Articles

Policy Framework Addressing Legal Impediments to Open Access to Public Funded Research Data in Malaysia

Haswira Nor Mohamad Hashim

Abstract

This study proposed a policy framework addressing legal impediments to open access to public funded in Malaysia. Previous studies have identified legal impediments to open access arising from intellectual property, confidentiality, privacy, national security, patents and tort laws. The legal impediments have not been fully addressed by the existing policies of public research funding agencies and research institutions in Malaysia, hence the need for a policy framework to be proposed. This study analysed and compared various policies on open access to research data currently adopted by civil society, government bodies, research funding agencies and research institutions in Australia, Canada, the EU, the UK and the USA. This comparative analysis identified various measures deemed viable to address the legal impediments to open access to research data. The proposed policy framework is of international standard and can become a benchmark in pursuing the objective of enabling open access to public funded research data among public research funding agencies and research institutions in Malaysia. 

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