Introduction
With rapid developments in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), many have questions about how AI will affect copyright law or use restrictions, and users may have concerns about how they can use scientific abstracts and full-text articles in Nested Knowledge’s systematic review software.
While Nested Knowledge cannot provide legal advice regarding copyright status or use restrictions for any abstract, article, or database output, Nested Knowledge has drafted a conceptual framework for users to consider when determining the uses that are appropriate for them. This framework may assist users and their legal counsel with understanding when Nested Knowledge’s (or other) systematic review tools should or should not be used.
This webpage is provided for informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice on any matter. It is the user’s responsibility to determine and adhere to any applicable copyright or other use restrictions when using materials imported into Nested Knowledge’s website. Users should work with legal counsel to determine the appropriate access to and use of each abstract or article, which may be affected by various factors for each user.
Furthermore, note that users should not share full texts to collaborators who are not covered by the same subscription unless such sharing is allowed for a given full text by the publisher or journal.
Users should generally consider three related questions below before importing materials into Nested Knowledge’s website.
- Copyright & other Applicable Law: Is the desired use of the materials allowed under applicable law, including copyright law?
- Users will want to determine the applicable law for the desired use of the materials, including any applicable copyright restrictions for the materials. Users will want to consider whether the materials are in the public domain, are “open access,” and/or made available under a Creative Commons or similar license, as well as whether the materials are subject to traditional copyright restrictions in the USA, UK, EU, and/or other jurisdictions (regardless of access).
- When American copyright law applies, users will often additionally want to consider if their desired use is a fair use under American copyright law.
- Contractual Restrictions: Moreover, users should be aware that even if they determine their desired use is appropriate under applicable copyright law, some uses may still be limited contractually. Is the desired use of the materials permitted under the terms and conditions of (or agreement with) the journal, database, and/or website from which the user accessed the materials?
- Users will want to carefully review and consider any applicable terms and conditions, including those of the website or database used to access articles, any institutional subscriptions or agreements for databases or journals accessed via their institutions, and any terms and conditions for individual journals.
- It is the user’s responsibility to determine if the applicable terms and conditions or subscription agreement permit or restrict the desired use of the materials and to ensure any use is appropriate. For example, before importing full text articles, users will want to consider whether doing so is permitted and whether they are permitted to share full text articles with collaborators.
- Restrictions on Use of AI: If the user would like to utilize AI technologies with the materials, is the desired use allowed under the terms and conditions of the journal, database, and/or website from which the user accesses the materials?
- Some factors users will often want to carefully consider include the type of data to be used with an AI tool, the function of the AI tool, and if the AI will be trained on the data.
- It is the user’s responsibility to determine if the applicable terms and conditions or subscription agreement restrict the use of AI technologies on the materials and to ensure no AI tool is utilized if such use is restricted. For example, if an agreement restricts the use of AI technologies with a full text article, it is the user’s responsibility to ensure Nested Knowledge’s AI tools are not utilized on the full text article. To aide users in ensuring their use is appropriate, all of Nested Knowledge’s AI tools are optional and can be manually disabled and/or enabled before any restricted materials are imported.
All of Nested Knowledge’s AI tools, which are optional and can be manually disabled and/or enabled, are briefly summarized below. To learn about how each of these tools work in more detail, please visit our Disclosure of AI Systems.
Nested Knowledge AI Tools
| Feature | Function | Applicable Text | Uses AI | AI Model | Generates Text | Trains AI | Manual Opt-in | Optional Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Smart Search | Builds Boolean Search strings based on users’ Research Questions | None (only user’s Research Question) | Yes | Multi-model approach (proprietary ML and GPT) | Yes (Boolean strings) | No | Yes | User must enter Research Question for Literature Search |
| RoboPICO | Extracts/highlights PICOs in Search Exploration and Abstract views | Abstracts | Yes | NLP algorithm (Robot Reviewer fork) | No | No | Yes | Off by default, can be toggled per nest |
| Robot Screener | Provides inclusion probability score for screening assistance | Titles, Abstracts, metadata | Yes | Proprietary validated ML model | No | Yes (within nest only) | Yes | Must be trained in Settings |
| Bibliomine | Citation mining from PDFs of reviews/studies | Full Text PDF | Yes | Cermine (open source ML library) | No | No | Yes | Available via Bibliomine Tab |
| Core Smart Tags | Extracts PICOs, Study Size, Location, and Type | Title, Abstract, metadata | Yes | Multi-model approach (proprietary ML and GPT) | Yes (hierarchy only) | No | Yes | Must be enabled in Tagging Configuration |
| Adaptive Smart Tags | Searches texts for relevant evidence based on tag details | Abstracts and Full Text | Yes | OpenAI’s GPT-4 | No | No | Yes | Must enable Smart Tag and Abstract Tag Recommendations |
Nested Knowledge also provides some links to external resources that users may find helpful in answering the key questions above:
Should CC-Licensed Content be Used to Train AI? It Depends by Brigitte Vézina and Sarah Hinchliff Pearson
All TDM & AI Rights Reserved? Fair Use & Evolving Publisher Copyright Statements, an interview of Kyle K. Courtney, Director of Copyright and Information Policy for Harvard Library by SPARC, to address key questions for the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition
ISSUE BRIEF: Text and Data Mining and Fair Use in the United States, Prepared by Krista L. Cox, director of public policy initiatives of the Association of Research Libraries on June 5, 2015.
Copyright and the Progress of Science: Why Text and Data Mining is Lawful, ARTICLE on Text and Data Mining from 2019: by Michael W. Carroll, American University Washington College of Law.
Copyright Implications of the Relationship between Generative Artificial Intelligence and Text and Data Mining, by Jonathan Band, Oct. 27th, 2023.
