European Commissioners have recommended the International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers' (STM) TDM Roadmap as an official 'pledge' to help improve digital content licensing across Europe. At the final meeting of the Licences for Europe stakeholder dialogue, a broad spectrum of STM publishers presented their declaration of commitment to facilitate text and data mining for non-commercial scientific research in the European Union. This commitment has now been recognised by the Commission as one of the ten outcome 'pledges' which are expected to bring real practical value to the future of digital content delivery and licensing within Europe.
Thirteen signatories have already committed to the declaration, which grants the necessary copyright licenses to permit TDM of copyright-protected content so that bona-fide researchers at non-commercial institutes are able use TDM to harness its potential to drive discoveries in medical and scientific disciplines. STM issued a variety of sample licenses which publishers can adopt for TDM purposes, and now hopes that the adoption of its TDM roadmap as an official pledge of the Licences for the Europe Initiative will ensure both a sustainable as well as a digital future.
With the increasing digitisation of content across Europe, it is crucial that content licensing be smart, speedy and intuitive. Publishers are dedicated to practical, forward-thinking solutions to digital content management and the outcomes of the Licences for Europe initiative demonstrates the cross-industry desire of publishers to ensure a vibrant digital future across the whole of Europe.
