Text and Data Mining
Text and Data Mining (TDM) is the automated analysis of individual or multiple digital or digitized works to extract information, particularly regarding patterns, trends, and correlations.
Through our digital platforms, you can access numerous open-access and licensed collections that are suitable for TDM. Depending on the provider, you should allow for a certain amount of preparation time for each project. Please contact us well in advance if you are planning a TDM project.
FAQs on Text and Data Mining
Is TDM legally permissible?
Yes! TDM is a legally permitted use under Sections 44b and 60d of the German Copyright Act (UrhG)
What are the different types of TDM?
Section 44b of the UrhG applies to commercial research purposes.
Section 60d of the UrhG applies to scientific research purposes.
What rules apply to scientific TDM?
TDM under Section 60d of the UrhG applies to scientific, non-commercial research purposes. In principle, scientific TDM is permitted if the license agreement was concluded before February 28, 2018.
The provider may take technical measures necessary to prevent threats to the security and integrity of its networks and databases.
Each project must be coordinated bilaterally with the provider.
Any costs that may arise must be covered by project funds or other sources. Payment from the library budget is not possible.
Some providers offer an API for data retrieval. Others compile the data themselves according to researchers’ specifications and deliver it digitally, e.g., via FTP.
Non-commercial research only: The use of TDM is permitted exclusively for purely scientific, non-commercial purposes.
Legal access to the material: The data to be analyzed must be accessible via a valid license agreement or as an open-access publication. No TDM project may be initiated without legal access.
No circumvention of copy protection: Technical protection measures must not be circumvented. In exceptional cases, a request to remove copy protection may be submitted, but the request must be approved by the rights holder.
Restrictions on Use: The results or source material may not be disclosed to third parties unless expressly permitted.
Automated bulk downloads via crawlers, scripts, or bots are prohibited. Such downloads may result in access being blocked for the entire institution.
What do I need to keep in mind after completing my project?
Upon completion of the project, the data corpus may, under certain conditions, be made available to a strictly limited group of individuals (§60d(4) UrhG) for collaborative research, as well as to individual third parties for quality review.
What can I do myself to make it easier for other researchers to use my works in the context of TDM projects?
Publish via Open Access—Use Open Access journals or deposit preprints in open repositories so that your content is immediately available for TDM.
Choose a Creative Commons license – Opt for a standardized, machine-readable CC license (e.g.
, CC BY 4.0)
that clearly stipulates that third parties may further process your data for research purposes.
The KIT Library recommends the CC BY or CC BY SA licenses. With this license, authors can continue to exercise all copyright and usage rights freely and without restriction—including the granting of non-exclusive usage rights to third parties. Only non-exclusive usage rights are transferred to a publisher.
The KIT Library recommends the CC BY or CC BY SA licenses. With this license, authors can continue to exercise all copyright and usage rights freely and without restriction—including the granting of non-exclusive usage rights to third parties. Only non-exclusive usage rights are transferred to a publisher.
Provide machine-readable metadata—Add structured metadata (Dublin Core, schema.org) to your publications and provide the license information in a machine-readable format.