Text and data mining (TDM) policy and licence

BMJ Group understands the value and importance of allowing researchers worldwide to use text and data mining as part of the research process. We have worked with researchers to facilitate TDM projects and as the use of text and data mining grows we recognise the need for a policy and licence.

BMJ Group’s position

Text and data mining (TDM) is the process of using automated tools to analyse large amounts of text and data to find patterns, trends, and other useful information. We recognise the essential role that TDM plays in advancing research worldwide. By enabling researchers to leverage diverse data pools, TDM facilitates the exploration of large-scale research questions and promotes more efficient and insightful studies. This policy sets out what any people or organisations seeking to undertake TDM on our content must do.

Non-open access content: We permit researchers to TDM content from our platforms which they have legal access to for non-commercial research purposes only, and subject to the terms and conditions outlined below. If you do not already have subscription access to the content you want to TDM (and if you do not have legal access via one of our approved document delivery services), then you may need to purchase access to our relevant content beforehand.

Open access content: you are permitted to TDM our open access content provided that you comply with the terms and conditions of the relevant Creative Commons licence applicable to that content. For example, if the content was published under a CC BY-NC licence, you can only TDM that content for non-commercial purposes in accordance with the terms and conditions applicable to that Creative Commons licence.

Licence Agreement (non-open access content)

1 Research purposes. Subject to the terms and conditions outlined herein, you are granted permission to download, extract and index our content which you have lawful access to for TDM purposes connected to your research provided you have legal access to the content. Specifically, you may:

• store electronic copies on your computer or server
• mount, load, integrate and analyse your TDM outputs on your computer or server
• use your TDM outputs as part of your research
• make your TDM outputs available as part of your research on an externally facing website

2 Non-commercial. You must not use our content or your TDM outputs for any commercial purpose without an express licence to do so from us (contact our Rights and Licensing team, https://bmjgroup.com/licensing/ for further information). For example, this means that you must not: 

• licence, sell, rent, lease, transfer, assign, distribute, display, disclose, link-to or otherwise commercially exploit our content or your TDM outputs
• include any of our content or your TDM outputs in other work that is then made available for licence, sale, rent, lease, transfer, assignment, distribution, display, disclosure, or other commercial exploitation
• use our content or your TDM outputs to provide services to anyone else (except for a search service for your institution)
• use our content or your TDM outputs to build a product or service which competes with our content, our websites or our other products or services
• use (or link-to) our content or your TDM outputs for promotional or advertising purposes (whether directly or indirectly) and/or include our content with any other content that incorporates advertising

3 Data sharing. This licence is personal to you. You may not share our content (or any derivatives or copies of it) with anyone else without our permission.

4 You may only store electronic copies of our content which are strictly needed for your TDM research project. You are responsible for ensuring that storage is secure, and taking any relevant technical, physical, or organisational steps to ensure its security.

5 At the end of your research project you are required to delete any copies of our content that you have made.

6 Acknowledging our content. Any outputs of your TDM must include an attribution crediting BMJ Group and the original content in question. This attribution must include the article title, author name(s), and a DOI hyperlink to the original content on our platform.

7 Snippets. Any outputs of your TDM must not include more than 200 characters of our original text.

8 Modifying our content. You must not modify or create derivative versions of our content (except to the extent strictly necessary to perform your TDM on that content).

Conditions of use (all content)

1 Mining for any other purpose. Except as permitted above, you must not conduct, facilitate, authorise or permit any text or data mining or web scraping in relation to our website or publications for any purpose, including but not limited to the development, training, fine-tuning or validation of AI systems or models. This includes using (or permitting, authorising or attempting the use of):

• any “robot”, “bot”, “spider”, “scraper” or other automated device, program, tool, algorithm, code, process or methodology to access, obtain, copy, monitor or republish any portion of our website or publications, or any data, content, information or services accessed via the same
• any automated analytical technique aimed at analysing text and data in digital form to generate information or develop, train, fine-tune or validate AI systems or models which includes but is not limited to patterns, trends, and correlations

The provisions in this clause should be treated as an express reservation of our rights in this regard, including for the purposes of Article 4(3) of the Digital Copyright Directive ((EU) 2019/790). Insofar as, and only to the extent that, we are unable to exclude or limit text or data mining or web scraping activity by contract under the laws which are applicable to us, this clause will not apply.

2 Your use of our platforms (including for TDM) is subject to our Website Terms and Conditions (as updated from time to time and accessible via bmjgroup.com).

3 Compliance with laws. You are responsible for complying at all times with all laws applicable in England and in your country of residence relating to TDM and your use of our content.

Contact us

If you have any questions about this policy, or the process for undertaking TDM, please contact our Rights and Licensing team at https://bmjgroup.com/licensing/.