LAST UPDATED: May 27th, 2021

Description of service

Nature Research Editing Service and any products, information, or other services that are offered through the website authorservices.springernature.com (the “Service”) are provided subject to these Terms of Service. As a condition of using this website (the “Site”) and/or the Service, you expressly agree to these Terms of Service (the “Agreement”). You understand and agree that the Service is provided on an “as is” and “as available basis.” Springer Nature Limited (“SNL”, “Springer Nature Author Services,” “SNAS,” “We,” “Us” and “Our”) disclaims all responsibility and liability for the availability, timeliness, or reliability of the Service. SNL also reserves the right to modify, suspend, or discontinue the Service with or without notice at any time and without any liability to you. Customer data may be processed outside of the European Economic Area (EEA).

*For researchers using the Service under an institutional agreement, please refer solely to that agreement for guidance.

Registration

The Service is available only to persons who can form legally binding contracts under applicable law. Without limiting the foregoing, the Service is not available to individuals under the age of 18. If you are under 18, then you are not permitted to use the Services. In order to receive the Services, you must pay in advance the applicable fee unless SNL agrees that you may make payment pursuant to another payment plan. SNL may increase its fees at any time and will display the current price during service selection.

You must complete the registration form in order to use the Service. 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 SNAS account. You are responsible for maintaining the security of your account, passwords, and files, and for all uses of your account and of the Service in your name. SNL reserves the right to refuse registration of, or cancel, accounts at any time and for any reason, as SNL deems appropriate. Upon termination of your registration as a “user”, you will no longer be allowed access to the Service. SNL also reserves the right to modify, suspend or discontinue the Service with or without notice at any time and without any liability to you.

SNL may use all Registration Information, subject to SNL’s compliance with SNAS’s Privacy Policy that can be found here (the “Privacy Policy”). This Agreement includes terms and conditions set forth in the Privacy Policy. By indicating your agreement to this Agreement, you are consenting to have your personal data used by SNL and its service partner, Research Square AJE LLC, as set forth in the Privacy Policy.

Your intellectual property rights

Springer Nature Limited and its employees make no claims on any work submitted to us through the Services. Any content (“Content”) submitted will remain your intellectual property. Editors have signed a confidentiality agreement to waive their claim to any intellectual property submitted through the Service.

You represent, warrant, and agree that you own all rights in the Content or otherwise have obtained sufficient rights to grant the rights you grant by these Terms of Service; that nothing in the Content will cause injury to any person or entity; that the Content do not contain any content that (i) is libelous, defamatory, obscene, threatening, invasive of privacy or publicity rights, infringing on intellectual property rights, abusive, illegal or otherwise objectionable; (ii) may constitute or encourage a criminal offense, violate the rights of any party or otherwise give rise to liability or violate any law; (iii) may contain software viruses; or (iv) may adversely affect Springer Nature Limited’s public image, reputation or goodwill.

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

By uploading or sending Content in connection with the Service, you give Springer Nature Limited (and those we work with) a nonexclusive, worldwide, royalty-free and fully-paid, transferable, and sublicensable, perpetual, and irrevocable license to copy, store, and use your Content (including all versions and any associated correspondence, files or forms) (i) in connection with the provision of the Service and (ii) to improve the algorithms underlying the Service; (iii) for the purposes of analysis, testing, development, and delivery of current and new services; (iv) to facilitate research integrity investigations; and (v) for audit purpose. Except with respect to Research Integrity Investigations, this data used is not personally identifiable and is only used to improve the services/software and not used for any other purpose.

In agreeing to use the Service, you grant Springer Nature Limited a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to do the following: host, reproduce, distribute, communicate, and use your content — for example, to save your content on our systems publish, publicly perform, or publicly display your content, where 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 your content, such as reformatting or translating it sublicense these rights to: our contractors who’ve signed agreements with us that are consistent with these terms, only for the limited purposes to deliver the achieve the aims listed in this section.

Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold SNL, its parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, and its directors, officers, agents, contractors, partners and employees, 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 in violation of this Agreement; or (iii) 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 SNL 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 Services.

Our intellectual property rights

You acknowledge that Springer Nature Limited and/or its licensors owns all rights, title and interest in and to the Service (the “Springer Nature Rights”), and such Springer Nature Rights are protected by US and international intellectual property laws. You agree that you will not (i) use any robot, spider, other automated device, or manual process to monitor or copy or create derivatives of any content from the Service or of the proprietary software behind the Site or the Services; (ii) directly or indirectly, reverse engineer or aid or assist in the reverse engineering of all or any part of Service or 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.

Governing law

This Agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of New York, U.S.A., without reference to conflicts of laws provisions and, as to matters affecting copyrights, trademarks and patents, by U.S. federal law. Any dispute or claim arising out of, or in connection with, this Agreement shall be finally settled by binding arbitration in New York, New York, in accordance with current rules and procedures of the American Arbitration Association (http:://www.adr.org) by one (1) arbitrator appointed by the American Arbitration Association. The arbitrator shall apply the law of the State of New York, 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. You 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 New York state courts located in New York County, New York, or the federal district court for the Southern District of New York located in New York, New York. In such event, you consent to the in personam jurisdiction and venue of such courts. 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. You agree that any cause of action you may have arising out of or related to the Service must commence within one (1) year after the cause of action arose; otherwise, such cause of action is permanently barred.

This site has been designed to comply with the laws of the United States. If any material on this site, or your use of the site, is contrary to the laws of the place where you are when you access it, the site is not intended for you, and we ask you not to use the site or the Service. You are responsible for informing yourself of the laws of your jurisdiction and complying with them. In the event of any legal action arising from or relating to these Terms of Service or your use of this site, you hereby waive the right to a jury trial.

Disclaimer of warranties

YOUR USE OF THIS SITE AND THE SERVICES IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK. THE SITE AND THE SERVICES ARE PROVIDED ON AN “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” BASIS. WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO RESTRICT OR TERMINATE YOUR ACCESS TO THE SITE OR THE SERVICES AT ANY TIME. SPRINGER NATURE LIMITED EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND ANY WARRANTIES THAT MATERIALS ON THE SITE ARE NONINFRINGING; THAT ACCESS TO THE SITE AND THE SERVICES WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE; THAT THE SITE WILL BE SECURE; THAT THE SITE OR THE SERVER THAT MAKES THE SITE AVAILABLE WILL BE VIRUS-FREE; OR THAT INFORMATION ON THE SITE WILL BE COMPLETE, ACCURATE OR TIMELY. IF YOU DOWNLOAD ANY MATERIALS FROM THIS SITE, YOU DO SO AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION AND RISK. YOU WILL BE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE TO YOUR COMPUTER SYSTEM OR LOSS OF DATA THAT RESULTS FROM THE DOWNLOAD OF ANY SUCH MATERIALS. SPRINGER NATURE LIMITED DOES NOT MAKE ANY WARRANTIES OR REPRESENTATIONS REGARDING THE SERVICES OR THE MATERIALS ON THIS SITE IN TERMS OF THEIR COMPLETENESS, CORRECTNESS, ACCURACY, ADEQUACY, USEFULNESS, TIMELINESS, RELIABILITY OR OTHERWISE.

IN CERTAIN STATES, THE LAW MAY NOT PERMIT ALL OR A PORTION OF THE DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES, SO THE ABOVE DISCLAIMER MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU, IN WHOLE OR IN PART. IN SUCH CASES, THE DISCLAIMER WILL APPLY TO YOU TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW.

WITHOUT LIMITING THE GENERALITY OF THE FOREGOING, YOU ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT SPRINGER NATURE LIMITED DOES NOT: (I) GUARANTEE THE QUALITY, ACCURACY OR RESULTS OF THE SERVICES; OR (II) REPRESENT, WARRANT OR GUARANTEE THAT YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE WILL RESULT IN PUBLICATION OF YOUR DOCUMENTS.

Limitation of liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED UNDER APPLICABLE LAW, YOU UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT NEITHER SPRINGER NATURE LIMITED NOR ANY OF ITS AFFILIATES, PARENTS, SUBSIDIARIES OR THIRD PARTY SUBCONTRACTORS SHALL BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR ANY OTHER DAMAGES RELATING TO OR RESULTING FROM YOUR USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THIS SITE OR THE SERVICES. THESE INCLUDE DAMAGES FOR ERRORS, OMISSIONS, INTERRUPTIONS, DEFECTS, DELAYS, COMPUTER VIRUSES, YOUR LOSS OF PROFITS, LOSS OF DATA, UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO AND ALTERATION OF YOUR TRANSMISSIONS AND DATA, AND OTHER TANGIBLE AND INTANGIBLE LOSSES. THIS LIMITATION APPLIES REGARDLESS OF WHETHER THE DAMAGES ARE CLAIMED UNDER THE TERMS OF A CONTRACT, AS THE RESULT OF NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE ARISE OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE, INABILITY TO USE, OR PERFORMANCE OF THE INFORMATION, SERVICES, PRODUCTS OR MATERIALS AVAILABLE FROM THIS SITE, AND EVEN IF WE OR OUR REPRESENTATIVES HAVE BEEN NEGLIGENT OR HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

BECAUSE SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, ALL OR A PORTION OF THE ABOVE LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WILL THE TOTAL LIABILITY OF SPRINGER NATURE LIMITED TO YOU FOR ANY REASON RELATING TO YOUR USE OF THIS WEBSITE OR THE SERVICES, WHETHER ARISING IN CONTRACT, TORT OR ANY OTHER LEGAL THEORY (INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, NEGLIGENCE OR STRICT LIABILITY), EXCEED AN AMOUNT EQUAL TO THE FEES PAID BY YOU TO NATURE RESEARCH EDITING SERVICE IN THE ONE YEAR PRECEDING THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM. SNL shall not be liable for any failure to perform its obligations hereunder where such failure results from any cause beyond AJE’s reasonable control, including, without limitation, mechanical, electronic or communications failure or degradation (including “line-noise” interference).

Wire transfers

In the case of overpayment through wire transfer, Springer Nature Author Services will provide a credit to your account which is not redeemable for cash. The credit can be used towards the cost of future manuscripts.

Sanctions Compliance

Springer Nature Author Services complies with all sanctions/restrictions imposed by the US Department of the Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

Cancellation and refund policy

The completed manuscript you receive from Nature Research Editing Service is covered by our editing guarantee. We guarantee that if you are not satisfied with the editing of your manuscript or if a journal mentions English language errors, we will re-edit your document for free.

For Silver and Gold Editing, material added to your paper after our editors work on your manuscript is not included in this guarantee. For this reason, we recommend that you send us your final draft when you make a new order. If you need to add content or make substantial changes after receiving comments from the journal editor or reviewers, you may resubmit your paper for a re-edit at a $40 discount.

If a journal mentions English as a problem in a manuscript that we edited, we want to know. Please contact us with the file that you sent to the journal and all the comments from the journal. We will reply with a solution within 1 business day.

If you are unsatisfied with our editing, we will work with you until you are satisfied. Please provide one or two specific examples or a few details about what is unsatisfactory.

No refunds shall be provided except as set expressly agreed to by SNL.

Overpayments, Credits, Holds and Offsets

In the case of overpayment, SNL will provide a credit to your SNAS account which is not redeemable for cash. The credit can be used to submit future manuscripts.

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.

Customer Communications

By using the Service, 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 visiting http://secure.aje.com/optout or 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.

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 our services and policies.

Miscellaneous

This Agreement sets forth the entire agreement between you and SNL pertaining to your use of the Site and the Service. We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to change, modify, add, or delete portions of this Agreement at any time. 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). While we may notify you directly of material changes on this Site, you must check this page from time to time to take notice of any changes we make, as they are binding on you. 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. Your continued use of the Services or the 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 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. SNL’s failure to exercise any right or provision of this Agreement shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision.