IOPscience terms & conditions

Version dated 15 September 2021

Terms and conditions for access to the IOPscience platform by individuals

This document sets out the terms and conditions on which IOP Publishing Limited ("IOP") will make access to its IOPscience platform available via its World Wide Web server ("the Server") to an individual accessing a particular IOP service (the "Service"). Please read these terms and conditions carefully. By accessing the Service, you will be deemed to be giving your confirmation that you have read and agree to be bound by all such terms and conditions.

Scope of Licence

IOP permits you to access the service via a user name and password ("User Details"). User Details includes those details provided through secure username and authentication methods like Athens and Shibboleth. User Details shall not be divulged to any other person nor used to facilitate any other person getting access to the Service in any way. IOP reserves the right to deny you access to the Service if it believes that other people are accessing the Service through your User Details.

extends only to you individually and may not be transferred or extended to others.

Permitted Use

You may access, search and print hard copy of text. Copying shall be limited to making a single printed copy or electronic copies of a reasonable number of individual articles, chapters or other similar items. No text accessed via the Service may be made available to a third party, either for commercial reward or free of charge, save as expressly stated in these terms and conditions.

If you are accessing the Service in a commercial context then you may only access it for internal research, testing or training purposes or for personal use in accordance with these terms and conditions.

If you are accessing the Service in a personal or educational context then you may only access it for private study or research for a non-commercial purpose. You may also make brief quotations from the content of journals, with the customary acknowledgement of the source, and copy and transmit content from individual online articles in "person-to-person" and non-systematic scholarly exchanges of information.

You may only use this online access in a way that does not breach the laws of the country in which you are accessing the Service.

Prohibitions

Altering, recompiling, systematic or programmatic copying, reselling, redistributing, supplying, publishing or republishing (beyond the brief quotations permitted above) from the Service of any text, output, search results or other information from any part of the Service, including, without limitation, copyright, proprietary or other legal notices, in any form or medium is prohibited. Systematic downloading, service bureau redistribution services, printing for a for-fee-service purpose, document delivery services and/or the systematic making of print or electronic copies for transmission to third parties (beyond that permitted above) are prohibited.

Duration

This agreement between you and IOP set out in these terms and conditions shall become effective on acceptance by IOP. This agreement shall be for any initial term we agree with you in writing and shall then continue on an annual rolling basis on condition that you comply with all the terms and conditions and continue to pay IOP any applicable fee. Access to the Service shall terminate (a) immediately if these terms and conditions are materially breached by you and such breach is not remedied within 30 days of your receiving a written request to remedy such breach; or (b) following not less than 30 days’ prior written notice by IOP to you. This agreement will also terminate if you reject a change to these terms and conditions notified to you by IOP. In the absence of any rejection within 30 days of notification, any new terms and conditions will apply.

Continued Access

On termination of this agreement, where IOP has expressly agreed with you in writing to provide continued access post termination as part of your access to the Service, and where you are not in breach of any of the terms and conditions of this agreement and have paid all your fees in full, you will be entitled to have continued access to issues of journals published in the calendar year in which your access to them commenced under this agreement and, where this agreement remains in force for subsequent full calendar years, continued access to the issues of those journals dated with those full calendar years (the "Available Content"). All other access shall terminate. The Available Content will be made available via a website on payment of an annual maintenance fee and for so long as IOP provides electronic access to that content via a website. If access via a website is no longer available at any time, IOP will make the Available Content available to you on disk or on some other form of electronic media. If, at any time, IOP ceases to publish or distribute any of the Available Content then it will use its reasonable endeavours to negotiate the right for you to continue to access it in accordance with these terms and conditions.

Copyright

IOP's journals and their content, including, but not limited to, abstracts, are either owned by IOP or IOP has the right to make them available and are subject to all applicable copyright, database protection and other rights of copyright owners and publishers under the laws of England and other countries. You shall claim no ownership by reason of your use of or access to the Service. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Fees

Any fees payable by you for the Service shall be those agreed with IOP in writing and shall be payable by you within 30 days of the date of any invoice. Where fees are being paid by your authorised subscription agent, you shall remain primarily responsible for payment of such fees.

Where this agreement continues for more than one calendar year, IOP will notify you, in writing and in advance, with details of any fees payable for subsequent years. You acknowledge that, even where fees for any initial term are fixed, unless the fees for subsequent years have been agreed with IOP in writing, they shall be subject to price increases and alterations. Where the Service is Article Packs, IOPscience extra or IOPcorporate, should IOP acquire or launch a new publication, such publication shall be added to the Service and you shall pay the appropriate additional fee to reflect this. In addition, where you license an Article Pack, and then go on to purchase more downloads from the journals, all subsequent purchases shall be subject to these terms and conditions, unless otherwise agreed by the parties in writing.

All sums payable by you are exclusive of sales taxes (where applicable), which shall be paid by you on presentation of an appropriate tax invoice or other appropriate claims document. If you are tax exempt, you shall notify IOP of this in writing and shall provide IOP with any documentary evidence it requires to support this exemption, promptly on request at any time.

Withdrawal of the Journals

IOP reserves the right at any time to withdraw any of the journal(s) (or part) from the Service if it no longer retains the right to publish or ceases, for whatever reason, to publish or to distribute such journal(s) or if, in its sole discretion, it believes that such journal(s) contains any material which infringes copyright or is defamatory, obscene, unlawful or otherwise objectionable.

If any journal(s) is withdrawn, IOP will give you written notice and, where it deems it to be applicable, will substitute it with any other journals which are not currently part of the Service. If it does not substitute that journal with another publication then IOP will reduce any fee for that calendar year by a sum equivalent to the contribution of the withdrawn content to the total fee, pro-rated. IOP shall be entitled to off-set any reduction owing to you against any amounts you owe to IOP under any other agreement.

Availability of the Service

IOP will use its reasonable endeavours to make the Service available on a 24 hour basis, subject to IOP's right to suspend access in order to carry out routine maintenance, repairs, testing, reconfigurations or upgrades and unavailability caused by circumstances beyond IOP's reasonable control including, but not limited to, downtime relating to telecommunications lines or any Internet nodes or facilities. If access is suspended or interrupted, or fault or defect occurs which prevents access, IOP's liability shall be limited to using commercially reasonable efforts to restore access as soon as is reasonably practicable. IOP shall have no other liability in this respect. IOP shall not be liable for any delay, downtime, transmission error, software or equipment incompatibility, force majeure or any failure of performance beyond its reasonable control.

IOP reserves the right to suspend access to the Service on detecting a breach of these terms and conditions but will not do so without notifying you.

Disclaimer of Warranties

THE CLAUSES IN THIS SECTION OF THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS WILL APPLY SO FAR AS THE APPLICABLE LAW ALLOWS.

IOP WARRANTS THAT IT IS ENTITLED TO GRANT THE LICENCES IN THIS AGREEMENT. IOP WILL TAKE REASONABLE CARE TO ENSURE THAT ITS JOURNALS ARE COMPLETE, ACCURATE AND ERROR FREE BUT IOP DOES NOT WARRANT THEIR COMPLETENESS OR ACCURACY AND DOES NOT WARRANT THAT YOUR ACCESS TO THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR FREE OR THAT THE RESULTS OBTAINED WILL BE USEFUL OR WILL SATISFY YOUR REQUIREMENTS.

OTHER THAN AS SET OUT ABOVE, IOP MAKES NO WARRANTY OR REPRESENTATION OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, WITH RESPECT TO THE SERVICE, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, WARRANTIES OF QUALITY, ORIGINALITY, SUITABILITY, SEARCHABILITY, OPERATION, PERFORMANCE, COMPATIBILITY, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

IOP SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, SPECIAL OR OTHER DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND/OR USE OF THE SERVICE, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, FOR LOSS OF PROFIT, LOSS OF REVENUE, LOSS OF CONTRACTS, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION OR LOSS OF DATA.

IN NO EVENT SHALL THE TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY OF IOP FOR ANY CLAIMS, LOSSES OR DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF A BREACH OR TERMINATION OF THIS AGREEMENT OR ACCESS TO THE SERVICE, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, DUE TO NEGLIGENCE, EXCEED THE TOTAL AMOUNT PAID BY YOU TO IOP FOR THE SERVICE DURING THE YEAR IN WHICH SUCH CLAIM, LOSS OR DAMAGE OCCURRED, EVEN IF IOP HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH POTENTIAL CLAIM, LOSS OR DAMAGE.

THE FOREGOING LIMITATION OF LIABILITY AND EXCLUSION OF CERTAIN DAMAGES SHALL APPLY REGARDLESS OF THE SUCCESS OR EFFECTIVENESS OF OTHER REMEDIES. REGARDLESS OF THE CAUSE OR FORM OF ACTION, YOU MAY BRING NO ACTION ARISING FROM THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS MORE THAN SIX CALENDAR MONTHS AFTER THE CAUSE OF ACTION AROSE.

YOU ASSUME THE SOLE RESPONSIBILITY FOR ALL USE OF THE SERVICE THROUGH YOUR USER DETAILS AND INDEMNIFY AND AGREE TO HOLD IOP INDEMNIFIED FROM ANY LIABILITY OR CLAIM OF ANY PERSON ARISING FROM SUCH USE.

IN THE CASE OF ARCHIVE CONTENT, IOP USES ITS REASONABLE ENDEAVOURS TO INCLUDE ALL RESEARCH MATERIAL FORMING PART OF THE SERVICE BUT DUE TO THE AGE, RARITY AND UNAVAILABILITY OF CERTAIN MATERIAL, IOP ACCEPTS NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE COMPLETENESS OF THE JOURNALS AND MAKES NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY IN THIS REGARD.

IOP CONDUCTS REASONABLE QUALITY CHECKING AS PART OF THE PRODUCTION PROCESS OF THE SERVICE. THIS CHECKING ENCOMPASSES ACCURACY AND COMPLETENESS. NO CHECKING ABOVE AND BEYOND THE CHECKING WHICH FORMS PART OF THE PRODUCTION PROCESS HAS BEEN CARRIED OUT. CONSEQUENTLY, IOP ACCEPTS NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE JOURNALS AND MAKES NO WARRANTY OR REPRESENTATION IN THIS REGARD.

General

This agreement and access to the Service may not be assigned or transferred by you to any other institution, organisation or person.

Failure to enforce any provision on any one occasion shall not affect IOP’s right to enforce another provision or the same provision on another occasion.

This agreement, and any other agreement entered into separately between IOP and you for the Service, which is in force on the date that this agreement comes into force, constitutes the entire agreement between us relating to the Service and supersedes any prior communication between us with respect to the Service. This is not intended to exclude any liability that either of us may have for fraud. Where there is any conflict between this agreement and any other existing agreement between us relating to the Service then the latter shall prevail. Any amendments to these terms and conditions shall be in writing and signed by both parties or by an electronic communication initiated by IOP which you do not reject within 30 days. For the avoidance of doubt, none of your terms and conditions, including, but not limited to, those included in purchase orders or other documentation regarding your access to the Service, shall form part of this agreement, whether sent to IOP before or after this agreement is entered into by us.

Where you provide Personal Data (as defined in the Data Protection Act (2018) and any subsequent legislation or regulations) to IOP, you acknowledge that such Personal Data may be processed:

ii) for the administration of this agreement;
ii) for the provision of services in connection with this agreement, including, but not limited to, creation of your online account and exchange of customer service communications; and/or
iii) as otherwise stated in IOP’s Privacy Policy from time to time.

You shall keep the negotiations with IOP regarding this agreement confidential, including, but not limited to, the fees, and you shall not disclose the same to any third party. For the avoidance of doubt, the confidentiality requirement shall not apply to those circumstances where you are obliged to disclose any particular information, in accordance with governing law.

This agreement will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and we both submit irrevocably to the jurisdiction of the English Courts. You shall not be bound by this paragraph to the extent that compliance would violate any existing law, regulation, by-laws or articles of incorporation or other governing instrument.