All members of ESMP are expected to carry out their scientific research with utmost integrity and to act in accordance with good scientific practice. Upon beginning in ESMP, you should read the following documents and sign a confirmation that you understand the documents and agree to abide by rules for good scientific practice:
In addition, all Ph.D. candidates and postdoctoral researchers are expected to attend the University of Luxembourg's Good Scientific Practice course, regardless of whether or not you have attended a similar course elsewhere. Each lecturer brings up different issues and there may be things specific to Luxembourg and Europe that need to be addressed. (This is a requirement for Ph.D. candidates!) You should attend this course as soon as possible after joining ESMP: it is offered relatively frequently.
It is Jan's responsibility, as the ESMP group leader, to ensure secure storage of all primary data for any and all results disseminated in the group's name (journal articles, theses, conference proceedings, posters, etc.) for at least ten years after the date of dissemination. To ensure this, you must summarize all such primary data on a hard drive prior to leaving the group, organized in a way that Jan can easily locate the data for each occasion of dissemination. Apart from the primary data, also the final disseminated form should be included, thus the final manuscript draft files, poster file, presentation file, etc.
While it is ultimately up to you to determine how your data are ordered for storage, a recommended structure for the data is as follows:
Journal articles: by year, by article title
Conference proceedings: by year, by conference name, by article title
Conference presentations: by year, by conference name
Thesis (Bachelor's, Master's, or Ph.D.): by chapter
Any other kind of dissemination: By year, by target, by the name of the occasion
It is additionally your responsibility to ensure interoperability and durability of data storage for at least the minimum storage period required. Many funding agencies, including the Luxembourg FNR and the European Commission, require the formulation of Data Management Plans; even if this is not required for your project, it is a good idea to prepare a Data Management Plan at the start of a project and/or to be familiarized with the Plan for the project on which you work.
If you are a post-doc or Ph.D. candidate, the easy solution is to use your backup hard disk for this documentation when you are about to leave the group. Once you have organized your data following the above structure on the hard disk, you give this to Jan who has the responsibility to store it safely. If you are a B.Sc. or M.Sc. student, please clarify with Jan and your co-supervisor how you should save your data.
You, of course, retain the copyright for all primary data (shared with others who helped you in producing them, when others were involved) and nobody, including Jan, has the right to use the data without your consent and without giving proper reference to the source and any prior publications of the data. The copyright of published data may have been transferred to the publisher as part of the regular publication process; you must inform yourself about the situation. Be aware, however, that University of Luxembourg IP rules provided that all intellectual property remains the property of the University of Luxembourg and that any use of such is subject to University of Luxembourg rules.
If you have disseminated results without ESMP co-authors and without the ESMP group name, but with University of Luxembourg and (probably) the PhyMS RU affiliation, then you must clarify the proper storage of the primary data with the current head of PhyMS (currently Prof. Alexandre Tkachenko) or, if you did not use PhyMS as affiliation, the Dean of Research of UL (currently Prof. Pascal Bouvry). Note that this must be done before you leave the University of Luxembourg.
In order to seek patent protection, the patent must generally be applied for before any public dissemination of your work has occurred. If you plan to seek a patent or think that your work is patentable, please contact Jan and the PaKTTO office at as early a stage as possible and, in any event, before presentation of your work at any conferences, seminars, or events.
Lab Journal Keeping and Practice
We are presently working on transitioning to using an electronic laboratory journal platform (eLabFTW), the transition to which is presently in progress. In the meantime (and as a back-up), a physical lab notebook/journal is essential. We will provide a hardcover notebook.
Important points:
All entries should be written in ink.
Dates are essential.
Data Management and Protection
Daily Data Management
All post-docs and Ph.D. candidates in the ESMP group are given a well-sized backup hard disk for daily back-ups. If you do not yet have one, tell Jan immediately. If you have one but it is giving signs of imminent failure (strange noise, warning from the SMART system, ...) tell Jan immediately so it can be replaced. You are obliged to make complete backups continuously, making sure that all your data are backed up at least once a day. If you use a Mac, all you need to do is keep the hard disk connected while working and make sure that Time Machine is activated, with the backup hard disk as its destination.
You must engage encryption for your backup to ensure that sensitive data do not become externally accessible in case the backup hard disk is stolen. However, note that you must keep the encryption password in a safe place, such that the backup can also be decrypted from a computer different from your standard one, should it be needed after e.g. computer theft or catastrophic hard disk failure on your main computer.
In addition, you must take the following precautions:
You must ensure that your computer is not easily stolen. If no trusted person is in your office, your office should be locked. This will also safeguard other valuable items, like purses and wallets of yourself and your colleagues.
Since you are very likely to store person-related data on your computer (e.g. student performance results, potentially sensitive e-mails, ...) you must engage password protection of your computer user account. The password protection should automatically engage in reasonable time if you leave your computer unattended.
When you are not working at the computer, your backup hard disk and computer must be stored in separate places. If you use a laptop that you bring home in the evening, leave the backup hard disk at work; if you leave your computer at work, bring your backup hard disk home.
If you are a B.Sc. or M.Sc. thesis student, please discuss with your co-supervisor and/or Jan how to ensure safe data storage on a daily basis. You may use the group's folder on Atlas, you may borrow a backup disk, or you may use a backup disk of your own. See the section below for how to manage your data before you leave the group.
If you are traveling abroad: If you are traveling across international borders, particularly when entering or exiting the European Union (and especially for travel to the United States of America), please be aware that your electronic devices may be subject to inspection during border and customs controls. You are therefore highly advised to leave a back-up of all data in Luxembourg and to never store anything sensitive on your devices.
Organizing primary data after the dissemination of results
Every time you have disseminated results of the ESMP group in any way (journal publication, conference talk or poster, conference proceedings, ...) you must, if you are the lead author, organize all primary data in a dedicated folder. This should be done immediately after dissemination, without delay. If you are a co-author, but not the lead author, you still have the responsibility to provide all your primary data that was used for the dissemination to the lead author in an appropriate format. Moreover, should you notice that the lead author does not immediately start organizing the data appropriately, you should remind the lead author of her/his responsibility. The data must be saved in a format that will be readable by standard computers at least the next ten years. If you use encryption for these files, Jan must be given the password for decrypting the files (don't use the same password as for your private encrypted files).
You are encouraged to make primary data available publicly when appropriate, for instance using repositories managed by journals in which we publish (for example the NPG journal Scientific Data, Zenodo...).
When we disseminate results that involve co-authors from outside the ESMP group, an ESMP lead author should try to ensure that all primary data is collected and stored appropriately, most likely with the external group as well as in the ESMP group. At the very least, you must ensure that the primary data for your contribution are properly archived. In all cases, you must adhere to any requirements by your funding organization or management.
