Approved by Faculty Council on November 13, 1997
Please note:
(a) The following policy is taken from the Faculty of Graduate Studies Policy on Intellectual Property for Graduate Programs, with the addition of clause 25.
(b) The Faculty of Graduate Studies Policy notes, "No program may impose unreasonable or unusual conditions on any student or faculty member as a condition of admission to or participation or teaching in a program. Furthermore, no individual agreement between a faculty member and a graduate student will impose unreasonable or unusual conditions on the student." See clause 19.
(c) The following terms have been clarified from the original text to reflect FES practice: "Program Director" has been changed to "Graduate Program Director", and "Task Force on Intellectual Property" has been changed to "Faculty of Graduate Studies Task Force on Intellectual Property". In addition, "Program" shall mean the Graduate Program in the Faculty of Environmental Studies.
A. AUTHORSHIP
1. Authorship can only be credited to those who make substantial intellectual contributions to a piece of work. Accepting the addition of an author who has not made a significant intellectual contribution to the piece of work is not ethical for authors.
2. Authors accept not only credit but also responsibility for their work and, in particular, for ensuring that the work conforms to appropriate standards of academic honesty.
3. Generally, the order of authors’ names in a publication should reflect the substance of their relative contributions to the work, with priority going to those who made the greatest or most significant contribution. Supervisors should discuss the issue of authorship, and what factors may determine the final order of authorship, normally before commencing the work.
4. Where the major substance or data of a co-authored publication is based on a portion of a graduate student’s work, the student will normally be the first author. The supervisor or joint authors should be prepared to offer a rationale in cases where the student is not listed as the first author. Where the work has been written up in a dissertation or thesis or paper before the research is published, the publication will normally cite the dissertation, thesis, or paper on which it is based.
5. Anyone otherwise entitled to be acknowledged as a coauthor may forfeit that right if they leave the project before substantially completing it. In such cases, their contribution to the work shall nonetheless be acknowledged in an appropriate manner by the author(s), for example, in the acknowledgments section of the publication.
6. Providing financial support for a student’s dissertation, thesis, or research paper is not, in itself, sufficient to warrant authorship. Only where intellectual input is provided beyond financial support should co-authorship be considered.
7. Supplying minor editorial work for a student’s dissertation, thesis, or research paper is not, in itself, sufficient to warrant coauthorship.
8. If a student is employed as a Research Assistant in circumstances where the work done in the course of that employment is not intended to and does not in fact become part of work done for the degree requirements, then the student may not normally claim co-authorship and does not own the data, except through a prior agreement that is consistent with the general principles above.
9. If a student is employed as a Research Assistant in circumstances where the work done in the course of that employment becomes part of the thesis/dissertation/ research paper, the student may, at a minimum, claim coownership of the data but as the author of the thesis/ dissertation/research paper owns the overall copyright.
B. PUBLICATION
10. The university has an important duty, grounded in the public interest, to seek, preserve, and disseminate knowledge. Therefore, authors should attempt to publish their work in a timely fashion. In cases where work must be kept confidential and unpublished for a time, the period of delay should normally be no more than one year from the date of acceptance of a thesis or dissertation and should in no circumstances extend beyond two years from that date.
11. Publications by graduate students and faculty must give full and proper acknowledgment to the contribution of other students or faculty or others to their work, notwithstanding that such contribution may not warrant authorship. Such contributions should be substantial, in accordance with the particular discipline, and may include items such as original ideas that led directly to the research work, or requested commentary that resulted in significant changes to the research.
12. Normally, all co-authors or co-owners of the data need to concur in publishing or presenting the work. Coauthors should agree to the time or place of presentation or publication of their jointly authored work prior to the presentation or publication, but such agreement should not be unreasonably withheld. The inability of the author(s) to contact another co-author prior to presentation at a meeting or seminar should not prevent work from being publicly disseminated, provided they make reasonable efforts to contact all contributors to obtain prior agreement.
13. To verify research materials or data, there must be provisions for access. Supervisors and sponsors may, with agreement of the student, retain the original materials provided. Under such circumstances, students shall normally be presented on request with complete and usable copies of those materials.
14. Where there has been significant substantive and intellectual contribution by the supervisor to the research, the intellectual property emanating thereof shall normally be the joint property of graduate students and their supervisor or sponsor for the masters or doctoral project in which the materials were created. When the physical research materials embody intellectual property, the student should have reasonable access to this material. Agreements concerning research materials and data should be made, where possible, before the commencement of research.
15. Students shall not use in their dissertation, theses, or papers data or results generated by someone else without first obtaining permission from those who own the materials.
C. INDIVIDUAL AGREEMENTS
Students and faculty may enter into individual agreements that modify their intellectual property rights. If they do so, the provisions of clauses 16 through 19 below must be observed.
16. Individual agreements should specify any financial relations and associated rights and obligations, provisions for ownership and control of original data and research materials, authorship, publication, and presentation.
17. All individual agreements must explicitly state that they are subject to applicable Collective Agreements and all University regulations in force at the time.
18. All individual agreements must be completed within four months of a student starting a significant portion of the research for a thesis or dissertation, or within four months of the student joining a laboratory. In the case for students joining a specific laboratory to undertake research with a specific supervisor, the supervisor should indicate prior to the arrival of the student the nature of any agreement expected to be entered into between the supervisor and the student.
19. All individual agreements will be reviewed by the Executive Committee of the Graduate Program to ensure that the agreement does not impose any unreasonable or unusual conditions on the student. The Executive Committee of the Graduate Program may annul any individual agreement or ask for redrafting where this condition has not been respected.
D. EDUCATION AND INFORMATION
20. The Graduate Program in Environmental Studies will normally hold an information session on ethical aspects of research, including intellectual property rights and related issues, during the orientation session for new incoming graduate students. All new students and faculty will be provided with copies of the most recent edition of the document entitled “Intellectual Property and the Graduate Student at York.”
E. DISPUTE RESOLUTION
The primary role of the Faculty of Graduate Studies should be to provide general directives and principles governing the graduate student/supervisory relationship, to educate and inform parties about their rights and appropriate behaviour, and to assist parties in mediating disputes. The latter imply that the parties can probably come to a voluntary and informed agreement between themselves. Generally, the imposition of resolutions by a Faculty or by arbitrators is far less satisfactory. Therefore, the following mediative process is suggested as a means of resolving disputes.
21. In disputes arising out of program policies or individual agreements, parties should initiate a complaint in writing and bring it to the attention of the Graduate Program Director of the Program in which the student is enrolled, with a copy to the Dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies.
22. The Graduate Program Director should arrange an informal meeting of the parties to discuss the substance of the dispute, the possibility of negotiating an agreement at the Program level, and to determine the necessity of approaching the Faculty for assistance. At the meeting, the parties shall be informed that they may, at their own expense, seek legal remedy. At any point, if any party chooses to proceed in law, the mediative role of the Program or the Faculty shall end.
23. If the parties choose to proceed to mediation, a mediator acceptable to the parties, preferably from outside the graduate program, will be used, unless all parties agree to mediation by the Graduate Program Director. In cases where the nature of the dispute involves a requirement for technical knowledge of the matter, the Graduate Program Director may form a hearing committee consisting of her/himself and necessary experts in the subject matter who preferably come from outside the graduate program. In assisting the parties in mediation, the Graduate Program Director or mediator must have regard to the fact that students and faculty generally stand in a relation of unequal power, and thus ensure that any agreement reached is consistent with the general principles of the report of the Faculty of Graduate Studies Task Force on Intellectual Property.
24. If the dispute cannot be settled by mediation within the Program, and on request of the parties, the Dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies or his or her representative shall review the initial attempt at mediation and if warranted may proceed with a new attempt at mediation, subject to the same conditions as stated above. In matters outside of ownership of intellectual property, the Faculty may direct how a settlement should be reached.
25. All parties to the dispute are entitled to copies of any relevant materials (written works, correspondence, etc.) as soon as they are available. They may also attend any meetings at which their interests are discussed. Parties to disputes may be accompanied by their legal representatives. (Pending Senate Approval)