Research Ethics and Legal 
Compliance: 
Informed Consent and Data Licensing
This work is licensed under Creative Commons Namensnennung 4.0 International Lizenz.
Sebastian Netscher
CESSDA Training at the Data Archive for the Social Sciences
GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences
@CESSDA_Data
Informed Consent
Research
Study 
planning
Data 
collectionData analysis
Archiving & 
registering
Informed Consent
• Obtaining agreement from your participants 
to participate in your study
• Weak consent will lead 
to poorer data because
participants may try to 
protect themselves 
⇒ causes item (sensitive data) 
or even unit non-response Image: CC-0
EU-Directive 1995/46/EC
• Participants in research have the right to
– withdraw from participation
– access their data
– get information about 
the use of their data
• Personal data need special protection
– have to be stored in the EU
– have to be anonymized
Image by P. Hochstenbach ( CC-by)
Elements of Consent Forms
• Informed consent includes information on:
– project and the researcher(s)
– participation in the study
– use of information within and 
beyond the project
– protection of personal data 
– right to withdraw
• Can be given written form 
(favourable) or verbally
⇒ always obtain informed consent
Image: CC-0
Anonymization
Research
Study 
planning
Data 
collectionData analysis
Archiving & 
registering
Anonymization
• Strategy to protect the identity of participants 
– legal requirements, e.g. EU-Directive 1995/46/EC
– ethical reasons (protection from harm) 
• Identifying participants
– direct identifiers, e.g. names, addresses, pictures etc.
– indirect identifiers, i.e. combination of different 
information in the data
• Anonymization is an early task (study planning)
– types of data to collect
– data protection laws
Anonymization Strategies
• Direct identifiers 
– keep sensitive data on separate files
– use meaningful pseudonyms and replacements 
– remove variables with sensitive data 
– voice alteration or image blurring
• Indirect identifiers 
– restrict upper and lower ranges of variables
– low-level aggregation of data
Anonymization: Keep in Mind
• Document anonymization and 
changes undertaken
• Avoid 
– inconsistency 
– over-anonymization
• If anonymization is impossible
– obtain informed consent for using 
and sharing non-anonymous data
– control access and regulate reuse
– place confidential data under embargo
Image by A. Herrema & H. Bouwteam (CC-by)
Data Licensing 
Research
Study 
planning
Data 
collectionData analysis
Archiving & 
registering
• Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)
– cover scientific work 
– do neither extend to an idea nor subsist in facts
but to an organized collection of data
• IPRs are not universal
– vary from country to country
– are territorial
⇒ it matters where they are applied 
not where they originate
Intellectual Property Rights
Reusing Data
• Copyright 
– assigns the owner of IPR 
protects against unauthorized 
copies or derivatives of work
• The right of usage
– defines conditions of reused
⇒ reusing data, 
clarify conditions, first
Image by A. Herrema & H. Bouwteam (CC-by)
Licensing Data
• Give permission to someone else 
to reuse data 
• To license data
– clarify who owns the data, first
– check for template license 
of your institute of funder
• Licenses can be 
– irrevocable and 
– not suitable for third party licensing 
or for confidential, sensitive objects etc.
Image by A. Herrema & H. Bouwteam (CC-by)
What Licenses Look Like
• Licenses define conditions of reuse
• Extract of UKDA end user license
http://ukdataservice.ac.uk/get-data/how-to-access/conditions
– not to use the data for commercial purposes …
– …no transfer of any interest in intellectual property
– …without warranty or liability of any kind
– …abide by any further conditions notified to you
– …ensure that the means of access … are kept secure 
– …use the correct methods of citation … in publications
+ access conditions for weakly anonymized data
Further Readings
• ANDS Guides (2012): Ethics, Consent & data Sharing. Available at: 
http://www.ands.org.au/guides/ethics-working-level.pdf.
• Ball, Alex (2014): How to License Research Data. Available at: 
http://www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/how-guides/license-research-data.
• Creative Commons. Available at https://creativecommons.org/.
• Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, 24 October 1995. 
Available at:  http://eur-
lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:31995L0046:EN:NOT.
• Lagoze, C., Block, W.C., Williams, J., Abowd, J. and Vilhuber, L. (2013): Data 
Management of Confidential Data. doi:10.2218/ijdc.v8i1.259 . Available at: 
http://www.ijdc.net/index.php/ijdc/article/view/8.1.265.  
• McGeever, Mags (2007): IPR in Databases. Available at 
http://www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/briefing-papers/legal-watch-papers/ipr-databases#top.
• Open Data Commons. Available at http://opendatacommons.org/.
• UK Data Service: Consent for data sharing: http://ukdataservice.ac.uk/manage-data/legal-
ethical/consent-data-sharing/consent-forms [Examples on various consent forms].
DMP Section 4: Ethics and …

 work in 2-4 groups, 

 time: about 30 minutes
 choose one of the 
following topics
DMP Sections 4: Ethics and …
a) informed consent (Section 4.1)
⇒ outline the process of obtaining informed consent …
… how you gained consent (for data sharing and preservation)
… how you handle sensitive data and 
how protect participants’ identity 
b) Intellectual Property Rights (Section 4.2)
⇒ reusing data of others, under which conditions 
⇒ processing data, consider …
… who is the owner
… will the data be licensed
… the conditions of reuse
DMP Sections 4.1: Informed Consent
• seek informed consent in written form
• outline
– aim of your project as well as name of primary 
researcher(s) and institute(s) 
– importance and implication of participation 
– use of data within the project as well as 
beyond the project (archiving and sharing)
– protection of sensitive information, e.g. via anonymization
– right to withdraw, access the data etc.
⇒get the consent form signed and hand over a copy
DMP Sections 4.2: Intellectual Property Rights
• re-using data from others, consider …
…who is the copyright holder and who needs to be cited
…what are the conditions of reuse
⇒ better seek for permission than for forgiveness
• licensing data for the reuse of others, consider …
…how sensitive your data are
… if and how you have to control access
… if your data need additional protection, e.g. being 
accessible only via a Secure Data Center
⇒ archive your data to control access and use