Intellectual Property Policy

ResearchGate was developed by scientists to enable collaboration, sharing of content and communication among scientists, researchers, authors, institutions and other professionals. We respect the intellectual property rights of others and ask that you do the same. We have a process for submitting complaints regarding content posted by our members. Our policy and procedures are described below.

As a member, when you post full-text articles or supplementary materials on ResearchGate, you do not transfer or assign copyright to us. Rather, you make the content available to the public through ResearchGate. You retain the right to remove such content from ResearchGate at any time, or to archive your content so it is available only to you and your co-author(s). You may also remove content from appearing on your profile page.

Our platform enables the private archiving and public posting of various types of content. If you choose to privately archive or publicly post content, we encourage you to first confirm your rights before doing so. This applies to posting content to your own profile as well as other places on the platform, such as in a Q&A forum or a project. As we do not have any information about rights you may hold, or any license terms or other restrictions which might apply to such content, we necessarily rely on you to understand your rights and act accordingly. For this reason, we request that you fully investigate and confirm that you have sufficient rights to post particular content to ResearchGate before you do so. As a general matter, if you are an author publishing in a journal, you may be allowed to publish certain versions of your article, but not others, and privately share certain content with others. However, many journals restrict publication of final versions and impose limitations on private sharing.

Your starting point for understanding your rights is the agreement(s) you have with your publisher or other rights owner. If you’re still unsure about what you’re allowed to share on ResearchGate, we recommend that you get in touch directly with your publisher. There are other resources available that you might also find useful in understanding your rights, such as How Can I Share It. We also provide some general information in our Help Center.

It is our policy to respond to notices of claimed copyright infringement submitted by rights owners in accordance with the notice and takedown procedures found in section 512(c) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (United States) and the European eCommerce Directive, detailed below. Our Designated Agent for receiving notices of claimed copyright and other intellectual property infringement is:

Copyright Agent
ResearchGate GmbH
Chausseestr. 20
Berlin, Germany 10115
Email: copyright@researchgate.net
Telephone: +49 (0) 30 200051-100

Please be aware that, regardless of whether we disable access to or remove the content complained about, we may forward your written notification, including your contact information, to the member who posted the content, and/or take other reasonable steps to notify the member that we have received notice of an alleged violation of copyright or intellectual property rights.

Please also remember that, if you choose to request removal of content by submitting an infringement notification, you are initiating a legal process. Any notice or counter-notice you submit must be truthful and must be submitted under penalty of perjury. A false notice or counter-notice may give rise to personal liability. You may therefore wish to seek the advice of legal counsel before submitting a notice or counter-notice.

Copyright and other intellectual property infringement notification requirements

Please note that if you are not a copyright owner or authorized to act on behalf of a copyright owner, we must ask that you contact the copyright owner and ask them to submit a notice of claimed infringement. If you are a copyright owner, US, European and other laws require that your notice of claimed infringement follow a specific form. The easiest way to do this is to complete our simple form and send it to copyright@researchgate.net:

‍NOCI Form

‍It provides us with a required signature and information about you or your company that we will keep on file. You can save a copy of the form to prevent you having to fill in your contact information next time. If you do not wish to use our form, you can use your own form or send an email to copyright@researchgate.net, so long as it contains all the required information, including:

1. The name, address, telephone number, and e-mail address of the complaining party.
2. A description of the copyrighted work(s) or other intellectual property claimed to have been infringed and the country of claimed rights.
3. A description of where the allegedly infringing material is located on ResearchGate, with information sufficient to permit us to locate the material. In order for us to be able to accurately identify and remove content notified to be infringing, it is necessary to provide the specific URL for the actual file and not the URL of the publication page where the file is displayed, as the content displayed on a publication page can change. You can identify the URL of a particular file by clicking on the downward-facing arrow at the top-right corner of a publication page, selecting "Full-text sources," right clicking on the respective download button of the file and copying the link address.
4. A statement that the complaining party "has a 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."
5. A statement that "the information in this notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed."
6. An electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright or other right that is allegedly infringed.

Note: If you are asserting infringement of an intellectual property right other than copyright, please specify the intellectual property right at issue (for example, "trademark").

‍Upon receiving notice of a claimed infringement that complies with the above requirements, we will expeditiously remove or disable access to the allegedly infringing material and will notify the member who posted it. At that time, we will also provide the member with an email address which may be used to contact the complaining party with any questions, or if they think a mistake has been made.

Repeat infringer policy

In accordance with applicable law, we have a repeat infringer policy that provides for the disabling of a member's uploading rights or termination of their membership in appropriate circumstances.

Counter notice requirements

ResearchGate recognizes that sometimes content may be mistakenly identified by a rights owner as infringing their rights. In the event such a mistake occurs, you should first contact the complaining party directly using the email address provided to you. ResearchGate will allow you to re-upload the content upon receipt of an acknowledgement of the error from the complaining party.

If the complaining party does not agree that their request for removal was in error, you may submit a counter notice using this Counter Notice Form.

Alternatively, you can submit a written communication to ResearchGate’s Designated Agent (contact details above). To be effective, your counter notice must include substantially the following:

• Your name, address and telephone number.
• Identification of the material that has been removed or to which access has been disabled and the location (URL) at which the material appeared before it was removed or access to it was disabled.
• A statement under penalty of perjury that you have a good faith belief that the material was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification of the material to be removed or disabled.
• A statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of Federal District Court for the judicial district in which your address is located, or if your address is outside the United States, for any judicial district in which ResearchGate may be found, and that you will accept service of process from the party who submitted the notification of claimed infringement or an agent of that party.
• Your physical or electronic signature.

We will not be able to consider your counter notice unless you fill out the form in its entirety, and physically sign it. Please make sure that the counter notice you send to ResearchGate is legible; if we cannot read your handwriting we will not be able to process it.

Upon receiving the original of your fully completed counter notice, ResearchGate will provide the complaining party with a copy of your notice. We will also inform them that we will allow you to replace the removed material after 10 business days, unless ResearchGate’s Designated Agent receives notice from the complaining party that it has filed an action seeking a court order to restrain you from engaging in infringing activity relating to the material on ResearchGate. If the complaining party notifies us in writing that they no longer object to the material being made available, we will allow you to repost it.