These FAQs are intended to inform you, as a De Gruyter Brill author, about what the potential use of your work in the development and training of artificial intelligence means for you and your scholarly work published with us.

What is generative artificial intelligence (AI) and what are large language models (LLMs)?

Generative AI refers to artificial intelligence systems that can generate new content, such as text, images, music, or code, producing original results based on input data. Examples are models that generate images (like DALL-E), text (like ChatGPT), music, or videos.

Large Language Models (LLMs) are a specific type of AI model that is trained on large datasets of text. These models can perform tasks such as text generation, translation, summarization, and answering questions.

LLMs are a type of generative AI. When you use a large language model to generate text, you’re using generative AI.

Why does De Gruyter Brill want to enter agreements with generative AI providers?

Given the rapid advances in AI technology over the past months, we have been consulting and discussing challenges, opportunities and threats of artificial intelligence with academic authors, librarians, and partners. We have also been speaking to providers of generative AI.

We plan to enter into formal agreements with generative AI providers to exert our influence on how and when scholarly content is used in generative AI development, and to make sure that research published by De Gruyter Brill is included and made use of in an accountable, responsible and sustainable manner.

When negotiating agreements, we seek outcomes that benefit us and our authors, strengthen our position as advocates of the scholarly community vis-a-vis technology providers, and help amplify the impact of academic research in a rapidly changing world.

We are convinced that generative AI technologies are changing the way information and knowledge are retrieved, disseminated and used, and that this involves risks and opportunities. But because we believe that artificial intelligence is here to stay, the question for us is not whether academic research should be used in the development of artificial intelligence, but rather, how it can contribute to its improvement.

We think that the use of high-quality scholarly works in the training and development of generative AI can increase its accuracy and usefulness. AI technology providers are working on better ways to cite and attribute sources, which will provide new opportunities for scholarly work to have greater visibility and impact. Like some of our partners, we are developing new AI-based tools to facilitate the research process and improve your publications’ visibility and discoverability. Discovery services and vendors that we cooperate with will incorporate AI technology moving forward.

By engaging constructively and critically with generative AI tools and content providers, we hope that we can amplify these benefits, while mitigating the risks.

To do so, we have established these general principles that we follow in all negotiations:

• We carefully define which usage of content we grant technology providers
• We put limits to verbatim text reproduction and / or make sure technology partners use our titles for training purposes only
• We ask technology partners to present a clear vision of how their tools will enable correct and transparent attribution and citation of information sources
• We make sure relevant permission from all rightsholders has been obtained, and, where possible, seek explicit consent from authors
• We seek fair remuneration for author and publisher
• We make sure content is removed once a contract term ends

Because we are dealing with complex questions and do not have all the answers, we hope to continue the fruitful collaboration and debate we’ve had with our authors, librarians, editors, and others in the academic community, to find a joint way forward in a rapidly evolving landscape.

How might my work be used by AI technology providers?

If your work is included in an agreement with a generative AI provider, it may be used for training and testing foundational large language models that are then later used to develop tools and applications, or for creating databases of authoritative content to verify the accuracy of information generated by AI tools. Other use cases will evolve as technology progresses, and we will keep you informed.

Which companies will De Gruyter Brill negotiate agreements with?

We expect to reach agreements with several AI technology providers in the coming months and years. In most cases, we will not be able to share details, especially while agreements are still under discussion, due to contractual non-disclosure clauses. We may be able to share information on new partnerships as they are launched and will do so if possible.

What are the terms and length of the agreements?

We will be setting up relationships on a case-by-case basis, and so terms will vary. Some will be term-limited, while some others might imply longer-term arrangements.

How will De Gruyter Brill control citations and plagiarism?

In all discussions with potential AI technology partners, we emphasize the guiding principles we have established. These principles prioritize proper author attribution, the necessity of formal contractual agreements with AI providers, securing permissions from rights holders, and ensuring fair compensation. We also either limit verbatim citations as much as possible or insist on proper attribution to our authors and ideally a link to our platform.

Your guiding principles say you want to limit verbatim citations, but you also want to ensure authors are properly attributed and cited – how is that going to work?

This depends on each agreement. If a technology partner can guarantee that our authors’ work can and will be properly cited and attributed, we will allow citations, while looking carefully at the amount of text that can be cited verbatim. If an AI provider cannot present us with a convincing solution of how proper attribution will work, we will insist they use our content for training purposes only.

What are the benefits for me as an author or editor, and why should I agree to the potential use of my title for the development of artificial intelligence?

Your approval of the use of your title for AI technology development and training gives us the opportunity to use your work in the development of our own AI technologies, and to work with existing or future partners who use AI to make scholarly works more visible and discoverable to readers and researchers via library catalogs, scholarly databases, and other search technologies.

If your existing publishing contract does not grant us the unequivocal right to include your title(s) in partnerships with AI technology providers, you will shortly receive an email with an addendum to your author or editor contract. If you agree we can use your work to be included in generative AI development, please sign the addendum. If you decide not to sign, your work will not be included.

While AI technology is evolving quickly, the legal framework for AI applications is also being developed further. We are following this closely and want to make sure that our publishing contracts represent a transparent and secure legal basis.

We understand you may have questions, concerns or objections regarding the inclusion of your work in agreements with artificial intelligence providers – if that is the case, please refer to our FAQs for clarification or contact us directly at: legal-support@degruyterbrill.com.

How is De Gruyter Brill deciding which books to include in agreements with AI tech providers?

This depends on the conversations with potential partners. Some agreements will extend to the entire De Gruyter Brill program. Other providers will be interested in titles from certain subject areas. There may also be cases where some content is not suitable, for example if it is not available in a file format that partners can use.

How will royalties be calculated?

De Gruyter Brill authors will receive royalties according to their publishing contracts. For each agreement that De Gruyter Brill signs, authors receive the corresponding percentage share of the revenue per title.

You say you are developing your own AI tools, which ones are those?

We are in the process of advancing our internal AI expertise and experience to be able to include AI technology on our website and other digital products to the benefit of authors and researchers moving forward. One example is that we are training an AI system with a very specific corpus of research material, to explore how well this system can answer very specific scholarly queries about this topic. Such technology could later be used to improve search functionalities for digital products like databases, critical digital editions, or our website, so that researchers will eventually be able to ask a chatbot complex and specific questions, like a research assistant, rather than searching for general keywords only.

Who can I contact if I have questions?

If you would like to contact us with questions or concerns, or discuss the contract addendum, please email legal-support@degruyterbrill.com.