researchers push to lift the embargo on publishers by default in the tens of equipment to digitize thousands of documents to find links between genes and diseases

Professor Peter Murray-Rust has been seeking new ways to make better drugs. Dr. Heather Pivovar wanted to track scientific papers were presented and shared by researchers around the world. Dr. Casey Bergman wanted to create a way for physicians and scientists who quickly browse the latest research in genetics, to help treat patients and to advance their research.

They need access to tens of thousands of research papers at once, so they can use computers to find patterns that are not watched and associations through the millions words in the articles. This technique, called text mining is an essential part of 21st century research methods. It uses powerful computers to find links between drugs and side effects, or genes and diseases, which are hidden within the vast scientific literature. These are the conclusions that the person traveling through the documents one by one, may not notice.

This is a technique with great potential. A report by the McKinsey Global Institute last year said that "large data" technologies such as text mining and data has the potential to create ? 250 billion (200 billion pounds) of economic value Annual of Europe, if researchers are allowed to make full use of it.

Unfortunately, in most cases, text mining is prohibited. Bergman, Murray Rust, Pivovar and countless other academics that are blocked by the techniques of the most modern research, because the big publishing houses like Macmillan, Elsevier and Wiley, who control the distribution of most of the academic literature the world, by default do not allow text mining for their content behind paywalls expensive.

such a project requires special permission - and lengthy negotiations with individual -. Dozens of publishers that may be involved

"This is the key factor that impedes progress in this area," said Robert Kiley, head of digital at the Wellcome Trust. "For many people, even if the promise is there, activation effort is too great. "

The restrictions imposed by publishers in text mining has led activists to see the issue as another front in the battle for the fruit of research financed by public funds through the "Open access ", available at the point of use. This would enable researchers to determine the content freely, without seeking any additional authorization.

The scale of new information in modern science is staggering: over 1.5 million scientific articles are published each year and the volume of data doubles every three years. No individual can hold a volume, and scientists need computers to help them digest and make sense of information.

Bergman, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Manchester, uses text mining to create a tool to help scientists make sense of the research literature increasingly on genetics. Although the genetic sequences of living organisms are publicly available, discussions on what sequences are and how they interact is in the text of scientific articles that are behind all paywalls.

Working with Max

Haeussler, University of California, Santa Cruz, Bergman came with Text2genome, which identifies text strings in thousands of items that look like letters in a DNA sequence, a gene, for example - and linking all documents that mention or discuss this sequence. Text2genome could allow a doctor or a researcher can not be an expert in a particular gene to access relevant documentation quickly and easily. Haeussler Text2genome trying to grow, however, have hit a wall, and his blog is a litany of problems trying to get a permit from the scores of publishers to download and add items to the project. "If we do not have access to documents relating to the exploration of text, we can not make these connections," says Bergman.

Murray-Rust, a chemist at Cambridge University, has used text mining to find ways to make chemicals such as pharmaceuticals, the most effective.

"If you have a compound that does not know how to do this is similar to that they know how to do, then the machine would be able to offer a number of methods that allow you to do. "

But despite their university subscribes to magazines you need to do this job, you may not use the content of what he calls "a modern form, using machines. "

Wise said that, in principle, his company was happy to allow text mining for their content. "We want to help researchers improve their knowledge and understanding, we want to help advance science and health and want to be able to do so to help you get the most benefit from the content we publish. Text mining is clearly a part of this landscape and will remain, and are ready to support him. "

The UK government supports open access to public funded research and operating license text. In a report of the Intellectual Property Office last year on intellectual property and growth, Professor Ian Hargreaves proposes that researchers should be allowed to sections of the mine to the text already entered - a position supported by organizations funding of science, such as

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