|
Section 3: MAKING THE RIGHT START
Step Twelve: What else could I do in advance? Support information, payment schedules and ownership.
Once the decision has been taken there are a number of issues that should be discussed and negotiated with the research supplier.
Agree the payment schedule in advance. The LARIA & LGMB Guidelines for Commissioning Research recommends that payments are linked to identifiable stages. For example, fees could be paid in three instalments linked to specific milestones:
> upfront payment (33%) – on exchange of contracts
> interim payment (33%) – on production of interim report
> final payment (34%) – on completion
Health Warning: Upfront payments should be upfront as researchers, particularly freelance researchers, will already have invested time and money in the tender and interview process, and will start investing more immediately the project begins.
Clarify issues around intellectual property in advance. Who will own the methods, ideas and data when the project is completed? The RESPECT Code of Practice for Socio-Economic Research states that "[i]n principle, authorship is reserved for those researchers who have made a significant intellectual contribution to a research project, the writing of a research report or another scholarly piece of work." So the intellectual copyright of the author(s) should be acknowledged in the final research report. There needs to be agreement on the intellectual property rights of the research outputs such as data files, interview tapes and transcriptions of interviews.
Supporting information can be really useful in providing your researchers with background, contextual and strategic information. If you can, source this and provide it in advance so your researchers are fully briefed at the start of the project.
Health Warning: Filter the information to ensure that you provide your researchers with relevant information.
[ Previous Page | Next Page ]
[ Index ]
|
Home
