Terms of Service

Before using all the services provided by this site (URL http://www.scidb.cn/en, Name: Science Data Bank, hereafter as ScienceDB), please carefully read the following terms (also referred to as “Agreement”). This Agreement specifies all the legal terms and conditions binding our services. Amongst, service using behaviors include using these services via this site or using these services via other software owned, operated or authorized by third-party sites or via other means (such as RSS sources and out-site API citations). If you disagree to accept all the terms and conditions specified in the Agreement, you are not authorized to use the services. This Agreement applies to all the users of this site and related services.

Users shall accept all the following terms and conditions.

You can be an individual or an enterprise but shall state and pledge that you have reached the lawful age to or are able to bear civil liability. Besides, please ensure all the submitted registration information is real and correct. This site has the right to accept or decline to supply services to any individual or entity. This Term shall be deemed invalid when the Agreement is prohibited by relevant laws or when the access right to this site is revoked.

Based on the changes of relevant laws, rules and regulations, or due to business development needs, this site has the right to modify or replace the terms of use at any time at its discretion. This site has the right to modify, suspend or terminate services at any time (including but not limited to the usability of functions, database or content), and the right to publish the modified Agreement content on its page. This publication behavior shall be deemed as the notification of the Agreement modifications. You shall check and be aware of these modifications.

If you continue to use the services after the terms of use are published, it shall be deemed as you accept all the modifications. This site also has the right to impose restrictions on specific functions or services, to prohibit you from accessing the service or a part of the service without any notice or responsibility.

If you disagree with the modifications to relevant terms in the Agreement, you have the right to stop using this site and shall do so. If you continue to use, it shall be deemed as you accept all the modifications made by this site to relevant terms of this Agreement.

You can browse, download and use the data(set) published on this site but the reuse and redistribution of the data(set) shall abide by the corresponding data license. If you breach the data license agreement or other adverse consequences caused by improper use of the data on this site, you shall be responsible for it, and this site is not responsible for it.

Except for datasets, any other services supplied by this site can only be used for non-commercial purposes. You are prohibited from carrying out any commercial activities on ScienceDB, and any legal disputes arising therefrom shall be handled by the participating parties themselves and this site shall not take any responsibility.

You shall be responsible for all your activities on this site. As a precondition for use, you must promise not to carry out any acts or activities prohibited by the Terms of Service for any purpose. Prohibited actions on this site include, but are not limited to, the following:

(1) You shall not take any action to impose or possibly impose excessive load (at the discretion of the site) on the infrastructure of the site or its third-party service suppliers.

(2) You shall not interfere or attempt to interfere with the normal operation of the site’s services or any activities based on the services.

(3) You shall not bypass any measures taken by this site to prevent or restrict access to “services” (or other accounts, computer systems or networks connected to services).

(4) You shall not run any form of automatic replies or “spam mails” on the site services.

(5) You shall not use this site in any way to directly or indirectly engage in behaviors that breach Chinese laws and regulations or social ethics.

The use of the services of this site must comply with relevant laws and regulations and other normative documents, and shall not infringe upon the intellectual property rights, personal information rights, privacy rights, trade secrets and other legitimate rights and interests protected by law of any other subjects. For instance (but not only limited to what are listed below), you shall promise not to allow others or third parties to take any actions or use the services provided by this site in any form to disseminate or facilitate the dissemination of the following contents:

(1) Contents that infringe upon the copyright, patents, trademarks, trade secrets or other rights & interests, and contents that breach any law or contract liability.

(2) Contents that you know beforehand are false, misleading, inveracious or inaccurate.

(3) Contents containing illegal, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, malicious, fraudulent, deceitful, privacy infringement, tortious, obscene, aggressive or blasphemous elements. Contents that disseminate obscene, pornography, gambling, violence, murder, terror or abetting crimes.

(4) Unauthorized advertising, pushed advertising, spam or bulk-e-mail (commonly known as “spam e-mails”).

(5) Contents related to business activities or sales, such as competitions, barters, lotteries, advertisements or pyramid sales, without the written approval of this site.

(6) Contents containing software virus or any other computer codes and files, or programs that intentionally damage, restrict or interfere with the normal functioning of any software, hardware or communication device, or that intend to destroy or unauthorized access to this site or other third-party services, data secrets or other information.

(7) Attempts to impersonate other individuals or entities, including team members or representatives of this site.

(8) Contents that are in opposition to the basic principles of the constitution.

(9) Contents endangering state security, divulging state secrets, subverting state power and undermining national unity.

(10) Contents that damaging the honor and interests of the state.

(11) Contents that inciting national hatred and discrimination, destroying national unity.

(12) Contents that humiliating and abusing heroic images, denying heroic deeds and beautifying aggressive warfare.

(13) Contents that destroying the religious policies and promoting cults and feudal superstitions.

(14) Contents that spreading rumors, disturbing social order and undermining social stability.

(15) Information containing other contents prohibited by laws and administrative regulations.

This site has the right to delete and ban the content and related accounts that breach the above commitments at any time without prior notice.

When you use our services, we will record your dataset browsing behavior and situation, and we use the foregoing information only for recommending relevant datasets for you; we will trace and record your IP address when you browse or download datasets (or data files) from ScienceDB, and we use the aforementioned information only for statistical analysis of the geographical distribution of dataset browsing & downloading. We will collect the aforementioned information within the minimum scope limited to achieving the processing purpose, and guarantee that the aforementioned information will not be used for any other purpose or shared with any other subject.

You can browse this site without account registration at the site. But for certain services, you need to choose a username and password, and register the account at the site. You shall provide accurate, complete and up-to-date registration information to this site. Otherwise, it will be considered as a violation of the terms of use, and the site has the right to terminate your account immediately. While selecting your username, you need to pay attention to the following issues:

(1) You shouldn’t choose or use other people’s usernames, intending to impersonate others;

(2) You shouldn’t use a name that may infringe upon the rights of others without authorization;

(3) You shouldn’t use names that are malicious, vulgar, obscene or violating laws and regulations.

Otherwise, this site has the right to refuse user registration or directly cancel users’ accounts that have been registered.

You shall be fully responsible for your account and unilaterally responsible for keeping your password confidential. You shouldn’t use another person’s account without clear permission. For any unauthorized use of your account or other accounts’ security vulnerabilities, you shall inform this site in writing formally and immediately.

This site can provide services via other websites, Internet information sources or other websites and information sources linking to this site. The risk of visiting a third-party website shall be borne by yourself. These websites are not under the control of this site. You acknowledge that this site is not responsible for the content, function, accuracy, legitimacy, appropriateness or other aspects of these websites or information sources. Including any such links does not mean that this site agrees with them or has a relationship with its operators. You acknowledge and agree that this site shall not be liable for any direct or indirect loss or damage caused by using or believing any content, goods or services on such websites.

（1）API Service

ScienceDB provides API (Application Programming Interface) service (service address: https://www.scidb.cn/open-api/swagger-ui.html) to facilitate users to obtain the data and content of ScienceDB, and further promote Open Data Sharing.

ScienceDB launches and implements ScienceDB’s API service and will strictly abide by relevant regulations and guidelines to protect the legitimate rights and interests of users on ScienceDB. Users of API service shall strictly abide by the API-related regulations and practices, and strictly abide by the requirements of ScienceDB’s Terms of Service, Data Policies and other documents. Users of API service shall not use the foregoing services for any illegal purpose or perform any conduct that infringes or may infringes the legitimate rights and interests of users on ScienceDB, and shall not use the aforementioned services to implement any conduct that threatens or may threaten the normal and safe operation of ScienceDB.

If the conduct of the API service user infringes or may infringe the legitimate rights and interests of the users on ScienceDB, the safety and normal operation of ScienceDB, or the legitimate rights and interests of other third parties, ScienceDB has the right to disconnect the site’s API services or set other service restriction for ScienceDB’s API services.

Any User of ScienceDB’s API Service shall solely take responsibility for any adverse consequences resulting from improper use or illegal use of ScienceDB’s API service.

（2）OAI Service

ScienceDB provides OAI-PMH (Open Archives Initiative, Protocol for Metadata Harvesting) service (service address: https://www.scidb.cn/oai?verb=Identify). OAI-PMH is a low-barrier mechanism for repository interoperability. Data Providers are repositories that expose structured metadata via OAI-PMH. Service Providers then make OAI-PMH service requests to harvest that metadata. It aims to improve the sharing scopes & capabilities of Internet resources, and will further expand the dissemination of datasets on ScienceDB.

ScienceDB launches and implements ScienceDB’s OAI-PMH service and will strictly abide by relevant regulations and guidelines to protect the legitimate rights and interests of users on ScienceDB. Users of OAI service shall strictly abide by the relevant provisions of the OAI & OAI-PMH agreements and guidelines, and strictly abide by the requirements of ScienceDB’s Terms of Service, Data Policies and other documents. Users of OAI service shall not use the foregoing services for any illegal purpose or perform any conduct that infringes or may infringes the legitimate rights and interests of users on ScienceDB, and shall not use the aforementioned services to implement any conduct that threatens or may threaten the normal and safe operation of ScienceDB.

If the conduct of the OAI service user infringes or may infringe the legitimate rights and interests of the users on ScienceDB, the safety and normal operation of ScienceDB, or the legitimate rights and interests of other third parties, ScienceDB has the right to disconnect the site’s OAI services or set other service restriction for ScienceDB’s OAI services.

Any User of ScienceDB’s OAI Service shall solely take responsibility for any adverse consequences resulting from improper use or illegal use of ScienceDB’s OAI service.

You acknowledge that the services of this site include the contents specially provided by this site, partners and third parties, and these contents are protected by copyright, trademark right, patent right, trade secret right or other rights & interests. Copyright declarations, information and limitations of the contents obtained through the service shall be observed and maintained. You shall not sell, license, rent or use anything in a manner that infringes on the rights of third parties.

This site provides you with the functions of adding, creating, uploading, submitting, issuing or publishing (“submitting”) contents, articles, data, texts, photos, images, illustrations or other information to websites or services (collectively referred to as “user submission”).

You declare and guarantee that your use of the data submitted by the users involved in the agreement will not infringe on or violate the rights of any third party, include but not limited to privacy, intellectual property rights, contractual rights or other rights & interests.

Except for the condition that users submit data to the public, you declare and guarantee to this site for the following:

(1) In order to submit all the contents in the data and allow this site to make use of the contents covered by the terms of use, you have or have at your disposal all the rights and required permissions. For the owners of the rights, ownership and interests with respect to the data submitted, you can use the terms of use on their behalf.

(2) You understand that the subject of submitting content will be fully responsible for all information publicly or privately disseminated through websites or services. This site will not be responsible for any errors or content omissions and can delete or modify materials and contents you submit on this site.

(3) This site does not guarantee the authenticity of the data submitted by users. You acknowledge that all contents you acquire while using the service is at your own risk, and you will be fully liable for any loss or damage to either party caused by the contents you acquire and cannot acquire.

(4) If you choose to provide your information to public access, you understand that this site will share the data submitted by you with related third parties, and this site cannot and will not dominate any third party. You acknowledge that for the privacy of data submitted by any user, and the data that do not need privacy protection, this site will not make any declaration or guarantee.

In view of the particularity of network services, users know and agree that this site can terminate your access to services or some services at any time without prior notice, and take effect immediately. This may result in the loss or destruction of information associated with your account, including data submitted by users.

You acknowledge that this site has no control over and no obligation to the following behaviors: users’ access to the site and its services, access to contents through services, the effect of contents on you, the way you interpret or use contents, actions taken with respect to publicly disclosed contents. This site is not liable for any content acquired through this site or not.

This site only provides the content itself or available services, excluding any explicit or implicit guarantees, including but not limited to the following: guarantees implied in the title, guarantee of no-infringement, suitability guarantees for specific purposes and any guarantees implied in other course of performance and business practices, this site explicitly denies all the guarantees above.

This site and its corporate units, construction teams, agents, suppliers, partners, integrators and content providers cannot guarantee:

(1) This site and its services are secure, uninterrupted and available at any given time or place.

(2) Any defects and errors will be corrected.

(3) No computer viruses or other harmful components are included in any content or software on the site.

(4) The results of using this site and its services will meet your requirements.

The risk of using this site and its services is completely borne by yourself.

The basic service of ScienceDB is currently free to users. ScienceDB has the right to charge for existing services or add new charging service at any time, and ScienceDB will notify you via email or ScienceDB’s Site Announcement.

This site will take the following measures to IP rights (Intellectual Property Rights) infringement based on relevant laws and regulations:

（1）For any IP rights-protected materials illegally copied or disseminated by advertisers, affiliates, content providers, members or users, this site has the right to delete or ban access to it.

（2）For repeated infringers, this site has the right to deny or terminate the services to them.

If an individual or entity discovers that there is content infringing on their legitimate rights and interests on this site, they can first try to contact the content submitter and solve the issue through communication and negotiations. If you cannot contact the content submitter, or solve the issue through negotiations, you can contact our service account (e-mail address: sciencedb@cnic.cn) for complaints. To ensure that the issue can be dealt with promptly and effectively, please submit authentic, effective, complete and clear materials, otherwise the complaint will be inadmissible. The complaint materials you need to provide to ScienceDB include:

(1) The ownership certificate of the right holder’s IP rights and/or other legally exercisable rights in the suspected infringement.

(2) The identity certificate of the informant, which may be an ID card or passport.

(3) Handwritten or electronic signature of informant.

(4) If the informant is not the right holder, the informant should provide a written authorization to report on behalf of the right holder.

(5) To ensure the authenticity of the complaint materials, you need to sign the following legal declaration in the infringement report:

The reporting process is as follows:

The site will deal with and respond within seven working days since the reports is received. No telephone, mail or other inquiry service will be provided during the process. Not all report applications must be accepted.

In case that ScienceDB has deleted or dealt with disputed content, but it can still be searched on Baidu, Google or other search engines, that’s because Baidu, Google and other search engines have their own caches. For these issues, ScienceDB has no right or ability to deal with, and relevant applications will not be accepted. You can contact third-party search engine servers for resolution.

This is the only official complaint channel for infringement on this site. No other way to deal with this issue is available for now.

The latest amendment of the terms is issued on March 1, 2022. The Terms of Service shall enter into force upon release.