Data tracking in research: aggregation and use or sale of usage data by academic publishers – A briefing paper of the Committee on Scientific Library Services and Information Systems of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) 20 May 2021.”In recent years, digital data markets of various kinds have emerged which can be categorised as either public, academic or commercial.In the field of academia, in addition to very positive developments such as improved handling, legal regulations for research data and also improved use of research data, other developments need to be considered in detail and, if necessary, subjected to regulatory control. These developments are presented below. A potentially detrimental impact on the academic community arises both from the mixing of academic and commercial interests as well as from regulatory gaps and differing legal situations internationally.

implications for research: aggregation and the reuse or resale of user traces have become relevant aspects of their business. Some publishers now explicitly regard themselves as information analysis specialists. Their business model is shifting from content provision to data analytics. This involves the tracking –i.e. recording and storage –of the usage data generated by researchers (i.e. personalised profiles, access and usage data, time spent using information sources, etc.) when they utilise information services such as when carrying out literature searches….In the meantime, academic publishers get bigger through mergers and acquisitions. Clarivate is acquiring ProQuest which potentially makes library systems party to yet another research-support-and-data-gobbling “integrated enterprise research platform” to rival to other data-devouring behemoths…”