BERD@NFDI Platform Terms of Use
Version 2.2
Preamble
The following conditions apply to the free use of the BERD@NFDI online platform, accessible at https://berd-platform.de, and the BERD@NFDI website, accessible at https://www.berd-nfdi.de. They are provided by the University of Mannheim (hereinafter referred to as "Operator"):
Universität Mannheim
Schloss
68131 Mannheim
Telefon: 0621/181-2222
Internet: https://www.uni-mannheim.de
By using the platform and any services on the platform, you agree to these Terms of Use.
BERD@NFDI is a consortium of the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) for Business, Economic, and Related Data. The BERD@NFDI platform is used for the collection, processing, analysis, and storage of big data in these areas.
The platform offers informational materials, training, workshops, tools, and data-related services.
Use with and without registration, conclusion of the user agreement
The use of the platform is only permitted in accordance with these Terms of Use. By using the platform, users agree to these terms and enter into a binding user agreement with the operator. This establishes the user relationship.
The provision of platform's services and functionalities is regulated by so-called access categories. The following access categories exist:
Registration-free (open) services: Services and functionalities of the platform, for which free access is granted, are accessible to all users in compliance with the Terms of Use.
Services requiring registration: Some services and functionalities of the platform are only accessible to registered users. They can only be used after registering and creating a user account. To create a user account, a username and password must be chosen ("login data"). In addition, a current email address and other personal information (hereinafter "account data") must be provided. These must be verified via a URL link. The email address is also used for communication with the operator. Each user may create a maximum of one user account. Users warrant that the account data used when creating a user account is accurate and complete. To ensure that users fulfil their obligations, an internal real name requirement applies.
Services requiring registration are:
Publishing and managing of resources: Registered users have the option of publishing their own resources (especially data sets) on the platform and managing them (so-called user contributions). Resources and their associated metadata can be published either as publicly accessible ("public") user contributions or as restricted ("restricted") contributions.
User obligations
General obligations
To the extent necessary for the provision of the platform, users grant the operator simple rights of use to the resources they publish on the platform (user contributions such as data sets, comments, publications). Any copyrights for user contributions naturally remain with the authors.
No user contributions that violate public decency or applicable law may be posted on the platform. Users are also responsible for complying with applicable data protection law. In the event of violations, sections 4.2 and 6.2 apply.
Attempts at de-anonymization and any measures on the part of users that could be aimed at de-anonymizing data sets are prohibited. Merging a data set with other data sets or with other individual data for the purpose of de-anonymization is not permitted.
Users are required to handle their login data carefully, treat them confidentially, and prevent misuse by third parties. In particular, this means that the login data must be protected against unauthorized notice, modification, and other unauthorized access or attacks of any kind. Users are also not permitted to allow third parties access to their user account or to communicate the login data to third parties.
User accounts are only available to the respective registered user and may not be transferred to a third party without the express consent of the operator.
Users must keep their account data up to date and correct them in case of changes.
Users are required to cite the source when publishing on the basis of the data sets.
Any activity that is capable of excessively burdening the operation of the platform or the underlying technical infrastructure is prohibited.
Users may not use the platform for advertising or for sending SPAM messages.
Special obligations for individual platform functionalities
Publishing and managing of resources
When publishing and managing their own resources on the platform, users agree to transfer their user contributions (esp. data sets) free of charge, together with any associated metadata that may already exist, to the platform operator for the purposes of documentation, publication, and dissemination on the platform.
Users guarantee that the data sets do not contain any personal data. If the data sets contain personal data, they must be anonymized by the users before being transferred to the operator.
Users commit to storing and managing their deposited data sets incl. metadata and metadata of third-party services according to the requirements of good scientific practice. The data will be subjected to internal quality assurance by the operator prior to publication (see Section 3.1). This does not restrict the aforementioned user obligation.
Data sets that are made publicly accessible on the platform in the sense of "Open Big Data" ("public") are to be published under a free license or as Public Domain. The re-use of the data sets is permitted to third parties according to the rules of the selected free license. Various licenses are available for selection during the publication process. Data sets cannot be published without selecting a suitable license.
Before publishing the data sets, users must provide the necessary metadata by filling in all the specified metadata fields. Metadata is hereby defined as all data used to describe the resources (in particular data sets) (e.g. title, participants, DOI, data collection methods, survey instruments, abstracts). Users can request a DOI (Digital Object Identifier) to be assigned to their resources. For this the following prerequisites must be met:
The resources (eg. data set) must be complete.
The resources must not have an existing DOI already assigned to them.
The resources must have an appropriate license, which permits their storage and publication on the platform.
The metadata, including abstracts, is made publicly available under the Creative Commons "CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication" (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en). It can thereafter be used freely by anyone without fulfilling any legal obligations.
Rights and obligations of the operator
The operator carries out internal quality assurance, in particular checking the completeness of the metadata provided, before any data sets are published on the platform. The operator reserves the right to refrain from publishing content that violates applicable law, the rights of third parties, or the Terms of Use of the platform, or that does not meet the quality standards of the platform for other reasons. This does not affect the obligation of users to refrain from and prevent legal violations (see section 4.1).
The operator endeavours to ensure the smooth operation of the platform. This is naturally limited to circumstances over which the operator has influence. The operator is free to restrict access to the platform in whole or in part, temporarily or permanently. Users have no claim to the maintenance of individual functionalities of the platform.
Liability and warranty
The users guarantee that they are authorized to provide their user contributions on the platform and that this does not violate the rights of third parties.
If users violate their obligations under this agreement, in particular the above guarantee, and the operator incurs damage as a result of a claim by a third party, they shall indemnify the operator against any claims. Users shall provide the operator with all necessary support in defending its legal rights, including, in particular, the assumption of the costs of reasonable legal defence.
Contributions and comments reflect the opinions of individual users alone. The operator does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of this content.
Notwithstanding the following provisions, the operator shall be liable without limitation within the framework of the statutory provisions for intent, gross negligence, for specially agreed quality guarantees and warranted characteristics, as well as under the German Product Liability Act (Act on Liability for Defective Products or Produkthaftungsgesetz - ProdHaftG) and for damage to life, limb, or health.
Compensation for damages resulting from a slightly negligent breach of cardinal obligations shall be limited to the amount of typically foreseeable damage. Cardinal obligations are those obligations whose fulfilment is essential for the proper execution of the contract and on whose compliance users regularly rely and may rely. Further claims for damages by users arising from simple negligence on the part of the operator are excluded.
The operator is only liable for the loss of data to the extent of the expense incurred if users regularly and adequately back up their data, thereby ensuring that lost data can be restored with reasonable effort.
Insofar as the operator's liability is excluded or limited, this also applies to its employees, workers, representatives, and vicarious agents.
Data protection
The operator runs the platform based on German and European data protection law. Information on data protection can be found on the BERD@NFDI website: https://www.berd-nfdi.de/privacy/
Termination of the user relationship and removal of content
Unless otherwise specified in these Terms of Use, user contributions shall remain on the platform until the respective contributing user notifies the operator that they should be removed. In this case user should contact info@berd-nfdi.de.
Users can delete their user accounts at any time and thus terminate their registration. In this case, their user contributions will be deleted by the operator within a reasonable period of time, unless otherwise agreed in individual cases or as exempted by these Terms of Use.
The operator has the right to permanently store resources (in particular data sets) that have been granted a DOI by the operator and/or are published under free licenses in order to ensure good scientific practice and to make them available to third parties for this purpose. Thus, the DOI assigned resources and free licensing of already published resources (see section 2.2.1) is not affected by the termination of the user relationship.
The operator reserves the right to delete individual user contributions at its own discretion without giving reasons. This applies in particular (but not exclusively) to user contributions that violate legal provisions contrary to Section 4.1, infringe the rights of third parties, or in the event of serious errors and scientific misconduct.
The operator may terminate the user relationship at any time and without stating reasons. The operator must inform the affected user of this with a notice period of two weeks at the end of the month, in text form (e.g., by email) or in writing.
The right to extraordinary termination without notice for good cause remains unaffected. Good cause shall be deemed to exist for the operator in particular if users violate their obligations under Sections 2.1, 2.2, and 4.1 of these Terms of Use.
Changes to the Terms of Use
The operator reserves the right to change these Terms of Use in the future. The operator may change these Terms of Use at any time and without prior notice by publishing the updated Terms of Use on the platform.
Final provisions
The operator is entitled to transfer the operation of the platform to another operator (natural or legal person of its choice, "successor"). In this context, the successor shall assume the rights and obligations of this contract in place of the operator. The transfer shall take effect 28 days after it has been communicated to the users. Users may object to the transfer of their user agreement until the end of this period and terminate their user relationship at any time (in accordance with Section 6.2).
Should individual provisions of these Terms of Use be or become wholly or partially legally invalid or unenforceable, this shall not affect the validity of the remaining provisions. The same applies in the event that the contract contains a regulatory gap.
This contract is exclusively subject to German law.