Copyright and takedown policy

1. Who is responsible for content

Papers and contributions are posted by their authors, who confirm when they submit that they hold the rights needed (see the Terms of use). Moderators screen submissions for scholarly suitability; they cannot check every right in every paper. If you see a problem, please tell us.

2. How to report infringement

Send your report to legal@pubarx.com with:

1. your name, postal address, email address and, if you act for someone else, whom you represent;
2. the work you believe is infringed, for example the original article, figure or dataset;
3. the PubArx identifier or address of the content, and which part is concerned (the whole paper, a figure, a table, a passage);
4. a statement that you believe in good faith that the use is not authorised by the rights holder, its agent or the law;
5. a statement that the information in your report is accurate and that you are the rights holder or authorised to act for them;
6. your signature, which can be your typed full name.

Reports about other legal issues, such as defamation, confidential information or personal data published without consent, go to the same address and are handled in the same way.

3. What we do

1. Acknowledge your report and check that it contains the information above.
2. Review it. Where a report is clear and credible, we may restrict access to the content while we review it.
3. Notify the submitter, with a copy of the report. We share your name and contact details with the submitter only where that is needed to resolve the matter; tell us if you have a concern about this.
4. Decide. Possible outcomes are: no action; a corrected version without the disputed material; or restriction or removal of all or part of the content. We tell both sides what we decided.

When access to a paper is restricted, its identifier is never reused and its page shows a short notice and, where appropriate, the reason.

4. Responding to a report

If your content was reported or restricted and you believe this is a mistake, or that you have the rights needed, reply to legal@pubarx.com within 14 days with your explanation and any evidence, such as a licence or the publisher’s permission. We will reconsider the decision and may restore the content. Where possible, a different moderator or administrator reviews the response.

5. Repeated infringement

Accounts that repeatedly post content that infringes the rights of others will be suspended or closed.

6. Withdrawal is not the same as removal

• Withdrawal is a scholarly decision by the authors, for example after finding a serious error. Authors post a new version that explains the withdrawal, and earlier versions normally stay available.
• Removal or restriction is a decision by PubArx where the law or our policies require it, for example for infringement, privacy violations or research misconduct.

Removing a file from PubArx does not withdraw a Creative Commons licence that applied to it: people who obtained the work under that licence may keep using it under its terms.

7. Records

We keep reports, our correspondence and a minimal record of each case (identifier, dates, decision and reason) so that we can show how we handled it.

8. Misuse of this process

Reports must be made in good faith. Knowingly false or misleading reports may have legal consequences for the person making them, and we may disregard reports that abuse this process.

This policy is part of the Terms of use of PubArx, which is run by the PubArx Community.