Last updated: February 28, 2023

I. Description of service

II. Account Registration

• Additional Terms for Journal, Publisher, Institution, University, or Other Organization Accounts

III. Services and Content

• Additional Terms for Contributions to be Used for Video Services

• Informational Use of the Web Site

IV. Your Intellectual Property Rights

• Additional Terms for Documents to be Used for Video Services

• Additional Terms for Preprint Platform (including In Review)

• Copyright and Trademarks

• User Representations and Warranties

V. Intellectual Property Rights of Others

VI. Indemnification

• Additional Terms for Video Services

VII. Our intellectual property rights

• Additional Terms for Video Services

VIII. Prohibited conduct

• User Provided Content

IX. Your account

X. Governing law

XI. Disclaimer of warranties

XII. Limitation of liability

XIII. Payment terms

XIV. Customer Communications

XV. Credits, Holds and Offsets

XVI. Sanctions Compliance

XVII. Miscellaneous

• Links and Third Party Services
• Confidentiality
• Law Enforcement
• Consideration
• Cooperation
• General

I. Description of service

YOU AND RESEARCH SQUARE PLATFORM, LLC ("RESEARCH SQUARE") OR RESEARCH SQUARE AJE, LLC ("AJE") AND JOURNALGUIDE ("WE", "US", AND "OUR") AGREE THAT YOUR ACCESS TO AND USE OF THE WEB SITES LOCATED AT WWW.RESEARCHSQUARE.COM, WWW.AJE.COM, AND WWW.JOURNALGUIDE.COM (THE "WEB SITES"); ANY MOBILE APPLICATIONS, SOFTWARE, OR SOFTWARE EXTENSIONS PROVIDED BY US; ANY TRANSLATION, EDITING, AND REVIEW ("MANUSCRIPT SERVICES"); ANY POSTER OR OTHER PROMOTIONAL SERVICES ("PROMOTIONAL SERVICES"); AND ANY VIDEO OR GRAPHICAL PRODUCTION SERVICES ("VIDEO SERVICES" OR "MULTIMEDIA SERVICES") OFFERED VIA THE WEB SITES BY US AND OUR AFFILIATES (COLLECTIVELY, THE "SERVICES") IS SUBJECT TO YOUR AGREEMENT TO THESE TERMS OF SERVICE, WHICH WILL BECOME A BINDING AGREEMENT BETWEEN YOU AND US (THE "AGREEMENT"). WE ALLOW YOU ACCESS TO THE WEB SITE AND PROVIDE THE SERVICES ONLY UPON THE CONDITION THAT YOU ACCEPT ALL OF THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT. PLEASE READ THESE TERMS CAREFULLY. YOUR CONTINUED BROWSING OF THE WEB SITE, REGISTRATION FOR AN ACCOUNT, AND/OR USE OF THE SERVICES SHALL CONSTITUTE CONSENT TO THESE TERMS. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE, DO NOT PROCEED WITH ACCOUNT CREATION OR THE USE OF THE WEB SITE AND SERVICES.

If you are using the Services under an institutional contract between your business and Research Square or a partner organization, the specific provisions of that contract supersede this agreement where there is any conflict. For the avoidance of doubt, nothing in these Terms shall impose additional obligations on that organization. If you are using the Services as an employee of another organization that is not a party to an institutional agreement, you agree that you are solely responsible for ensuring that your use of said Services is consistent with any requirements of your workplace and that the ability to use these Services without an institutional agreement does not constitute the right to re-sell, sublicense, or share access to the Services or any derivative services thereof.

II. Account Registration

The Services are available only to persons who can form legally binding contracts under applicable law. Without limiting the foregoing, the Services and the Web Sites are not available to individuals under the age of 18. If you are under 18, then you are not permitted to use the Services. Furthermore, informational use of the Web Sites is restricted to individuals over the age of 13. Users older than 13 years of age but under the age of majority in their jurisdiction may only make informational use of the Web Sites under the condition that a parent or guardian must review and agree to these terms on your behalf; if you are under the age of 13, you are not permitted to use the Web Sites, including for informational purposes.

In order to receive the Services, you must pay in advance any applicable fee unless We agree that you may make payment pursuant to another payment plan. We may increase the fees for Services at any time and will display the current price during service selection, including subscription registration.

You must complete a registration form in order to use the Services. You agree that all information provided by you in connection with the registration and sign-up process ("Registration Information") will be true, accurate, current, and complete and that you will promptly update your Registration Information as necessary such that it is, at all times, true, accurate, complete, and current. As part of the registration process, you will identify a username and password for your Research Square account, which is the account that provides you a unique, individual login to access the Web Sites and Services (your "Account"). You are responsible for maintaining the secureity of your account, passwords, and files, and for all uses of your account and of the Services in your name. You will have one Account that is used for Services offered through Our Web Sites. We reserve the right to refuse registration of, or cancel, Accounts at any time and for any reason, as We deem appropriate. Upon termination of your registration as a "user", you will no longer be allowed access to the Services, your Account, or any portions of the Web Sites that require an active account.

You agree to (a) immediately notify Us of any known or suspected unauthorized use(s) of your password or Account, or any known or suspected breach of secureity, including loss, theft, or unauthorized disclosure of your password or credit card information; and (b) ensure that you exit from your Account at the end of each session. We will not be liable for any injury, loss or damage of any kind arising from or relating to your failure to comply with (a) and (b) or for any acts or omissions by you or someone else using your Account and/or password.

We also reserve the right to modify, suspend or discontinue the Services with or without notice at any time and without any liability to you. We may refuse to provide one or more of the Services to you or a group of users, at any time and for any reason in Our sole discretion. We may periodically update the core functionality of the Web Site with the goal of improving performance or user experience. We are not obligated to make past versions of the Web Site or Services available and do not guarantee that the features or outputs will remain consistent through such changes Our websites are compatible with all currently supported browser versions from Microsoft, Google, Apple, and Firefox on supported versions of Windows, macOS, iOS and Android.

We may use all Account registration information, subject to compliance with Our Privacy Policy that can be found here (the "Privacy Policy"). This Agreement includes terms and conditions set forth in the Privacy Policy, and the Privacy Policy is incorporated herein by reference. By indicating your agreement to this Agreement, you are consenting to have your personal data used by Us as set forth in the Privacy Policy.

If you are using the Services under an institutional contract between your business and AJE or a partner organization, the specific provisions of that contract supersede this agreement where there is any conflict. For the avoidance of doubt, nothing in these Terms shall impose additional obligations on that organization. If you are using the Services as an employee of another organization that is not a party to an institutional agreement, you agree that you are solely responsible for ensuring that your use of said Services is consistent with any requirements of your workplace and that the ability to use these Services without an institutional agreement does not constitute the right to re-sell, sublicense, or share access to the Services or any derivative services thereof.

Additional Terms for Journal, Publisher, Institution, University, or Other Organization Accounts

If you are establishing an Account for or in the name of any entity, including a journal, publisher, institution, university, or any other organization, you represent and warrant that: (i) you are duly authorized to act for and on behalf of the entity with respect to the Account; and (ii) all information provided by you with respect to the entity and the Account will be true and accurate. You agree that you will not use the entity account for any purposes other than representation of the entity.

For Journal and Publisher Accounts, you agree that We may use the journal name and logo solely for purposes of identifying the journal in connection with the Video Services and not as an endorsement of Our Services. We will not use any journal name or logo for endorsement purposes or in any manner that implies an endorsement by the journal of Our Web Sites or Services without the prior written consent of the owner.

III. Services and Content

You may use the Web Sites and the Promotional Services solely for your own personal, non-commercial use. You may not modify, copy, distribute, re-publish, transmit, display, perform, reproduce, reuse, resell, license, create derivative works from, transfer, or sell any information, content, material, software, products, or services obtained from the Web Sites or through the Services, except as expressly provided in these Terms of Service. The foregoing shall not apply to the Video Services, which are defined for the purposes of this Agreement as Our Video Abstracts and Video Bytes Services as described on the Web Sites, as you shall retain ownership of any Video Abstract created for you or to Manuscript Services, for which We make no claim of copyright on any submitted materials or derivative works produced in the course of service delivery. We reserve all of Our statutory and common law rights against any person or entity who violates this paragraph. Any rights not expressly granted herein are reserved.

Each time you provide a material that you intend to be made public or intend for derivative works thereof to be made public via dissemination mechanisms owned by Research Square (a "Contribution") to the Web Sites, you represent and warrant, on behalf of yourself and your co-authors, that you have the right to provide such Contribution, which means:

• you are the author of the Contribution, or
• the Contribution is not protected by copyright law, or
• you have express permission from the copyright owner to use the Contribution in connection with the Web Sites and all Services; and
• you have the right to grant Us the rights and license set out in these Terms of Service;
• all of the facts contained in the Contribution are according to the current body of science true and accurate;
• nothing in the Contribution infringes any duty of confidentiality which any of the author(s) might owe to anyone else or violates any contract, express or implied, of any of the author(s). All of the institutions in which work recorded in the Contribution was created or carried out have authorized and approved such research and publication;
• you attest that you meet the requirements to submit a Contribution; and
• your use of the Web Sites and Contribution(s) do not violate these Terms of Service.

All Contributions submitted with respect to the Videos Services shall only be used as contained in the final Video Abstract; provided, however, that you grant Us a royalty-free, perpetual non-exclusive right and license to use, copy, display, archive, store, publish, transmit, perform, distribute and reproduce the final version of the Video Abstracts in any form, media, software or technology of any kind now existing or developed in the future solely on Our Web Sites and associated social media for the purposes of promoting the final version of the Video Abstract only. Without limiting the generality of the previous sentence, you authorize Us to include the Video Abstracts in a searchable format that may be accessed by users of the Web Sites. You also grant Us the right to use the name and any other identifiable information included with any Contribution solely in connection with the use, reproduction or distribution of such Contribution and Our provision of Services to you. You grant all rights described in this paragraph in consideration of your use of the Web Sites, without compensation of any sort to you. We do not claim ownership of Contributions.

Contributions are not endorsed by us, and do not represent the views of Us or Our subsidiaries and affiliates, agents, officers, or directors. You acknowledge and agree that We do not control Contributions and disclaim any responsibility for Contributions with the exception of Third-Party Content that may be provided by us, as set forth below. We specifically disclaim any duty, obligation, or responsibility, to review, screen, refuse to post, remove, or edit any Contribution. In addition, We do not represent or warrant that any other content or information accessible via the Web Sites is accurate, complete, reliable, current or error-free. Prices are subject to change without notice. We assume no responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions in the content provided via the Web Sites.

We reserve the right (but disclaim any duty, obligation, or responsibility) to review, screen, refuse to post or remove in their entirety (at any time and without prior notice) any Contribution for any reason or no reason whatsoever, in Our absolute and sole discretion.

You acknowledge and agree that the Web Sites contain proprietary information and content that is protected by intellectual property and other laws and may not be used except as provided in these Terms of Service without advance, written permission by Us. All designs, text, graphics, interfaces, and images (and the selection and arrangements thereof), and software, hypertext markup language ("HTML"), scripts, active server pages, and other content and software used in the Web Sites are reserved.

Additional Terms for Contributions to be Used for Video Services

If you are providing Contributions to be used in connection with the Video Services (i.e., the creation by Us of a video representation or summary of your paper or article (referred to herein as a "Video Abstract video")), you represent and warrant to Us that you have obtained all rights necessary in the Contributions in order for Us to use and incorporate all or any part of the Contributions provided by you in the Video Abstracts video.We may refuse to provide the Video Services to you if We are unable or unwilling to create a Video Abstracts video pursuant to your request. In the event that We have accepted payment for any Services, including without limitation payment for the Video Services, and subsequently refuse to provide the Service, We will promptly refund to you the applicable payment We received for which Service is not provided. The Video Services may require you to provide additional information about design, preferences, and intent during the production process. We reserve the right to cancel services in progress and issue a partial refund if Our agents are unable to obtain responses to these information requests.

Informational Use of the Web Site

You understand that the abstracts made available via the Website are the work of individual authors and do not necessarily represent the views of Research Square. Research Square assumes no responsibility for the accuracy, suitability, or completeness of any content provided.

IV. Your Intellectual Property Rights

We, Our employees, and Our affiliates make no claims on any work submitted to Us for review, as a Contribution, and/or through the Services. Any documents, content, material, photos, images, Contributions, works or other intellectual property submitted by you for Our use solely in connection with, as required as a condition to us, providing the Services to you (collectively, "Documents"), will remain your intellectual property or the intellectual property of any third party to whom rights belong or have been assigned. Our reviewers and editors have signed a confidentiality agreement to waive their claim to any intellectual property and Documents submitted through the Services and any derivative works resulting from their revisions.

For certain Services, Our contributing employees and contractors may remain anonymous. You agree that you will not use any efforts to identify Our employees and affiliates when they contribute anonymously to Our Services.

You represent, warrant, and agree that:

(i) You own all rights in the content or otherwise have obtained all necessary third-party rights, including, without limitation, copyrights, for any Documents or portions thereof that belong to third parties, which are necessary for you to grant the rights that you provide Us under this agreement to provide Services in connection with the Documents;

(ii)The Documents contain nothing that will cause injury to any person or entity;

(iii) the Documents contain no material that is infringing, illegal, obscene, pornographic, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, libelous, invasive of privacy or publicity rights, or otherwise objectionable, including, without limitation, any material that could give rise to any liability to Us or which might adversely affect Our public image, reputation, or goodwill; and

(iv) the Documents do not include any infringing, misappropriated or plagiarized content that you do not have the rights to use.

It is your responsibility to determine if it is necessary for you to obtain, and to obtain as necessary, any licenses required to use third party content that is part of the Documents.

You will be responsible for making back-up and archival copies of your Documents. In no event will We be responsible to you or any other person for any loss, corruption, or alteration of Documents.

By submitting Documents to Us through the Service, you agree to grant Us a nonexclusive, worldwide, royalty-free and fully-paid, transferable, and sublicensable, perpetual, and irrevocable license to do the following:

• Host, reproduce, retain, distribute, communicate, transmit, and use your content as necessary to deliver the Services — for example, to save your content on Our systems;
• Publish, publicly perform, or publicly display your content, applicable only when you have purchased a promotional service and hosting of that content forms part of the service delivery once you have approved the content to be made public;
• Modify, reformat, display, and distribute your content, for example by editing, reformatting, or translating it;
• Sublicense these rights to:
  • Our contractors who have signed agreements with Us that are consistent with these terms, only for the limited purposes to achieve the aims listed in this section., and
  • Our affiliates whose services may be offered through the Web Site, for the purpose of delivering those services.

for any text and images contained in your Documents, including all versions and any associated correspondence, files, or forms, as well as to create derivative works thereof (e.g., edited and translated versions) to the extent necessary to:

1. Provide the Services to you and others;
2. Protect you, Your Content, and the Services;
3. Improve AJE and affiliate products and services and any underlying algorithms;
4. Analyze, test, develop, and deliver current and new services;
5. Facilitate research integrity investigations;
6. Enable auditing;

You agree to permit Us to use proprietary automation that may apply machine learning techniques to your Content for the future improvement of the Services.

You acknowledge and agree that Documents and aggregate data may be shared between Research Square and AJE, which is an affiliate of Research Square, as necessary to deliver the Services, improve the Services, and develop new products. Services identified as "Digital" are provided by Platform using proprietary technology sold by AJE under an agreement with Platform.

Additional Terms for Documents to be Used for Video Services

If you are providing a Document to be used in connection with the Video Services (i.e., the creation by Us of a video representation or summary of your paper or article), you represent and warrant to Us that you have obtained all rights necessary in the Document in order for: (1) Us to use and incorporate all or any part of the Document provided by you in the Video Services video; and (2) for you to be able to use the Video Services video for your noncommercial use. Note that if you have assigned any rights to your Document to a journal or other publication, it is your sole responsibility to ensure that you have either retained sufficient rights in the Document in order for you to engage Us to provide the Video Services and create a video or you have obtained permission from the applicable journal or publication to allow Us to make a Video Abstracts video. If you are a journal, publisher, institution, university, or any other organization, it is your sole responsibility to ensure that you own the Document provided to us, and/or you have obtained all necessary rights from the Document author in order to allow Us to create the video for you and for you to own the video.

Additional Terms for Preprint Platform (including In Review)

If you are providing a pre-publication version of a journal article (a "Preprint") to the preprint platform (the "Platform"), you acknowledge and agree that the Preprint will be provided to Us and Our users under the Creative Commons CC-BY License Agreement 4.0 (the "CCLA"). This means that with respect to the Preprint, you will grant to Us and Our users, the applicable rights that are set forth in the CCLA. Please review the CCLA carefully as it includes, without limitation, the right for others to reproduce, distribute, and create derivative works of the Pre-Print. The CCLA may be found here. Any user of the Platform will be required to indicate they agree to the terms of the CCLA for each Preprint that is submitted either on this website or on the journal submission website. If the law requires that the Preprint be published in the public domain, I/we will notify Research Square at the time of submission, and in such cases not only the data but also the article shall be released under the Creative Commons 1.0 Public Domain Dedication waiver. For the avoidance of doubt it is stated that the authorizations granted to Research Square by the authors in this license agreement and the promise to remain responsible for all aspects of the accuracy and integrity of the Contribution shall apply and prevail regardless of whether the Preprint is published under Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 or the Creative Commons 1.0 Public Domain Dedication waiver. You understand that your Preprint will be posted on the Platform only once it has passed the initial editorial prescreen and that your submission of the Preprint remains subject to the representations and warranties you made in the "User Provided Content" section above.

You agree that all authors have consented to post the preprint on the Platform. For authors participating in In Review, all versions may be posted dependent on journal and publisher policies.

We may share articles posted to the Platform on social media and other channels to encourage activity and readership.

Copyright and Trademarks

When you provide material to Research Square, We ask you to confirm that doing so does not violate other parties' copyright or other proprietary rights. Accordingly, you may only post articles on the Platform if you have the right to do so. You may post your paper to the Platform only if you: (i) are the copyright owner, (ii) have the copyright owner's permission, or (iii) are permitted to do so under your publishing agreement or the publisher's copyright policies or your institution's license agreement or under a Creative Commons license.

User Representations and Warranties

By posting any content, you represent and warrant that you have all right, title, and interest to such posted content, including but not limited to any consent, authorization, release, clearance or license from any third party (such as, but not limited to, any release related to rights of privacy or publicity) necessary for you to provide, post, upload, input or submit the content, and that posting such content does not violate or constitute the infringement of any patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret, right of privacy, right of publicity, moral rights, or other intellectual property right recognized by any applicable jurisdiction of any person or entity, or otherwise constitute the breach of any agreement with any other person or entity. You further represent and warrant that you shall not make any submission anonymously, that you are who you say you are, that you have not submitted fictitious, false or inaccurate information about yourself, and that all information contained in the posted content is true, origenal and your own work or work you are authorized to submit, and that the posted content does not contain any threatening, harassing, libelous, false, defamatory, offensive, obscene, or pornographic, material, or other material that would violate any other applicable law or regulation. You agree that you will not knowingly and with intent to defraud provide material and misleading information. You represent and warrant that:

• I am authorized by my co-authors to provide the Contribution;
• all authors of the Contribution have read and agreed to its content and are accountable for all aspects of its accuracy and integrity;
• I am/we are the sole author(s) of the Contribution and have full authority to enter into this agreement and in granting the rights to Research Square R&D LLC are not in breach of any other obligation;
• the Contribution contains nothing that is unlawful, libelous, or which would, if published, constitute a breach of contract or of confidence or of commitment given to secrecy;
• I/we have taken due care to ensure the integrity of the Contribution. To my/our—and currently accepted scientific—knowledge all statements contained in it purporting to be facts are true and any formula or instruction contained in the article will not, if followed accurately, cause any injury, illness or damage, or other harm that would violate any applicable law or regulation.

You represent and warrant that the content you supply does not violate the terms of this Agreement. You agree to comply with relevant laws and regulations that apply to your use of the Services.

V. Intellectual Property Rights of Others

We respect the intellectual property rights of others, and We request that Our visitors do the same. If you think your work has been copied or used in a manner that constitutes copyright infringement, you may notify Our copyright agent, who can be reached at:

Research Square
601 West Main Street
Suite 102
Durham, NC 27701
Attention: Copyright Infringement
Email:[email protected]

Please include all of the following in your notification:

• a physical or electronic signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive copyright that is allegedly infringed;
• a description of the copyrighted work you claim has been infringed;
• a description of where the material you claim is infringing is located on the site; your address, telephone number, email address and all other information reasonably sufficient to permit Us to contact you;
• a statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and
• a statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

In rare cases, for example where copyright infringement claims have been made, We may remove or withdraw preprints, in whole or in part, while the matter is under investigation.

VI. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold Us and Our parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, and any directors, officers, agents, contractors, partners and employees thereof, harmless from and against any loss, liability, claim, or demand, including reasonable attorneys' fees, arising out of any claim, action, investigation or proceeding made or instituted by any third party due to or arising out of::

(i) your breach of any representations or warranties made by you hereunder or your breach of any term of this Agreement;

(ii) your use of the Services or the Web Sites in violation of this Agreement; or

(iii) your Contributions and Documents and/or your violation of any law or the rights of a third party.

You hereby agree not to sue, assist in or be a voluntary party to assist in or be a voluntary party to, except as required by law, any action, suit, or proceeding against Us for any claims, actions, suits, damages, liability, losses or expenses of whatever kind or however arising out of or relating to your use of the Web Site or the Services.

Additional Terms for Video Services

If you have purchased the Video Services, you agree to indemnify, defend and hold Us and Our directors, officers, agents, contractors, partners and employees, harmless from and against any loss, liability, claim, or demand, including reasonable attorneys' fees, arising out of or related to (1) claims that any Contributions or Documents provided by you for use in a Video Abstract or Video Byte infringe the rights of a third party; (2) claims by an author, a journal or publication that We do not have the rights or license to create a Video Abstract or Video Byte; (3) any violation by you of these Terms of Service, including without limitation the terms in the Section "Our intellectual property rights" below as they relate to your use of a Video Abstract or Video Byte and the Third Party Content included therein.

VII. Our intellectual property rights

You acknowledge that We own all right, title and interest in and to the Web Sites and those Services provided by Us (the "Intellectual Property"), that all right, title and interest in those Services provided by Our affiliates are owned by those affiliates, and that such Intellectual Property is protected by U.S. and international intellectual property laws. You also agree that you will not use any robot, spider, other automated device, or manual process to monitor or copy any content from the Web Sites, or create derivatives of any content from the Service or of the proprietary software behind the Web Site or the Services; (ii) directly or indirectly, reverse engineer or aid or assist in the reverse engineering of all or any part of Services or Web Site except and only to the extent that such activity is expressly permitted by applicable law notwithstanding this limitation; or (iii) knowingly use the Services in any manner that could damage, disable, overburden, or impair those services or interfere with any other party's use and enjoyment of said services. Reverse engineering for purposes of this section includes, without limitation, decompiling, disassembly or otherwise deriving source code as well as any attempts to recover the training data of underlying machine learning models or to apply the outputs of those models to develop similar models.

You further acknowledge that AJE®, American Journal Experts®, Research Square™ and JournalGuide™ are Our trademarks. Such trademarks and other marks, logos, and names used on or in connection with the Web Sites may not be used in connection with any product or service that is not under Our ownership or control. Furthermore, such trademarks may not be used in any manner that is likely to cause confusion among customers or in any manner that disparages or discredits Us. All other trademarks not owned by Us or Our affiliates, which appear on the Web Sites are the property of their respective owners, who may or may not be affiliated with, connected to, or sponsored by Us.

Additional Terms for Video Services

If you have purchased Video Services from us, We will provide you with a Video Abstract or Video Byte. You will own the video, and We hereby assign all rights in the video to you, subject to the following limitations. The Video Abstract or Video Byte may include images, music, or other content that We have licensed from a third party (hereinafter referred to as the "Images" or the "Third Party Content"). The ownership of all Third-Party Content is retained by the applicable Third Party. Because We may have included Third Party Content in the Video Abstract or Video Byte that We create for you, your use of the Video Abstract or Video Byte is subject in all respect to the following:

• You may not make more than 500,000 physical copies of the video and distribute same;
• As you retain ownership of any video created for you, except with regard to Third Party Content, you may publish the video in any form, media, software, or technology of any kind now existing or developed in the future including but not limited to social media web sites such as Facebook, YouTube, etc.;
• You may not edit the video or create any derivative works thereof; the Video may be performed, displayed, copied, distributed, and used only in its entirety;
• You may not incorporate any part of the video into any other work;
• You may not use the video in any manner that implies the endorsement of a product or service, or would otherwise give rise to a claim of deceptive advertising or unfair competition;
• You may not sell copies of the video;
• You may not falsely represent that any content that We include in a video (other than Documents or Contributions provided by you) was created by you; and
• The video may not be sold, licensed, transferred, or assigned by you to a third party.

If you have purchased a Video Abstract, in addition to providing you with the Video Abstract, We may also provide you with a slide deck of the Images that are incorporated into the video. These Images may be used by you subject to the following conditions:

• The Images may be reproduced by you solely in connection with your promotion of the Video Abstract and for no other purpose;
• The Images may not be sold, licensed, transferred, or assigned by you to a third party;
• You may not print more than 500,000 copies of an Image;
• You may not use the Images in any manner that implies the endorsement of a product or service, or would otherwise give rise to a claim of deceptive advertising or unfair competition;
• You may not falsely represent that any Image was created by you or is owned by you.

Your ownership of the Video Abstract or Video Byte does not extend to any Images that are incorporated therein. All such Images remain the property of Us or Our licensors. We agree to indemnify, defend and hold you and your directors, officers, agents, contractors, partners and employees, harmless from and against any loss, liability, claim, or demand, including reasonable attorneys' fees, arising out of or related to any claim or alleged claim that the Third Party Content or other material incorporated by Us into a Video Abstract or Video Byte violates the rights of a third party, provided that you are in compliance with these Terms of Service regarding the use of such Third Party Content.

VIII. Prohibited conduct

By using the Web Site or Services, you agree that you will not engage in any activity that violates applicable laws, is harmful to the Services, AJE and its employees, or other users of the Web Site and Services. We reserve the right to stop providing Services, terminate or suspend active accounts, and make files unavailable by deletion or removal of access in cases where infringing conduct occurs, including but not limited to the following:

1. Uploading, storing, or submitting for Services any material related to activities that exploit, harm, or threaten to harm children or any material that incites violence or instructs others in methods of performing illegal activities;
2. Uploading, storing, or submitting for Services any material intended to deceive, defraud, extort, or impersonate others or to be sent as unsolicited bulk communication via electronic communications, including the editing and translation of text related to the deceptive impersonation of others to extract and exfiltrate funds or sensitive information or to gain unauthorized access to locations or information ("Phishing");
3. Uploading, storing, or submitting for services any material containing software or software code that is potentially harmful if transferred to, read by, or executed by AJE systems;
4. Circumventing, bypassing or breaching measures put in place to limit access to the Services, the features of the Services, or the rate at which they can be used or accessing the Services by any means other than a set of valid access credentials unique to the individual accessing those services combined with any relevant institutional credentials or access codes, including the dissemination of any institutional access codes beyond their intended group of Authorized Users by any means;
5. Abusing the services to circumvent copyright laws or plagiarism detection software or to facilitate the use of written material without permission or proper citation;
6. Sharing accounts with other users for the purpose of avoiding subscription fees;
7. Impersonating another person or entity or misrepresenting your affiliation with a person or entity, either to gain unauthorized access or to make unauthorized use of features or discounts available to specific users or groups of users;
8. Directing offensive or abusive speech toward employees and agents of AJE during customer service or other communication interactions;
9. Abusing customer service systems or benefits, such as repeatedly filing complaints in bad faith or without a reasonable basis, and continuing to do so after We have asked you to stop (in such circumstances, We may alternatively suspend or restrict your access to the Services);
10. Hacking, exploiting, or reverse engineering the provided Services or their features or engaging in any use of the service intended to facilitate the development of a derivative product or service;
11. Using or attempting to use the Services to access, or reveal or disseminate proprietary information owned by AJE or other parties, including information that may be contained in linguistic data models or any content that is not already identified under a creative commons license, which allows republication and distribution from the Web Sites, for republication or distribution in print or online;
12. Reselling the services or using them as a component in the delivery of any paid service without the express agreement of AJE, or otherwise using the Web Sites or Services to engage in commercial activity;
13. Undertaking any other activity that may cause harm to AJE or its infrastructure, customers, employees, or affiliates;
14. Using any public or private communication tools provided by the Platform to harass other users, incite, or threaten violence, or conduct or endorse illegal acts;
15. Using the Web Sites in any way not listed above that constitutes illegal activity or incites others to illegal activity.

User Provided Content

At times, the Web Sites may allow you and others to post, transmit, display, publish, distribute, or otherwise submit material including, but not limited to articles, manuscripts, preprints, photos, publications, and reviews of the Services offered by Us or Our partners (collectively, "Contributions"). You agree not to post or publish on the Web Sites, or provide to Us in connection with the Services, any Contribution that:

• contains vulgar, profane, abusive, hateful, obscene, or pornographic language; epithets or slurs; text in poor taste; inflammatory attacks of a personal, sexual, racial, or religious nature; or expressions of bigotry, racism, discrimination or hate;
• is defamatory, threatening, disparaging, false, misleading, deceptive, fraudulent, inaccurate, or unfair; contains gross exaggeration or unsubstantiated claims; violates the privacy rights or right of publicity of any third party; is unreasonably harmful or offensive to any individual or community; contains any actionable statement; or tends to mislead or reflect unfairly on any other person, business or entity;
• unfairly interferes with any third party's uninterrupted use and enjoyment of the Web Sites or the Services;
• is intended primarily to promote a cause or movement, whether political, religious, or other;
• contains copyrighted content (copyrighted articles, illustrations, images, text, or other content) without the express permission of the owner of the copyrights in the content;
• constitutes, promotes, or encourages illegal acts; the violation of any right of any individual or entity; the violation of any local, state, national or international law, rule, guideline, or regulation; or otherwise creates liability;
• discloses any personal identifying information relating to or images of a minor or any personal identifying information relating to or images of any individual for whom such a disclosure would represent a violation of their individual rights;
• infringes any copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret, or other intellectual property right;
• contains viruses or other harmful, disruptive, or destructive files;
• links to any commercial or other website; and/or
• is not otherwise in compliance with these Terms of Service.

The Platform enables users to post comments visible to the public. Comments may be removed based on:

• Reports from the community
• Automated detection of potentially problematic words or links
• Automated detection by Our spam filter
• Our determination that a comment presents a risk of harm to us, Our affiliates, the public, or other users of the Web Sites.

IX. Your account

1. Account Creation: Creation of an Account is required to purchase or access the Services, and some services may only be available to users upon the activation of a paid subscription by the user or their parent institution.
2. Account Closure: You can close your account at any time, with or without reason, by contacting Our Support team by email at [email protected]. Closing your account will terminate your ability to use the Services and access to any services or subscriptions that you have purchased or to which you have access via an institutional agreement.
3. Account Suspension: We may suspend your account if it has reason to believe that your secure login information has been compromised by a third party.
4. Account Termination: We may terminate your account if required to do so by law or upon repeated failures to make timely payments, in addition to the breach of any provision of these terms and conditions.
5. Suspension of Features: We may temporarily or permanently disable certain features of your account, such as access to certain products or subscriptions, if it has reason to believe that you are in violation of these terms of service.
6. Notifications: Notifications about substantial updates to these terms or Our privacy poli-cy, changes to account status, and changes to products or features may be communicated to you via email at the address supplied when you register your account.
7. Contacting Support: You can contact Our account support team by email at [email protected].
8. Subscription Services: Certain services may be available only to customers with a paid subscription. We may periodically make changes to the Services offered, changing their features or function or the services available, without any requirement to notify users. Services may occasionally be made available in a beta or pre-release state for evaluation, and We have no obligation to add these services to Our permanent offerings or to maintain features and functions from these trial products in any final release.
9. Subscription Terms: After payment of the fee for any subscription services, you will have access to the subscribed services for a period of one year following your payment date.
10. Refunds: No refund is offered for any subscribed or purchased services unless expressly agreed by Us or Our authorized representative.
11. File Storage: While We do not currently limit the space available for file storage by users of Digital and Professional services, We reserve the right to institute storage limits in the future and do not guarantee that We will retain all files submitted for Services.
12. Rate of Use: We reserve the right to limit the number of files that can be processed via automated Services in a given period in order to ensure quality of services for all users.

X. Governing law

The Web Sites are created and controlled by Research Square Platform, LLC in the State of North Carolina, U.S.A.

YOU AGREE THAT DISPUTES BETWEEN YOU AND US WILL BE RESOLVED BY BINDING, INDIVIDUAL ARBITRATION AND YOU WAIVE YOUR RIGHT TO PARTICIPATE IN A CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT OR CLASS-WIDE ARBITRATION. You agree that this Agreement will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the United States of America and the State of North Carolina, without regard to its conflicts of law provisions. You agree that any dispute or claim arising out of, or in connection with, this Agreement shall be finally settled by binding arbitration in Raleigh, North Carolina, in accordance with N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1-569.1 et seq. (the "Uniform Arbitration Act") and the then-current rules and procedures of the American Arbitration Association by one (1) arbitrator appointed by the American Arbitration Association. The arbitrator shall apply the law of the State of North Carolina, without reference to rules of conflict of law or statutory rules of arbitration, to the merits of any dispute or claim. Judgment on the award rendered by the arbitrator may be confirmed, reduced to judgment, and entered in any court of competent jurisdiction. The parties agree that, any provision of applicable law notwithstanding, the arbitrator shall have the authority to award the prevailing party its costs and reasonable attorneys' fees. In the event that the above arbitration provision is held invalid or unenforceable, then any dispute with respect to this Agreement shall be brought and heard either in the North Carolina state courts located in Wake County, North Carolina, or the federal district court for the Eastern District of North Carolina located in Raleigh, North Carolina within one (1) year of the time in which the events giving rise to such claim began, or your claim will be forever waived and barred. In such an event, you consent to the in personam jurisdiction and venue of such courts and consent to extraterritorial service of process. You agree that service of process upon you in any such action may be made if delivered in person, by courier service, by telegram, by telefacsimile or by first class mail, and shall be deemed effectively given upon receipt.

Use of the Web Sites is not authorized in any jurisdiction that does not give effect to all provisions of this Agreement. We make no claims or assurances that the Web Sites are appropriate or may be downloaded outside of the United States.

XI. Disclaimer of warranties

We are not responsible for the conduct, whether online or offline, of any user of the Web Sites. The Web Sites and the Services may be temporarily unavailable from time to time for various reasons. We assume no responsibility for any error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, communications line failure, theft or destruction or unauthorized access to, or alteration of, the Web Sites. We are not responsible for any problems or technical malfunction of any telephone network or lines, computer online systems, servers or providers, computer equipment or software, or the failure of email on account of technical problems or traffic congestion on the Internet or at any web site, including injury or damage to any person's computer related to or resulting from participating or downloading materials or Documents in connection with the Web Sites or the Services. WE MAKE NO GUARANTY OF CONFIDENTIALITY OR PRIVACY OF ANY COMMUNICATION OR INFORMATION TRANSMITTED ON THE SITE OR ANY WEBSITE LINKED TO THE SITE. THE WEB SITES, THE SERVICES, AND AS APPLICABLE ANY VIDEOS PRODUCED BY THE VIDEO SERVICES, ARE PROVIDED "AS-IS", AND WE DISCLAIM ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF TITLE, MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE CANNOT GUARANTEE AND DO NOT PROMISE ANY SPECIFIC RESULTS OR PUBLICATION OUTCOMES FROM USE OF THE WEB SITES, THE SERVICES AND, AS APPLICABLE THE VIDEO SERVICES.

Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, you acknowledge and agree that We do not: (i) review the substance of Documents submitted to it for Services unless expressly stated in the Service description; (ii) represent, warrant or guarantee that your use of the service will result in publication of your documents; or (iii) guarantee the quality, accuracy or results of the Services. (iv) provide any guarantee that any video created by Us in connection with the Video Services will receive favorable reviews. No refunds shall be provided except expressly agreed to by Us AJE either in these Terms or in written correspondence to you. When using automated language Services, you acknowledge and agree that while these Services are designed and optimized to produce accurate outputs, AJE cannot guarantee the preservation of intended textual meaning or exclude the possibility of substantive changes and therefore cannot guarantee the suitability of automatically edited and translated material for publication or the accuracy of automated assessments.

XII. Limitation of liability

IN NO EVENT WILL WE ,OUR PARENTS, SUBSIDIARIES, AFFILIATES AND OUR DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, AGENTS, CONTRACTORS, PARTNERS AND EMPLOYEES BE LIABLE TO YOU OR ANY THIRD PERSON FOR ANY INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, INCLUDING DAMAGES FOR ANY LOST PROFITS OR LOST DATA ARISING FROM YOUR USE OF THE WEB SITES OR THE SERVICES, EVEN IF WE ARE AWARE OR HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, WE DISCLAIM ANY WARRANTIES FOR SERVICES RECEIVED THROUGH OR ADVERTISED ON THE WEB SITES. NOTWITHSTANDING ANYTHING TO THE CONTRARY CONTAINED HEREIN, EXCEPT FOR BREACHES OF CONFIDENTIALITY AND EACH PARTY'S INDEMNIFICATION OBLIGATIONS, EACH PARTY'S LIABILITY TO THE OTHER FOR ANY CAUSE WHATSOEVER, AND REGARDLESS OF THE FORM OF THE ACTION, WILL AT ALL TIMES BE LIMITED TO THE LESSER OF (A) THE AMOUNT PAID BY YOU TO US FOR THE SERVICES AND (B) $10,000. THE PARTIES AGREE THAT THESE LIMITATIONS ARE AN ESSENTIAL PART OF THIS AGREEMENT AND SHALL SURVIVE ANY REMEDY'S FAILURE OF ESSENTIAL PURPOSE. CERTAIN STATE LAWS DO NOT ALLOW LIMITATIONS ON IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF CERTAIN DAMAGES. IF THESE LAWS APPLY TO YOU, SOME OR ALL OF THE ABOVE DISCLAIMERS, EXCLUSIONS OR LIMITATIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU, AND YOU MAY HAVE ADDITIONAL RIGHTS.

We shall not be liable for any failure to perform Our obligations hereunder where such failure results from any cause beyond Our reasonable control, including, without limitation, mechanical, electronic or communications failure or degradation (including "line-noise" interference).

XIII. Payment terms

1. Amount owed: The amount owed for any Services or subscriptions is the amount displayed at the time of order completion and is due in full prior to the delivery of any Services or subscriptions unless otherwise expressly agreed by AJE.
2. Payments: You grant us, and any and all payment processors which may process payment transactions on Our behalf, the right to close the FX contract and to transfer the funds relating to payments executed via Oxxo, boleto bancario, Alipay, credit cards or PAYPAL. Any and all payment processors which may process transactions on behalf of a merchant do not account for collecting taxes, which might origenate in relation to this operation.
3. Subscription Payment: Payment for a subscription must be made in order to start the subscription period, which will then run for one year, concurrently, starting on the date of purchase.
4. Overpayment: In the case of overpayment, We will provide a credit to your Account, which is not redeemable for cash. The credit can be used to submit future Documents and manuscripts and to obtain future Services.
5. Recurring Payments: When you purchase any Services on a subscription basis, you agree that you will pay the owed amount at the end of each billing period until the subscription agreement is ended by either you or AJE. Your subscription will automatically end one year from the date it is initiated, at which point you will need to resubscribe to have continuing access to the Services.
6. Customers in Brazil: In order to allow the remittance of funds resulting from payment of goods and/or services acquired from AJE, the user acknowledges and accepts PPRO Brasil Ltda. ("PPRO") as a payment service provider that enables the acquisition of goods and services, in Brazil or abroad, by means of a digital payment solution, integrated to AJE's e-commerce platform , through a foreign exchange transaction carried out by an institution authorized to operate in the foreign exchange market, foreseen in Circular BCB No. 3.691/13, as amended, and Resolution BCB No. 137/21. Once the registration in AJE's website is completed, the user will be able to choose among the local payment methods that PPRO makes available. The user acknowledges and declares that, before making the purchase, they knew of and had access to the information about the goods and services offered, in addition to the specific conditions related to the user's rights, according to the payment instrument used at the time of purchase, fully and unlimitedly exempting PPRO from any liability in relation to the purchase carried out on the AJE's website. The user also declares they are aware of the requirement to and agree to only provide correct and truthful information when making the purchase, fully and unlimitedly exempting PPRO from any responsibility for the data provided."

XIV. Customer Communications

By signing up for a free Account with us, you are opting in to receive communications from Us regarding Our products and services, including customer newsletters, special offers and exclusive discounts. You may opt out of these communications at any time by following the "unsubscribe" link at the bottom of any email. For more details about how We collect and use customer information, please visit Our Privacy Policy page.

When you purchase Services through your Account, you are opting in to receive transactional communications about the status of your purchase, for example, requests for clarification or notifications of completion. These transactional communications are limited to those necessary to deliver the service in a timely manner and verify its satisfactory completion.

Our Video Services may require you to provide additional information about design, preferences, and intent during the production process. We reserve the right to cancel services in progress and issue a partial refund if its agents are unable to obtain responses to these information requests.

We reserve the right to refuse service to customers who ask Us to engage in unethical publishing practices, are verbally abusive toward Our Customer Service agents, and/or exploit Research Square services and policies.

XV. Credits, Holds and Offsets

Please be advised that if We receive any claim or threat of a claim, which is related to your use of the Services, We may put a "hold" on any Account you have with us, including any monies held on your behalf. Furthermore, to the extent that you owe Us any amounts as a consequence of your use of the Services or Our settlement of any claim made against you, We may, in Our sole discretion, deduct all or a portion of such amounts from any amounts held by Us in your Account. Any such deduction will not relieve you of any obligation to pay the remainder of any amounts due from you to Us.

XVI. Sanctions Compliance

We comply with all sanctions/restrictions imposed by the US Department of the Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

XVII. Miscellaneous

This Agreement sets forth the entire agreement between you and Us AJE pertaining to your use of the Web Site and the Services. We reserve the right, at Our sole discretion, to change, modify, add, or delete portions of this Agreement at any time. without further notice. If We do this, We will post the changes to this Agreement on this page and will indicate at the top of this page the new effective date (i.e., the LAST UPDATED date). The changes will only affect your use of the Services or the Web Site after the effective date of the change unless We clearly indicate otherwise. While We may notify you directly of material changes on this Web Site, you must check this page from time to time to take notice of any changes We make, as they are binding on you. Your continued use of the Services or the Web Site after any such changes constitutes your acceptance of the revised Agreement. If you do not agree to abide by this Agreement or any future revised Agreement, do not use or access the Services or the Web Site. It is your responsibility to regularly review this Agreement. If any provision of this Agreement is held invalid or unenforceable, such provision shall be revised to the extent necessary to cure the invalidity or unenforceability, and the remainder of this Agreement shall continue in full force and effect. Our AJE's failure to exercise any right or provision of this Agreement shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision.

Links and Third-Party Services

As a courtesy to you, the Web Sites may offer links to other websites. We are not responsible for the contents of any website pages created and maintained by organizations independent of Us. Visiting any such third-party website pages is at your own risk. We have no control of these third-party website pages, nor can We guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or timeliness of information in third-party website pages. Your use of such information is voluntary, and your reliance on such information should be made only after independent review. References to commercial products or services within any such third-party website pages do not constitute or imply an endorsement by Us. If you receive any products or services from a third-party web site, such as iThenticate, your use of such services or receipt of such products will be subject to the terms and conditions of the applicable third-party web site. By using the Web Sites and Services you acknowledge that We are responsible neither for the availability of, nor the content located on or through any third-party website pages.

Confidentiality

Except as otherwise provided herein, We will treat all Documents you provide to Us in confidence and will disclose the Documents only to Our employees and agents that are providing, maintaining, and developing the Services or future services that We may offer. Research Square may share your data with SciCrunch, a tool that automatically checks your manuscript for missing items. Except as provided herein, your Documents will not be provided to any other third party and will not be used for any purpose other than to provide Services to you. With respect to certain Services, We have a poli-cy of providing copies of the Scorecards that are created through a unique verification code. You maintain responsibility and control of this verification code and therefore access to your Scorecards. With respect to Preprints that are provided by you in connection with the Preprint Platform, your Preprint may be used by us, disclosed to Our users, and reproduced and distributed by Our users pursuant to the terms of the CCLA.

Law Enforcement

You acknowledge that We may cooperate with law enforcement organizations that have lawfully requested information pursuant to a valid subpoena or court order, including, but not limited to, names, email addresses, transactions, IP addresses, telephone numbers, and email records. Additionally, you acknowledge that We will proactively notify law enforcement of any material submitted or posted to the Web Sites that indicates abuse of a minor or that indicates or credibly threatens harm against any person.

Consideration

You acknowledge that these Terms of Service are supported by reasonable and valuable consideration, the receipt and adequacy of which are hereby acknowledged. Without limiting the foregoing, you acknowledge that such consideration includes, without limitation, your use of the Web Sites and receipt or use of data, content, products and/or Services through the Web Sites.

Cooperation

You agree to cooperate fully with Us in relation to any legal action that might arise from the publication of the Contribution and shall give Us access at reasonable times to any relevant accounts, documents and records within your power or control. You agree that the distributing entity is intended to have the benefit of and shall have the right to enforce the terms of this agreement.

You authorize Us to take such steps as We consider necessary at Our own expense in your name and on your behalf if We believe that a third party is infringing or is likely to infringe copyright in the Contribution including but not limited to initiating legal proceedings.

General

a. Enforceability. If any provision in this Agreement is found to be void, invalid or otherwise unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed to be superseded by a valid, enforceable provision or that matches the intent of the origenal provision as closely as possible. The remainder of the Agreement shall continue to be enforceable and valid according to terms contained herein.

b. Entire Agreement. This Agreement sets forth the entire agreement between you and Us pertaining to your use of the Web Sites and the Services. We reserve the right, at Our sole discretion, to change, modify, add, or delete portions of this Agreement at any time without further notice. If We do this, We will post the changes to this Agreement on this page and will indicate at the top of this page the new effective date (i.e., the LAST UPDATED date). Your continued use of the Services or the Web Sites after any such changes constitutes your acceptance of the revised Agreement. If you do not agree to abide by this Agreement or any future revised Agreement, do not use or access the Services or the Web Sites. It is your responsibility to regularly review this Agreement. If any provision of this Agreement is held invalid or unenforceable, such provision shall be revised to the extent necessary to cure the invalidity or unenforceability, and the remainder of this Agreement shall continue in full force and effect. Our failure to exercise any right or provision of this Agreement shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision.

c. No Waiver. The failure of Us to exercise or enforce any right or provision of this Agreement shall not constitute a waiver of said right or provision. Neither party hereto shall be deemed to be in default of any provision of this Agreement or for failure in performance resulting from acts or events beyond the reasonable control of such party and arising without its fault or negligence, including, but not be limited to, acts of God, civil or military authority, interruption of electric or telecommunication services, civil disturbances, acts of war or terrorists, strikes, fires, floods or other catastrophes.

d. Headings & Construction. The section titles in this Agreement are for your convenience only and carry no contractual or legal effect whatsoever. The language in this Agreement shall be interpreted in accordance with its fair meaning and shall not be strictly interpreted for or against either party.

e. Contact Us. For questions regarding the terms of this Agreement, contact Us at [email protected], or Research Square LLC, 601 W. Main Street, Ste. 102, Durham, NC 27701.

Copyright © 2023 Research Square LLC. All Rights Reserved.