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Science Together

General terms and conditions

Information on this website

This website is an informational website. Its aim is to showcase the many different types of participatory research projects underway in Sorbonne University Alliance institutions. This portal is an interdisciplinary platform for research projects based on participatory science approaches. It also presents resources, news items and information about events related to citizen science. This platform redirects users to the participation websites of the projects presented. This site also allows you to:

No information on the website should be considered contractual in any way. Scientific texts published on the website are valid at the date of publication and do not commit the authors to future positions.

Information on the services, artifacts in collections or any other information posted on the website comes from documents considered to be reliable on the day they are published online. All information, whether practical or scientific, is for informational purposes only and not subject to any commitment from the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle and Sorbonne University.

Any information on the website may be modified at any time without notice by the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle and Sorbonne University. The information on the SCIENCE TOGETHER website should not be construed as an offer of services or products, nor a commercial solicitation of any kind, nor a recommendation or advice. The Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle and Sorbonne University are not liable for any decision made or not made based on information on the website, nor for the use of such information by a third party. This information does not engage the responsibility of the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle or Sorbonne University.

Acceptance and modification of the general terms and conditions and the website

Access to and use of the website are subject to acceptance and compliance with these General Terms and Conditions (T&C). By browsing the website, regardless of the technical means or points of access used, users are deemed to be aware of these T&C and to accept them without reservation. These T&C are applicable to any version or extension of the website on current or future social media and/or community networks.

These T&C may be modified at any time by the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle and Sorbonne University. Before browsing the website, users should consult the latest version of the T&C, which are available at all times on the website. If users do not agree with the T&C, they should not use the website.

Protection of website content

The SCIENCE TOGETHER website as well as all of its key components are the property of the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle and Sorbonne University. They are protected by copyright and intellectual property rights.

The reproduction of all or part of this website on any paper or electronic medium whatsoever is authorized solely for non-commercial distribution for associative, informational or educational purposes, subject to compliance with the following three conditions:

  • free distribution;
  • respect for the integrity of the documents reproduced: no modifications or alterations of any kind;
  • clear and legible citation of the source indicating “SCIENCE TOGETHER,” the web address of the portal (www.science-ensemble.org) and the mention “© SCIENCE TOGETHER – Reproduction prohibited – All rights reserved.”.

Any distribution or use of the website content or information for commercial or advertising purposes is strictly prohibited. For other uses, send requests for authorization to the following email address: contact@scienceensemble.org.

The databases and/or files are protected by special provisions in French Act No. 98-536 of July 1, 1998 on the legal protection of databases. The Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle and Sorbonne University each guarantee that they hold the intellectual property rights to the content posted online or have obtained the necessary authorizations from the rights holders.

It is prohibited to reuse the content without express prior authorization from the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle and Sorbonne University.

Access to the website and use of content

The Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle and Sorbonne University authorize all visitors, in accordance with these T&C and rules governing Internet use, to consult this website free of charge for informational purposes, for personal and private use only and excluding all commercial purposes. All costs related to accessing the website, whether related to equipment, software or Internet access, are the sole responsibility of users.

Project leaders, co-managers or resource persons (or “professional users”) can create a personal user account on the SCIENCE TOGETHER website. When doing so, they undertake to provide, maintain and update all information to ensure it is accurate, complete and current.

These professional users can upload directly to the portal professional information about themselves or their institutions, projects, observatories and events, as well as resources, photos, videos, contact information (email, phone, mailing address) and web addresses for other websites.

Services provided

1) Creation of a professional user account for project leaders, co-managers or resource persons

Project leaders, co-managers or resource persons working on citizen science projects can create a user account to join the professional network.

By doing so, they can:

  • describe their citizen science project (for project leaders who are members of the Sorbonne University Alliance);
  • interact with other members of the professional network;
  • share resources and publish events and news items.

Registration will be finalized once the CHARTER OF COMMITMENTS AND VALUES is signed (box to be ticked during registration). This charter outlines the shared values and specific aspects of the many projects on the SCIENCE TOGETHER platform.

Once the registration form is completed, users will have a personal space (dashboard format) to which they can add additional details:

  • personal information;
  • information on their professional profile and skills they are seeking;
  • information about their project (to be included in the project directory: project name, aims, specific actions, logo, website, email address, location, participation period, level of involvement, training required, detailed project description, origin of the project, project partner organizations, resource persons, etc.)

Professional users can also benefit from access to the resource center, newsfeed and events section that will allow them to publish:

  • resources: name and type of resource, source, description, themes covered, detailed description, the project or event linked to the resource, accessibility, geographical scope and publication date.
  • events and news: name of the event or news item, photo, description of the event or news item, start/end date of the event, link to the event’s official page, event mailing address, themes covered, name of the organizing institution, related projects, name and contact information of the event contact person.

Some of the abovementioned information posted by professional users will be made public by default, except for information intended only for use by the professional citizen science network (i.e., the email and phone number of project co-managers and resource persons).

Information provided by users are hosted by the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle. Registration on the professional network is free of charge. Users must comply with the following conditions:

  • any information provided when registering and creating a user profile must be true and accurate.
  • registration must be for personal, non-commercial use.
  • use of the website must not violate any current laws or regulations

Any account and/or your profile may be deleted at any time and without notice by the website administrators if they feel that it does not comply with the above conditions.

Professional users with an account who use the website acknowledge that they hold the intellectual property rights to all items and content uploaded on the SCIENCE TOGETHER website: information, text, publications, photos, videos, illustrations and/or images. They may also share open access resources.

By uploading such content to SCIENCE TOGETHER, professional users also agree to release all economic rights (reproduction, use, adaptation, translation) at no cost and non-exclusively to the Muséum national d’Histoire national and Sorbonne University for any non-commercial use for the promotion of SCIENCE TOGETHER, studies and analyses. User content may be used by the resource center in Creative Commons with the following license:


Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND)

This license is the most restrictive of the six main Creative Commons licenses. Other users may only download your work or share it if they give you credit by citing your name, and they are not allowed to modify it in any way nor use it for commercial purposes.

2/ Interaction with other users

The SCIENCE TOGETHER website gives professional users an opportunity to communicate with other members of the network using comments based on their interactions within the professional network. The author of a message is solely responsible for the content of that message.

In the event of non-compliance with the provisions below and the laws and regulations in force in France, the author is subject to allowable civil or criminal penalties in addition to the deletion of the message.

All professional users undertake to respect the following rules of professional conduct:

  • do not conduct activities that may harm the operation of the SCIENCE TOGETHER website.
  • be vigilant and take the usual precautions when using the available content.
  • do not distribute content, messages or website links that are racist, defamatory, vulgar, offensive, aggressive, violent or discriminatory.
  • do not publish or distribute information contrary to copyright or related rights, database rights, image use or privacy rights that would violate any other legislative or regulatory provision in force.
  • do not distribute non-public telephone numbers or email addresses.
  • respect the rules of access and use that may be different based on the type of membership granted to each member by the platform administrators.

Personal Data

For more information regarding personal data processing by the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle and Sorbonne University, please refer to the PRIVACY POLICY.

Responsability

1) User responsibility

All equipment and software required to access and use the website are the sole responsibility of users, who are solely responsible for the proper operation of said equipment and Internet access.

Users should take all necessary measures to protect their own data, information systems and/or software from possible viruses.

Users are solely responsible for their use of the website.

Users/clients are responsible for any damage they may cause the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle and Sorbonne University as a result of non-compliance with the T&C.

Users undertake to immediately inform the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle and Sorbonne University of any error, impropriety or non-compliance they may notice when using the website as soon as they become aware of it.

To address a security alert (virus control, etc.), a request from an authority (administrative, legal or any other authorized authority), or alert from another user, the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle and Sorbonne University reserve the right, if necessary, to:

  • keep, for evidentiary purposes, any information that does not comply with the rules set out in the General Terms and Conditions;
  • keep, for evidentiary purposes, any logs, traces of connections or personal or generic data proving improper behaviors or actions by a user;
  • modify, refuse or remove access to any information that does not comply with the rules set out in these T&C.

2) Responsibility of the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle and Sorbonne University

The Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle and Sorbonne University use all reasonable means at their disposal to ensure quality access to the website.

The website is available 24/7, except in the event of force majeure, an event outside the control of the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle and Sorbonne University or outages and necessary maintenance operations to ensure the website’s proper functioning.

The Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle and Sorbonne University cannot be held responsible for any malfunction of the network and/or servers or any other event outside their control that would prevent or hamper access to the website.

The Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle and Sorbonne University reserve the right to interrupt or modify access to part or all of the website without notice to conduct maintenance or for any other reason without the interruption giving rise to any obligation or compensation.

The Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle and Sorbonne University cannot be held responsible for any damage caused by:

  • use of the website by the user in a way that does not comply with these T&C and current regulations; or
  • computer configurations that allow users to automatically log in and thus allow any third party to use the website with their account or by usurping their identity. Accordingly, to limit this risk, users should secure access to their account (delete cookies and automatic logins, etc.).

Hypertext Links

Hypertext links are used on the website to redirect users to other external online resources as well as from external resources towards the website. These links may be created with websites of Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle and Sorbonne University entities or third-party websites. These various links should not be considered as an offer of services or products, or a recommendation, advice or commercial solicitation of any kind. The Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle and Sorbonne University cannot be held responsible for the content or use by any third party of the information on any other website.

Furthermore, the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle and Sorbonne University cannot be held responsible for any consequences resulting from technical failures related to these links.

Hypertext links to pages or documents posted on the www.science-ensemble.org portal is authorized if the links guarantee that the origin of the document can be identified. The user should inform the portal administrators in advance at the following email address: contact@science-ensemble.org. The Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle and Sorbonne University may at any time require the removal of hypertext links created by anyone towards the SCIENCE TOGETHER website from an external website if said website reflects poorly on the image of either parties, the projects presented, or citizen science in general.

Telecommunications security and integrity

The security and integrity of Internet communications cannot be guaranteed. The Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle and Sorbonne University cannot be held responsible for the consequences related to technical failures in relation to the website, particularly with regard to any difficulty accessing the website or any interruption of website service.

Protection of information systems

Articles 323-1 et seq. of the French Criminal Code penalize violations of automated data processing systems, and especially:

  • fraudulently accessing or maintaining part or all of an automated data processing system;
  • obstructing or distorting the operation of such a system; or
  • fraudulently introducing data into such a system or fraudulently deleting or modifying the data in the system.

Applicable law and jurisdiction

The SCIENCE TOGETHER website, whose official language is French, is subject to French law and falls under the exclusive jurisdiction of the French courts.