Terms and Conditions
Welcome to GeoScienceWorld (the "Site"). GeoScienceWorld provides services to you subject to the notices, terms, and conditions set forth in this agreement (the "Agreement"). In addition, when you use any of our services (e.g., Shopping Cart), you will be subject to the rules, guidelines, policies, terms, and conditions applicable to such service, and they are incorporated into this Agreement by this reference. We reserve the right to change this Site and these terms and conditions at any time. ACCESSING, BROWSING OR OTHERWISE USING THE SITE INDICATES YOUR AGREEMENT TO ALL THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS IN THIS AGREEMENT, SO PLEASE READ THIS AGREEMENT CAREFULLY BEFORE PROCEEDING.
Use of Site
You represent and warrant that you are at least 18 years old or visiting the Site under the supervision of a parent or guardian. Subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement, we hereby grant you a limited, revocable, non-transferable and non-exclusive license to access and use the Site by displaying it on your internet browser only for the purpose of viewing unrestricted content and purchasing PDFs sold on the Site and not for any commercial use or use on behalf of any third party, except as explicitly permitted by us in advance. Any breach of this Agreement shall result in the immediate revocation of the license granted in this paragraph without notice to you.
Except as permitted in the paragraph above, you may not reproduce, distribute, display, sell, lease, transmit, create derivative works from, translate, modify, reverse-engineer, disassemble, decompile or otherwise exploit this Site or any portion of it unless expressly permitted by us in writing. You may not make any commercial use of any of the information provided on the Site or make any use of the Site for the benefit of another business unless explicitly permitted by us in advance. We reserve the right to refuse service, terminate accounts, and/or cancel orders at its discretion, including, without limitation, if we believe that customer conduct violates applicable law or is harmful to our interests.
You shall not upload to, distribute, or otherwise publish through this Site any Content, information, or other material that (a) violates or infringes the copyrights, patents, trademarks, service marks, trade secrets, or other proprietary rights of any person; (b) is libelous, threatening, defamatory, obscene, indecent, pornographic, or could give rise to any civil or criminal liability under U.S. or international law; or (c) includes any bugs, viruses, worms, trap doors, Trojan horses or other harmful code or properties.
Content provided on this site is solely for informational purposes. Submissions or opinions expressed on this Site are that of the individual expressing such Submission or opinion and may not reflect our opinions. Product representations expressed on this Site are that of the vendor and are not made by us.
You must register and create a password and account identification to enable you to access and use certain portions of this Site. Each time you use a password or identification, you will be deemed to be authorized to access and use the Site in a manner consistent with the terms and conditions of this Agreement, and we have no obligation to investigate the authorization or source of any such access or use of the Site. YOU WILL BE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL ACCESS TO AND USE OF THIS SITE BY ANYONE USING THE PASSWORD AND IDENTIFICATION ORIGINALLY ASSIGNED TO YOU WHETHER OR NOT SUCH ACCESS TO AND USE OF THIS SITE IS ACTUALLY AUTHORIZED BY YOU, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, ALL COMMUNICATIONS AND TRANSMISSIONS AND ALL OBLIGATIONS (INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION FINANCIAL OBLIGATIONS) INCURRED THROUGH SUCH ACCESS OR USE. You are solely responsible for protecting the security and confidentiality of the password and identification assigned to you. You shall immediately notify us of any unauthorized use of your password or identification or any other breach or threatened breach of this Site's security.
Site Content
GeoScienceWorld contains a compilation of published materials from various publishers ("Publisher(s)"). The Site allows for searching this material, downloading PDFs with proper access granted, and citation services.
Permitted Uses
You have access to the Site and any content that is openly and publicly available or to the Shopping Cart Service that allows for individual purchases of PDFs. You may initiate and complete purchases of local electronic copies using the Site Shopping Cart and have access to content for a limited period of time, provided that such use is subject to all the terms and conditions of this Agreement and does not result in the making available of duplicate copies of the PDFs purchased. You can electronically download and save the PDF purchased for personal use. You can print off PDFs purchased, a single electronic copy for personal use. You will agree to use PDFs purchased consistent with existing "fair use" law and regulation, and that each such copy carries appropriate acknowledgment of the title and author of the material, and its source (publication title, volume, issue, date), publisher, and copyright, and further provided that each electronic copy of such items are deleted when no longer required for such purpose. Nothing in this Agreement in any way excludes, modifies or affects anything you are allowed to do in respect of any of the purchased PDFs consistent with existing "fair use" law, defined by the U.S. Copyright Code of 1976 (17 U.S.C. § 105-107) and international copyright conventions.
Conditions of Sale
The Shopping Cart accepts various valid credit card purchases, the cards authorized are subject to change at any time, and validation of the credit card information will be necessary in order to complete a purchase. All purchases available on the Site are in PDF format. Once purchased access to the purchased PDF will be open for a limited period of time to you for you to view and download.
Governing Law
This Agreement will be interpreted and enforced according to and consistent with the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States, without giving effect to the principles of conflict of law thereof.
Purchase Errors
Any purchase errors should be reported to GeoScienceWorld via our contact form. GeoScienceWorld will make every effort to correct the situation. The maximum resolution would involve a refund of the purchase price for PDFs purchased and no more.
Intellectual Property
GeoScienceWorld's rights to publish electronically and distribute online the contents of the Site in accordance with this Agreement are granted to GSW by the owners and copyright holders of the publications included in the Site. No provision of this Agreement conveys any ownership interest in or to the Site, in whole or in part, to you. Title, as well as applicable copyrights, patents, trademarks, trade secrets or other intellectual property rights in and to the materials in the Site are, and remain the property of copyright claimants, as applicable.
No rights to use the Site are conveyed to you except as permitted by this Agreement and, if applicable, pursuant to the user guidelines produced by or on behalf of GeoScienceWorld, from time to time, in electronic or print form.
Materials in the Site are from copyrighted publications of the respective copyright claimants. You are referred to the publication data appearing in bibliographic citations, as well as copyright notices appearing in original publications. You are advised that consultation with legal counsel regarding copyright laws prior to the use of certain material contained in the Site may be appropriate.
Privacy Policy
GeoScienceWorld is committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected. As an end-user, should we ask you to provide certain information by which you can be identified when using this website, you can be assured that it will only be used in accordance with this privacy statement. This Privacy Policy provides an explanation as to what happens to any personal data that you provide to us, or that we collect from you.
By using this site, you consent to the collection and use of information as outlined below. We may change this policy from time to time by updating this page. If such an event occurs we will post those changes on this page so that you are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances we disclose it. You should check this page from time to time to ensure that you are informed of and content with any changes.
Information We Collect
Details of your visits to our website and the resources that you access, including, but not limited to, traffic data, location data, weblogs, and other communication data. Information that you provide by registering for an account on the GeoScienceWorld portal (name, email address) or by filling in forms on our website, such as when you signup to receive email alerts or register for personalization options on the GeoScienceWorld portal. Information provided to us when you communicate with us for any reason, including submitting a question or request through the feedback/contact us form on our site.
Specific to the GeoScienceWorld Portal
While using the GeoScienceWorld portal website, you can opt to establish a customized account that requires the input of account information (name, email address and password) and personalization preferences (email alerts). We do not gather financial or demographic information. We maintain this information in strict privacy and do not share it with others except in the form of grouped statistics. None of the shared data is personally identifiable. You can update or delete your account and preference choices at any time. In the case of our alerting services, the e-mail addresses and names of users who elect to be alerted about content in selected publications are sent to the publishers of those publications; GeoScienceWorld-affiliated publishers may use this information for marketing purposes.
GeoScienceWorld automatically receives and records information on our server logs from your browser including information such as the name of the domain and host from which you are accessing the Internet (for example, aol.com or stanford.edu); the Internet protocol (IP) address of your computer; the type of browser software you are using; and the pages you request for viewing. This information is used to understand how our site is being used. GeoScienceWorld does not use this information to individually identify specific users and your activity on our site. Aggregated reports on overall site usage are developed and shared with GeoScienceWorld-affiliated publishers, but individuals and their specific usage details are never personally identified.
As part of the registration process, you have the option to allow your name and email address to be supplied to GeoScienceWorld-affiliated publishers to receive email information about their associations and publications. You can decide to accept or decline this option during the registration process or at any time by selecting modify my personal information.
Use of Cookies
On occasion, we may gather information about your computer for our services and to provide statistical information regarding the use of our website to our publishing partners. Such information will not identify you personally, it is just statistical data about our visitors and their use of our site. These statistical data do not identify any personal details whatsoever.
Similarly to the above, we may gather information about your general Internet use by using a cookie file. A cookie is a small file, which asks permission to be placed on your computer's hard drive. Once you agree, the file is added and the cookie helps analyze web traffic or lets you know when you visit a particular site. Cookies allow web applications to respond to you as an individual. The web application can tailor its operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences.
All computers have the ability to automatically accept or decline cookies. This can be done by activating the setting on your browser, which determines how to deal with cookies. Please note that should you choose to decline cookies, you may be unable to access particular parts of our website.
GeoScienceWorld does not use cookies to track what other sites you have visited. Cookies are a required feature to support the personalization features within the GeoScienceWorld site. You can still use our site without cookies being involved as long as you do not register, sign in, or use the personalization features.
GeoScienceWorld does not look at or track any personal or confidential information about our users. Cookies created while visiting the GeoScienceWorld site are deleted when you click "Sign Out". If you do not sign out, then the cookies will remain until you quit your browser.
Use of Your Information
GeoScienceWorld respects your privacy. We do not sell, exchange, or release your personal information (name, email address) without your consent, regardless of its source, to any third parties. The information that we collect and store relating to you is primarily used to enable us to provide services to you.
Please be advised that we do not reveal information about identifiable individuals to GeoScienceWorld-affiliated publishers but we may, on occasion, provide them with aggregate statistical information about our visitors, compiled from registration data and log file data. In addition, if you provide your e-mail address and contact name to set up alerts on a particular publishers' site, they will be able to access that information, as outlined below.
Storing Your Personal Data
Data that is provided to us is stored on our secure servers. Details relating to any transactions entered into on our site will be encrypted to enhance its safety. The transmission of information via the Internet is not completely secure and therefore we cannot guarantee the security of data sent to us electronically and transmission of such data is therefore entirely at your own risk. Further, we cannot guarantee that information stored on our system or otherwise in our care will be immune from unintended release or unauthorized intrusion. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password so that you can access certain parts of our site, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential.
Ecommerce Transactions
Ecommerce transactions on our sites are managed by third party transaction providers, such as PayPal and its affiliates. Credit card or account numbers are not visible to GeoScienceWorld employees.
Disclosing Your Information
Where applicable, we may disclose your login information to members of our staff. We may also disclose the personal information you voluntarily provide if/when legally required and/or to assist fraud protection and minimize credit risk.
Removing Your Information
If for any reason you decide you want to remove your personal information, please reach out via our contact fomr. Please provide complete information about your concerns and which information you want removed.
Third Party Links
You might find links to third party websites on our site. These websites should have their own privacy policies, which you should check. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for their policies whatsoever as we have no control over them.
Exceptions for Library Administration, Pricing Quotes, Troubleshooting, and Piracy Protection
As a nonprofit collaborative organization, we share some customer data with our participating publishers and governing bodies. Typically, customer-level information may be shared in order to: (a) generate price quotes, (b) report business results, (c) calculate content royalties, (d) troubleshoot technical issues, or (e) investigate issues having to do with usage or suspected piracy or misuse of content. Because we employ third-party technology partners, we may also share information with technology vendors in order to support technology services, resolve technical issues, or investigate issues relating to data reporting or suspected misuse of content. If misuse of content occurs from a specific library access point, we will share data with the library staff at that location.
Termination and Effect of Termination
In addition to any other legal or equitable remedies, we may, without prior notice to you, immediately terminate the Agreement or revoke any or all of your rights granted under this Agreement. Upon any termination of this Agreement, you shall immediately cease all access to and use of the Site and we shall, in addition to any other legal or equitable remedies, immediately revoke all password(s) and account identification issued to you and deny your access to and use of this Site in whole or in part. Any termination of this Agreement shall not affect the respective rights and obligations (including without limitation, payment obligations) of the parties arising before the date of termination.
International Access
This Site may be accessed from countries other than the United States. If you access and use this Site outside the United States you are responsible for complying with your local laws and regulations.
Disclaimer and Limitation of Liability
You represent and warrant that you have the complete right and authority to enter into this Agreement by and on behalf of yourself. GeoScienceWorld represents and warrants that it has the complete right and authority to enter into this Agreement by and on behalf of GeoScienceWorld.
GeoScienceWorld warrants to you that you are duly licensed to use, in accordance with the terms and conditions hereof, the Site and that the Site, if used as contemplated in this Agreement, does not knowingly infringe upon any copyright or other proprietary or intellectual property rights of any natural or legal person.
GeoScienceWorld will not be responsible for any claim, loss or liability attributable to errors, inaccuracies or other defects in the Site or any part thereof whether arising from any intentional act or omission or (to the maximum extent permitted by relevant laws) any negligence or otherwise, and THE PARTIES EXPRESSLY EXCLUDE ANY LIABILITY FOR BREACH OF ANY IMPLIED OR EXPRESS WARRANTY AS TO TITLE, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. GeoScienceWorld WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT OR INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF USE OF ANY OF THE SITE. You agree that GeoScienceWorld's maximum liability to you and the exclusive remedy related thereto, will in no event exceed an amount equal to the amount paid by you collectively for purchases made on the Site.
As a consequence of factors affecting computerized communications which are beyond GeoScienceWorld's reasonable control, no guarantee of performance is made or implied for any person’s online use of the Site through the Internet or other transmission modes. ALTHOUGH DUE CARE IS USED IN PREPARING THE SITE, GEOSCIENCEWORLD MAKES NO WARRANTIES THAT ONLINE ACCESS WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR THAT THE SITE WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS, OR THAT THE CONTENT IS ACCURATE OR COMPLETE, OR THAT THE RESULTS OBTAINED BY ANY USERS WILL BE ERROR FREE. GEOSCIENCEWORLD FURTHER MAKE NO WARRANTIES RESPECTING ANY HARM THAT MAY BE CAUSED BY THE TRANSMISSION OF A COMPUTER VIRUS, WORM, TIME BOMB, LOGIC BOMB OR OTHER SUCH COMPUTER PROGRAM. YOU HEREBY ACKNOWLEDGE THAT USE OF THE SITE IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK. NO EMPLOYEE OR REPRESENTATIVE OF AGENT OR GEOSCIENCEWORLD IS AUTHORIZED TO MAKE ANY STATEMENT THAT ADDS TO OR AMENDS THE WARRANTIES OR LIMITATIONS CONTAINED IN THIS AGREEMENT.
GEOSCIENCEWORLD WILL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, LOSS OF USE, OR FOR ANY INDIRECT, SPECIAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES WHETHER BASED UPON A CLAIM OR ACTION OF CONTRACT, WARRANTY, NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY OR OTHER TORT, EVEN IF THEY ARE AWARE OF THE POSSIBILITY. You agree that GeoScienceWorld's maximum liability to you, and the exclusive remedy related thereto, will in no event exceed an amount equal to the amount paid by you collectively for purchases made on the Site.
No employee or representative of GeoScienceWorld will be liable for assistance provided to you in performing research using the Site and any such assistance received from such persons will be solely at your risk.
Any cause of action concerning this Agreement or the Site must be commenced within one year after such cause of action has accrued.
The Publisher shall indemnify and hold you harmless from and against any loss, damage, costs, liability and expenses (including reasonable legal and professional fees) arising out of any legal action taken against you claiming actual or alleged infringement of such rights. This indemnity shall survive the termination of this Agreement for any reason. This indemnity shall not apply if you have amended the Site in any way not permitted by this Agreement. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHALL THE PUBLISHER BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY CHARACTER ARISING OUT OF THE INABILITY TO USE, OR THE USE OF, THE SITE. IRRESPECTIVE OF THE CAUSE OR FORM OF ACTION, THE PUBLISHER’S AGGREGATE LIABILITY FOR ANY CLAIMS, LOSSES, OR DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF ANY BREACH OF THIS AGREEMENT SHALL IN NO CIRCUMSTANCES EXCEED THE FEE PAID BY YOU TO THE PUBLISHER UNDER THIS AGREEMENT IN RESPECT OF THE ACCESS PERIOD DURING WHICH SUCH CLAIM, LOSS OR DAMAGE OCCURRED. THE FOREGOING LIMITATION OF LIABILITY AND EXCLUSION OF CERTAIN DAMAGES SHALL APPLY REGARDLESS OF THE SUCCESS OR EFFECTIVENESS OF OTHER REMEDIES. REGARDLESS OF THE CAUSE OR FORM OF ACTION, YOU MAY BRING NO ACTION ARISING FROM THIS AGREEMENT MORE THAN SIX (6) MONTHS AFTER THE CAUSE OF ACTION ARISES.
YOU AGREE TO INDEMNIFY, DEFEND AND HOLD THE PUBLISHER HARMLESS FROM AND AGAINST ANY LOSS, DAMAGE, COSTS, LIABILITY AND EXPENSES (INCLUDING REASONABLE LEGAL AND PROFESSIONAL FEES) ARISING OUT OF ANY CLAIM OR LEGAL ACTION TAKEN AGAINST THE PUBLISHER RELATED TO OR IN ANY WAY CONNECTED WITH ANY USE OF THE SITE BY YOU TO PERFORM ITS OBLIGATIONS IN RELATION TO THIS AGREEMENT, PROVIDED THAT NOTHING IN THIS AGREEMENT SHALL MAKE YOU LIABLE FOR BREACH OF THE TERMS OF THE AGREEMENT BY YOU PROVIDED THAT YOU DID NOT CAUSE, KNOWINGLY ASSIST OR CONDONE THE CONTINUATION OF SUCH BREACH TO CONTINUE AFTER BECOMING AWARE OF AN ACTUAL BREACH HAVING OCCURRED.
Permitted Uses
The Subscriber may, subject to Section 4 (Prohibited Uses):
- Allow Authorized Users (including Walk-in Users, if any) to have access to the Licensed Material via the Secure Network. The number of concurrent Authorized Users permitted to access the Licensed Material online is unlimited.
- Make temporary (less than 24 hours) local electronic copies by means of caching of all or part of the Licensed Material as is necessary to ensure efficient use by Authorized Users, provided that such use is subject to all the terms and conditions of this License Agreement and does not result in the making available to Authorized Users or other persons of duplicate copies of the Licensed Material.
- Provide single printed or electronic copies of single articles at the request of individual Authorized Users.
- Provide interlibrary loans of single printed articles or copies of single articles provided via Arial software at the request of institutions and organizations with which the Subscriber customarily maintains interlibrary loan arrangements.
- Display, download or print the Licensed Material for the purpose of internal promotion or testing, or for training Authorized Users.
Subscriber will take all customary and reasonable actions to inform Authorized Users that they may, subject to Section 4:
- Search, view, retrieve and display the Licensed Material.
- Electronically download and save parts, but no more than and insubstantial amount, of the Licensed Material for personal use.
- Print off single copies of parts, but no more than an insubstantial amount, of the Licensed Material.
- Incorporate parts of the Licensed Material in Electronic Reserves for the use of Authorized Users in the course of instruction, or research, and create multiple copies of a discrete excerpt from the Licensed Material for classroom instruction use, or for research purposes, consistent with existing "fair use" law and regulation, and provided that each such copy carries appropriate acknowledgment of the title and author of the material, and its source (publication title, volume, issue, date), publisher, and copyright, and further provided that each electronic copy of such items are deleted when no longer required for such purpose.
Nothing in this License Agreement in any way excludes, modifies or affects anything Subscriber or any Authorized User is allowed to do in respect of any of the Licensed Material consistent with existing "fair use" law, defined by the U.S. Copyright Code of 1976 (17 U.S.C. § 105-107) and international copyright conventions.
For Authors, Editors, and Submissions
By submitting content to the GSW platform for Lithosphere, contributors agree to license their submissions and to public under CC-BY 4.0 license and other terms specified by GSW. This includes any content submitted by third party vendor. Lithosphere is a Gold Open Access publication. Authors, their employers, or research funders pay an author publication charge (APC), currently of US $2,200 but subject to change, plus any applicable mandator page charges. APCs may typically be paid by employers or research funding agencies and, if by the author, from a portion of author’s research funds designated for open-access publishing. The fee applies to all journal articles. Submission information can be found at oa.geoscienceworld.org or by emailing [email protected].
For ethical guidelines covering submissions to Lithosphere, GSW is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics and supports and abides by those guidelines. All submitting authors must agree upon submission to adhere to these guidelines as well. Any action deemed to be in conflict with these guideline may result in punitive action on behalf the GSW editorial staff up to and including refusing publication of any additional submissions for 5 years at minimum.
