The following laws apply:
- Cantonal Data Protection Act
- Federal Act on Data Protection
Data Protection Laws
The following laws apply:
Data Collection
Informed consent from participants or respondents should include a statement about the purpose of the data collection and any potential publication of the data.
Use and Publication of DataPseudonymization (replacing personal information with identifiers such as codes or pseudonyms) is not sufficient under data protection law, as the personal data could be re-identified using a pseudonymization key.
Anonymization is recommended and occurs when data are modified so that the identification of individuals is no longer possible—neither directly nor indirectly. This can be achieved, for example, by grouping data into broader categories (e.g., canton/language region instead of place of residence) or by deleting specific identifiers.
Copyrights
Copyright Regulation in the HSLU Employment Ordinance
For copyrighted works created by employees in the course of their official duties, the copyright remains with the employee. However, the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU) holds an unlimited, royalty-free, and comprehensive right of use.
Researchers may choose to license their own data—for example, under a Creative Commons license http://www.creativecommons.ch/
Recommended licenses for research data:
- Ideal: CC-BY or CC0 (public domain)
- Limited suitability: CC-BY-SA, CC-BY-NC and CC-BY-NC-SA (restrict reuse)
- Not suitable: CC-BY-ND or CC-BY-NC-ND (prevent reuse)
Why are “non-commercial”, “share-alike”, or “no-derivatives” restrictions not suitable for research data?
Non-commercial (NC):
- Restricts use to non-commercial purposes, which is vaguely defined and creates legal uncertainty.
- Prevents commercial entities (e.g., companies or start-ups) from using the data, thereby hindering knowledge transfer and innovation.
Share-alike (SA):
- Requires derivative works to be licensed under identical conditions, which may hinder interoperability with datasets or projects under different licensing terms.
No-derivatives (ND):
- Prohibits the creation of derivative works, thereby preventing further processing, analysis, or combination of data for new research questions.
- Contradicts the scientific principle of building upon and reusing existing data.
Ethics
The Ethics Committee of the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts assesses the ethical acceptability of research projects conducted at HSLU when such evaluation is required by third parties or the researchers themselves.
Do all research projects need to be reviewed by the HSLU Ethics Committee?
(Excerpt from the Research Data Management Guidelines)
Approval by an ethics committee is required whenever research involves human subjects, particularly if it falls under the Human Research Act (HFG; SR 810.30). This applies, for example, when researchers interact with participants and collect health-related personal data—even if the data are later anonymized.
Other scenarios include:
- Projects that could pose physical or psychological risks to participants.
- Projects involving knowledge that could be used for military purposes or misused for terrorism.
- Projects potentially harmful to the environment, human health, or the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts itself.