Copyright and Data

If you are using secondary data or sources, Copyright may be owned by a third-party. You need to understand the terms and conditions in which you can use and reuse the data.

Consider the licence terms or data sharing agreements that outline conditions of use and reuse. If a data sharing agreement is not in place, consider using one. Contact Research Contracts for support.

For more information, see our guide on Copyright and data

If you are using Social Media content for your research, you will need to consider the legal and ethical aspects.

1. Know the Terms and Conditions for the chosen platform
   Social media does not necessarily mean public domain. Users have agreed to a set of terms and conditions for each platform which often contain clauses on how data can be accessed by third parties. Users may also have reasonable expectations of privacy guided by the online setting itself. This can include choosing more restrictive privacy settings, selecting only those friends they wish to interact with, or blocking other users.
2. Social media content is protected by Copyright
   Copyright law does allow the use of protected material without gaining consent for the purpose of criticism and review. But if your research is about specific accounts/creators or you are quoting large proportions of content, you will need to gain consent. For more information, see our Copyright pages.
3. Social media content is subject to Data Protection
   Content may contain personal, sensitive, or special category data, or it may be possible to search for and identify individuals more easily. As such, it needs to be handled appropriately. For more guidance see the Data Protection and Research page or contact the Data Protection Officer.
4. You have a Duty of Care to those involved
   You need to consider any risk of harm to individuals or groups particularly for those who are vulnerable. Considerations need to be given to data supplied by underage individuals, but it’s not always easy to verify if individuals have truthfully given their age, location, or other information. It is also important to consider how confidentiality and anonymity can be protected and if informed consent should be gained.
5. Consider gaining consent
   It can be difficult or impossible to gain informed consent from social media. You will need to take into account the terms of the platform, the views of the users, the level of participant engagement, level of risk to participants, and how consent or withdrawal can be done practically.
   See our guide on Informed Consent for more guidance.

For more guidance on using social media in research, see

UK Research Integrity Office Ethical issues in research using social media

University of Aberdeen Social Media Research guide

London School of Economics Social media, personal data and research guide

University of York Guidelines for the Use of Social Media Data in Research

Copyright Law includes an exception which allows those conducting research to make copies of protected material for the purposes of computational analysis if:

• They already have ‘lawful access’ to the work. This is usually the right to read the work, and may require purchasing a subscription to access the material.
• The research is non-commercial even if it is commercially funded.
• The source of the data is cited in the usual way.

For more information see

• UK Copyright Law Exceptions to copyright
• UoL Copyright guide
• UK Data Service Rights in Data pages