Here’s a situation you’re likely all too familiar with: Your research team just dropped serious budget on enterprise licenses for Microsoft Copilot or ChatGPT. Everyone's buzzing about analyzing journal articles with AI, extracting insights faster than ever, and completely revamping how discovery gets done. But here's what’s keeping your legal team up at night:
You might be violating copyright law every single time you upload a journal article to an AI platform.
Now, what if this whole copyright headache didn't have to exist? What if you could keep all the AI capabilities and have peace of mind that you’re legally covered? That's exactly what Research Solutions built with our AI Rights Add-On for Article Galaxy: a way to make copyright compliance as simple as your normal literature search, without slowing anything down.
What most researchers don't realize is that having an enterprise AI license doesn't give you permission to analyze copyrighted scientific content.
It’s like buying a Ferrari, then forgetting you need the "green light" to drive on certain roads.
Most organizations did their homework on data security and enterprise AI deployment, but the copyright permissions piece for analyzing published research? That's where things get murky fast.
Major publishers, in large part, explicitly prohibit using their content in AI applications, even for internal research purposes (i.e., summarizing a methods section for your lit review).
This isn't some obscure legal technicality, either. We're talking about a massive disconnect between what the tech can do and what you're legally allowed to do with it. And it's putting both researchers and entire institutions at risk.
So where does this leave everyone? Well, it's basically a choose-your-own-adventure book where all the endings come with serious downsides.
Corporate researchers with enterprise AI access find themselves caught between innovation mandates and compliance requirements, often choosing to either avoid AI tools entirely or operate in a legal gray area.
Academic institutions face the dual challenge of enabling AI adoption in research programs while protecting their reputation and avoiding copyright violations.
Information professionals and librarians struggle to provide clear guidance when the rights landscape is fragmented across multiple vendors and licensing schemes.
The consequences aren't theoretical. We're talking substantial financial penalties, reputational damage, and legal exposure that extends far beyond individual researchers to affect entire organizations.
You might be thinking: "Doesn't our CCC license handle this stuff?" Fair question.
Sure, the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) and Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) rolled out AI rights in their licensing programs. Sounds great on paper. But both programs have limited STM publisher participation Meaning most scientific content remains uncovered by these collective licenses.
This leaves researchers playing an exhausting game of copyright detective:
Each question requires manual verification, which pretty much defeats the whole point of using AI to speed things up in the first place.
Clearly, the infrastructure for copyright permissions is lagging behind AI technology by several years.
This whole mess creates what we call the "AI compliance bottleneck." Researchers basically get forced into one of three lousy options:
Option A: Take The No-AI Route. Avoid AI tools with scientific content entirely. Sure, you'll sleep well knowing you're compliant, but your competitors are probably lapping you while you're manually reading through 200-page systematic reviews.
Option B: Wing It & Hope. Operate with uncertainty and keep using AI tools, crossing your fingers that fair use or some existing license has your back.
Option C: Become A Part-time Copyright Lawyer. Spend half your research time navigating licensing agreements instead of, you know, researching.
None of these options really serve the research community effectively.
Before, we mentioned the idea of compliance as simple as literature search. But how does Research Solutions' AI Rights Add-On for Article Galaxy work?
Instead of making researchers jump through hoops, we built the compliance right into the workflow. Instead of forcing researchers to navigate multiple licensing systems, the solution provides instant article-level visibility into AI usage permissions and one-click acquisition for missing rights. You immediately know what you can and can't do with each article. No detective work required.
Articles get flagged in a way that's crystal clear, like having traffic lights that tell you exactly where that enterprise AI Ferrari of yours is allowed to drive:
"AI Rights Acquired" means green light. That article is ready for immediate AI analysis; copyright paperwork is already handled.
"Gen AI Rights Available" is your yellow light. You can get the rights, and it's just one click to make it happen. No forms to fill out, no procurement headaches.
Standard display? That's your red light for AI analysis. You can still access the content the traditional way, but the AI tools are off-limits until you sort out the permissions.
Then, we take it a step further. The system automatically detects existing permissions from:
When you need rights that aren't already covered, you can acquire them directly through the familiar Article Galaxy interface with transparent pricing (typically the PDF price plus $5.80 for organization-wide AI rights).
We also took a different approach when it comes to publisher partnerships. Unlike collective licensing schemes with limited STM participation, Research Solutions has secured direct agreements with publishers for improved coverage of non-open access scientific journal content.
You'll find some of the leading publishers researchers rely on most, along with specialized sources that support niche research areas.
And we're not stopping there. More publishers are in review, and coverage will continue expanding.
For all the discussion about solving a compliance problem, there's also a bigger picture at play here: making AI-powered research actually work while making sure publishers and authors are fairly compensated for their intellectual property.
Right now, the most innovative research teams are either playing a risky copyright game or missing out on AI capabilities entirely. Neither option makes sense when you're trying to cure diseases, develop sustainable materials, or figure out how climate change affects migration patterns.
Our AI Rights Add-On flips this whole dynamic on its head. Instead of copyright being the thing that stops innovation, it becomes the thing that enables it. Researchers can confidently analyze scientific literature knowing they're not going to get a nasty legal letter six months later.
For corporate research teams, this translates to faster drug discovery timelines, more efficient competitive intelligence, and innovation cycles that move at the speed of modern science.
Academic institutions get the ability to stay at the forefront of their programs' fields while maintaining institutional integrity and avoiding legal risk.
AI-enabled research is happening right now in labs and research centers across the globe. But differentiated teams will be doing it legally and strategically rather than crossing their fingers and hoping for the best.
Ready to get started?
You've got options, and they're all way better than the status quo:
Grab our AI Rights One-Pager if you want the full technical breakdown, pricing details, and capability overview.
Sign up for our Monthly Article Galaxy Training Sessions - AI Rights Edition to see the whole system in action.
Talk to our experts if you're ready to have a real conversation about what this looks like for your specific research environment. Every organization's copyright situation is different, and we understand cookie-cutter solutions usually don't cut it.
Don't let copyright uncertainty keep your research in the slow lane. While you're trying to figure out licensing agreements, your competitors might be using AI to accelerate discovery in ways that would make your current literature review process look like you're stuck in traffic while they're cruising on the highway.
The tools exist. The legal framework is ready. The only thing missing is your decision to use them.