Confidentiality of dissertation or thesis
When writing a report, thesis or dissertation involving information of a confidential nature
As part of your research project, you may have access to sensitive or confidential information that must be protected. The approach differs depending on whether the information is:
- private or personal information, or involves human subjects;
- industrial or commercial information.
Private or personal information, or participation of human subjects
If your project is likely to involve human subjects or information that could identify individuals, you must submit your project to the ÉTS Research Ethics Committee for approval.
If you are unsure whether your project falls into this category, we invite you to first consult the following sources (and discuss with your supervisor):
- Appendix A of the ÉTS Research Ethics Policy (in French);
Chapter 5 of the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans;
If you still have questions, contact the Research Ethics Board.
Industrial or commercial information
If your project is part of an existing research contract between ÉTS (i.e., your supervisor) and the industrial partner, you must ensure that you comply with the confidentiality clause in the contract. Consult your supervisor, who is responsible for providing you with information about such contracts.
If your project is not linked to any research contract between ÉTS and the industrial partner), it is likely that the industrial partner will expect certain guarantees regarding the risk of disclosure of sensitive information. To this end, inform the partner of the following terms and conditions:
- The partner must explicitly inform you of the type of information he considers sensitive.
- You must commit to avoiding, as much as possible, including any sensitive information in your written report or in your discussions or correspondence with your research supervisor.
- You must submit your written report (including preliminary versions) and any substantial (non-trivial) correspondence with your research supervisor to the partner for prior approval.
- In the likely event that the report, dissertation, or thesis must be treated as confidential, write CONFIDENTIAL in the upper right corner of the title page of any version of your manuscript.
- The final report, thesis, or dissertation, as approved by the partner, will be evaluated by a jury composed of ÉTS professors and possibly external individuals. If the document is considered confidential, all of these individuals must agree to confidentiality before being given access to the report, thesis, or dissertation.
In the unlikely event that your project involves sensitive or confidential information from an external partner, but it is not carried out within the company (for example, a project involving an external partner's prototype, but carried out at ÉTS or elsewhere) and there is no research contract between ÉTS and the industrial partner, you may have to sign a confidentiality agreement (or NDA) directly with the partner. In such a case, you must be cautious because such an agreement will only bind you and the partner, i.e., the ÉTS will not be a party to such an agreement. In such a case, which is not recommended, please pay a special attention to the following points:
- The confidentiality agreement should be for as short a period as possible (ideally one year maximum).
- There should be no non-compete clause (which would limit your ability to do an internship or work for a competitor) and, if such a clause seems reasonable in the context, its duration should also be as short as possible.
- The scope of the confidentiality (non-disclosure) commitment must be clearly defined, with clauses such as the following:
"The agreement shall become null and void if any of the following situations arise:
The confidential information brought to the attention of the signatory was in the public domain prior to the signing of this agreement or will become part of the public domain during the project by means other than disclosure by the signatory.
The confidential information was known to a third party, not subject to confidentiality prior to the signing of this agreement, without this third party having obtained it from the signatory.
Knowledge of the same nature has been developed by a third party in a completely independent manner."
- You must agree with the industrial partner on whether the final report, dissertation, or thesis (for evaluation) is confidential or not.
- In the likely event that the report, dissertation, or thesis must be treated as confidential, write CONFIDENTIAL in the upper right corner of the title page of your manuscript (you will be reminded of this when submitting your work for evaluation on the MonDépôtETS platform).
- You must inform your research supervisor whether the final report, thesis, or dissertation is confidential or not.
Finally, in all cases, when the report, thesis, or dissertation must be treated as confidential, it is important to write “CONFIDENTIAL” in the upper right corner of the title page of the manuscript, both for preliminary versions and for the final version for evaluation.
At the time of submission of a dissertation or thesis
- If the project is subject to limited disclosure (retention of the publication by the ETS library) pursuant to a contract, the professor and the student must comply with the publication clause contained in the contract.
- If the project is not subject to limited disclosure pursuant to a contract, and if the student or professor requests a retention of the publication (for instance, in order to file a patent), he/she can ask for a year (renewable), according to Section 27 of the Politique et règles en matière de propriété intellectuelle (Policy and rules respecting intellectual property).
Defense of theses and dissertations
For the student, the defense is an important moment that deserves to be shared with the community. Moreover, university research has an eminently public character since it is mostly financed by public funds, it is based on available previous results and the advancement of knowledge depends largely on their accessibility. When a project has confidential material, it is usually possible to make a public presentation with the sensitive material removed. Students and faculty are strongly encouraged to take such steps to promote a public defense of confidential theses and dissertations.
Reminder for students
Unless they are salaried employees for the project, students retain the copyright on their work, in conciliation with those of ÉTS and the professors.
Excerpts from the ÉTS Politique et règles en matière de propriété intellectuelle (Policy and rules respecting intellectual property)
Works carried out in whole or in part by students
19. Students retain the copyright on their academic work, but this right must be reconciled with those of ÉTS (specifically rights pertaining to inventions, patents and software) and the professors-researchers who employ them or the Research Directors who engage students in association with their work. These rights specifically deal with the use and, if applicable, the confidentiality of the content of a report, dissertation or thesis.
Student's work
20. ÉTS cannot sign a confidentiality agreement with an external partner that contravenes a student’s right to submit a report, dissertation or thesis for the purpose of evaluation or completing a degree.
21. Subject to the provisions of Sections 19, 24 and 25, students retain the copyright on their study work, reports, dissertations and theses that are completed within the specific context of their academic program. This right is even enforceable against the Research Director, unless a prior written agreement has been signed in consideration of specific circumstances related to the writing of the report, dissertation or thesis.
22. Notwithstanding Section 21, ÉTS retains physical ownership of the study work, reports, dissertations and theses that are completed within the specific context of its academic programs for the purposes of academic evaluation and for conservation or disposal in accordance with ÉTS’ rules governing the conservation of documents.
23. If the specific conditions associated with a research project are conducive to the writing of a report, dissertation or thesis, the Research Director must inform the student to this effect in advance, and of the rights of all parties involved with respect to the use of the results of the project.
24. Pursuant to Section 16, academic works produced by a student, either individually or as part of a group, while taking part in the activities of a research project conducted by a researcher, are the property of ÉTS, unless specific circumstances dictate otherwise. However, in such a case, a student may be included in the sharing of economic spin-offs associated with the intellectual property related to the work, in accordance with that student’s contribution to the creation of the work.
25. A student’s copyright on work that is completed within the context of a research activity that is carried out as a team or conducted by a Report/Dissertation Director or Thesis Director does not automatically extend to the entirety of the results that the student is associated with, and cannot deprive the other members of the team or the Director, supervisor or advisor of the rights resulting form their respective contributions to the activity. Consequently, inasmuch as a student’s contribution to the activity is acknowledged, that student’s fragmentary copyright associated with the activity cannot be used as a basis for preventing a director, supervisor, research advisor or any other member of the team from using the ideas, compilations or other data arising from the activity for the purpose of publishing a scientific article.
26. All students who are associated with a research project for which the Director is carrying out the work on behalf of external organizations pursuant to a contract or otherwise must sign a declaration at the beginning of their work on the project whereby they undertake to respect the contractual obligations binding ÉTS and the individual who is responsible for the project with respect to the external organizations, especially in matters pertaining to confidentiality and intellectual property. A model declaration is included in Appendix I.
Short-term confidentiality of a report, dissertation or thesis at the request of the student
27. The author of a report, dissertation or thesis that has been submitted to the Décanat des études (Dean of studies office) for evaluation may request that distribution be delayed for one year, renewable for a second year.
28. This delay in distribution applies even if the Research Director played an active role in the completion of the student’s research project, and even if the student wrote the report, dissertation or thesis in connection with the Research Director’s research project, unless an agreement to the contrary is signed between the student, the Research Director and the Décanat des études.
29. Notwithstanding Sections 19 to 26, a student must accept that elements of expertise that must be kept confidential will still be accessible to the evaluators, subject to their commitment to preserve the confidentiality.
30. If the report, dissertation or thesis in question contains research results that touch upon industrial secrets that are likely to be affected by the disclosure of the results, the confidentiality must be limited to those elements that are associated with the industrial secrets and legitimate concerns in terms of protecting them, and not the entirety of the research results.