Terms and Conditions

Article 1: General

1. ResearchGate is an online information society service, hereafter referred to as "the Service" (including this Web site and all its applications), provided by ResearchGate GmbH (see Contact for detailed information), hereafter referred to as "the Provider".
2. These Terms and Conditions are an agreement that is legally binding between the Provider and any natural or legal person who, as a recipient of the service, uses the Service for any purpose, hereafter referred to as "the User".
3. These General Terms and Conditions can be subject to additions by special terms and conditions. These are:
   1. The Statement on Privacy and Data Protection
   2. The License Agreement for ResearchBLOG
4. Individual terms and conditions and individual amendments to all terms and conditions are only binding if concluded in written form. Also, waiving this formal requirement can only be concluded in written form.

Article 2: Disclaimer

1. The Service is provided "as is" and the Provider disclaims any and all representations and warranties, whether express or implied, including - but not limited to - implied warranties of title, merchantability, fitness for any particular purpose or non-infringement. The Provider does not promise any specific results, effects or outcome from the use of the Service.
2. The Provider does not represent or warrant that the Service and the data and information provided are accurate, up-to-date, complete or reliable. The provider is not responsible or liable for any damage, disadvantage or disprofit, whether material or immaterial, that is caused by the usage or non-usage of the Service. This does not apply to damages, disadvantages and disprofits that are caused by the Provider intentionally, recklessly or negligently.
3. The Provider reserves the right to change, reduce, interrupt or discontinue the Service or parts of it at any time.
4. No one has a right to use the Service; the Provider reserves the right to exclude certain Users.

Article 3: Storage of information

1. The Service consists largely of information stored on the request of Users.
2. The Provider neither previews nor automatically reviews such information. Therefore, the Provider cannot have current knowledge of  possible infringements caused by information that is stored on the request of Users. The Provider is not liable for such information (Article 14 of Directive 2000/31/EC).
3. The Provider will, upon obtaining knowledge about or awareness of such infringement, act expeditiously to remove or disable access to such information.
4. Users may only request storage of such information that they may legally store and publish. Users must not request to store any information that infringes any third party's copyright, trademarks, other intellectual property rights or any other rights.
5. Users indemnify the Provider from any claims raised by third parties in reference to any information that is stored on request of the respective User. The indemnification covers all adequate expenditures, including court and lawyer fees.

Article 4: Notice and take down

1. If a user feels that any information provided within the Service infringes his/her or any third party's rights, he or she shall notify the Provider before taking any legal action.
2. Upon such notification, the Provider will expeditiously check the objectionable information and will, where necessary, remove or disable access to this information ("notice and take down" process).
3. The Provider will respond to any such notification within two business days.
4. Users shall not take any legal action before the Provider has dismissed the notification or two business days have elapsed without response.
5. The Provider disclaims liability for expenditures, including court and lawyer fees, if legal action is taken earlier, unless the Provider has caused the infringement intentionally, recklessly or negligently.

Article 5: Misuse of the Service

1. Users must not misuse the Service. Misuse of the Service includes, without limitation:
   1. insults to other Users;
   2. automated or massive manual retrieval of other Users' profile data ("data harvesting");
   3. advertising for commercial products or services of all kinds;
   4. unsolicited job offers and business proposals;
   5. all kinds of technical attacks on the servers.
2. All aforementioned behaviors in this article are strictly forbidden, unless the User has obtained prior written permission by the Provider.

Article 6: Usage of information

1. All information provided within the Service by the Provider and by other Users may only be accessed manually by a natural person using ordinary Internet devices.
2. Users must not publish, share, sell or make available information that is provided within the Service by the Provider or by other Users to/with any third party.
3. Users must not store or process any other User's personal data for any other purpose than the natural purpose of such data being published within the Service by the respective User.

Article 7: Copyright and other Intellectual Property Rights

Article 8: Trademarks and Service Marks

Article 9: Applicable Law

Article 10: Special Terms for Business Users

1. This article applies for Users that use the Service for business purposes.
2. Place of jurisdiction for all issues that arise from the usage of the Service, including this Terms and Conditions and all its additions (as in Article 1 (3)), is Hannover, Germany.

Article 11: Salvatorius Clause

Digital Millennium Copyright Act

Claims of Copyright Infringement. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (the "DMCA") provides recourse for copyright owners who believe that material appearing on the Internet infringes their rights under U.S. copyright law. If you have a good faith belief regarding the use of materials on the Site infringes your copyright (for example, materials posted by Provider on the ResearchBLOG), you may send to the Provider a notice requesting that the material be removed, or access to it be blocked.

If you send the Provider an infringement notice such notice must be in writing (e.g. email, fax or written letter) and must include the following information:

• A physical or electronic signature of the copyright holder or a person authorized to act on his or her behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed;
• A description of the copyrighted work claimed to be infringed and, if multiple copyrighted works are covered by a single notification, a list of all such works;
• A description of the material that is claimed to be infringing or be the subject of infringing activity, and information that is reasonably sufficient to enable Provider to locate the material;
• Information that is reasonably sufficient to enable the service provider to contact the copyright holder/authorized person, such as name, address, telephone number, and, if available, an email address;
• A statement of the copyright holder/authorized person that he or she has good faith belief that the use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and
• A statement of the copyright holder/authorized person that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that he or she is, where applicable, authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

If you believe in good faith that a notice of copyright infringement has been wrongly filed by the Provider against you, the DMCA permits you to send the Provider a counter-notice. Notices and counter-notices must meet the then-current statutory requirements imposed by the DMCA; see http://www.loc.gov/copyright/ for details. Notices and counter-notices with respect to the Site should be sent to:

The Provider suggests that you consult with your legal advisor before filing a notice or counter-notice. Also, be aware that there can be penalties for false claims under the DMCA.