Text and Data Mining

This page provides basic information and links to learn more about text and data mining.

You can also use Monarch OneSearch on the ODU libraries home page to search for books, eBooks, articles, and more, using keywords related to your subject and text and/or data mining.

Remember: Many ODU library resources have licenses that restrict the use of text and data mining. Always check licensing agreements and/or terms and conditions before you begin a text or data mining project. 

Watch these brief (>2 minute) videos by Elsevier for an introduction to text mining.

• What is text mining?

  An introduction to the basics of text and data mining.

• How does text mining work?

  Understand the basics of how text and data mining works and how it is used to help advance science and medicine.

"Text mining is the process of deriving information from textual data. Text mining techniques might include sentiment analysis, network analysis, word frequency distributions, pattern recognition, tagging/annotation, information extraction, and the production of granular taxonomies or ontologies." (NYU Libraries Text Data Mining Research Guide)

In order to conduct these types of analyses on large quantities of digital data, specialized software is often needed.

• NYU Libraries has created extensive chart of tools for TDM
• Boston College Libraries lists Tools & Techniques
• The University of Washington Libraries Text and Data Mining Guide provides information on text mining tools, data collection methods, and text analytics & visualization

Many tutorials are available for specific software. See the below for aggregated information about tools and tutorials from academic institutions:

• Carleton College's Gould Library Digital Text Analysis and Text Mining guide
• Wellesley College Text Analysis & Text Mining Tools and Tutorials

Many libraries have created guides about text and data mining. These are useful resources, but use caution about any listed database terms-of-use because libraries negotiate their own license agreements with publishers.

• Boston College Libraries Text & Data Mining
• University of North Carolina Libraries Text and Data Mining
• University of California Berkeley Library Text Mining and Computational Text Analysis
• University of Washington Libraries Text and Data Mining Guide

This guide is intended for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.

For more in-depth legal information: contact the Office of University Counsel.