AI and Licensed Full Texts
The use of artificial intelligence with licensed content is currently only regulated for: Elsevier E‑Journals, IEEE E‑Journals, IOP E‑Journals, Springer E‑Books, Wiley E‑Journals, as shown in the table below.
Please contact us at an early stage if you are planning an AI-based project using e-resources licensed by the UB-ZB – we will be happy to assist you with all licensing issues.
Elsevier E-Journals
| Permitted use | ✅ Non‑commercial research, teaching, and learning purposes |
| Commercial use | ❌ Commercial use of AI‑generated content or platforms using licensed content is prohibited. |
| Use with so-called open AI systems | ❌ Not allowed if licensed content is reused or shared. |
| Use with so-called closed AI systems | ⚠️ Licensed content may be used and processed within a closed AI system accessible only to UZH‑ZB, University Hospitals and participating institutions in the Consortium of Swiss Academic Libraries. Restrictions: - No sharing with third parties - No training of publicly accessible systems |
| Use with third‑party AI systems | ⚠️ Allowed, as long as the content is not used to train AI systems and not shared with third parties. |
| Open Access content | ✅ CC‑BY content: No restrictions. Exception: CC‑BY‑ND forbids any form of modification — including AI‑generated transformations that count as derivative works. Only internal copying and analysis for research is allowed (Art. 24d URG), but publication is not permitted. |
| Publication of AI‑generated results | ⚠️ Allowed for research and teaching, except when outputs contain licensed content or originate from CC‑BY‑NC‑ND sources. |
IEEE E-Journals
| Permitted use | ✅ Non‑commercial research, teaching, and learning purposes |
| Commercial use | ❌ Commercial use of AI‑generated content or platforms using licensed content is prohibited. |
| Use with so-called open AI systems | ❌ Not allowed if licensed content is reused or shared. |
| Use with so-called closed AI systems | ⚠️ Licensed content may be used and processed within a closed AI system accessible only to UZH-ZB, University Hospitals and participating institutions in the Consortium of Swiss Academic Libraries. Restrictions: - No sharing with third parties - No training of publicly accessible systems - 100 papers per upload |
| Use with third‑party AI systems | ⚠️ Allowed, as long as the content is not used to train AI systems and not shared with third parties. Requests for more than 100 papers require publisher approval. |
| Open Access content | ✅ CC‑BY content: No restrictions. Exception: CC‑BY‑ND forbids any form of modification — including AI‑generated transformations that count as derivative works. Only internal copying and analysis for research is allowed (Art. 24d URG), but publication is not permitted. |
| Publication of AI‑generated results | ⚠️ Short quotations allowed. No publication of outputs involving licensed content. |
IOP E-Journals
| Permitted use | ✅ Non‑commercial research, teaching, and learning purposes. For AI use, contractual text‑and‑data‑mining (TDM) rules apply. Requests must be made ad hoc to support staff, specifying targeted publications and the desired output format. |
| Commercial use | ❌ Commercial use of AI‑generated content or platforms using licensed content is prohibited. The content must not contribute to creating competitor products. |
| Use with so-called open AI systems | ❌ Not allowed if licensed content is reused or shared. |
| Use with so-called closed AI systems | ⚠️ Licensed content may be used and processed within a closed AI system accessible only to UZH‑ZB, University Hospitals and participating institutions in the Consortium of Swiss Academic Libraries. Restrictions: - No sharing with third parties - No training of publicly accessible systems |
| Use with third‑party AI systems | ⚠️ Allowed, as long as the content is not used to train AI systems and not shared with third parties. |
| Open Access content | ✅ CC‑BY content: No restrictions. Exception: CC‑BY‑ND forbids any form of modification — including AI‑generated transformations that count as derivative works. Only internal copying and analysis for research is allowed (Art. 24d URG), but publication is not permitted. |
| Publication of AI‑generated results | ⚠️ Allowed for research and teaching, except when outputs contain licensed content or originate from CC‑BY‑NC‑ND sources. |
Springer E-Books
| Permitted use | ✅ Non‑commercial research, teaching, and learning purposes |
| Commercial use | ❌ Commercial use of AI‑generated content or platforms using licensed content is prohibited. |
| Use with so-called open AI systems | ❌ Not allowed if licensed content is reused or shared. |
| Use with so-called closed AI systems | ⚠️ Licensed content may be used and processed within a closed AI system accessible only to UZH-ZB, University Hospitals and participating institutions in the Consortium of Swiss Academic Libraries. Restrictions: - No sharing with third parties - No training of publicly accessible systems - "limited portions of the content" may be used |
| Use with third‑party AI systems | ⚠️ Prompts referencing "portions of" licensed content are allowed, but the publisher makes no statement regarding the legality of this practice. |
| Open Access content | ✅ CC‑BY content: No restrictions. Exception: CC‑BY‑ND forbids any form of modification — including AI‑generated transformations that count as derivative works. Only internal copying and analysis for research is allowed (Art. 24d URG), but publication is not permitted. |
| Publication of AI‑generated results | ⚠️ Publication permitted if outputs do not reproduce licensed content. General terms and conditions & Federal Act on Copyright and Related Rights apply. |
Wiley E-Journals
| Permitted use | ✅ Non‑commercial research, teaching, and learning purposes |
| Commercial use | ❌ Commercial use of AI‑generated content or platforms using licensed content is prohibited. |
| Use with so-called open AI systems | ❌ Not allowed if licensed content is reused or shared. |
| Use with so-called closed AI systems | ⚠️ Licensed content may be used and processed within a closed AI system accessible only to UZH‑ZB, University Hospitals and participating institutions in the Consortium of Swiss Academic Libraries. Restrictions: - No sharing with third parties - No training of publicly accessible systems |
| Use with third‑party AI systems | ⚠️ Allowed, as long as the content is not used to train AI systems and not shared with third parties. The AI tool must be contractually licensed and the provider handles the content confidentially. |
| Open Access content | ✅ CC‑BY content: No restrictions. Exceptions: CC‑BY‑ND forbids any form of modification — including AI‑generated transformations that count as derivative works. Only internal copying and analysis for research is allowed (Art. 24d URG), but publication is not permitted. Some limitations also apply to closed publications under the Read & Publish Master Agreement. |
| Publication of AI‑generated results | ⚠️ Allowed for research and teaching, except when outputs contain licensed content or originate from CC‑BY‑NC‑ND sources. |