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Copyright Guide

This guide will help you to find out how copyright affects your study, research and work here at the University of Derby. Please note that information on these pages is for guidance only: it should not be construed as formal legal advice.

Text and Data Mining (TDM) and Copyright

researcher, text and data mining

Researchers can also copy third-party material legally by using the copyright exception: text and data analysis for non-commercial research. The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) describes text and data mining (TDM) as "…the use of automated analytical techniques to analyse text and data for patterns, trends and other useful information." See IPO Exceptions to Copyright: Research

This exception has enormous benefits for researchers because it allows them to find patterns and useful information in works using computational analysis that may not have been found by a human reading the article or database. Content analysed can be works such as audio files, photographs, recordings and transcripts of interviews, social media platforms, websites, books, journals and more.  Researchers can copy whole copyrighted works without seeking copyright permission under the text and data mining exception as long as:

  • The researcher has lawful access to the copied works, such as a library, or a personal subscription to the journal or database. Materials covered under a Creative Commons or under an open licence are also valid.
  • The computational analysis must be for non-commercial research.
  • Sufficient acknowledgement has been provided, where practical.
  • The copy has not been shared, sold, lent or changed, unless authorised by the copyright owner.
  • The copy is only used for TDM purposes unless authorised by the copyright owner.
  • This exception only applies in the UK, so the person copying the works for TDM purposes, must be based in the UK.

This exception cannot be prevented by a contract, for example a publisher's contract preventing the use of text and data mining will be unenforceable. The Intellectual Property Office states that "Publishers and content providers will be able to apply reasonable measures to maintain their network security or stability but these measures should not prevent or unreasonably restrict researcher’s ability to text and data mine."

Sharing copies of works with other researchers for TDM purposes

Often researchers work collaboratively with teams in other research institutions or industry partners to produce research projects. There are a number of limitations when relying on the TDM exception however, for example:

  • Copies of works for TDM purposes cannot be shared with others unless they have lawful access to the work, or the copyright owner has granted permission.
  • The TDM exception only applies in the UK, therefore whilst as a University of Derby researcher you might have access to the sources, you can only benefit from this exception if you are based in the UK.
  • Overseas researchers in collaboration with you may not be able to rely on this exception. Their copyright laws may have a similar exception but their terms may differ.
  • TDM exception is only for non-commercial purposes, if you are collaborating with any industry partners you need to check if the purpose of the TDM activity is non-commercial.

If you are collaborating with another higher education institution in the UK it might be possible to share limited copies for TDM analysis with our Copyright Licensing Agency licence.

Publishing or sharing outcomes from a TDM analysis

The results or outcomes of a TDM analysis can be shared with others and published. The researcher or researcher's institution (depending on circumstances) would normally own the copyright or data rights to the computational analysis. 

If the outcome of the TDM analysis still contains parts of the original copyrighted works, such as extracts from a journal article, images and so on, then copyright still applies to those original works. Researchers can no longer rely on the TDM exception and must either rely on a different exception such as the criticism, review and quotation exception or a licence that allows this use.

Public domain works and TDM

When works enter into the public domain because the copyright protection has expired they can be freely reused for any purpose by anyone. Researchers must make sure that if they are using any public domain materials provided under a contract or licence that they abide by the terms and conditions of the agreement. The exception for TDM will not apply in this circumstance.