The following terms and conditions govern all use of the www.pubpeer.com website (the “Website”) and all content, services and products available at or through the Website. The Website is owned and operated by The PubPeer Foundation. The Website is offered subject to your acceptance without modification of all of the terms and conditions contained herein and all other operating rules, policies (including, without limitation,PubPeer Privacy Policy) and procedures that may be published from time to time on this website by The PubPeer Foundation.(collectively, the “Agreement”).
Please read this Agreement carefully before accessing or using the Website. By accessing or using any part of the web site, you agree to become bound by the terms and conditions of this agreement. If you do not agree to all the terms and conditions of this agreement, then you may not access the Website or use any services. If these terms and conditions are considered an offer by PubPeer, acceptance is expressly limited to these terms. The Website is available only to individuals who are at least 13 years old.
Your www.pubpeer.com account and Website. If you create an account on the Website, you are responsible for maintaining the security of your account, and you are fully responsible for all activities that occur under the account and any other actions taken in connection with the account. You must not describe your account in a misleading or unlawful manner. You must immediately notify PubPeer of any unauthorized uses of your account or any other breaches of security. PubPeer will not be liable for any acts or omissions by You, including any damages of any kind incurred as a result of such acts or omissions.
Without limiting any other provisions of these Terms, the “Website,” as used herein, shall include any and all services that we offer in connection with the use of the Website, including without limitation the Journal Dashboard service and all email alerts, comments, statistics, reports or other material that we provide as part of such service. We reserve ownership of all right, title and interest, including the copyright, of all such services and materials we provide therewith. If you subscribe to the Dashboard or other additional Website services, you shall use the materials provided under the services solely for the purposes for which they are offered and shall not reproduce or otherwise use any such materials for any purpose other than your own private usage.
Responsibility of Contributors. If you operate an account, comment on an account, post material to the Website, post links on the Website, or otherwise make (or allow any third party to make) material available by means of the Website any such material (“Content”), You are entirely responsible for the content of, and any harm resulting from, that Content. That is the case regardless of whether the Content in question constitutes text or graphics. By making Content available, you represent and warrant that: the downloading, copying and use of the Content will not infringe the proprietary rights, including but not limited to the copyright, patent, trademark or trade secret rights, of any third party; if your employer has rights to intellectual property you create, you have either (i) received permission from your employer to post or make available the Content, or (ii) secured from your employer a waiver as to all rights in or to the Content; you have fully complied with any third-party licenses relating to the Content, and have done all things necessary to successfully pass through to end users any required terms; the Content does not contain or install any viruses, worms, malware, Trojan horses or other harmful or destructive content; the Content is not spam, is not machine- or randomly-generated, and does not contain unethical or unwanted commercial content designed to drive traffic to third party websites or boost the search engine rankings of third party websites, or to further unlawful acts (such as phishing) or mislead recipients as to the source of the material (such as spoofing); the Content is not pornographic, does not contain threats or incite violence towards individuals or entities, and does not infringe or violate any copyrights, trademarks, rights of publicity or privacy, or other rights of any third party; You have, in the case of Content that includes computer code, accurately categorized and/or described the type, nature, uses and effects of the materials, whether requested to do so by PubPeer or otherwise. You agree not to, and will not assist, encourage, or enable others to use the Website to: Violate our Content Guidelines, for example, by writing a fake or defamatory review, trading reviews with other users, or compensating someone or being compensated to write or remove a review; Threaten, stalk, harm, or harass others, or promote bigotry or discrimination; Promote a business or other commercial venture or event, or otherwise use the Website for commercial purposes;
We are under no obligation to enforce the Terms on your behalf against another user. While we encourage you to let us know if you believe another user has violated the Terms, we reserve the right to investigate and take appropriate action at our sole discretion.
You also agree not to, and will not assist, encourage, or enable others to: Violate the Terms; Modify, adapt, appropriate, reproduce, distribute, translate, create derivative works or adaptations of, publicly display, sell, trade, or in any way exploit the Website or any content on the Website (“Website Content”) (other than your Content), except as expressly authorized by PubPeer; Use any robot, spider, website search/retrieval application, or other automated device, process or means to access, retrieve, scrape, or index any portion of the Website or any Website Content; Reverse engineer any portion of the Website; Remove or modify any copyright, trademark or other proprietary rights notice that appears on any portion of the Website or on any materials printed or copied from the Website; Record, process, or mine information about other users; Access, retrieve or index any portion of the Website for purposes of constructing or populating a searchable database of reviews; Reformat or frame any portion of the Website; Take any action that imposes, or may impose, in our sole discretion, an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on PubPeers technology infrastructure or otherwise make excessive traffic demands of the Website; Attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Website, user accounts, computer systems or networks connected to the Website through hacking, password mining or any other means; Use any device, software or routine that interferes with the proper working of the Website, or otherwise attempt to interfere with the proper working of the Website; Use the Website to violate the security of any computer network, crack passwords or security encryption codes; disrupt or interfere with the security of, or otherwise cause harm to, the Website or Website Content; or Remove, circumvent, disable, damage or otherwise interfere with any security-related features of the Website, features that prevent or restrict the use or copying of Website Content, or features that enforce limitations on the use of the Website.
The restrictions above only apply to the extent permissible under applicable law. Nevertheless, you agree not to act contrary to them (even if permissible under applicable law) without providing 30 days' prior written notice to us here, together with any information that we may reasonably require to give us an opportunity to provide alternative remedies or otherwise accommodate you at our sole discretion.
By submitting Content to PubPeer for inclusion on the Website, you grant PubPeer a world-wide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, modify, adapt and publish the Content solely for the purpose of displaying, distributing and promoting your Content. If you delete Content, PubPeer will use reasonable efforts to remove it from the Website, but you acknowledge that caching or references to the Content may not be made immediately unavailable.
Without limiting any of those representations or warranties, PubPeer has the right (though not the obligation) to, in PubPeer’s sole discretion (i) refuse or remove any Content that, in PubPeer’s reasonable opinion, violates any PubPeer policy or is in any way harmful or objectionable, or (ii) terminate or deny access to and use of the Website to any individual or entity for any reason, in PubPeer’s sole discretion.
Responsibility of Website Visitors. PubPeer has not reviewed, and cannot review, all of the material, posted to the Website, and cannot therefore be responsible for that material’s content, use or effects. By operating the Website, PubPeer does not represent or imply that it endorses the material there posted, or that it believes such material to be accurate, useful or non-harmful. You are responsible for taking precautions as necessary to protect yourself and your computer systems from viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and other harmful or destructive content. The Website may contain content that is offensive, indecent, or otherwise objectionable, as well as content containing technical inaccuracies, typographical mistakes, and other errors. The Website may also contain material that violates the privacy or publicity rights, or infringes the intellectual property and other proprietary rights, of third parties, or the downloading, copying or use of which is subject to additional terms and conditions, stated or unstated. PubPeer disclaims any responsibility for any harm resulting from the use by visitors of the Website, or from any downloading by those visitors of content there posted.
Content Posted on Other Websites. We have not reviewed, and cannot review, all of the material, made available through the websites and webpages to which www.pubpeer.com links, and that link to www.pubpeer.com. PubPeer does not have any control over those non-PubPeer websites and webpages, and is not responsible for their contents or their use. By linking to a non-PubPeer website or webpage, PubPeer does not represent or imply that it endorses such website or webpage. You are responsible for taking precautions as necessary to protect yourself and your computer systems from viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and other harmful or destructive content. PubPeer disclaims any responsibility for any harm resulting from your use of non-PubPeer websites and webpages.
Copyright Infringement and DMCA Policy. As PubPeer asks others to respect its intellectual property rights, it respects the intellectual property rights of others. If you believe that material located on or linked to by PubPeer violates your copyright, you are encouraged to notify PubPeer in accordance with PubPeer’s Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) Policy. PubPeer will respond to all such notices, including as required or appropriate by removing the infringing material or disabling all links to the infringing material. PubPeer will terminate a visitor’s access to and use of the Website if, under appropriate circumstances, the visitor is determined to be a repeat infringer of the copyrights or other intellectual property rights of PubPeer or others.
Intellectual Property. This Agreement does not transfer from PubPeer to you any PubPeer or third party intellectual property, and all right, title and interest in and to such property will remain (as between the parties) solely with PubPeer. The PubPeer Foundation, pubpeer, the www.pubpeer.com logo, and all other trademarks, service marks, graphics and logos used in connection with www.pubpeer.com, or the Website are trademarks or registered trademarks of PubPeer, The PubPeer Foundation. Other trademarks, service marks, graphics and logos used in connection with the Website may be the trademarks of other third parties. Your use of the Website grants you no right or license to reproduce or otherwise use any PubPeer or third-party trademarks.
Suggestions and Improvements. By sending us any ideas, suggestions, documents or proposals ("Feedback"), you agree that (i) your Feedback does not contain the confidential or proprietary information of third parties, (ii) we are under no obligation of confidentiality, express or implied, with respect to the Feedback, (iii) we may have something similar to the Feedback already under consideration or in development, and (iv) you grant us an irrevocable, non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, worldwide license to use, modify, publish, distribute and sublicense the Feedback.
Changes. PubPeer reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to modify or replace any part of this Agreement. It is your responsibility to check this Agreement periodically for changes. Your continued use of or access to the Website following the posting of any changes to this Agreement constitutes acceptance of those changes. PubPeer may also, in the future, offer new services and/or features through the Website (including, the release of new tools and resources). Such new features and/or services shall be subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement.
Termination. PubPeer may terminate your access to all or any part of the Website at any time, with or without cause, with or without notice, effective immediately. If you wish to terminate this Agreement or your www.pubpeer.com account (if you have one), you may simply discontinue using the Website. All provisions of this Agreement which by their nature should survive termination shall survive termination, including, without limitation, ownership provisions, warranty disclaimers, indemnity and limitations of liability. Please review our Privacy Policy for information about what we do with your account when terminated.
Disclaimer of Warranties. The Website is provided “as is”, "with all faults" and "as available" basis. Your use of the Website is at your own discretion and risk.. PubPeer and its suppliers and licensors hereby disclaim all warranties of any kind, express or implied, including, without limitation, the warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. Neither PubPeer nor its suppliers and licensors, makes any warranty that the Website will be error free or that access thereto will be continuous or uninterrupted. Accordingly, PubPeer is not liable to you for any loss or damage that might arise, for example, from your reliance on the quality, accuracy, or reliability of the ratings or reviews.
Limitation of Liability. In no event will PubPeer, or its suppliers or licensors, be liable with respect to any subject matter of this agreement under any contract, negligence, strict liability or other legal or equitable theory for: (i) any special, incidental or consequential damages; (ii) the cost of procurement for substitute products or services; (iii) for interruption of use or loss or corruption of data. PubPeer shall have no liability for any failure or delay due to matters beyond their reasonable control. The foregoing shall not apply to the extent prohibited by applicable law.
PubPeer disclaim liability for any (i) indirect, special, incidental, punitive, exemplary, reliance, or consequential damages, (ii) loss of profits, (iii) business interruption, (iv) reputational harm, or (v) loss of information or data.
Your sole and exclusive right and remedy in case of dissatisfaction with the Website, related services, or any other grievance shall be your termination and discontinuation of access to, or use of the Website.
General Representation and Warranty. You represent and warrant that (i) your use of the Website will be in strict accordance with the PubPeer Privacy Policy, with this Agreement and with all applicable laws and regulations (including without limitation any local laws or regulations in your country, state, city, or other governmental area, regarding online conduct and acceptable content, and including all applicable laws regarding the transmission of technical data exported from the United States or the country in which you reside) and (ii) your use of the Website will not infringe or misappropriate the intellectual property rights of any third party.
Translation.We may translate these Terms into other languages for your convenience. Nevertheless, the English version governs your relationship with PubPeer, and any inconsistencies among the different versions will be resolved in favor of the English version.
Indemnification. You agree to indemnify and hold harmless PubPeer, its contractors, and its licensors, and their respective directors, officers, employees and agents from and against any and all claims and expenses, including attorneys’ fees, arising out of your use of the Website, including but not limited to your violation of this Agreement.
Miscellaneous. This Agreement constitutes the entire agreement between PubPeer and you concerning the subject matter hereof, and they may only be modified by a written amendment signed by an authorized executive of PubPeer, or by the posting by PubPeer of a revised version.
Steps to complete a DMCA Notice
If you believe that content available by means of the Website (as defined in our Terms of Service) infringes one or more of your copyrights, please notify us by providing a written email to contact@pubpeer.com.
You must include the following:
A. A physical or electronic signature of the copyright owner or a person authorized to act on their behalf
B. An identification of the copyright claimed to have been infringed;
C. Description of the nature and exact location of the content that you claim to infringe your copyright, in sufficient detail to permit PubPeer to find and positively identify that content
D. Your name, address, telephone number and email address; and
F. Statement by you: (a) that you believe in good faith that the use of the content that you claim to infringe your copyright is not authorized by law, or by the copyright owner or such owner’s agent; (b) that all of the information contained in your Infringement Notice is accurate, and (c) under penalty of perjury, that you are either the copyright owner or a person authorized to act on their behalf.