Questions tagged [legal-issues]
On legal issues affecting academicians. Note that Academia.SE, like any SE site, cannot offer specific legal advice; consult a lawyer for such questions. Use [law], not [legal-issues], for questions on law as an academic discipline or field of study.
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Can a (predatory or fake) journal refuse to withdraw a non-published paper, even though the journal is to blame for withdrawal request?
Synopsis: Can a fake journal keep the copyright of a submitted (not published) paper, despite the authors' request to withdraw it (because of the journal not keeping its full-waiver promise and also ...
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Is Salary Considered a direct/indirect funding?
I went to the US on a J-1 visa (Research Scholar) as an Adjunct Research Assistant Professor at a US University. I was only on the salary I was getting from the university without any external funding ...
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Setting up a personal company to take postdoc+permanent position
I have a rather convoluted employment situation. I am a Postdoc in U.K. but I signed a contract for a teaching intensive U.S. university with start date next January, at the end of my current post-doc....
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My research PI has terminated my post-doc after coming back from sick leave. No prior notice given. Is it right behaviour? [closed]
I am coming from another country for a post-doc. It's been 2 months and immediately project plan and work pressure started.
Meanwhile, I fell sick and was on leave for one week. When I returned back, ...
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What can be disclosed in letters of recommendation under FERPA?
I rarely hear of students signing FERPA release forms when asking for letters of recommendation. Yet letters of recommendation commonly talk about student's performance in a class, projects they did ...
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Are college instructors in the U.S. generally mandated reporters?
Almost all U.S. states have mandatory reporting laws, that specify certain professions, especially those dealing with children, as being obligated to report evidence of abuse to a state agency. These ...
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Are there any ethical or legal issues when printing large texts from primary sources? [closed]
I am writing a secondary History textbook. It is quite nearly done, but I am required to integrate some primary source materials, such as diaries, log entries, letters, etc.
The textbook spans the ...
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What lawsuits have been filed against Wright State University? [closed]
What lawsuits have been filed against Wright State University?
This school was operating as an unaccredited institution for years while engaging in research and academic fraud, as well as various ...
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Is a 166 point exam due in 30 mins too short? [closed]
Our professor gave us a long exam worth 166 points. It was composed of 130 items 10 of which were identification and 120 were multiple choice. A lot of the questions required ethical analysis as out ...
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Is it common for the head of a department to be able to reduce a tenured professor's salary to 0?
I'm referring to an incident at Purdue. The head of the Purdue math department tried to pressure an older tenured faculty member to leave by setting his salary to 0 (among other things).
I actually ...
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What are the consequences of leaving a postdoc position without notice?
What is the worst thing would happen to a person who leaves their postdoc position without any prior notice and leaves the country?
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Copyright of a custom image of a well-known game character [closed]
This question is quite similar to another one I already found here.
I would like to use an image of a very well known plumber in my upcoming research paper. Of course, I do not own any rights to that ...
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How do research funders make sure their money is spent reasonably?
How do research funders audit where their money is going? Say they give some amount to a professor, after one year the professor didn't produce a thing in his research. How does it work?
It seems very ...
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Legal to post an image of a textbook for help? [closed]
I had a textbook problem that I wasn't able to solve, so I posted the question on a social media platform and got asked to provide an image of the entire page including the question by multiple people,...
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How (il)legal and common is it for a university to make one work BEFORE signing a contract?
Many years ago (when I was young and naive), I accepted a job offer (rejecting two other offers, with some acrimony from one of them) and moved to a new country (Chile) in order to take the job, only ...
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Are the ombudsman's decisions of German universities legally binding? [closed]
I was accused of academic and administrative misconduct by one of my students several months ago in Germany. Finally, it was proved that I was innocent and there was no wrong doing on my side.
Now, ...
user165967
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Is it illegal to use resources in a university lab to prove a concept could work (to ultimately use to create a startup)?
While I understand this is not a legal help site and it may differ from university to university, I am curious if anyone has any thoughts on this.
I am in an undergraduate programme in a life sciences-...
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Consulting and Outside Employment
My university recently required all professors to attest that they do not consult nor are employed for more than one day per week. This statement is required to ensure the professors are engaged in ...
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Is it legal to post an ad merely to conform to immigration rules? [closed]
(Not sure if this should be on the Law.SE)
Inspired by an answer to another question:
If the posting is also extremely specific, I might suspect that it's meant for some bureaucratic purpose rather ...
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Is it legally possible to stand up for getting unfairly marked by my professor? [closed]
I recently completed my coursework for International Business Strategy in the UK. I have been marked unfairly in a sense where my professor has given me the feedback of not mentioning certain points ...
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Is it legal for me to post previous exams I have taken in University
I want to create a database of notes and previous exams for classes at my university, however, I am not sure if this is legal. I just want to know if this is OK or would I get a cease and desist or ...
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On license process on Arxiv
Suppose I have published my inventions (written in papers) in arxiv. Can any information stated in papers be stolen? Is there any license process in arxiv? I want to know what is this license process ...
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Republishing a collection of published papers in a book
A publisher is interested in republishing a book on a collection of papers published by me and my colleagues. I have secured permissions from publishers of papers to do so. Are there other issues ...
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Should I use the university or personal account for note-taking?
I'm a first-year medical university student and was given a Microsoft email with the uni's domain that is also connected to a free Office 365 subscription.
The uni wants us to use their email to ...
user161468
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3
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Is it appropriate to ask to be delisted from department webpage?
I am a doctoral student. I share an office with one other individual. As is customary, the names, emails, and offices of graduate students are published on the department site.
I am the victim in a ...
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My university is forcing me to take required classes at a different campus, which will be very expensive to me. Do I have any recourse?
I am a 4th year undergraduate physics major. At the beginning of my college career, I made a spreadsheet showing which classes I would take each semester. My advisor told me every semester that the ...
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1
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How does the WissZeitVG count the years of fixed-term employment?
The Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz (WissZeitVG) says:
Die Befristung von Arbeitsverträgen des in § 1 Absatz 1 Satz 1 genannten Personals, das nicht promoviert ist, ist bis zu einer Dauer von sechs ...
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No financial advice disclaimer in a research paper
I'm about to submit my research paper to a journal concerning finance and investments. In the work, I say something like:
The results show that fields/industries/companies "A", "B"...
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415
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Professor posting videos of his lectures online. Allowed? [closed]
Suppose I am a Professor working for a reputed university. Am I allowed (by the university) to make teaching videos of my courses at home and publish them on a platform like YouTube or somewhere else ...
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Working in a research company that studies the same research problem as my startup [closed]
I am almost in the final step of joining a big research company. This company has a huge amount of data for research problem X, and their research team is always digging into it. I just want to ...
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Would it violate copyright to retype a classic mathematics book from the 1960s using modern notation and uploading it online?
I am reading a classic book in mathematics that was published in the 1960s. This book uses very old notation, which makes it impossible to read it. Suppose further that I want to read the whole book ...
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Is it legal if I print PDF files of Springer books for personal use?
As a Canadian undergraduate student, I have access to all Springer books on their website, provided that I log in with my institutional account. Springer books can be downloaded as PDF files.
Because ...
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What are appropriate measures to keep use of reference managers within the GDPR?
The GDPR (or national legislation implementing it) places requirements on anyone who processes personally identifiable data concerning residents of the EU and the UK. As per this question the GDPR ...
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Moving abroad with books marked "for sale in Indian subcontinent only"
I am soon going to move from India to Norway. I own multiple reference books that will be relevant to my work in the future as well and I plan to move with my books. Several of the editions that I own ...
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Drastic changes in tenure process and requirements during evaluation
I am an assistant prof. on a tenure-track in the US, in an institution that was heavily oriented toward teaching when I was hired, but that is gradually gearing toward more intensive research ...
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Can I sue my advisor due to not giving me authorship
So long story short is that, while I was doing my masters I have worked with a PhD candidate on a paper. I basically developed half of the system and did all the experiments while I was doing my ...
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Is it acceptable / legal for students to photograph their professors during class? [closed]
Recently, I noticed a student taking a photo of me from her seat during class. I asked her while the class was working on groups if she indeed did do this and she confirmed, but downplayed her ...
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How to safeguard marketable ideas from being stolen?
Say I plan to share an idea with a professor that has the potential to inspire a biotech startup. What forward-looking steps can I, as an undergraduate, take beforehand to ensure the professor won't ...
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Are University Policies and Procedures in (public) Canadian universities supposed to be public?
I recently attempted to access the current University Policies and Procedures for a (public) Canadian university from the university's website. But when I clicked on the link to the PDF the browser ...
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Can age limit be an issue for postdoc in China? [duplicate]
I have got post doc position in China a year back when I was 34. Due to Covid situations, my permit expired before and now lab fellow is planning again to apply for work permit but my age is 35 now. ...
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Is it legal to share some exercises with solutions of a book with students?
I am going to teach a course in the Winter term and I have access to the solution manual provided by the publisher. Is it legal to share some questions (not the whole questions) with their answers ...
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Can you reference a book if the author forbids it? Or maybe I have misunderstood the legal part of the book?
I would like to reference thoughts from a book, which would be a legal and normal thing to do, but there is a part on the first page of the book which makes me confused. Maybe the author forbids even ...
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Collaborator asks me to share a paywalled article - how to deny that request?
A collaborator has asked me to share a PDF of a pay-walled article with her. She can't access the article because it's pay-walled (though her institution should be wealthy enough to provide access).
...
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I'm an F1 PhD student, but I'm continuing my PhD remotely. Can I work (legally)?
I'm doing a PhD at a university in the United States. I am in dissertation status. I am continuing the PhD remotely from outside of the US for the foreseeable future. I am not a US citizen, so am on ...
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Where/how can I find out if I can use this paper commercially vs for research purposes only?
I wanted to implement this paper for commercial purposes, but the licence for use is not mentioned at all.
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1902.09104.pdf
Dynamic Feature Fusion for Semantic Edge Detection
Where/...
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I have been asked for names of referees during signing offer letter
I have recently signed an offer letter for a faculty position.This is not a permanent position. One of the required documents in the offer letter was the names of referees. As far as I know my ...
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When under pressure from the industry, how can I protect myself/coauthors?
Our group (western Europe/Switzerland) has submitted a review on a device that generates a lot of money (i.e. multibillion $ industry). Our results speak mildly against the use of said device, ...
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Can I show fragments of research articles in an educational video? [closed]
I'm considering making a public educational video about finding information using search engines like Pubmed. I consider filming the whole process with searching, reading and analyzing the abstract ...
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1
answer
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Copyrights on epigrams in a commercial publication of academic work [closed]
An acquaintance of mine - let's call him Robert - is having a book published based on his academic research. The book targets the general public, and the publication is commercial, albeit with a ...
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I am employed full-time with a part-time PhD. Can I take up an internship and get paid in my home country to bypass limits on number of hours worked? [closed]
I am working as an International research assistant in a public organization in Germany. I am also doing a part-time PhD from a different university, and the topic of the PhD is different. So, I am ...
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