Full Transcript for 🧪⚖️Inventing Knowledge: Intellectual Property in Academic Research 🧠🔏

Nora Balzer (00:01.304) Professor versus a PhD student who steals from whom. Sophie made her PhD at the University of Aachen, where she got pregnant when she got pregnant, so she took a break. After her return, she submits her work in order to receive her title. You may already feel it was not the case. As usual, Two supervisors need to check the dissertation. In her case, the second supervisor was from the University of Bonn. So the professor from the Uni Aachen sent the work to the professor at the Uni Bonn with a great evaluation. Magna cum laude, great work. However, the prof in Bonn found the work very familiar. And then he found 40 pages of the dissertation. already published by the Aachener Supervisor. Here we are now. Who stole from whom? Nora Balzer (01:10.304) Sophie has given her manuscript draft to the professor and boss way before the publication and her parental leave. As the prof in Bonn gave his evaluation and note about Plagiat, the Aachener prof also changed his mind regarding Magna Cum Laude. During the process, the PhD student did not receive any feedback regarding those accusations. If she would have got any hint, she could have easily withdrawn her manuscript, changed the 40 pages to a citation and submitted again. Nora Balzer (01:53.75) As it was not the case, PhD student vs. Prof. started the process to find out who stole from whom. If the doctoral thesis would have been published prior to the scientific publication, nothing would have happened. Six years later, a press release came out saying that the doctor father didn't make any mistake which press release got deleted again shortly after. Nora Balzer (02:30.253) I assume many of us know Sophie or Toby or anyone else who felt just not right with her work. And indeed, to be right and have right are two different things not only in science. Welcome to today's podcast of the Young Immunologist Immunochat, sponsored by the German Association of Immunology. We are diving into a topic that often stays in the background, but it's gaining importance in immunology as well, intellectual property. Nora Balzer (03:14.516) Intellectual property, what does that really mean in the context of academic science? While we may typically associate intellectual property with patents and copyrights in the commercial sector, in science it's often more complex. It's not just about inventions but also ideas, research findings, data and publications that emerge from academic work. But who owns these intellectual achievements and how can they be protected? Nora Balzer (03:57.633) The academic ideal emphasizes that science is to share for the public good. Many of us scientists enter the field to make a difference, generate knowledge and make it accessible. Yet in academic research, career advancements go hand in hand with research achievements. Yet in academic research, career advancements go hand in hand with research achievements. Publications, citations and patents make reputation, stipends and funding, money, in order to be able to make cutting-edge science. And that makes the Catch-22 dilemma. On the one hand, we are committed to share knowledge with the community. On the other side, there is a need to protect intellectual property as a way of honor and secure our work. Nora Balzer (05:05.556) Let's look at patents for example. Patents only play a crucial role in protecting inventions. By patenting work, researchers or their institutions can secure funding and maximize the economic impact. Nora Balzer (05:26.89) However, the process is challenging. Patents must be filled early, sometimes prior to the scientific publications, which conflicts with scientific openness. Nora Balzer (05:46.983) Another major topic is copyright, which protects the expression of research in articles, books or datasets, for example. However, there are challenges here too. Many immunologists are required and also wish to publish with major journals and charge high fees and often retain copyright for the content. So, when you write a mail to the contact author of a nature paper to please send a manuscript, then you actually ask them to do something not really legal. Nora Balzer (06:46.154) Those conflicts have led to a motivation for open access, which aims to make scientific publications freely available. Scientists who want to share their findings openly, they support open access. But the system is often complex and comes with additional costs. Nora Balzer (07:13.738) Collaborations are fun, aren't they? We share knowledge, get new insights, techniques, people, and upgrade our scientific potential immensely. Unfortunately, there's the issue of intellectual property in collaborations. Science, especially immunology and other biomedical sciences, are increasingly collaborative, inter- and multidisciplinary, and international. So who owns the outcome when multiple institutions and researchers are involved? Nora Balzer (07:57.776) This is the point where contracts come into play defining who has what rights to the results. Such agreements can be time consuming and disagreements over intellectual property can just really slow down projects. Nora Balzer (08:20.092) In science, we need to balance between making our findings accessible and to protect the value of our work and support career growth, especially for early career scientists. Those young students who just want to make some cool science, choose their lab with gut feeling, just want to get inspired by other your researchers and never ever think about intellectual property when they sign their contract and don't read any doctoral regulations at all until they need to defend their thesis, just like me. Nora Balzer (09:06.61) And here I could just try to give you the ultimate knowledge how to protect your research work, but I cannot. As a PhD student, it is especially challenging, as at least on paper, it must be your very own intellectual work. barely exist shared PhD theses or so. So here comes my top 5