Terms of Use

Academia.edu is a site that enables graduate students and academics to create academic webpages, and find other graduate students around the world with the same research interests as them.

The services offered by Academia.edu ("Academia.edu" or "we") include the Academia.edu website (the "Academia.edu Website"), and any other features, content, or applications offered from time to time by Academia.edu in connection with the Academia.edu Website (collectively, the "Academia.edu Services").

This Terms of Use Agreement ("Agreement") sets forth the legally binding terms for your use of the Academia.edu Services. By using the Academia.edu Services, you agree to be bound by this Agreement, whether you are a "Visitor" (which means that you simply browse the Academia.edu Website) or you are a "Member" (which means that you have registered with Academia.edu). The term "User" refers to a Visitor or a Member. You are only authorized to use the Academia.edu Services (regardless of whether your access or use is intended) if you agree to abide by all applicable laws and to this Agreement. Please read this Agreement carefully and save it. If you do not agree with it, you should leave the Academia.edu Website and discontinue use of the Academia.edu Services immediately. If you wish to become a Member, communicate with other Members and make use of the Academia.edu Services, you must read this Agreement and indicate your acceptance during the Registration process.

This Agreement includes Academia.edu's policy for acceptable use of the Academia.edu Services and Content posted on the Academia.edu Website, your rights, obligations and restrictions regarding your use of the Academia.edu Services and Academia.edu's Privacy Policy. In order to participate in certain Academia.edu Services, you may be notified that you are required to download software or content and/or agree to additional terms and conditions. Unless otherwise provided by the additional terms and conditions applicable to the Academia.edu Services in which you choose to participate, those additional terms are hereby incorporated into this Agreement. You may receive a copy of this Agreement by emailing us at: privacy@Academia.edu, Subject: Terms of Use Agreement.

Academia.edu may modify this Agreement from time to time and such modification shall be effective upon posting by Academia.edu on the Academia.edu Website. You agree to be bound to any changes to this Agreement when you use the Academia.edu Services after any such modification is posted. It is therefore important that you review this Agreement regularly to ensure you are updated as to any changes.

Academia.edu reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to reject, refuse to post or remove any posting (including private messages) by you, or to restrict, suspend, or terminate your access to all or any part of the Academia.edu Services at any time, for any or no reason, with or without prior notice, and without liability. Academia.edu expressly reserves the right to remove your profile and/or restrict, suspend, or terminate your access to any part of Academia.edu Services if Academia.edu determines, in its sole discretion, that you pose a threat to Academia.edu and/or its Users.

1. Eligibility. Use of and Membership in the Academia.edu Services is void where prohibited. By using the Academia.edu Services, you represent and warrant that (a) all registration information you submit is truthful and accurate; (b) you will maintain the accuracy of such information; (c) you are 13 years of age or older; and (d) your use of the Academia.edu Services does not violate any applicable law or regulation. Your profile may be deleted and your Membership may be terminated without warning, if we believe that you are under 13 years of age.
2. Term. This Agreement shall remain in full force and effect while you use the Academia.edu Services or are a Member. You may terminate your Membership at any time, for any reason, by following the instructions on the Member's Account Settings page. Academia.edu may terminate your Membership at any time, without warning. Even after Membership is terminated, this Agreement will remain in effect, including sections 5-17.
3. Fees. You acknowledge that Academia.edu reserves the right to charge for the Academia.edu Services and to change its fees from time to time in its discretion. If Academia.edu terminates your Membership because you have breached the Agreement, you shall not be entitled to the refund of any unused portion of subscription fees.
4. Password. When you sign up to become a Member, you will also be asked to choose a password. You are entirely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password. You agree not to use the account, username, or password of another Member at any time or to disclose your password to any third party. You agree to notify Academia.edu immediately if you suspect any unauthorized use of your account or access to your password. You are solely responsible for any and all use of your account.
5. Non-commercial Use by Users. The Academia.edu Services are for the personal use of Members only and may not be used in connection with any commercial endeavors except those that are specifically endorsed or approved by Academia.edu. Illegal and/or unauthorized use of the Academia.edu Services, including collecting usernames and/or email addresses of Members by electronic or other means for the purpose of sending unsolicited email, is prohibited. Commercial advertisements, affiliate links, and other forms of solicitation may be removed from Member profiles without notice and may result in termination of Membership privileges. Appropriate legal action will be taken for any illegal or unauthorized use of the Academia.edu Services.
6. Proprietary Rights in Content on Academia.edu.
1. Academia.edu does not claim any ownership rights in the text, files, images, photos, papers, books, video, sounds, musical works, works of authorship, or any other materials (collectively, "Content") that you post to the Academia.edu Services. After posting your Content to the Academia.edu Services, you continue to retain all ownership rights in such Content, and you continue to have the right to use your Content in any way you choose. By displaying or publishing ("posting") any Content on or through the Academia.edu Services, you hereby grant to Academia.edu a limited license to use, modify, publicly perform, publicly display, reproduce, and distribute such Content solely on and through the Academia.edu Services. The license you grant to Academia.edu is non-exclusive (meaning you are free to license your Content to anyone else in addition to Academia.edu), fully-paid and royalty-free (meaning that Academia.edu is not required to pay you for the use on the Academia.edu Services of the Content that you post), sublicensable (so that Academia.edu is able to use its affiliates and subcontractors such as Internet content delivery networks to provide the Academia.edu Services), and worldwide (because the Internet and the Academia.edu Services are global in reach). This license will terminate at the time you remove your Content from the Academia.edu Services. The license does not grant Academia.edu the right to sell your Content, nor does the license grant Academia.edu the right to distribute your Content outside of the Academia.edu Services.
2. You represent and warrant that: (i) you own the Content posted by you on or through the Academia.edu Services or otherwise have the right to grant the license set forth in this section, and (ii) the posting of your Content on or through the Academia.edu Services does not violate the privacy rights, publicity rights, copyrights, contract rights or any other rights of any person. You agree to pay for all royalties, fees, and any other monies owing any person by reason of any Content posted by you to or through the Academia.edu Services.
3. The Academia.edu Services contain Content of Academia.edu ("Academia.edu Content"). Academia.edu Content is protected by copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret and other laws, and Academia.edu owns and retains all rights in the Academia.edu Content and the Academia.edu Services. Academia.edu hereby grants you a limited, revocable, nonsublicensable license to reproduce and display the Academia.edu Content (excluding any software code) solely for your personal use in connection with viewing the Academia.edu Website and using the Academia.edu Services.
4. The Academia.edu Services contain Content of Users and other Academia.edu licensors. Except for Content posted by you, you may not copy, modify, translate, publish, broadcast, transmit, distribute, perform, display, or sell any Content appearing on or through the Academia.edu Services.
7. Content Posted.
1. Academia.edu may delete any Content that in the sole judgment of Academia.edu violates this Agreement or which may be offensive, illegal or violate the rights, harm, or threaten the safety of any person. Academia.edu assumes no responsibility for monitoring the Academia.edu Services for inappropriate Content or conduct. If at any time Academia.edu chooses, in its sole discretion, to monitor the Academia.edu Services, Academia.edu nonetheless assumes no responsibility for the Content, no obligation to modify or remove any inappropriate Content, and no responsibility for the conduct of the User submitting any such Content.
2. You are solely responsible for the Content that you post on or through any of the Academia.edu Services, and any material or information that you transmit to other Members and for your interactions with other Users. Academia.edu does not endorse and has no control over the Content. Content is not necessarily reviewed by Academia.edu prior to posting and does not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of Academia.edu. Academia.edu makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the Content or to the accuracy and reliability of the Content or any material or information that you transmit to other Members.
8. Content/Activity Prohibited. The following is a partial list of the kind of Content that is illegal or prohibited to post on or through the Academia.edu Services. Academia.edu reserves the right to investigate and take appropriate legal action against anyone who, in Academia.edu's sole discretion, violates this provision, including without limitation, removing the offending communication from the Academia.edu Services and terminating the Membership of such violators. Prohibited Content includes, but is not limited to Content that, in the sole discretion of Academia.edu:
1. is patently offensive and promotes racism, bigotry, hatred or physical harm of any kind against any group or individual;
2. harasses or advocates harassment of another person;
3. exploits people in a sexual or violent manner;
4. contains nudity, violence, or offensive subject matter or contains a link to an adult website;
5. solicits personal information from anyone under 18;
6. promotes information that you know is false or misleading or promotes illegal activities or conduct that is abusive, threatening, obscene, defamatory or libelous;
7. promotes an illegal or unauthorized copy of another person's copyrighted work, such as providing pirated computer programs or links to them, or providing information to circumvent manufacture-installed copy-protect devices.
8. involves the transmission of "junk mail," "chain letters," or unsolicited mass mailing, "spimming," or "spamming";
9. furthers or promotes any criminal activity or enterprise or provides instructional information about illegal activities including, but not limited to making or buying illegal weapons, violating someone's privacy, or providing or creating computer viruses;
10. solicits passwords or personal identifying information for commercial or unlawful purposes from other Users;
11. involves commercial activities and/or sales without our prior written consent such as contests, sweepstakes, barter, advertising, or pyramid schemes;
12. is unlawful, or promotes unlawful activity, or is content that a reasonable person could deem to be objectionable, offensive, indecent, pornographic, invasive of another’s privacy, harassing, threatening, embarrassing, distressing, vulgar, hateful, racially or ethnically offensive, or otherwise inappropriate;

The following is a partial list of the kind of activity that is illegal or prohibited on the Academia.edu Website and through your use of the Academia.edu Services. Academia.edu reserves the right to investigate and take appropriate legal action against anyone who, in Academia.edu's sole discretion, violates this provision, including without limitation, reporting you to law enforcement authorities. Prohibited activity includes, but is not limited to:

1. criminal or tortious activity, including child pornography, fraud, trafficking in obscene material, drug dealing, gambling, harassment, stalking, spamming, spimming, sending of viruses or other harmful files, copyright infringement, patent infringement, or theft of trade secrets;
2. advertising to, or solicitation of, any Member to buy or sell any products or services through the Academia.edu Services. You may not transmit any chain letters or junk email to other Members. It is also a violation of these rules to use any information obtained from the Academia.edu Services in order to contact, advertise to, solicit, or sell to any Member without their prior explicit consent. In order to protect our Members from such advertising or solicitation, Academia.edu reserves the right to restrict the number of emails which a Member may send to other Members in any 24-hour period to a number which Academia.edu deems appropriate in its sole discretion.
3. any automated use of the system, such as using scripts to add friends or send comments or messages;
4. interfering with, disrupting, or creating an undue burden on the Academia.edu Services or the networks or services connected to the Academia.edu Services;
5. attempting to impersonate another Member or person;
6. using the account, username, or password of another Member at any time or disclosing your password to any third party or permitting any third party to access your account;
7. selling or otherwise transferring your profile;
8. using any information obtained from the Academia.edu Services in order to harass, abuse, or harm another person;
9. using the Academia.edu Services in a manner inconsistent with any and all applicable laws and regulations.

9. Copyright Policy. You may not post, modify, distribute, or reproduce in any way any copyrighted material, trademarks, or other proprietary information belonging to others without obtaining the prior written consent of the owner of such proprietary rights. It is the policy of Academia.edu to terminate Membership privileges of any Member who repeatedly infringes the copyright rights of others upon receipt of proper notification to Academia.edu by the copyright owner or the copyright owner's legal agent. Without limiting the foregoing, if you believe that your work has been copied and posted on the Academia.edu Services in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, please contact us at copyright@academia.edu, providing the following information: (i) a description of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed; (ii) a description of where the material that you claim is infringing is located on the Academia.edu Services; (iii) your address, telephone number, and email address; (iv) a written statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; (v) a statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on the copyright owner's behalf.
10. Member Disputes. You are solely responsible for your interactions with other Academia.edu Members. Academia.edu reserves the right, but has no obligation, to monitor disputes between you and other Members.
11. Privacy. Use of the Academia.edu Services is also governed by our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated into this Agreement by this reference.
12. Disclaimers. Academia.edu is not responsible for any incorrect or inaccurate Content posted on the Academia.edu Website or in connection with the Academia.edu Services, whether caused by Users of the Academia.edu Services or by any of the equipment or programming associated with or utilized in the Academia.edu Services. Profiles created and posted by Members on the Academia.edu Website may contain links to other websites. Academia.edu is not responsible for the Content, accuracy or opinions expressed on such websites, and such websites are in no way investigated, monitored or checked for accuracy or completeness by Academia.edu. Inclusion of any linked website on the Academia.edu Services does not imply approval or endorsement of the linked website by Academia.edu. When you access these third-party sites, you do so at your own risk. Academia.edu takes no responsibility for third party advertisements which are posted on this Academia.edu Website or through the Academia.edu Services, nor does it take any responsibility for the goods or services provided by its advertisers. Academia.edu is not responsible for the conduct, whether online or offline, of any User of the Academia.edu Services. Academia.edu assumes no responsibility for any error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, communications line failure, theft or destruction or unauthorized access to, or alteration of, any User or Member communication. Academia.edu is not responsible for any problems or technical malfunction of any telephone network or lines, computer online systems, servers or providers, computer equipment, software, failure of any email or players due to technical problems or traffic congestion on the Internet or on any of the Academia.edu Services or combination thereof, including any injury or damage to Users or to any person's computer related to or resulting from participation or downloading materials in connection with the Academia.edu Services. Under no circumstances shall Academia.edu be responsible for any loss or damage, including personal injury or death, resulting from use of the Academia.edu Services, attendance at a Academia.edu event, from any Content posted on or through the Academia.edu Services, or from the conduct of any Users of the Academia.edu Services, whether online or offline. The Academia.edu Services are provided "AS-IS" and as available and Academia.edu expressly disclaims any warranty of fitness for a particular purpose or non-infringement. Academia.edu cannot guarantee and does not promise any specific results from use of the Academia.edu Services.
13. Limitation on Liability. IN NO EVENT SHALL ACADEMIA.EDU BE LIABLE TO YOU OR ANY THIRD PARTY FOR ANY INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, INCLUDING LOST PROFIT DAMAGES ARISING FROM YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES, EVEN IF ACADEMIA.EDU HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. NOTWITHSTANDING ANYTHING TO THE CONTRARY CONTAINED HEREIN, ACADEMIA.EDU'S LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ANY CAUSE WHATSOEVER AND REGARDLESS OF THE FORM OF THE ACTION, WILL AT ALL TIMES BE LIMITED TO THE AMOUNT PAID, IF ANY, BY YOU TO ACADEMIA.EDU FOR THE ACADEMIA.EDU SERVICES DURING THE TERM OF MEMBERSHIP.
14. Disputes. If there is any dispute about or involving the Academia.edu Services, you agree that the dispute shall be governed by the laws of the State of Oregon, USA, without regard to conflict of law provisions and you agree to exclusive personal jurisdiction and venue in the state and federal courts of the United States located in the State of California. Either Academia.edu or you may demand that any dispute between Academia.edu and you about or involving the Academia.edu Services must be settled by arbitration utilizing the dispute resolution procedures of the American Arbitration Association (AAA) in Los Angeles, California, USA, provided that the foregoing shall not prevent Academia.edu from seeking injunctive relief in a court of competent jurisdiction.
15. Indemnity. You agree to indemnify and hold Academia.edu, its subsidiaries, and affiliates, and their respective officers, agents, partners and employees, harmless from any loss, liability, claim, or demand, including reasonable attorneys' fees, made by any third party due to or arising out of your use of the Academia.edu Services in violation of this Agreement and/or arising from a breach of this Agreement and/or any breach of your representations and warranties set forth above and/or if any Content that you post on the Academia.edu Website or through the Academia.edu Services causes Academia.edu to be liable to another.
16. Other. This Agreement is accepted upon your use of the Academia.edu Website or any of the Academia.edu Services and is further affirmed by you becoming a Member. This Agreement constitutes the entire agreement between you and Academia.edu regarding the use of the Academia.edu Services. The failure of Academia.edu to exercise or enforce any right or provision of this Agreement shall not operate as a waiver of such right or provision. The section titles in this Agreement are for convenience only and have no legal or contractual effect. This Agreement operates to the fullest extent permissible by law. If any provision of this Agreement is unlawful, void or unenforceable, that provision is deemed severable from this Agreement and does not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.