Handke, Guibault, and Vallbe (2015)
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Source Details
Handke, Guibault, and Vallbe (2015) | |
Title: | Is Europe Falling Behind in Data Mining? Copyright's Impact on Data Mining in Academic Research |
Author(s): | Handke, C., Guibault, L., Vallbe, J. |
Year: | 2015 |
Citation: | Handke, C., Guibault, L. and Vallbé, J. Is Europe Falling Behind in Data Mining? Copyright's Impact on Data Mining in Academic Research. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2608513 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2608513 |
Link(s): | Open Access |
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About the Data | |
Data Description: | The research concerns an analysis of bibliometric data (obtained from Thomson Reuter’s Web of Science) from 42 large economies, including the 15 largest EU Member States. The data gathered spans the years 1992-2014. In this scenario, the output of research which requires data-mining, and total researcher output are the dependent variables, and the copyright law practices in each jurisdiction and the independent variables. GDP per capita, country population size, and the level of rule of law were used as control variables. |
Data Type: | Primary data |
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Cross Country Study?: | Yes |
Comparative Study?: | Yes |
Literature review?: | No |
Government or policy study?: | No |
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Abstract
“This empirical paper discusses how copyright affects data mining (DM) by academic researchers. Based on bibliometric data, we show that where DM for academic research requires the express consent of rights holders: (1) DM makes up a significantly lower share of total research output; and (2) stronger rule-of-law is associated with less DM research. To our knowledge, this is the first time that an empirical study bears out a significant negative association between copyright protection and innovation.”
Main Results of the Study
Data-mining based articles are more common in countries with where data-mining is “probably allowed” under copyright law, suggesting a more permissive jurisdiction is more likely to have more data-mining based research. Furthermore, countries with high data-mining article outputs also tend to have larger total research output. Countries in which data-mining is most likely not allowed, or definitely not allowed, have a lower output of data-mining based articles. Similarly, countries with stronger adherence to the rule of law have less data-mining based research outputs. As this leads to stronger enforcement the authors note that this, combined with copyright legislation which does not clearly permit data-mining, reduces overall data-mining outputs.As EU/EEA Member states have less permissive copyright laws regarding data-mining usage, the authors suggest that there is overall weaker performance from these states comparatively. This may lead data-mining practitioners to base their activities in other jurisdictions, so that they have reassurance of the legality of their activities.
Policy Implications as Stated By Author
The authors suggest that the benefits in generating information goods through legalising data-mining outweigh the potential cons (such as private firms’ loss of exclusive control over valuable data). As such, copyright exceptions in the EU should be tailored to enable data-mining, as this appears to benefit research output overall.
Coverage of Study
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