TAC User Agreements

TAC tracks use a number of document collections as the source of data for training, testing, etc. The organizations supplying the data to NIST have either provided it free of charge, or for a fee, and it is critical to NIST's continued good relationship with these data providers that data use is properly protected. Because most of the data is copyrighted and also has commercial value as data, it can be used only for research purposes rather than for its informational content. The documents cannot be distributed to anyone else, where redistribution is broadly defined. For example, the documents cannot be used as data for coursework, or as part of a publicly-accessible system demo. There are permission forms ("User Agreements") that express these ideas in a more formal manner. These forms must be signed and returned to NIST before access to data can be given. Additional information on using these data collections can be obtained from the TAC Project Manager.

To receive access to TAC data, all organizations must complete the Agreement Concerning Dissemination of TAC Results. Specific datasets (and their derivatives) may require additional User Agreements, as noted for each dataset. For each User Agreement, send the Organization Application to NIST, and retain the Individual Applications at your organization. Please follow the Instructions for submitting forms.

Signed forms must be sent to NIST by email as a pdf attachment:

Send forms to: tac-admin@nist.gov
Attach the signed user agreement form as a pdf attachment.
Include the following information in the body of the email message:

your name
your organization name
your team ID (if you are a registered TAC track participant)
what forms you are submitting
what data you are requesting (TAC track, task, and year)

Requests for data are handled in the order they are received. Please allow 7 business days for NIST to respond to your request.