Principal investigator requests transfer of GitHub repository with my code to his account I am a senior postdoc and have recently published a bioinformatics algorithm in an academic journal. For that publication, I was listed as the first author of the manuscript, and my principal investigator (PI)/supervisor as the senior author. Both of us were listed as corresponding authors.

As a follow-up we decided to submit an application note pertaining to that algorithm. Once again, the same authorship (and corresponding authors) was maintained. Additionally, the algorithm had been developed into a webserver that was placed on the PI's lab website.

The PI asked me to put the algorithm on Github. Accordingly, I created a repository on my personal account and later added the PI as a collaborator. I am a Github novice user but my understanding is that this would be sufficient to push/pull the repository and generally make modifications to it.

However I was very surprised that my PI specifically requested a Transfer of Ownership of the repository from my account to his account. The other solution is to fork the repository onto his account, but the PI doesn't like this solution on the basis that it makes it harder for him/her to maintain a copy in their lab.

So the questions:


Is the request to transfer ownership a fair request? My rationale is that since I created the code, the repository should be on my personal account! And since the algorithm is broadcasted on the lab website and the PI is the senior author, then he/she has been properly acknowledged and their ownership of the algorithm is also properly represented!
How will transfer of ownership affect my future career prospects and search for Assistant Professor jobs, especially as my field (bioinformatics) is heavily dependent on coding and algorithm development?
What other GitHub alternatives are there (besides forking and transfer
of ownership), which would still allow me to keep ownership of the
repository and have any changes directly synchronised to a copy on the lab account?
The PI asked me to put the algorithm on Github. Accordingly, I created a repository on my personal account and later added the PI as a collaborator. I am a Github novice user but my understanding is that this would be sufficient to push/pull the repository and generally make modifications to it.


It is. The problem is that a personal account is, well, personal, and not overly suited for professional activities, such as research projects. To this end, GitHub uses the notion of "organizations", which can also own repositories. AFAIK there is very little practical difference between having a repo owned by a personal account and an organization, only that having it under your personal account gives the impression that this is a project of yours (as opposed to a project of your lab).


  However I was very surprised that my PI specifically requested a Transfer of Ownership of the repository from my account to his account. 


From your personal account to his would be a little weird. From your account to an organization with the name of your lab sounds like entirely fair game to me if for no other reason than to maintain the "corporate identity" of your lab.


  The other solution is to fork the repository onto his account, but the PI doesn't like this solution on the basis that it makes it harder for him/her to maintain a copy in their lab.


Well, if you end up having to maintain both forks your PI is correct. Forking is easy, but keeping two forks up-to-date is unnecessarily cumbersome.


  Is the request to Transfer Ownership a fair request? My rationale is that since I created the code, it the repository should be on my personal account!


... and since you likely created it on grant money of the lab, having it under the account of the lab is at least equally fair.


  How will transfer of ownership affect my future career prospects and search for Assistant Professor jobs, especially as my field (bioinformatics) is heavily dependent on coding and algorithm development?


If bioinformatics isn't completely unlike any other computer science field, then very little people in a hiring committee will care about code in the first place, and nobody will care about whether the repo that contains the code is yours, or the one of your lab, or even the one of your PI where you committed a lot to.


  What other Github alternatives are there (besides forking and transfer of ownership), which would still allow me to keep ownership of the repository and have any changes directly synced to a copy on the lab account?


You can set up a Git repo with two origins, and you always push each change to both origins. However, that seems somewhat cumbersome for rather questionable gains.