Terms of use

General

Your use of the epistemio.com website (“the Platform”, “the Service”) is subject to these Terms of Use (“Terms”) which also include the Privacy Policy. You should read carefully these Terms before signing onto or using the Platform. By using the Platform, whether by logging into an account or not, you signify that you agree to these Terms. The Platform is provided to you only on condition that you agree to these Terms of Use and that you agree that any claim or dispute related to your use or your inability to use the Platform shall be resolved within the conditions set out in these Terms of Use.

After agreeing to these Terms, Epistemio grants you a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferrable, non-assignable and non-sub-licensable License to use the Platform for as long as it is provided by Epistemio, according to these Terms.

Account

In order to use some of the services provided by the Platform, you need to create an Account. You are alone responsible for using a non-obvious password, as well as for maintaining the accuracy, completeness and confidentiality of your Account information. You are alone responsible for all activities that occur under your account, including activities of others to whom you have provided your Account information, in breach of these Terms. We are not liable or responsible for any damage or loss arising from your failure to provide us with accurate information or to keep your Account information secure. If you discover or suspect any unauthorized use of your Account information or suspect that anyone may be able to access your private content, you should immediately change your password and notify us.

If we detect or have any reason to suspect that your Account has been compromised or that anyone has gained unauthorized access to your private content or to your account, we reserve the right to close access to your Account, and to inform you at the email address that you have provided us. In the event of closing access to your Account for these reasons, or for any other reasons, we will not be liable or responsible for any damage or loss arising from your inability to receive, access or use the email address you have provided to us, and/or your inability to receive our notifications.

You understand and agree that you are alone responsible for your conduct while using the Platform, and for all conduct under your Account. All Content of any kind that you create, transmit, store, or display in your Account, is your sole responsibility as the person who created the Account and assumed responsibility for it, under these Terms. This applies whether the Content is kept private, or the Content is shared, made public or communicated in any form, whether through the Platform or through any third-party application or service integrated or interoperable with Epistemio.

You agree not to:

impersonate any person or entity, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent yourself, your age, your affiliation with any person or entity, or the Publications that you have authored;
create a false identity on the Platform;
register more than one user Account.

Ratings, reviews and comments

The Platform allows users to publish ratings, reviews and comments related to any scientific Publication. A Publication is defined as any public and uniquely referenceable research output, of any type. You agree to post on the Platform ratings or reviews of a Publication only if all of the following apply:

you have the subject expertise required to carry out a proper assessment of the Publication;
you do not have any conflict of interest;
you have read the Publication thoroughly and with great care.

Situations of conflict of interest include, but are not limited to, any of the following:

working at the same institution as any of the authors of the Publication (or planning to join that institution or to apply for a job there);
having been recent (e.g. within the past 3 years) mentors, mentees, close collaborators or joint grant holders with the authors of the Publication;
having a close personal relationship with any of the authors of the Publication.

When you post on the Platform a rating or a review of a Publication you agree to observe all of the following:

the assessment should be based on the merits of the Publication and not be influenced, either positively or negatively, by its origins, by the nationality, religious or political beliefs, gender or other characteristics of the authors, by commercial considerations, by any personal, financial, or other conflicting considerations or by intellectual biases;
the assessment should be honest, fair, and reflect your own views.

When you post on the Platform a review of a Publication or a comment associated with a Publication you agree to observe all of the following:

you should be objective and constructive;
you should refrain from being hostile or inflammatory, from making libelous or derogatory personal comments, and from making unfounded accusations or criticisms;
you should be specific in your criticisms, and provide evidence with appropriate references to substantiate critical statements;
you should be aware of the sensitivities surrounding language issues that are due to the authors writing in a language that is not their own, and phrase the feedback appropriately and with due respect;
if the review or comment is anonymous, you should not write it in a way that suggests that it has been written by another identifiable person.

Your content

You retain copyright and any other rights you already held in your Content (including reviews and comments) before you submitted, posted or displayed it on the Platform. However, you agree to grant Epistemio a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, irrevocable, not limited in time, and worldwide license for using the Content, for all possible uses that agree with our Privacy Policy. Such usage includes, but is not limited to, performing the following actions:

display, perform and distribute your Content, and to modify it for technical purposes, such as, for instance, to make sure the content is viewable on various devices, including phones or tablets;
reproduce the Content to enable us to operate the Platform;
process your Content with the purpose of generating aggregated metrics, indicators and other measures of scientific quality, importance, and of other aspects of the scientific activity and of the scientific community.

Open access to ratings, public reviews and public comments

Ratings, public reviews and public comments published on the Platform by any user are licensed for use and distribution by you in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA) license.

Use of the Platform

You agree not to:

use or attempt to use another's Account;
use the Platform to harvest or collect email addresses or other contact information of other users from the Platform by electronic or other means for the purposes of sending unsolicited emails or other unsolicited communications;
use the Platform for sending unsolicited emails or other unsolicited communications for commercial purposes or for purposes unrelated to science or scientific research;
upload, post, transmit, share or otherwise make available any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, solicitations, promotional materials, junk mail, spam, chain letters, pyramid schemes, or any other form of solicitation;
use the Platform in any unlawful manner or in any other manner that could damage, disable, overburden or impair the Platform;
use automated scripts or other automated routines to collect information from or otherwise interact with the Platform, other than through an application program interface (API) that we might provide for this purpose;
upload, post, transmit, share, store or otherwise make available any Content that we deem to be harmful, threatening, unlawful, defamatory, infringing, abusive, inflammatory, harassing, vulgar, obscene, fraudulent, invasive of privacy or publicity rights, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable;
upload, post, transmit, share, store or otherwise make available Content that, in the sole judgment of Epistemio, is objectionable or which restricts or inhibits any other person from using or enjoying the Platform, or which may expose Epistemio or its users to any harm or liability of any type;
upload, post, transmit, share, store or otherwise make publicly available on the Platform any private information of any third party that has not authorized you to do so, including, but not limited to, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, social security numbers or credit card numbers;
upload, post, transmit, share or otherwise make available any material that contains software viruses or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment;
upload, post, transmit, share, store or otherwise make available Content that would constitute, encourage or provide instructions for a criminal offense, violate the rights of any party, or that would otherwise create liability or violate any local, state, national or international law;
solicit passwords or personally identifying information for commercial or unlawful purposes;
intimidate or harass others;
use the Platform if you are under the age of 13;
reproduce, duplicate, copy or resell any part of the Platform, except as expressly permitted by these Terms.

Epistemio is under no obligation to post, store or communicate any Content from you or anyone else. We may, on our sole discretion, edit, remove or delete any Content that you post or submit.

You may close your Account at any time, without notice. Epistemio may suspend access to your Account, or close your Account, with or without notice according to these Terms. Reasons Epistemio may suspend or remove your Account may include, but are not limited to: breach or violation of these Terms, an extended period of inactivity (determined at our discretion), your non-payment of any fees due to Epistemio, the discontinuance or material modification of the Service, or unexpected or technical or security issues or problems.

In most cases, in the event that we elect to close your Account, we will provide at least 30 days prior notice at the email address you have provided to us, allowing you to backup or retrieve any Content stored on our servers, with the exception of cases in which we may be legally prohibited from allowing you to do so. After the expiration of this notice period, which we will communicate to you, you will no longer be able to retrieve Content contained in the Account or otherwise use the Platform through that Account.

Our rights

You acknowledge and agree that Epistemio owns legal rights and titles to the Platform, including, but not limited to, all software comprising the Platform, whether hosted on our servers or on our subcontractors’ servers. You agree that the rights to the Platform, the Epistemio software, and the Epistemio generated or licensed content on the Platform, including but not limited to any aggregated metrics, indicators and other measures of scientific quality, importance, and of other aspects of the scientific activity and of the scientific community, may be protected by one or more copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret or other laws, regulations and treaties, in addition to these Terms and any other Agreements you may have concluded with Epistemio.

"Epistemio" ® is a trademark registered in the European Union, the United States, China, the Russian Federation and Switzerland.

You agree to not modify, create derivative works of, decompile or otherwise attempt to extract source code from any Epistemio software, unless you are expressly permitted to do so through these Terms, or under an open source license, or through a written permission from Epistemio.

Epistemio may modify, update, or remove features and components of the Platform at any time, with or without notice. While we will make every effort to maintain a coherent, agreeable and efficient user experience, we admit no responsibility or liability for any loss or damage any changes might cause to the Content or to your Account, whether private or public. We also reserve the right to establish limits on the nature or size of storage available to you, the number of transmissions and email messages, the nature or size of any index or library information, the nature of, or your continued ability to access or distribute, your Content and other data, and impose other limitations at any time, with or without notice.

Epistemio may contain links to third-party websites, advertisers, or services that are not owned or controlled by Epistemio. Whenever using third-party services that Epistemio has enabled to integrate or interoperate with the Platform, your use of such services will be subject to the rights, permissions and terms of use of such services. You are alone responsible for obtaining, reading, understanding and complying with such third-party agreements, terms of use, or privacy policies. Epistemio has no control over and assumes no responsibility for the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third party websites or services. If you access a third party website from Epistemio, you do so at your own risk, and you understand that these Terms do not apply to your use of such websites. You expressly relieve Epistemio from any and all liability arising from your use of any third party website or services or third party owned content. Additionally, your dealings with or participation in promotions of advertisers found on Epistemio, including payment and delivery of goods, and any other terms (such as warranties) are solely between you and such advertisers. You agree that Epistemio shall not be responsible for any loss or damage of any sort relating to your dealings with such advertisers.

Epistemio may send you emails to an email address you have provided, announcing new features of the Platform or events that happened on the Platform and relate to your Content.

Indemnity

You agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless Epistemio and its subsidiaries, agents, managers, and other affiliated companies, and their employees, contractors, agents, officers and directors, from and against any and all claims, damages, obligations, losses, liabilities, costs or debt, and expenses (including but not limited to attorney’s fees) arising from:

your use of and access to the Platform, including any data or work transmitted or received by you;
your violation of any term of these Terms, including without limitation, your breach of any of the representations and warranties above;
your violation of any third party right, including without limitation any right of privacy, publicity rights or intellectual property rights;
your violation of any applicable law, rule or regulation;
any claim or damages that arise as a result of any of your Content or any other information that are submitted via your account;
or any other party’s access and use of the Platform with your unique username, password or other appropriate security code.

No warranty

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED ON AN “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” BASIS. USE OF THE SERVICE IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NONINFRINGEMENT. WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, EPISTEMIO, ITS SUBSIDIARIES, AND ITS LICENSORS DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE CONTENT IS ACCURATE, RELIABLE OR CORRECT; THAT THE SERVICE WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS; THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE AVAILABLE AT ANY PARTICULAR TIME OR LOCATION, UNINTERRUPTED OR SECURE; THAT ANY DEFECTS OR ERRORS WILL BE CORRECTED; OR THAT THE SERVICE IS FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS. ANY CONTENT DOWNLOADED OR OTHERWISE OBTAINED THROUGH THE USE OF THE SERVICE IS DOWNLOADED AT YOUR OWN RISK AND YOU WILL BE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE TO YOUR COMPUTER SYSTEM OR LOSS OF DATA THAT RESULTS FROM SUCH DOWNLOAD. EPISTEMIO DOES NOT WARRANT, ENDORSE, GUARANTEE, OR ASSUME RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY PRODUCT OR SERVICE ADVERTISED OR OFFERED BY A THIRD PARTY THROUGH THE EPISTEMIO SERVICE OR ANY HYPERLINKED WEBSITE OR SERVICE, OR FEATURED IN ANY BANNER OR OTHER ADVERTISING, AND EPISTEMIO WILL NOT BE A PARTY TO OR IN ANY WAY MONITOR ANY TRANSACTION BETWEEN YOU AND THIRD PARTY PROVIDERS OF PRODUCTS OR SERVICES.

Limitation of liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT SHALL EPISTEMIO, ITS AFFILIATES, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES OR ITS LICENSORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, PUNITIVE, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, GOODWILL, USE, DATA OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES, THAT RESULT FROM THE USE OF, OR INABILITY TO USE, THIS SERVICE. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WILL EPISTEMIO BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE, LOSS OR INJURY RESULTING FROM HACKING, TAMPERING OR OTHER UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS OR USE OF THE SERVICE OR YOUR ACCOUNT OR THE INFORMATION CONTAINED THEREIN. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, EPISTEMIO ASSUMES NO LIABILITY OR RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY (I) ERRORS, MISTAKES, OR INACCURACIES OF CONTENT; (II) PERSONAL INJURY OR PROPERTY DAMAGE, OF ANY NATURE WHATSOEVER, RESULTING FROM YOUR ACCESS TO AND USE OF OUR SERVICE; (III) ANY UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO OR USE OF OUR SECURE SERVERS AND/OR ANY AND ALL PERSONAL INFORMATION STORED THEREIN; (IV) ANY INTERRUPTION OR CESSATION OF TRANSMISSION TO OR FROM THE SERVICE; (V) ANY BUGS, VIRUSES, TROJAN HORSES, OR THE LIKE THAT MAY BE TRANSMITTED TO OR THROUGH OUR SERVICE BY ANY THIRD PARTY; (VI) ANY ERRORS OR OMISSIONS IN ANY CONTENT OR FOR ANY LOSS OR DAMAGE INCURRED AS A RESULT OF THE USE OF ANY CONTENT POSTED, EMAILED, TRANSMITTED, OR OTHERWISE MADE AVAILABLE THROUGH THE SERVICE; AND/OR (VII) USER CONTENT OR THE DEFAMATORY, OFFENSIVE, OR ILLEGAL CONDUCT OF ANY THIRD PARTY. IN NO EVENT SHALL EPISTEMIO, ITS AFFILIATES, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, OR LICENSORS BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY CLAIMS, PROCEEDINGS, LIABILITIES, OBLIGATIONS, DAMAGES, LOSSES OR COSTS IN AN AMOUNT EXCEEDING THE AMOUNT YOU PAID TO EPISTEMIO.

THIS LIMITATION OF LIABILITY SECTION APPLIES WHETHER THE ALLEGED LIABILITY IS BASED ON CONTRACT, TORT, NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY, OR ANY OTHER BASIS, EVEN IF EPISTEMIO HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE. THE FOREGOING LIMITATION OF LIABILITY SHALL APPLY TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW IN THE APPLICABLE JURISDICTION.

The Platform may include content licensed from the US National Library of Medicine (NLM). NLM represents that its data were formulated with a reasonable standard of care. Except for this representation, NLM makes no representation or warranties, expressed or implied. This includes, but is not limited to, any implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose, with respect to the NLM data, and NLM specifically disclaims any such warranties and representations.

Disputes

Should you initiate a claim against Epistemio in any other manner than those set out in these Terms of Use, you will be in breach of the Terms, and Epistemio will be entitled to have such action dismissed and/or terminated and you agree to reimburse Epistemio for its reasonable costs incurred in defending against such improperly initiated claim. You agree that prior to initiating any formal proceedings against Epistemio, you will notify us, and state that you are providing a “Notice of dispute”. If the dispute is not resolved informally within 60 days, you may initiate formal proceedings according to these Terms.

Severability

If any of these Terms are determined by any competent authority to be invalid, unlawful or unenforceable to any extent, such term, condition or provision will to that extent be severed from the remaining terms, conditions and provisions which will continue to be valid to the fullest extent permitted by law.

Changes

Epistemio reserves the right to change, modify, add or remove portions of these Terms of Use in its sole discretion at any time and without prior notice. Please check these Terms of Use periodically for any modifications. Your continued use of the Platform following the posting of any changes to the Terms will mean that you have read and agreed to be bound by the new Terms.

Parties and jurisdiction

These Terms represent a contract between you and Epistemio Systems SRL, a company headquartered in Str. Saturn nr. 26, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, registered in Romania under no. J12/2073/2011, having the unique registration code 28971836 and a capital stock of 50,000 lei, hereby referred to as Epistemio. These Terms and the relationship between you and Epistemio (including any dispute) shall be governed in all respects by the laws of Romania and shall be considered to have been made and accepted in Romania, without regard to conflict of law provisions. You agree that any claim or dispute you may have against Epistemio must be resolved exclusively by the courts in Cluj-Napoca, Romania and you agree to submit to the personal jurisdiction of these courts, for the purpose of litigating all such claims or disputes.