Our journals adhere to industry standards for all of our editorial policies, by following the recommendations and guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
Authorship & Affiliations
Authorship of a scholarly article carries responsibility for the integrity of its content, including, but not limited to the data, its analysis and presentation, compliance with research ethics and publication policies, and availability of research materials.
Submission of a manuscript is taken as an agreement from all authors that the content of the article is true and accurate, including the list of authors and their contributions, and that all authors have approved its submission. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring these conditions have been met and for managing all correspondence about the article, both before and after publication.
Academia.edu Journals strictly commits to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) guidelines on authorship, which state that in order to qualify for authorship, the following criteria should be met for each author:
Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work
Drafting the work or reviewing it critically for important intellectual content
Final approval of the version to be published
Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved
Based on the authorship guidelines stated above, contributors who do not meet all criteria should be listed in the Acknowledgments section. These may include individuals who provided technical or writing oversight, or a department chair who offered general support.
Any changes in the authorship, including any removal, addition or rearrangement, must be approved by all authors, including any to be removed, and the editors must be informed timely. The journal editors reserve the right to request an explanation and signed statement of agreement for the requested changes from all authors, including any who have been removed. Authors should consider the authorship carefully before submission and necessary changes should be made during the editorial process. Changes in authorship are not allowed after the acceptance of a manuscript.
Authors should use the affiliation at which the majority of the work was conducted. In the event that an author has relocated from the institution where the work occurred, please also provide their current academic institution.
Authors should use the name and/or gender they identify with at the point of submission. If this is different from previous publications, they may wish to make the editors aware of their publication history in their associated cover letter (which should not be more than 400 words). Academia.edu Journals treats issues of discrimination by gender seriously.
Authorship and Artificial Intelligence-Assisted Technologies
Academia.edu Journals follows the COPE position statement regarding the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and AI-assisted technologies in manuscript preparation.
AI tools such as chatbots or Large Language Models (LLMs) cannot meet the criteria for authorship as they cannot take responsibility for the submitted work, manage conflicts of interest, or handle copyright and licensing agreements. The use of AI tools in any aspects of manuscript preparation must be disclosed in the Materials and Methods section of the paper. Authors bear full responsibility for all content in their manuscript, including portions generated by AI tools, and are accountable for adhering to publication ethics.
Consortium/Group Authorship
If authorship is retained by a consortium or group, the consortium or group should be listed as the author. Individual members of the consortium/group listed as authors must be eligible for authorship according to ICMJE guidelines.
If a paper is presented by author(s) on behalf of a consortium or group, clarification should be made on the author list, for example, "Author A on behalf of consortium/group XXX." The consortium/group will not retain authorship and will only appear in the list of authors.
Deceased Authors
If a manuscript has been submitted with a deceased author, or if an author passes away during the review process, the corresponding author or co-authors should inform the editorial office. If the deceased author was a corresponding author, the authors' group should nominate a co-author for this role. A note will be added under the author list after publication.
Conflicts of Interest
Author’s Conflicts of Interest
Academia.edu Journals enforces guidelines from the ICMJE which state that “authors should avoid entering into agreements with study sponsors, both for-profit and nonprofit, that interfere with authors’ access to all of the study’s data or that interfere with their ability to analyze and interpret the data and to prepare and publish manuscripts independently when and where they choose.”
Authors are required to disclose any personal situations or associations that may be perceived as unduly influencing the presentation or understanding of research results. This includes a variety of possible conflicts of interest, including, but not limited to, financial and non-financial interests.
Academia.edu defines the financial competing interests in the following ways:
Present or anticipated employment, as well as voluntary involvement that may benefit an organization
Grants from an entity paid to the author or organization and research support for an organization that may benefit from publication of the work
Gains from stock or share ownership in companies and royalties received by authors or their institutions
Personal income received by authors as consulting fees, honoraria, royalties, lecture fees, testimonials, etc.
Collaborations with advocacy groups that benefit from the work
Profits related to the development of products that result from the work
Non-financial interests may include but are not limited to personal relationships or competing interests directly or indirectly tied to this research, or professional interests or personal beliefs that may influence your research.
All authors should include any involvement of the funding sponsors in shaping the study's design, data collection, analysis, data interpretation, manuscript preparation, or the decision to publish the findings.
If the funding sponsors played no part in any of these aspects, please specify, "The funding sponsors were not involved in the study's design, data collection, analysis, manuscript preparation, or the decision to publish the results."
Authors are advised to disclose any potential conflicts of interest during the submission process via the submission platform. In the manuscript, a separate statement should be included in the “Conflicts of Interests” section placed after the author’s contribution.
Examples:
Author(s) declare no conflict of interests
Or
Author A has been a volunteer in Company X. Author B received a research grant from Company Y. Author C has been involved as a consultant in Company Z.
The editors require all contributors to disclose relevant competing interests. In the event that competing interests are revealed after publication, a correction should be published. A retraction or expression of concern may also be published, if appropriate.
Editorial Conflicts of Interest
Unpublished information disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in any research by the Editor-in-Chief, Academic Editors, reviewers, or any other informed person, unless the authors have given their explicit permission or until the time of publication.
The Editor-in-Chief and Academic Editors should recuse themselves from considering a manuscript in the event of any personal conflicts of interest. These might include conflicts that result from collaborative, competitive, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions that have relevance to the manuscript. Privileged information and opinions obtained during peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal or third party advantage.
Academia.edu Journals will treat reviewer misconduct seriously and investigate any evidence of confidentiality breach, non-declaration of conflicts of interest (both financial and non-financial), inappropriate use of confidential material, or delays to peer review for competitive advantage. Major allegations of reviewer misconduct (e.g. plagiarism) will be raised with the reviewer’s institution.
During the lifecycle of the editorial process, relationships between editors and authors are considered to be a conflict of interest. Such relationships include current/recent colleagues, recent co-authors, mentor/mentee relationships, and applicant/committee chair connections.
Authors are strongly encouraged to raise potential conflicts of interest with our editorial team. Academic Editors are expected to inform the Editorial Office of any possible conflicts of interest with authors.
For more information about Editorial Conflict of Interest, please see the Editor Guidelines.
Publication & Research Ethics
Academia.edu Journals is committed to enriching scholarly literature and will not tolerate cases of ethical malpractice from authors, editors or peer reviewers. All authors must follow industry-standard guidelines and ethical standards as instructed by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), International Association of Scientific, Technical & Medical Publishers (STM) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). If an author, editor, or reader suspects that there may be ethical concerns present in a manuscript, please contact the journal’s Editorial Office, and we will take immediate action to investigate the concern.
In addition to our policies, authors must also comply with their institutional and country-specific regulations and guidelines for any research involving humans.
Authors submitting to our journals must ensure that their manuscripts are of ethically sound quality and follow our research and ethics policy. This includes:
Presenting the results of the research accurately and discussing their significance objectively
Ensuring accurate authorship, including all and only those who qualify for authorship and clearly identifying their contributions.
Declaring any information that may be perceived as a possible conflict of interest at the time of submission.
Demonstrating data and methods with meticulous accuracy. Unprocessed data must be publicly available unless there is a compelling reason to do otherwise (e.g., patient confidentiality).
Awareness that simultaneous submission of manuscripts to more than one journal is not permitted.
Ensuring the novelty of research results that must not be previously published. Any translations must comply with Academia.edu translation policy.
Obtaining the copyright permission for publication of any previously published content
Promptly reporting errors and inaccuracies identified after publication.
Duplicate and Simultaneous Submissions
Manuscripts submitted for publication will be considered with the understanding that no part of the work has been published previously (in print or electronic format) and the paper is not under consideration by another publication. Work published as a conference proceeding or preprint will be considered.
Duplicate submission (also known as redundant publication) is the publication of a paper that is substantially similar to another published by the same author, without acknowledging the source or obtaining permission from the original copyright holder. Republication of a paper without permission and/or acknowledgment may constitute a breach of publishing ethics.
In exceptional cases, republication may be considered, including:
A complete paper that follows up on a published preliminary report (e.g., an abstract, poster, or conference presentation)
Republication of guidelines prepared by professional societies or governmental agencies, which need to be disseminated to a wide and varied readership
A study that substantially re-analyses previously published findings or re-interprets the results for a different audience
Submissions that have previously been published in a preprint server (including bioRxiv.org)
Following the ICMJE recommendation, Academia.edu Journals may consider secondary publications of materials published in other journals or online, especially when intended to disseminate important information to the widest possible audience (e.g., guidelines produced by government agencies and professional organizations in the same or a different language). Secondary publication for various other reasons may also be justified, as long as the following conditions are met:
The authors have obtained approval from the editorial boards of both journals.
The publication schedule, agreed upon by both editors and the authors, upholds the primacy of the initial publication.
A secondary publication targets a distinct readership, potentially requiring a condensed version.
The secondary version accurately mirrors the authors' work, data, and primary interpretation.
It also notifies readers, colleagues, and record-keeping organizations that the article has been previously published, either in its entirety or in part, and properly references the original source.
Moreover, high-quality content that has been previously published in another language for publication (translations), under the condition that the original research is appropriately cited in the Acknowledgments section may also be considered for publication if the following terms are met:
Authors must explicitly state in their cover letter during submission that their paper is a translated version.
The submitted manuscript must include all authors from the original publication.
Prior to manuscript submission, authors must obtain and receive appropriate permissions from the original article's publisher, copyright holders, and/or authors.
Relevant documentation pertaining to these permissions must be uploaded in the Supplementary Materials section during the submission process.
The journal editor must be informed about the prior publication history of the content that has been previously published.
Simultaneous Submission (also referred to as multiple or dual submission) is the submission of a manuscript that is under consideration at another journal.
Multiple submissions may be allowed in exceptional cases, including when editors of the different journals agree that jointly publishing a paper is in the best interest of the academic field. In such cases, the authors must have notified the editors of all journals involved.
Manuscripts that are deemed to be duplicate and or simultaneous submissions will be reviewed and handled on a case-by-case basis by the relevant Academic Editor, who will be notified of the concern.
Image Integrity
Image files must not undergo any form of manipulation or adjustment that might result in a misinterpretation of the information conveyed by the original image. The data presented must be original and should not be inappropriately selected, manipulated, enhanced, or fabricated. If irregular image manipulation is detected and verified during the peer review process, Academia.edu Journals reserves the right to reject the manuscript. In cases where irregular image manipulation is identified and confirmed after publication, any corrective measures can be taken, including issuing corrections or retracting the paper as necessary. Authors who are found to have misused images will not have their manuscripts considered for publication in any of our journals again.
Research Involving Humans
If authors have conducted any research using human subjects, material of human origin, human tissues or data, the authors are required to declare that the research was conducted in accordance with the principles of the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, updated in 2013. Authors are also obliged to provide the approval from the local institutional review board (IRB) or other appropriate committee, obtained prior to conducting the research. When applicable, authors are required to provide the project identification code, the date of approval and the name of the committee or institutional review board.
Informed, written consent from all participants is required. In the case of vulnerable populations ( e.g., children), written, informed consent should be provided by a legal guardian, and assent obtained from the participant. If written consent is waived by an ethics committee or not required by local legislation, this must be explicitly stated in the manuscript.
For any non-interventional studies (e.g. surveys) the authors are obliged to inform participants about the purpose of the research being conducted, how it will be used, the risks involved, and ensure the anonymity of the participants. Authors should still obtain ethics approval when required to adhere to regional and institutional regulations. If ethics approval is not required, this should be clearly stated in the manuscript.
If not relevant to the studies being conducted, patient data must be anonymized if possible. If case details (e.g., personal information and/or photographs of patients) are necessary in the manuscript, signed informed consent is required from such patients for the publication of the data. Informed consent for the publication of potentially identifiable images should be obtained separately.
Research Involving Animals
We encourage authors to follow the International Association of Veterinary Editors (AVMA) guidelines for publication of studies including animal research.
Research involving vertebrates or higher invertebrates must be approved by an appropriate Ethics Committee in advance, in accordance with applicable national regulations. When applicable, authors are required to provide the project identification code, the date of approval and the name of the committee or institutional review board. For experimental studies involving animals owned by a client at a veterinary practice or otherwise, authors must also include a statement of informed consent from the client or owner.
If ethical approval is not required by national law, authors must provide an exemption from an Ethics Committee, if one exists. If the study obtained an exemption, the name of the ethics committee that granted it should be stated in the “Institutional Review Board Statement” section, along with a full explanation of why ethical approval was not required. If private or client-owned animals were used in research, then written, informed consent from the legal owners is required.
Research Involving Cell Lines
If cell lines are used in research, their origin should be specified in the Materials and Methods section. If an established cell line is used, its origin from a commercial source should be stated. If previously unpublished lines are used, including those obtained from a non-commercial source (laboratory), details of the IRB or ethics committee should be provided.
Research Involving Plants
Any experimental research on plants (cultivated or wild), including the collection of plant material, must follow institutional, national or international guidelines.
Availability of Data, Materials, Code and Protocols
In line with our commitment to fostering transparency and reproducibility in research, authors are required to ensure that all data, materials, code, and protocols associated with their research are readily available to readers. This commitment aligns with the FAIR Data Principles, which emphasize making digital assets Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable.
Data Availability: Authors should include a Data Availability Statement in their manuscript that provides detailed information on where and how the data supporting their findings can be accessed. This includes direct links to datasets or detailed instructions for accessing the data. If data cannot be made publicly available due to ethical or legal restrictions, authors must clearly state these limitations and provide justifications. We encourage authors to deposit their data in recognized repositories like Dryad, Zenodo, or Figshare to ensure long-term preservation and accessibility.
Materials and Protocols: For the reproducibility of the work, detailed information about the materials used and the protocols followed should be provided in the manuscript. If any materials or protocols are proprietary or confidential, authors should mention alternative ways for readers to replicate the experiment or analysis.
Code Accessibility: If custom code or software was used in the research, authors must include information about where and how this code can be accessed. This could be through public repositories or supplementary materials. Restrictions on code accessibility should be clearly stated with justifications.
Adherence to Ethical Standards: All data, materials, code, and protocols should adhere to ethical standards for research. This includes obtaining necessary permissions for data usage, respecting privacy and confidentiality where applicable, and ensuring the ethical treatment of human and animal subjects.
Guidance for Repositories and Formats: Authors are encouraged to use standardized, recognized data repositories and to format their data in ways that facilitate reuse by others. Proper citation of datasets and code should be adhered to in line with academic norms.
When citing datasets used in their research, authors should follow this structured format to ensure consistency and clarity:
“{Dataset} Authors. Year. Dataset title; Data repository or archive; Version; Persistent identifier.”
Geopolitics
Academia.edu Journals upholds a strict policy to promote neutrality with respect to geopolitical disputes. Authors should refer to place names and countries as detailed in the UN convention and use correct nomenclature. We will not rename countries and will remain neutral over issues of country or location.
Plagiarism
There are a variety of plagiarism types and all are considered serious violations of academic integrity. The most common forms of plagiarism are defined below:
Complete plagiarism: word-for-word transcription and submission of a manuscript or study that someone else created. This is equivalent to intellectual theft, as well as being unethical and academically dishonest.
Inaccurate authorship or misleading attribution: a contributor to a manuscript being denied credit for it. A secondary form is when a researcher claims credit without contributing to the work–ultimately, both variations are violations of the code of conduct in research.
Direct plagiarism: text is borrowed from another author verbatim, without the use of quotation marks or attribution.
Self or auto plagiarism: significant portions of one’s own previously published work being reproduced without attribution.
Mosaic or patchwork plagiarism: someone else’s phrases are interlaid in a text without quotation marks–even if used to footnote a source. If words differ from someone else’s work, yet the original concept remains the same, paraphrasing has occurred, which is considered a form of plagiarism.
Source-based plagiarism: a researcher references a source that is inaccurate, incorrect or does not exist. Plagiarism also occurs when a researcher uses a secondary source of data/information, but only cites the primary source of information, as this leads to an increase in the number of references cited.
Accidental plagiarism: can occur through negligent citing or misquoting of sources, or by paraphrasing similar words, groups of words, and/or sentence structure, without attribution.
Content taken from pre-prints or unpublished theses available on institutional webpages are not considered to be plagiarism, however these sources must be clearly cited within the References section.
Academia.edu Journals takes issues of plagiarism seriously and uses iThenticate to determine which manuscripts may contain plagiarized content. Our editors use these reports and work closely with our internal teams to prevent publication of plagiarized content. If plagiarism is detected during the review process, the manuscript may be rejected, and any other author’s work will not be considered for publication in any of our journals again. If plagiarism is detected after publication, an investigation will be conducted and appropriate steps will be taken in accordance with our policies.
Citation Policy
Authors are expected to:
Properly attribute and cite external sources, including their own previously published work, while also securing necessary permissions when applicable.
Refrain from excessive self-citation of their own publications.
Avoid listing references from sources they have not thoroughly reviewed or read.
Abstain from showing favoritism in citations towards their own, friends', colleagues', or institutional publications.
Exclude citations of advertisements or advertorial content.
Following COPE guidelines, it is anticipated that “original wording taken directly from publications by other researchers should appear in quotation marks with the appropriate citations”. This requirement applies to the author’s own works.
Allegations of Research Misconduct Policy
We adhere to rigorous ethical standards and handle allegations of research misconduct with the utmost care. Our approach is based on the guidelines of organizations such as the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
In cases of alleged research misconduct:
Complainants are prompted to report concerns, providing specific details and evidence directly to a journal’s Editorial Office.
Our Editorial Office initiates an investigation, communicating with the assigned Academic Editor and the corresponding author(s) of the suspected article.
Corresponding author(s) are invited to provide an explanation and supporting evidence.
Depending on the situation, we will take appropriate actions including speaking with the author’s institution, issuing corrections or retractions for published articles, or proceeding with the review process while incorporating necessary revisions, if the misconduct is reported during the review process.
If no response is received or the explanation is unsatisfactory, we may consider permanent retraction or rejection after seeking expert input.
Throughout this process, we will maintain confidentiality and keep complainants informed of the resolution. Academia.edu Journals is dedicated to upholding research ethics and the highest standards in scholarly publishing.
Diversity and Inclusion Policy
We recognize the value of diversity and inclusion in enriching scientific research and discourse. We are committed to promoting diversity in our Editorial Board, peer reviewers, and authors. This includes ensuring representation from a range of geographical regions, academic institutions, gender identities, and cultural backgrounds. We believe that diverse perspectives enhance the quality and impact of our publications and are essential to advancing knowledge. Our policies and practices are designed to create an inclusive environment where all members of the scientific community feel respected and valued.
Statement on Controversial Articles
Academia.edu Journals is committed to publishing research findings that may include reviews of literature in a specific area, reports of original research, proposals of new or untested theories, negative results, and/or reanalysis of others’ research.
We are committed to enhancing scientific progress which results from the free interchange of ideas. We fully appreciate that other researchers may endorse or disprove published research through their own study, analysis, and theories. Often controversial views are intentionally published to stimulate further debate and advance the field to a stronger understanding of the critical issues, and our Editorial Board is strongly encouraged to consider work at the cutting edge of scientific discovery, which can be controversial in nature.
Despite our commitment to publishing high-quality, ethically sound, and accurate research, it is possible that an individual or group may take issue with or disagree with an item published by our journal, and which they believe requires further investigation. Our Editorial Board will thoroughly assess these matters in question to ensure that issues of political, personal, or corporate agendas do not impact the publication of scientific articles or instances in which an article is being contested.
Furthermore, any allegations that challenge the scientific accuracy of an article, will require the backing of relevant facts when contacting the Editorial Office and will be forwarded to a member of the board to make a final decision on the issues raised. Anyone that wishes to contest an article published in any of Academia.edu’s journals is asked to prepare a well-referenced, scientifically rigorous statement and/or rebuttal to the article in question for submission to the Editors of the journal for editorial review. The authors contesting the work must i) disclose their identity, ii) declare all competing interests, both financial and non-financial, and iii) provide a reference list of their publications relevant to the issue to demonstrate their knowledge in the field. The editorial review of the rebuttal will be judged on scientific merit alone. Authors of the work being contested will be given an opportunity to respond and the Editorial decision will be final.
Please note that articles published in our journals do not represent the personal views of the authors and do not constitute the personal views of the editorial board.
Written comments regarding any publication should be forwarded to the Editorial Office of the relevant journal.
Post-Publication Policy
Under certain circumstances, a published article may contain errors that require correction or, in some cases, retraction of the article. Such errors can be reported by an author, reader, or independent party.
Corrections
An article may be corrected if significant errors are found after publication. The following cases may warrant an article to be updated:
Errors that could reasonably lead to a misinterpretation of the scientific content (including minor errors in data reporting and use of nomenclature)
Misspelling of an author name
Formatting issues that are scientifically relevant
Addition or removal of an author
Addition or removal of a reference
Addition or removal of a significant amount of the text in the back matter
Significant errors will be corrected with the publication of a Correction notice and a note added to the updated article page to communicate the change. This notice will be published regardless of whether the error was introduced by the authors or the publisher.
Minor errors that do not influence the scientific understanding or readability of the publication will not be updated. Examples of minor errors may include small typographical or grammatical errors, or minor problems with spacing or formatting. For this reason, we strongly encourage our authors to thoroughly proofread all articles before publication, in order to avoid the presence of minor errors.
Retractions
Academia.edu Journals follow the COPE recommendations for retractions.
The retraction of an article may be applicable when an entire work is brought into question on substantive problems, for example, due to serious errors within the research process, ethical violations, plagiarism, data fabrication, or other significant reasons.
If a Retraction is published, the retracted article will be marked as retracted in all it’s forms. Retractions are published with the same authorship and authors’ affiliations as the original article, and are linked to the retracted publication.
Prior to retracting an article, an Editorial Expression of Concern may be published.
Decision Process
Any complaints or requests for updating published articles related to scientific errors or misconduct are handled by each journal’s Editorial Office with the support of their Editorial Board and final approval by the Editor-in-Chief.
In cases of ethical concerns, final decisions are made by the Editor-in-Chief or members of the Editorial Board. If necessary, other individuals and institutions, including university authorities or experts in the field, are consulted. If a complaint has legal implications, legal advice may be sought.
All decisions made by the publisher regarding corrections or retractions are final and cannot be disputed.
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To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, you agree to indemnify, defend and hold Academia.edu, its affiliates, officers, agents, employees, and partners (the “Academia Parties”) harmless from and against any and all liabilities, damages (actual and consequential), losses and expenses (including attorneys’ fees) arising from or in any way related to any third party claims relating to (a) your use of the Writer Platform (including any actions taken by a third party using your account); (b) your Writer Content; (c) any breach or alleged breach of your representations and warranties or of any of your obligations under this Agreement; and (d) any negligence or willful misconduct.
Third Party Materials
The Writer Platform may include, display, or make available content, data, information, applications or materials from third parties, including open source software or other products released under an open-source license (“Third-Party Materials”). You understand that we provide access only as a convenience and are not responsible for such Third-Party Materials and you acknowledge sole responsibility for and assume all risk arising from your use of any Third-Party Materials.
Limitation of Liability
TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WILL ACADEMIA.EDU BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES OF ANY KIND. EXCEPT FOR THE AMOUNTS DUE TO ACADEMIA.EDU UNDER THIS AGREEMENT, ACADEMIA.EDU’S TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (1) $100 OR (2) THE AMOUNTS PAID BY ACADEMIA.EDU TO YOU IN CONNECTION WITH THE WRITER CONTENT IN THE SIX (6) MONTH PERIOD PRECEDING THE APPLICABLE CLAIM.
Term; Termination; Survival
This Agreement is valid until terminated by either party in accordance with the terms of this Agreement. Either party may terminate this Agreement at any time for any reason. You understand however that as long as you use the Writer Platform to create content to be distributed via the Platform and therefore act as a Writer, you will be subject to the terms of this Agreement. The rights and obligations contained in 4, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13 and 14 will survive any termination or expiration of this Agreement.
Exceptions.As limited exceptions to the mandatory arbitration of disputes above: (i) we both may seek to resolve a Dispute in small claims court if it qualifies; and (ii) we each retain the right to seek injunctive or other equitable relief from a court to prevent (or enjoin) the infringement or misappropriation of our intellectual property rights.
Conducting Arbitration and Arbitration Rules.The arbitration will be conducted by the American Arbitration Association (“AAA”) under its Consumer Arbitration Rules (the “AAA Rules”) then in effect, except as modified by these Terms. The AAA Rules are available at www.adr.org or by calling 1-800-778-7879. A party who wishes to start arbitration must submit a written Demand for Arbitration to AAA and give notice to the other party as specified in the AAA Rules. The AAA provides a form Demand for Arbitration at www.adr.org.
Any arbitration hearings will take place in the county (or parish) where you live, unless we both agree to a different location. The parties agree that the arbitrator shall have exclusive authority to decide all issues relating to the interpretation, applicability, enforceability and scope of this arbitration agreement.
Arbitration Costs.Payment of all filing, administration and arbitrator fees will be governed by the AAA Rules, and we won’t seek to recover the administration and arbitrator fees we are responsible for paying, unless the arbitrator finds your Dispute frivolous. If we prevail in arbitration we’ll pay all of our attorneys’ fees and costs and won’t seek to recover them from you. If you prevail in arbitration you will be entitled to an award of attorneys’ fees and expenses to the extent provided under applicable law.
Injunctive and Declaratory Relief.Except as provided in the “Exceptions” paragraph above, the arbitrator shall determine all issues of liability on the merits of any claim asserted by either party and may award declaratory or injunctive relief only in favor of the individual party seeking relief and only to the extent necessary to provide relief warranted by that party’s individual claim. To the extent that you or we prevail on a claim and seek public injunctive relief (that is, injunctive relief that has the primary purpose and effect of prohibiting unlawful acts that threaten future injury to the public), the entitlement to and extent of such relief must be litigated in a civil court of competent jurisdiction and not in arbitration. The parties agree that litigation of any issues of public injunctive relief shall be stayed pending the outcome of the merits of any individual claims in arbitration.
Class Action Waiver.YOU AND ACADEMIA.EDU AGREE THAT EACH MAY BRING CLAIMS AGAINST THE OTHER ONLY IN YOUR OR ITS INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY, AND NOT AS A PLAINTIFF OR CLASS MEMBER IN ANY PURPORTED CLASS OR REPRESENTATIVE PROCEEDING. Further, if the parties’ Dispute is resolved through arbitration, the arbitrator may not consolidate another person’s claims with your claims, and may not otherwise preside over any form of a representative or class proceeding. If this specific provision is found to be unenforceable, then the entirety of this Dispute Resolution section shall be null and void.
Severability. With the exception of any of the provisions in the “Class Action Waiver” paragraph above (“Class Action Waiver”), if an arbitrator or court of competent jurisdiction decides that any part of these Terms is invalid or unenforceable, the other parts of these Terms will still apply.
General
This Agreement represents the entire agreement between the parties concerning the subject matter herein and supersedes any other oral or written agreements between the parties regarding this matter. You hereby acknowledge and agree that you are not an employee, agent, partner, or joint venture of Academia.edu and you do not have the authority to bind Academia.edu in any respect whatsoever. The parties agree there are no third-party beneficiaries intended under this Agreement. If any part, term, or provision of this Agreement is held by an arbitrator or a court of competent jurisdiction to be illegal, unenforceable, or in conflict with any relevant law, the remaining portions or provisions shall still remain valid and continue in full force and effect. No waiver, express or implied, by either party of any term or condition or of any breach by the other party of any of the provisions of this Agreement shall operate as a waiver of any breach of the same or any other provision of this Agreement. This Agreement shall be binding upon and inure to the benefit of each of the parties hereto and their respective heirs, successors and assigns. Writer may not assign his/her rights or obligations hereunder without Academia.edu’s prior written consent and any assignment or attempted assignment without such prior written consent shall be null and void. Academia.edu may assign this Agreement for any reason.
Academia.edu Journals
Authors publishing in Academia.edu Journals will be held by the warranties and conditions for Academia.edu and will publish their manuscripts under a Creative Commons license.