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

An international survey of researchers doing text- and datamining 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 anti-hacking. Consequences of facing this range of obstacles include changing research design, delaying research, abandoning research, and failure to collaborate across jurisdictional borders. The right to conduct research should be asserted in designing relevant legal policies.

Patricia Aufderheide, Brandon Butler, and Kimberly Anastacio, The Chilling Effects of Obstacles to Accessing, Using, and Sharing In-copyright Data for Quantitative Research, 59 Information & Culture 1 (2023).

This is a pre-copyedited version of an article accepted for publication in Information & Culture following peer review. The definitive publisher-authenticated version is available through the University of Texas Press.