Doctoral dissertation on new rules for research data successfully defended

In March 2026, our FIZ colleague Thomas Hartmann (Intellectual Property Rights unit) successfully defended his doctoral dissertation on new rules for research data at Humboldt University in Berlin.

In his dissertation, Thomas Hartmann first analyzes the existing legal framework for research data, with a particular focus on copyright, data protection, and current EU data regulations. He also examines the practical application of these framework conditions in institutional research data management.

The focus of Hartmann’s study is on the question of to what extent new, research-oriented legal standards for the handling of research data can be derived from good scientific practice. The starting point is the German Research Foundation’s code of “Guidelines for Good Scientific Practice,” whose mandatory implementation by fall 2023 has provided a significant impetus for the further development of standards for the handling of research data.

In the subsequent analysis, Thomas Hartmann compares systemic and research-data-specific copyright regulations with the guidelines of good scientific practice. In doing so, he highlights both the potential and strengths as well as the structural limitations of this regulatory framework. Additionally, the study examines existing shortcomings in implementation at academic institutions at the intersection of law and ethics.

The dissertation was supervised by Prof. Dr. jur. Eric W. Steinhauer and Prof. Michael Seadle, PhD; the dissertation committee was chaired by Prof. Dr. Heinz Pampel. The study, titled “New Rules for Research Data,” is scheduled for publication in the series of the Working Group for Legal Library and Documentation Services (AjBD).

We are very proud of our colleague Thomas Hartmann and congratulate him warmly on this important milestone!