The Chilling Effects of Obstacles to Accessing, Using, and Sharing In-Copyright Data for Quantitative Research

An international survey of researchers doing text and data mining research, followed by in-depth interviews, shows a range of obstacles. Researchers experience challenges in access, use, sharing of data, and storage. The sources of the problems are high prices for proprietary data, terms of use that inhibit research, and legal policies including copyright, privacy, and antihacking. Consequences of facing this range of obstacles include changing research design, delaying research, abandoning research, and failing to collaborate across jurisdictional borders. The right to conduct research should be asserted in designing relevant legal policies.