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Cambridge Libraries

 

Text & data mining

Text & data mining (TDM) is a process by which large amounts of information can be analysed electronically, allowing researchers to work through more research content than would ever be possible manually.   Please see our LibGuide on TDM for guidance on the law enabling TDM in the UK

Note that there are some publishers that place technical protection measures (TPM) on their websites which means that TDM performed on their websites will result in a suspension of access while the publisher blocks the IP ranges of the University either partially or totally.  The University Library will be notified when this suspension takes place, investigate it, and resolve as soon as possible to restore access for the University.  

Publishers not explicitly permitting TDM or requesting contact before TDM is performed

The following publishers explicitly request that practitioners of TDM make contact with the publisher to request white-listing of their IP before performing TDM on their content, or other arrangements to be put in place such as agreement over a time-frame for the TDM to take place and access not to be suspended.  

American Chemical Society - contact acs_pubs_assist@acs.org to request text mining permissions and guidance on ACS content.  Please read ACS' guidance here:

"ACS provides for TDM on a project by project basis, and instead of allowing for TDM on our platform, we actively deliver the desired content for each specific research project. With that said, Principal Investigators should contact ACS to coordinate the delivery of the content for their project. ACS uses this process to avoid disruptions or possible technical difficulties to our platform."

The following publishers either explicitly prohibit TDM on their content or do not explicitly allow it in their licence agreements with the University.

American Association of Cancer Research

American Institute of Physics

American Society of Mechanical Engineers

Business Source Complete

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

PsycARTICLES

SPIE Digital Library

Please send any enquiries on text & data mining to ejournals@lib.cam.ac.uk.