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AI at Auraria Library

Text & Data Mining (TDM) Purpose

Text and data mining (TDM) is process of extracting or downloading large amounts of data or text to do analysis that could help with new insights.

Examples projects might download or extract:

  • multiple years of one or more journals to search for specific terms or concepts
  • thousands of social media posts to analyze word use

Examples of TDM projects compiled by Boston College Libraries

AI, TDM, and Legal Issues

Text and data mining (TDM) in an academic research context is widely recognized among copyright experts as a fair use.

Computational research like TDM often employs the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to perform the analysis. However, there is a growing trend of publishers of scholarly content attempting to contractually limit or even prohibit the use of AI and/or TDM in their resources. 

The library typically will attempt to remove any such language from our agreements with vendors, but we are not always successful given the lack of leverage libraries have against library vendor monopolies.  

This means that:

  • many library vendors are able to use these licensing agreements to supersede the existing protections for educational use like TDM in copyright law
  • this makes it necessary for scholars to check the permissions for each resource before doing TDM analysis on the content

Technical considerations that make it difficult to exercise TDM rights

  • publishers have a back-end view of the usage
  • sometimes they incorrectly identify legitimate TDM activity as malware activity
  • they can turn off access for anything they deem "suspicious"
     
It is best to alert a vendor when you are preparing to do TDM so that access is not shut off. To inquire about TDM permissions, or to notify a vendor of planned TDM activity, contact the Licensing & Acquisitions Manager, Molly Rainard (molly.rainard@ucdenver.edu). 

 

Resources about TDM and legal issues
 

AI Permissions For TDM In Our Library Resources

Text and data mining (TDM) is generally recognized as fair use within academic research. 


TDM commonly uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to perform analysis, but recently publishers have started limiting use of TDM in their contracts with libraries and universities.

Below is a table of popular library resources and the TDM permissions status from our vendors. 

Resource Vendor TDM Permissions
Academic Search Premier EBSCO Unknown, not prohibited
ACS Publications American Chemical Society Prohibited
APA PsycInfo / PsycArticles / PsycTests ProQuest Allowed
Checkpoint Edge Thompson Reuters Allowed subject to GenAI T&C (see below)
 
Gale OneFile Gale Cengage Unknown, not prohibited
IEEE Electronic Library IEEE Allowed
IET Journal Archive (1872-2012) IEEE Allowed
JSTOR Ithaka Allowed on specialized platform (see below)
Nature Journals Springer Nature Prohibited
OVID Medline / AMED Wolters Kluwer Prohibited
Oxford Journals Oxford University Press Allowed; delete after use.
Sage Journals / eBooks Sage Allowed
ScienceDirect Elsevier Allowed
SciFinder ACS Prohibited
T&F Journals / eBooks Taylor & Francis Requires vendor permission
Web of Science ProQuest/Clarivate Prohibited
WestLaw Next / Campus Research Thompson Reuters Allowed subject to GenAI T&C (see below)
Wiley Online Library Wiley Requires use of proprietary API service
For any resources not listed here, please contact Molly Rainard, the Licensing & Acquisitions Manager, at molly.rainard@ucdenver.edu for additional information.

Vendor TDM Terms and Conditions