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I have to conduct some interviews for my PhD with people from industry. I need them to review my proposed method in order to validate it. However, I might need to send my work to those who I cannot conduct the interviews with them face to face. So how can I ensure the copyrights of my work? I am going to publish the method and the results right after I finish the interviews but how can I ensure that my work is not going to be used or sent to others before I publish it.

user58840
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    This is not a question of copyright but of intellectual property, such as addressed by patents and similar. – Wrzlprmft Oct 03 '16 at 15:12
  • @Wrzlprmft Well it's a question of copyright too. Copyright is what prevents the others from taking OP's written work and just redistributing as is. Patents is what could prevent them from taking OP's precise implementation of some process (or similar) and redo it. As far as I know, no one can own mere ideas, though. –  Oct 03 '16 at 15:14
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    @NajibIdrissi: Copyright is what prevents the others from taking OP's work and just redistributing as is. – Not exactly; copyright is about dissemination and publishing. That would go some steps further than what the OP is worried about. – Wrzlprmft Oct 03 '16 at 15:19
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    You (sometimes your institution or employer) own the copyright of your work unless you sell or give it to someone else. What you need here is not copyright but a non-disclosure agreement. Check with your institution's legal or IP office for standard NDA contracts. – Cape Code Oct 03 '16 at 15:22
  • @Wrzlprmft Maybe this is my non-native-English-speaker showing, but is there a meaningful difference between "redistributing" and "disseminating and publishing"? I wasn't writing a precise legal comment, obviously... how can I ensure that my work is not going to be [...] sent to others That's copyright for you! Why do you think you don't have the right to send a purchased ebook to all your friends? Copyright. –  Oct 03 '16 at 15:23
  • @NajibIdrissi That's copyright for you Nope. – Cape Code Oct 03 '16 at 15:31
  • @NajibIdrissi: is there a meaningful difference between "redistributing" and "disseminating and publishing"? – Redistributing is broader and includes handing a single physical copy around (without actually copying it). Also, copying in small numbers for private purposes and similar is typically not covered by copyright (although it somewhat falls in the domain). – Wrzlprmft Oct 03 '16 at 15:32
  • @Wrzlprmft So in fact what OP wants goes further than copyright, yes? From what you had written I had understood that you were trying to say that OP wanted something less than copyright (cf. your second comment). Did I misunderstand something? –  Oct 03 '16 at 15:36
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    @NajibIdrissi: So in fact what OP wants goes further than copyright, yes? – Depends on your point of view, e.g. (very roughly), whether you put more value to ideas or concrete works. What the OP is worried about is only partially covered by copyright. In particular, in the most likely scenarios, copyright is not relevant at all. – Wrzlprmft Oct 03 '16 at 15:44
  • @Wrzlprmft Well yes, that's why my initial comment also mentioned patents and the fact that one cannot own ideas... Are we talking in circles? –  Oct 03 '16 at 15:52
  • Related: http://academia.stackexchange.com/q/23874/10643 – Cape Code Oct 03 '16 at 15:56
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    @NajibIdrissi: Are we talking in circles? – I do not see how. Copyright is still only marginally relevant to this question and when the OP uses the word copyright, they are almost certainly wanting to talk about something else. – Wrzlprmft Oct 03 '16 at 15:58
  • Publish a preprint beforehand. – user2768 Oct 03 '16 at 16:32
  • @user2768 do you mean publishing the method alone( without results and analysis) before conducting the interviews? and if I did that, can I still publish in a journal? – user58840 Oct 03 '16 at 19:10
  • @user58840, I don't know what you have, so I wasn't advocating any particular publishing strategy. But you can publish a preprint (e.g., a technical report) before revealing any material. And this doesn't preclude publishing in a journal. (Personally, I wouldn't concern myself with peers stealing my work and I disclose my work without any protection mechanisms in place.) – user2768 Oct 05 '16 at 05:17

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Short answer: You can't.

Firstly: Copyright extends to your text and figures, and slight modifications thereof. If someone submits that to a journal, you will have all the proof you need to sue him, because you can show the raw data, plus a halfdozen witnesses that saw you write it. Nobody in his right mind would even try.

If they steal your ideas: Tough luck. How will you prove they got them from you? If they're working in the same field, it's not unreasonable they've come to the same conclusions.

Anyway, companies are usually not interested in publishing, except to keep some other company from patenting, or for marketing reasons, in which case they'd rather have your name on the paper than their own.

Karl
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