I pointed a professor (my major advisor) to a resource (a data set), in an email exchange during the beginning of the semester, he published a paper based on this data set several months later, however I had no idea he was working on the project. He did not notify or mention to me about using the data set.
The email that I sent to him earlier when I pointed out the resource had no reply back, however it did indicate in his response that he did not know about the existence of this data set.
When I had a brief (15 minute) meeting with him, he denied that the data set was my idea and said that it was his research colleagues who he got the data set from. I must mention that this data set is freely available and open to the public (online).
My questions are: Is this professor's behavior ethical? and Would I be able to bring this as a complaint to a higher person in the department (since I have email evidence that he did not have knowledge of this data set prior to my informing him).
My final question to you all is whether I should stay with this person as a major advisor because I am having trust issues with sharing my ideas. The only problem is that anyone else I might choose as my advisor would result in me completely changing my area of research. Thank you.
Edit: Responding to the commenters, when I met with him in person, I he mentioned a paper which he authored, and when I asked for the citation he refused to give it to me saying, "I'll think about it". While my gut feeling is that I should change advisors, the other people in the department are not involved in my area of interest, and the other person who is conducting research in this field refused to be my advisor. What would you do in this situation?
Edit: Thank you for everyone's responses. Perhaps this was just a misunderstanding on my part.
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