Re: Using databases for data mining research

[Matthew Cockerill <matt@biomedcentral.com>]

Well, open access vendors generally explicitly allow it and 
actively encourage it. Tthat's a key benefit of full open access 
under a creative commons license - you don't have to ask for 
permission, it is explicitly granted.

e.g. see
http://www.biomedcentral.com/info/about/datamining

As for non-open access vendors - you're really at their mercy. 
> From what I hear, some are reasonably willing (as long as you 
agree to abide by their rules - typically no-commercial use and 
no redistribution), some less so.

Matt

On 4 Aug 2006, at 18:29, Sloan, Bernie wrote:

> I was recently contacted by an academic researcher who would like
> to make use of electronic resources for data and/or text mining
> research. It would involve downloading large quantities of the
> vendor's data. I am not sure if they have a specific resource in
> mind yet and it's not yet clear to me what the research entails
> (the researcher contacted me right before leaving on vacation).
>
> The researcher is unsure of how to approach a vendor with a
> proposal like this, and asked me for advice. I know UC-Irvine
> recently announced the results of a text mining project they did
> using data from the New York Times. How common is something of
> this nature, and do vendors generally comply with such requests?
>
> Thanks!
>
> Bernie Sloan