Terms and Conditions for Users

Frontiers Research Foundation (Frontiers Research Foundation) is a legally registered foundation governed by statutes and a Board of Trustees, in accordance with the articles 80 et seq of the Swiss Civil Code and placed under the supervision of the Federal Supervisory Board for foundations.

By using a Frontiers Research Foundation website (Website), you agree without restriction to the following conditions:


1.0 These conditions cover all interactions with Frontiers Research Foundation and its websites

These Terms and Conditions create a contract between you and Frontiers Research Foundation whenever you interact with us, whether or not you are registered.

Other rules and procedures of Frontiers Research Foundation, in particular the Privacy Policy, Conflict of interest Rules and Copyright Statement, will apply.

Our contractual relationship with you is personal to you and may not be assigned or transferred by you to any other person.

Your right to use any Website and any related functionality is conditional on your complying with these conditions and all other applicable rules and conditions specified by Frontiers Research Foundation. Frontiers Research Foundation will also comply with its Terms and Conditions.

2.0 Privacy, Personal Data and Cookies

Frontiers Research Foundation strives to comply, as a minimum, with Swiss and EU laws on privacy and data protection and to apply the principles of recognised cross-border data protection procedures. Our Privacy Policy provides detailed information on what personal data we collect, how we use it and your rights concerning our processing of your data.

3.0 Ownership of Website, Software and Content; Trademarks

Frontiers Research Foundation is the owner of the Frontiers Research Foundation websites, the software constituting that website and of all copyright and other intellectual property rights in those assets.

Frontiers Research Foundation is the owner of the combination of all content on Frontiers Research Foundation Websites, and of the look and feel of its Websites.

Names, logos and other content may be the object of registered trademarks of Frontiers Research Foundation. The names of donors or beneficiaries may constitute third parties’ trademarks.

4.0 Licences (Permissions)

Should you submit any content these Terms and Conditions of Frontiers Research Foundation, you grant to Frontiers Research Foundation and to the world at large a permanent, non-cancellable, free-of-charge, worldwide licence (permission) to publish, display, store, copy, adapt and re-use that article – including any third-party materials – and to create derivative works from it. You can not terminate that licence. You must ensure that you have all necessary permissions from the owner of the copyright in your article, which may be your employer or funder, and from all other third parties who own the copyright in any aspect of your article. Ownership by the third party of the copyright can still be notified on the relevant materials, and attribution must be made in accordance with usual scholarly practices.

The licence (permission) you grant over any content submitted to Frontiers Research Foundation is, unless otherwise stated, a Creative Commons attribution licence (known as a “CC-BY” licence). You can not terminate that licence. For some governmental or international governmental organisations, the licence may be another, similar, licence.

In summary, the CC-BY licence means that anyone may copy, re-publish, adapt and/or re-use your content, and create derivative works from it, for commercial or non-commercial purposes, without charge, but must clearly attribute the work to you and any co-authors, and they must cite Frontiers Research Foundation as the original publisher of that content. Complete information can be found at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

You agree that as the Creative Commons organisation updates the CC-BY licence, the licence terms granted by you are automatically updated to the new version.

Reproduction of all or part of an article is also subject to compliance with usual academic attribution practices, which must be scrupulously complied with in addition to the CC-BY requirements.

You may not reproduce or publish any content in any forum (online or not) which advocates any political, religious, anti-religious, racist, extremist, violent or disrespectful viewpoints. If you post any Website content in such a forum, you must remove it immediately on request by Frontiers Research Foundation.

You may also not reproduce any content from any Website in order to denigrate Frontiers Research Foundation or any partner of Frontiers Research Foundation.

The same CC-BY licence also applies to any other content, such as reviews, opinions, conference abstracts and blog posts, which you may submit to Frontiers Research Foundation.

You irrevocably grant us permission to use, and to permit others to use, any non-patented ideas set out in your content or in any message sent or submitted to Frontiers Research Foundation, without any charge and without restriction, for any purpose in any part of the world.

It is your responsibility to comply with the conditions of any third-party website on which you may post content originally published on any Website.

5.0 Your Rights as a User; Restrictions on Your Rights

As a user, registered or not, you may use all open functionalities of the Websites if you comply with all applicable conditions and rules. Some functionality may be restricted to registered users or to certain types of users.

You may benefit from the CC-BY licence over articles and other content, and from a CC0 licence for certain article metadata, all as described elsewhere in these Terms and Conditions.

If you are a registered user, you may create links to Frontiers Research Foundation Websites from other respectable websites, but not from any website which does not comply with the requirements of these conditions. Frontiers Research Foundation may remove any links and/or to require their removal, and you must comply with such a request. Frontiers Research Foundation are not responsible for the content of third-party websites.

Uploading of videos and similar materials is subject to all related rules, including third-party and intellectual property rules. Be aware of the warranties you give concerning your right to upload any content.

6.0 Rules on Content

All content submitted to any Website must comply with these rules. This is your responsibility when you submit any article or content.

All content must:

  • be accurate or be genuinely believed to be accurate after duly rigorous investigation

  • only state opinions which are genuinely held

  • comply with all generally accepted scientific and academic norms and with all accepted citation rules and norms, and must give appropriate credit for contributions

  • comply with all accepted ethical rules and norms, including any ethical guidelines of Frontiers Research Foundation

  • not infringe any intellectual property rights (including copyright, moral rights and database rights) of any person

  • be the subject of any necessary consents and authorisations

  • not breach any conditions of any website or other forum from which that content was copied or derived, or to which you provide a link, or from which you have provided a link to our website

  • not be defamatory

  • not be malicious, offensive, discriminatory, threatening, racist, extremist; not promote hatred or violence or denigrate any person, group of people or set of beliefs, or provide any link to any such material

  • only be for the purpose of furthering scientific and academic discourse in good faith, and in particular not be for the purpose, or have the effect, of promoting any commercial offering, service, product or interest, without the prior explicit agreement of Frontiers Research Foundation

  • not give a false impression that it emanates from Frontiers Research Foundation is approved by Frontiers Research Foundation, or otherwise be misleading in any way

  • not be pornographic or indecent

  • remain polite and respectful, especially when disagreeing

  • not ascribe any negative psychological or other labels or descriptions to any named or identifiable person or group of people, without the specific, informed consent of the person or people concerned to such label or description being ascribed to him/her/them

  • not be for the purpose, or have the primary effect, of promoting any political, societal, religious or anti-religious views

  • not disclose confidential information, including personal data of others, without the consent of the owner of that information or data

  • comply with all applicable laws

  • not advocate, refer to or provide a link to any website or content which would itself infringe any of these principles.

Frontiers Research Foundation may remove any content, or retract peer-reviewed articles, at their respective discretion. You may also request deletion of content, such requests will be considered in their context. A place-holder may be inserted to indicate that a comment has been deleted. Deleted comments may be retained for the record.

Frontiers Research Foundation is not responsible for content posted by their users.

Content you post will by default be visible to others. You may alter your settings to reduce access to your content by editing the default settings for each post you make.

Any content posted by you may be commented on, copied, quoted and linked to by others.

If you believe any content on a Frontiers Research Foundation’s Website breaches any of these requirements, please contact us at info@FrontiersFoundation.org.

7.0 Advertising, Promotion and Grants

Grants programmes: Frontiers Research Foundation has sponsorship programmes. Donations and Grants must comply with strict ethical rules. You will find information on our Website.

Promotional Messages: Messages and other content promoting a commercial offering are not permitted.

Advertising: Frontiers Research Foundation does not currently accept advertisements.

8.0 Availability; Viruses and Attacks; Bugs and Errors

Frontiers Research Foundation endeavours, through active maintenance, to ensure that Websites remain available, bug-free and error-free, but the need for planned and emergency maintenance and the nature of software development mean that no absolute guarantee can be given. We will do what we can to give adequate warning of any planned downtime and to minimise unplanned downtime.

We may from time to time withdraw services. Withdrawn services may or may not be replaced with others.

You are strongly advised to keep back-ups of any content which you do not wish to lose.

Frontiers Research Foundation adopts industry-standard measures to minimise the risk of attacks, viruses, other harmful code and hackers. Given that our platform exists to permit the contribution of content, and given the constant efforts of those with ill intent, we can not guarantee that any Website, or links posted by users, will be free from third-party viruses and other malicious third-party software or that we will always be successful in preventing attacks from succeeding. We will continue in our efforts both to prevent such occurrences and to minimise their impact on us and on our users.

9.0 Prohibited Activities

The following activities are prohibited on all Websites, and can result in your registration being suspended or terminated, which Frontiers Research Foundation expressly reserves the right to do, and in your being liable for damages to Frontiers Research Foundation and/or to other third parties.

  • Gaining or attempting to gain access to another user’s account without that user’s explicit and informed permission

  • Disguising your identity when interacting in any way on any Websites

  • Any activity which is designed to, or is likely to, cause any harm or damage to Frontiers Research Foundation or to any users of Frontiers Research Foundation’ facilities

  • Any attempt to copy, hack or reverse-engineer the code forming any Website or any functionality offered by any Website

  • Any act intended or likely to cause any damage to any Website, its availability on the Internet, its underlying software or the reputation of Frontiers Research Foundation, including (but not limited to) denial of service attacks

  • Uploading or placing on any Website, or on any website to which you provide links, of any virus or other harmful or undesirable code

  • Any fraudulent, harmful or illegal activity

  • Any attempt to gain unauthorised access to databases or other resources of Frontiers Research Foundation or its suppliers

  • Posting or linking to any content which does not comply in all respects with the content requirements set out in these conditions

  • Posting of any personal information of any other person without that person’s explicit informed consent

  • The posting of any commercial or promotional content, or any content which includes promotion of any commercial or business offering, without a specific agreement with Frontiers Research Foundation in that respect

  • The mounting or promotion of any pyramid scheme or other multi-level marketing scheme

  • Reproduction, duplication, copying or re-selling any part of any Frontiers Research Foundation website except for good-faith reliance on explicit licences or as otherwise specifically permitted by these Terms and Conditions or following the specific and explicit agreement of Frontiers Research Foundation.

10.0 Text and Data Mining; Bulk Downloading

Text and data mining of public content are permitted for the legitimate purpose of enrichment of external collections of scientific literature. However, we may need to restrict this activity if it hinders the performance of one or more Websites. If you encounter problems, please feel free to contact our technical support: info@FrontiersFoundation.org.

Text and data mined, and content downloaded in bulk or individually from any Website, remain subject to the relevant licence (CC-BY, CC0 or other relevant licence), and all attribution and other conditions of such licences must be complied with. To the extent that any such text or data constitutes or includes Personal Data, all applicable data protection laws must also be complied with.

11.0 Infringement of Your Rights

We believe in respecting the rights of all, including rights granted by law and those generally accepted in academia. If you believe your rights have been infringed, please contact us at this address: info@FrontiersFoundation.org.

12.0 Exclusion of Users

We expressly reserve the right to refuse applications to register and/or to suspend or cancel the accounts of users, at our discretion.

13.0 Amendment of Conditions

These Terms and Conditions, and other conditions and rules of Frontiers Research Foundation will be amended from time to time. Amendments will be communicated in the manner appearing most appropriate to Frontiers Research Foundation. This may include email and/or notification at login. For this reason you should log out and log back in frequently from and to your Frontiers Research Foundation account to ensure you are aware of changes to Conditions. Amendments take effect upon that communication being made available to you, whether or not you actually log in to receive the information.

14.0 DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES

YOUR USE OF FRONTIERS RESEARCH FOUNDATION OR ANY WEBSITE TO WHICH THEY ARE LINKED IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK. ALL WEBSITES AND THEIR CONTENT ARE PROVIDED FOR USE ON AN "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" BASIS. FRONTIERS RESEARCH FOUNDATION MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO ANY WEBSITES, THEIR AVAILABILITY OR THEIR CONTENTS AND HEREBY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT, RELATING TO THE FRONTIERS RESEARCH FOUNDATION WEBSITES OR ANY WEBSITE TO WHICH THEY ARE LINKED. NO ADVICE OR INFORMATION, WHETHER ORAL OR WRITTEN, OBTAINED BY YOU FROM FRONTIERS RESEARCH FOUNDATION OR THROUGH OR FROM ANY WEBSITE SHALL CREATE ANY WARRANTY NOT EXPRESSLY STATED IN THESE CONDITIONS FOR WEBSITE USE. WITHOUT LIMITING THE GENERALITY OF THE FOREGOING, FRONTIERS RESEARCH FOUNDATION STRONGLY RECOMMENDS THAT YOU INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY ANY INFORMATION UPON WHICH YOU CHOOSE TO RELY.

15.0 LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

IN NO EVENT SHALL FRONTIERS RESEARCH FOUNDATION OR THEIR RESPECTIVE VOLUNTEERS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, SUPPLIERS OR CONTRACTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES OF ANY NATURE, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION ANY CONSEQUENTIAL LOSS, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF INCOME OR PROFIT, LOSS OF OR DAMAGE TO PROPERTY, LOSS OF GOODWILL, USE, DATA OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES, CLAIMS OF THIRD PARTIES, OR ANY OTHER LOSS, COST, CLAIM OR EXPENSE OF ANY KIND OR CHARACTER ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OF ANY WEBSITE, ITS CONTENT OR ANY WEBSITE TO OR FROM WHICH ANY LINKS MAY BE ESTABLISHED.

NOTHING IN THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS SHALL LIMIT OR EXCLUDE, OR BE INTERPRETED AS INTENDING TO LIMIT OR EXCLUDE, LIABILITY FOR GROSS NEGLIGENCE (AS DEFINED UNDER SWISS LAW) OR FOR DELIBERATE WRONGDOING, OR FOR ANY OTHER MATTER FOR WHICH, UNDER ANY APPLICABLE LAW, LIABILITY CAN NOT BE LIMITED OR EXCLUDED.

16.0 Deadline for bringing claims

Any claim against Frontiers Research Foundation must be brought within one year of your becoming aware of the existence of that claim.

17.0 Failure to enforce rights

Forbearance from enforcement of rights in the event of a breach of these Terms and Conditions does not prevent future enforcement of that right.

18.0 Force Majeure

Neither you nor Frontiers Research Foundation are / is liable for failure to fulfil obligations due to circumstances beyond the reasonable control of the affected party, but both you and Frontiers Research Foundation undertake to take all reasonable measures to limit the duration and effect of those circumstances and to find other ways of fulfilling your or its obligations.

19.0 Governing Law and Jurisdiction

Your agreement with Frontiers Research Foundation, including these conditions and all other matters referred to above, is governed exclusively by the laws of Switzerland. You and Frontiers Research Foundation agree to seek in good faith to resolve any disputes through good-faith discussion, negotiation and mediation before resorting to litigation. Any dispute not so resolved shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of the Canton of Vaud, Switzerland. Frontiers Research Foundation does not accept any other jurisdiction unless otherwise explicitly agreed by it in writing. You will consent to any action by us taken to stop or prevent you from bringing an action in breach of this clause, and to indemnify us for our costs in bringing such an action.

These Terms and Conditions come into effect on April 22nd, 2022.