Potential use under publisher subscription agreements

Some publishers and databases have already included clauses in their subscription agreements that allow for use of “limited portions” of their content with genAI for the purposes of non-commercial research and academic teaching and learning.

Do not assume that all publishers or databases/platforms will allow for this type of use. Platforms directly provided by publishers are the best options for potential use of materials with genAI. Publishers may also make distinctions between material from ejournals and ebooks. Aggregator platforms like ProQuest, EBSCO, and OVID are unlikely to provide allowances for use with genAI tools as they will generally have limited rights to the materials they host.

To confirm whether (and what) use will be allowed with genAI tools for databases / platforms, please check the information in the records in Library Search, visible via the 'Show License' link. This can usually be found via a journal or article title search - see our User Guide to Publisher Licensing and GenAI (PDF).

Unless otherwise noted, these permissions do not allow for systematic download of the licensed resources, development or training of LLMs/etc., or use with an external party. There will also likely be a requirement to limit any use to being within a local, secure network environment, i.e., the University’s enterprise access to Copilot.

Note that this is an evolving space – we are still waiting to confirm with some publishers / databases whether use of materials with genAI will be allowed with their subscriptions, so users may need to regularly check the licensing information provided in Library Search.

Have a question? Contact the Copyright Advisor