Terms of use

Our Websites are protected by copyright.

We will, wherever possible, ensure that the information contained on Our Websites is accurate and up-to-date, but we accept no liability for omissions or errors therein or their consequences. We reserve the right to make changes to the information published on Our Websites at any time.

Browsing, downloading and printing information

You may browse, download or print out one copy of the material displayed on Our Websites for your personal, non-commercial, non-public use, but you must retain all copyright and other proprietary notices contained on these materials.

Prohibited uses

You may use Our Websites only for lawful purposes. You must not use Our Websites:

• in any way that breaches any applicable local, national or international law or regulation
• in any way that is unlawful or fraudulent, or has any unlawful or fraudulent purpose or effect
• in any way that subjects or may subject us to any derogatory treatment, misrepresents us, brings us into disrepute, or causes us to incur liability to any third party
• to bully, intimidate, harass, harm, offend or discriminate against any user
• to solicit sign-in information or access an account belonging to anyone else
• to transmit or procure the sending of any unauthorised advertising or promotional materials, or any other form of solicitation (spam)
• to knowingly transmit any material that contains viruses or any other harmful program or computer code that is designed to adversely affect the operation of any computer software or hardware
• to promote sexually explicit material, violence or terrorism
• to send, knowingly receive, upload, download, use or re-use any material which does not comply with the Terms of using our Interactive Services
• to share information about any individual without their express consent
• to store or use the personal data of other users of Our Websites
• to knowingly use or reuse any material which does not comply with these terms and conditions
• to further copy, distribute or otherwise use any of the materials from Our Websites without our written consent
• to interfere with, damage or disrupt software or hardware used to operate Our Websites.

Using our Interactive Services

Some of Our Websites provide Interactive Services which include the option to contact and connect to other users, or make a Contribution by publishing information on Our Websites. Please note that further terms and conditions may apply when using our Interactive Services. These terms and conditions and policies may reference each other and are not mutually exclusive.

In addition to the Terms set out above in respect to ‘Prohibited uses’, you must comply with the spirit of the following standards as well as the letter when using our Interactive Services. These additional standards apply to each part of any Contribution, as well as to its whole.

A Contribution must:

• be accurate and up-to-date (where they state facts)
• be genuinely held (where they state opinions)

A Contribution must not:

• be dishonest, inaccurate or likely to deceive any person
• contain any material which is defamatory of any person
• contain any material which is obscene, offensive, hateful or inflammatory
• promote sexually explicit material or violence
• put the welfare of children at risk
• advertise, promotes or offer to trade any goods or services, except in areas (if any) specifically designated for such purpose
• promote, encourage or facilitate terrorism or other activities that risk national security
• promote discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, gender, marital status, sexual orientation or age
• violate and/or infringe any applicable law, such as copyright, database right or trade mark of any other person
• be made in breach of any legal duty owed to a third party, such as a contractual duty or a duty of confidence.
• promote, facilitate or encourage any illegal activity such as (by way of example only) copyright infringement or computer misuse
• be threatening, cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety, abuse, invade, infringe or try to infringe another’s privacy.  This includes you storing or trying to store personal data or usage details of other users of our Site and/or Interactive Services
• be likely to harass, upset, embarrass, alarm or annoy any other person
• be used to impersonate any person, or to misrepresent your identity or affiliation with any person
• give the impression that they emanate from Us, if this is not the case
• suggest any endorsement or approval by The Royal Society of Chemistry of a product or service (for instance, a personal website) or any non-Royal Society of Chemistry entity, product or content or any belief or opinion expressed within a product or service.

Where Interactive Services are in use on Our Websites:

• please be mindful of your own safety and use your best judgment when submitting information and/or content, whether via a Contribution or otherwise to Our Websites.  In particular we discourage divulging personal telephone numbers, email addresses and postal addresses or other information that can be used to identify or locate you in public areas of Our Websites 
• we may assess any possible risks for users (and in particular, for children) from third parties when they use any interactive service provided on Our Websites, and we will decide in each case whether it is appropriate to use moderation of the relevant service (including what kind of moderation to use) in the light of those risks. However, we are under no obligation to oversee, monitor or moderate any interactive service we provide on Our Websites, and we expressly exclude our liability for any loss or damage arising from the use of any interactive service by a user in contravention of our content standards, whether the service is moderated or not
• the use of any of our Interactive Services by children is subject to the consent of their parent or guardian. If you permit your child to use a web enabled device to access or view any of our Interactive Services you are solely responsible for deciding whether the content is appropriate for that child to access or view.  We advise parents who permit their children to use an interactive service that it is important that they communicate with their children about their safety online, as moderation (if undertaken) is not fool-proof. Children who are using any interactive service should be made aware of the potential risks to them
• where we do moderate an interactive service, we will normally provide you with a means of contacting the moderator, should a concern or difficulty arise.

Contribution and copyright

By contributing information to Our Websites through Interactive Services:

• you warrant that you are entitled to submit the Contribution to us and that the Contribution is accurate, not confidential, and not in violation of any contractual restrictions or other third party rights
• you agree that you own the copyright in your Contribution and that you may request its deletion at any time, unless you have shared information or content with others and they have not deleted it, or it was copied or stored by other users
• you confirm that you have the consent of anyone who is identifiable in your Contribution or the consent of their parent/guardian if they are under the age of 16
• you agree to grant Us a non-exclusive licence to use that Contribution.  Although you will still own the copyright in your Contribution, We will have the right to freely use, copy, edit, alter, modify, display, reproduce, publish, distribute, archive and/or store the material contained in your Contribution.  This licence will be free of charge, irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual, unlimited and capable of assignment and/or sub-licence.  We may exercise all copyright and publicity rights in the material contained in your Contribution in all jurisdictions, to their full extent and for the full period for which any such rights exist in that material.If you are not in a position to grant a licence to Us as set out under this clause or you do not want to grant Us such a licence to use your Contribution in accordance with Our Terms, please do not share or submit a Contribution to us
• you warrant that any Contribution you make does comply with Our Terms and you will be liable to us and indemnify us for any breach of this warranty.  If you are a consumer user, this means you will be responsible for any loss or damage we suffer as a result of your breach of this warranty
• you grant Us the right to use and publish your name and/or preferred display name (“PDN”) against any content you submit to Our Websites and the name that you choose in relation to publications (where applicable)
• you acknowledge that we cannot guarantee that users will not use the ideas and/or information that you post via your Contribution and we are not responsible for a user’s misuse or misappropriation of any content and/or information in your Contribution
• we will not be responsible, or liable to any third party, for the content or accuracy of any Contribution posted by you or any other user of Our Websites
• the views expressed by other users on Our Websites do not represent our views or values.  We do not control or direct users’ actions on Our Websites, nor do we endorse any Contribution and we are not responsible for the content or information users transmit or share on Our Websites.

Our right to edit and remove your information

• Any Contribution you make may be moderated by Us which means that they may be reviewed, edited and/or removed.
• We reserve the right to remove any of a Contribution if we believe that your Contribution or any part of it does not comply with Our Terms.  For the avoidance of doubt we reserve the right to remove any of your a Contribution if we deem to be potentially defamatory of any person or which we deem unlawful or in violation of any third party rights.
• We reserve the right to disclose any content or information you submit to us, whether part of a Contribution or otherwise as necessary to satisfy any law, regulation or Governmental request.

Suspension and termination

• We will determine, in our discretion, whether there has been a breach of Our Terms through your use of Our Websites and we reserve the right to disable or close access to Our Websites and/or Interactive Services.  When a breach of our Terms has occurred, we may take such action as we deem appropriate. 
• Failure to comply with Our Terms may result in our taking all or any of the following actions:
  • immediate, temporary or permanent withdrawal of your right to use Our Websites
  • immediate, temporary or permanent removal of any posting or material uploaded by you to Our Websites
  • issue of a warning to you
  • legal proceedings against you for reimbursement of all costs on an indemnity basis (including, but not limited to, reasonable administrative and legal costs) resulting from the breach
  • further legal action against you
  • disclosure of such information to law enforcement authorities as we reasonably feel is necessary.
• We exclude liability for actions taken in response to breaches of Our Terms.  The responses described in Our Terms are not limited, and we may take any other action we reasonably deem appropriate.