Inventory Reuse Permissions for a PMC Text Collection

Work from the intended use

Describe what the project will do with each article. Reading a paper, extracting aggregate facts, running a text-mining pipeline, and distributing copies create different practical requirements. For a corpus build, record the source identifier, retrieval route, license statement, date checked, and planned downstream distribution.

PMC describes an Open Access Subset with articles available under varying terms. Open each article's rights statement and check the relevant material. A figure credited to another source can carry a separate notice. Preserve the license link and any item-specific exceptions in the manifest. Keep full-text availability as a separate field from the recorded permission for a particular use.

Partition a hypothetical release

A team reviews 24 candidate articles. Its documented license criteria permit the planned redistribution for 15. Six have terms requiring further review and three lack sufficient evidence for the proposed use. The release manifest contains 15 articles, while the decision register retains all 24 candidates. The nine unresolved or excluded records can still carry bibliographic information and a reason for their disposition.

Before sharing the corpus, recalculate the release count from the permissions field. Inspect a file from each license group and ensure that the associated attribution and notices travel with it. Where the terms remain unclear, retain the link to the original article and document the outstanding decision.

PMC Open Access Subset guidance

Related worksheet: Research decision log worksheet.

Source checked on 5 November 2026.