Department Head.
3.8. “Scholarly Misconduct” means conduct that deviates significantly from that which is acceptable within the relevant scholarly community and includes without limitation:
- Plagiarism;
- Fabrication or Falsification of research data;
- conflict of scholarly interest, such as suppressing the publication of the work of another scholar;
- the unfair evaluation of a student’s work;
- failure to comply with the University’s policies and procedures on research;
- failure to obtain all required approvals for research involving animal and human subjects, biohazards, radioisotopes, environmental effects, or failure to conduct such research in accordance with the protocols prescribed;
- conduct that contravenes guidelines or procedures on scholarly integrity that are adopted by a faculty for scholarly communities within that faculty;
- failure to give appropriate recognition, including authorship, to those who have made a material intellectual contribution to the contents of the publication or research project, and only those people;
- failure to equitably allocate interest of inventorship in proportion to the intellectual contribution of the contributors;
- the use of unpublished work of other researchers and scholars without proper permission or without due acknowledgement;
- the use of archival material in contravention of the rules of the archives;
- prior to public disclosure, the use of new information, concepts or data originally obtained through access to confidential manuscripts or applications for funds for research or training as a result of processes such as peer review without obtaining permission of the author;
- failure to use scholarly and scientific rigour and integrity in obtaining and analyzing data, and in reporting and publishing results;
- failure to comply with the terms and conditions of funding sponsor(s) when applying for and using research funds;
- failure to disclose to the University, journals, funding sponsors or those requesting opinions, any conflict of interest, financial or other, that might influence their decisions on whether the individual should be asked to review manuscripts or applications, test products or be permitted to undertake work sponsored from outside sources; and
- failure to respect the intellectual property rights of others in the conduct of research, the development of academic materials, and the dissemination of results
- but does not include situations of honest error despite due diligence, conflicting data or valid differences in experimental design or in interpretation or judgment of information.
3.9. “Vice President” means either the Vice-President, Research or the Vice-President, Academic who is the central point of contact for a particular allegation.
For procedures, please visit www.universitycounsel.ubc.ca/policies/policy85.pdf
