Are you a U.S.-based researcher who has done or wanted to do a computational text analysis (or “text data mining” / TDM) project on materials held in countries outside the U.S.? Have you ever collaborated with a colleague outside of the U.S. on a TDM project? Or conducted TDM on content created by people living outside the U.S.?

You may be eligible for up to $800 to tell us about your research as part of a UC Berkeley Library and Internet Archive, NEH-funded Advancement Grant project: Legal Literacies for Text Data Mining, Cross-Border (LLTDM-X). 

About LLTDM-X
Our project team has previously created guidance around copyright, licensing, privacy, and ethical issues for U.S. TDM researchers working with data in the U.S. But these legal and ethical issues necessarily become more complex when:

• the materials you want to mine are housed in a foreign jurisdiction / are subject to foreign licensing or law,
• the human subjects you are studying or who created the content you are studying reside in another country, or
• the colleagues with whom you’re collaborating are abroad, and you are not sure whose law applies or what’s allowed.

We now want to help you text data mine corpora that are held or created beyond the U.S. border or that you access via foreign license agreements. We also want to help you collaborate with colleagues around the world on cross-border TDM projects.

You can help us help you, by sharing your experiences in a virtual roundtable discussion if you’ve ever done, or tried to do, any of the above. What law, policy, privacy, or ethics problems popped up, and what questions did you face or do you anticipate facing?

Eligibility & Application
The LLTDM-X team seeks to compensate 10 additional U.S.-based (living or working in U.S.) humanities and social sciences researchers with up to $800 stipends for discussing the legal and ethical issues they face or will face when conducting their cross-border TDM research.

Not sure if your TDM research counts as “cross-border”? We created this brief explanatory video to help you.
https://youtu.be/Y-dF9x-y8ow

If after watching the video, you think we’re describing your research and you want to participate in the LLTDM-X roundtable, please submit an application no later than 5 p.m. PST November 4, 2022.

We will evaluate your application using the criteria described below. We will notify applicants in December 2022 about the results of the selection process.

Selection Criteria
The project team believes that the project will work best when it reflects the race and gender demographics of the broader population, and not just those of higher education–and will strive to achieve equity by reflecting these more representative demographics.

Additionally, we will work to develop a researcher participation group that is representative of different institution types, research advising and support experience, professional roles, levels of experience with digital humanities text data mining research career stages, and disciplinary perspectives.

Our selection process will prioritize the following criteria:

• Digital humanities researcher or professional
• Experience working with at least one cross-border digital humanities text data mining project
• Articulated interest in the relationship between text data mining and the law
• Articulated reason for participating in the roundtable
• Demonstrated commitment to diversity and equity

Participation

If we grant your application to participate, you would be expected to participate in approximately 6-8 hours of work comprised of:

• Preparation for Roundtable  (~3 hours): Researchers will each write up a 2-page description of their TDM research, and cross-border law and policy challenges they have faced or that they expect will affect or impede them. The description will be due in February 2023.
• Participation in Roundtable (~3 hours): Researchers will share and explain their experiences in the first half of the virtual Roundtable. In the second half, legal and ethical experts will interact with researchers, and ask you questions in order to inform the experts’ law and policy analysis.The roundtable will be held in February or March 2023.

Questions
If you have any questions not answered above or in our brief explanatory video, contact [log in to unmask].

We look forward to receiving your application by 5 p.m. PST on November 4, 2022.


Stacy Reardon (she/her)
Literatures and Digital Humanities Librarian