Data protection

All research and innovation activities must comply with ethical principles and relevant legislation at national, European and international levels. The protection of personl data is a priority issue and must therefore be planned from the outset of the research project, as it affects the chosen storage medium, access to data, sharing of copies, security protocols, processing of personl data, etc.

Several basic rules regarding data protection must be taken into account:

• Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personl data and on the free movement of such data (GDPR).
• Organic Law 3/2018 of 5 December on the Protection of Personal Data and the Guarantee of Digital Rights.
• Personal Data Protection is an up-to-date compilation from the Official State Gazette (BOE).
• Processing of personl data in research activities at the University of Seville.
• Personal Data Protection at the University of Seville
• Guide to Good Practice on Transparency and Data Protection. Published by the CRUE.

 Ethical aspects 

If the research involves experimentation with animals or human subjects, authorisation must be obtained, in the case of the University of Seville, from the Ethics Committee; and if personl or sensitive data is to be processed, it is necessary to contact the Data Protection Officer to comply with the requirements for the Processing of Personal Data in Research Activities.

Where the research involves studies with human subjects, informed consent must be obtained from the individuals involved in the project for the processing of their data.

Anonymisation

 When working with personl data, it is mandatory to guarantee the privacy and anonymity of the individuals involved. To do this, the data must be anonymised; data anonymisation is the process that removes the possibility of identifying individuals. 

To anonymise data, OpenAire recommends using the Amnesia tool. For further information, please consult the user guide, the presentation and the video of a webinar organised by OpenAire in June 2020.

Further resources: 

• Ethical issues UK Data Service
• Consent for sharing UK Data Service
• Network of ethics committees at universities and public bodies
• Ethical aspects of the European Commission
• European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity
• Code of Good Practice in Research, University of Seville
•  Webinar organised by FECYT, as the National Open Access Data (NOAD) coordinator for Spain within the OpenAIRE project, which provides both a theoretical and practical legal perspective on research data management:
  • Link to the presentation 
  • Link to the video