Journal Subscription Terms
Last updated: August 21, 2025
Contents
1. Agreement
ResearchGate (“RG”, “we”) operates the platform at https://www.researchgate.net/ and associated websites, properties, and applications, including iOS and Android apps (“Platform”). Through the Platform we offer a paid subscription service (“Journal Subscription Service”) to eligible journals selected in our sole discretion (“Eligible Journals”). These Journal Subscription Terms (“Terms”) outline the agreement between RG and the organization operating the Eligible Journal (“Journal Organization”, “you”) for its purchase of and access to a subscription to the Journal Subscription Service (“Subscription”).
You may not purchase or access a Subscription if you are on a sanctions-related list maintained by the United Nations Security Council, European Union, or United States, or if prohibited by applicable laws.
To purchase and access a Subscription:
The individual acting on behalf of the Journal Organization must have an active personal account on the Platform that complies with our Platform’s Terms of Service (“RG Account”) and be logged in.
The individual acting on behalf of the Journal Organization must represent and warrant that they are affiliated with the Eligible Journal and have the authority to act on behalf of the Journal Organization.
You must represent and warrant that the Journal Organization is acting as a business (a “trader” as defined in Section 14 of the German Civil Code) and not a consumer (as defined in Section 13 of the German Civil Code).
You must agree to these Terms.
The Terms become binding once you agree to them. We will only accept your order after confirming that the individual acting on your behalf is affiliated with the Eligible Journal and making any further checks we deem appropriate. Once we have accepted your order, together the Terms and the order become the binding “Agreement” and you will be charged. We will notify you once your order has been accepted and your invoice processed.
2. Journal Subscription Service
The Journal Subscription Service provides access to advanced features and additional insights for the duration of your Subscription (“Subscription Period”). Via a dedicated administrative space (“Admin Space”), you can manage the presence, branding, and content of your Eligible Journal on the Platform, add full, readable versions of works published in your Eligible Journal (“Article Files”), and get insights about interactions with your Eligible Journal on the Platform.
The Journal Subscription Service must not be used for abusive or illegal purposes, and any use must comply with our conduct rules contained in our Platform’s Terms of Service. You are responsible for the activities of individuals who purchase, access, or use the Journal Subscription Service features on your behalf. To evidence that an individual is affiliated with an Eligible Journal, we may require them to provide proof of affiliation, such as access to an email address associated with the Eligible Journal’s web domain or other suitable evidence at our sole discretion. You can revoke an individual’s authorization to access and use your Subscription or assign another individual as a replacement. If the last individual managing your Subscription loses access to their RG Account, you will lose access to your Admin Space until a new individual is designated, however features that do not require access to your Admin Space will remain available.
3. Your Content
For the Journal Subscription Service to work optimally, you must deposit and maintain up-to-date metadata relating to your Eligible Journal in Crossref. Using the metadata you add to Crossref, we will update the metadata on the individual webpages on the Platform that represent works published in your Eligible Journal (“Publication Pages”) accordingly. If your Crossref metadata includes full-text URLs, we will attempt to locate the corresponding Article Files. You can then request to see previews of the Article Files and direct us to upload them to your Publication Pages on your behalf to make them available on the Platform. Alternatively you can upload Article Files to your Publication Pages manually. For the avoidance of doubt, when you make Content available on the Platform, it is available to both logged-in users with RG Accounts and logged-out visitors of the Platform, and Article Files are downloadable by anyone. We may, in future, obtain metadata and locate Article Files via other sources. If we do, we will make the source information available to you.
The Journal Subscription Service enables you to add, create, fetch, upload, submit, transmit, send, share, and post text, data, files (including Article Files), images, logos, and URLs (“Content”) on or to the Platform, or request that RG do so on your behalf. You must ensure all Content complies with our conduct rules contained in our Platform’s Terms of Service. You are solely responsible for the quality, safety, legality, intellectual property rights, reliability, appropriateness, and accuracy of your Content and must ensure that any outdated, inaccurate, or unlawful Content is replaced as soon as practicable.
We reserve the right to reject, suspend, remove, or deactivate Content at any time for a reasonable reason. Reasons may include potential violation of these Terms or our conduct rules contained in our Platform’s Terms of Service, a notice of alleged infringement, or a good faith belief that the Content may expose RG or others to potential liability or adverse consequences. Where feasible, we will notify you of our decision and the reasons for it. You will have no claims for compensation due to such actions. You can remove any Content that you added to the Platform at any time. Where Content is deactivated or removed: (i) we may provide messaging to affected users; and (ii) we are entitled to retain and continue to use related data as described in Section 4(5) (Term and termination). For the avoidance of doubt, we may retain and continue to use and display any metadata or other publicly available content (including full-text files) that we obtained independent of this Agreement.
4. Term and termination
Your Subscription will commence upon our acceptance of your order and run for an initial one-year period (“Initial Subscription Period”). The Subscription will automatically renew for a subsequent one-year term for each year thereafter, unless canceled by either party in accordance with this Section 4 (Term and termination). If canceled, the Subscription and this Agreement will terminate at the end of the then-current Subscription Period.
You can cancel your Subscription up to 14 calendar days before the current Subscription Period ends via your Admin Space. Canceling will not affect the RG Account of any individual managing your Subscription. We may cancel your Subscription by providing at least 14 calendar days’ prior written notice. In such a case, the cancellation will normally take effect at the end of your current Subscription Period.
Each party has the right to terminate the Agreement for good cause at any time, defined as an event which makes it unacceptable for the terminating party to continue the agreement, taking into account all circumstances and weighing the interests of both parties. For RG, good cause includes, but is not limited to, the following events:
We have good reason to believe that an individual managing your Subscription is not affiliated with the Eligible Journal or lacks authority to act on behalf of the Journal Organization.
You repeatedly or materially fail to comply with any applicable legal provision, a contractual obligation of these Terms, or the conduct rules contained in our Platform’s Terms of Service.
You fail to make any payment when due.
We determine that our reputation is substantially impaired by the contractual relationship or presence of your journal or Content on the Platform.
We have a good faith belief that the Agreement or continued use of your Content may expose us to potential harm, risk, legal liability, or regulatory impacts.
A legal requirement or court order requires us to terminate.
If we terminate for good cause, your Subscription will automatically be canceled with no refunds granted. Unless immediate termination is justified without prior notice or a warning would be futile, each party should provide a written warning and reasonable period to remedy the breach before exercising its right to terminate for good cause.
Upon a termination becoming effective:
We will immediately cease delivering the Journal Subscription Service, and you will lose access to the associated features.
Any Article Files you uploaded or directed RG to upload will be removed. However, we are entitled to retain and continue to use and display any data extracted from your Article Files including and relating to citations, topics, publication metadata, abstracts, authorship, keywords, and license information, to continue to operate, provide, and improve the Platform. This also applies in the event of removal under Section 3(3) (Your Content). For the avoidance of doubt, we may retain and continue to use and display any metadata or other publicly available content (including full-text files) that we obtained independent of this Agreement.
Upon a termination becoming effective, all of the parties’ rights and obligations under the Agreement will cease, except for the warranties and indemnities stated herein, Sections 5 (Payment and pricing), 6 (Intellectual property), 7 (Data protection), 9 (Representations and warranties), 10 (Indemnification), 11 (Limitation of liability) and 12 (Miscellaneous), and any other provisions which expressly or by their nature are intended to survive termination.
5. Payment and pricing
To purchase or renew a Subscription, you must provide a current, valid method of payment that we accept. By doing so, you represent and warrant that you are authorized to use the payment method and authorize us to charge it on an annual basis for your active Subscription. Your payment method will be charged at the beginning of your Initial Subscription Period and on each renewal. You can find your next billing and due date in your Admin Space. All payments are processed by a third-party provider.
You agree to pay the price specified in your order in the specified currency, plus any applicable taxes. Any discount applied to your Initial Subscription Period will not be applied upon renewal. Prices are stated exclusive of any taxes that you may be required to pay, including but not limited to VAT taxes. You will not be charged VAT if:
your taxing jurisdiction is not a Member State of the EU and you take any necessary steps to prevent us from incurring tax obligations, if possible; or
your taxing jurisdiction is a Member State of the EU (other than Germany) and you have provided us with a valid VAT identification number.
If your taxing jurisdiction is a Member State of the EU (other than Germany) and you fail to provide a valid VAT identification number, you will be charged VAT. You are responsible for all applicable taxes, government charges, foreign exchange fees, and fees imposed by your bank or card issuer. You must take any necessary steps to prevent us from incurring tax obligations, if possible.
We may change the price of the Journal Subscription Service from time to time. For active Subscriptions, any price changes will take effect on your next billing date, provided we have given you at least 28 calendar days’ prior written notice. If you do not agree to the new price, you can cancel your Subscription before it renews on the new price in accordance with Section 4 (Term and termination).
You agree to accept order confirmations, invoices, automatic renewal reminders, and any other notices electronically, and are responsible for providing and maintaining complete and accurate billing, payment, and contact information. You can update your details at any time from your Admin Space. Your Subscription may be suspended or canceled if your information is incorrect or your payment method cannot be successfully charged.
To the extent permitted by applicable law, all payments are non-refundable.
6. Intellectual property
Each party keeps ownership of its intellectual property rights, and no ownership is transferred by this Agreement.
To the extent that the Agreement involves the storage, use, or display of any Content by RG for which a license would be necessary, you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, and sublicensable license to use, save, copy, modify, display, transmit, distribute and/or authorize the use of the Content, for the purpose of providing the Journal Subscription Service and operating, maintaining, providing, improving, and promoting the Platform. When we “modify” Content, we will only make technical changes for display purposes and will not alter the text or meaning of your Article Files. This license extends to all relevant proprietary rights, including copyrights and trademarks.
By making Content available on the Platform or instructing RG to do so on your behalf, you confirm that you hold the necessary rights to do so, that the Content does not violate any third-party rights, and that you are responsible for its public display. You authorize us to extract data from your Article Files including and relating to figures, tables, file preview images, text, citations, topics, publication metadata, abstracts, authorship, funding information, keywords, and license information, to display this data separately on the Platform to aid in discovery of your Content, and to use the data to operate, provide, and improve the Platform.
If you provide us with feedback or suggestions, you agree that we can use them for any purpose, such as to improve our services, without compensating you. If we share your feedback with third parties, we will not identify you without your prior consent.
7. Data protection
To purchase a Subscription, the individual acting on your behalf must provide limited personal data (such as their name, work email, and proof that they are affiliated with the Eligible Journal), which may be shared with you. All other personal data connected to an individual’s RG Account is subject to our Privacy Policy and will not be actively shared with you.
For the purposes of data protection legislation, to the extent that either party processes personal data, it does so as an independent data controller in its own right. Each party undertakes to comply with applicable data protection regulations, in particular with regard to obtaining consent, fulfilling information obligations, and fulfilling data subject rights. If you choose to add an editor for display with your journal presence, you are responsible for obtaining any necessary consents and connecting their name with the correct RG Account.
We implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to ensure a level of data security that is appropriate for the risks involved.
8. Changes to the Agreement
We may upgrade, modify, or discontinue any aspect of the Journal Subscription Service or Platform at any time. In doing so, we will take your reasonable expectations into account and provide you with reasonable notice of any material changes.
We may change these Terms from time to time, for example to clarify wording, reflect changes in the Journal Subscription Service, or reflect changes in the law. You will become subject to the new terms if you agree to them or we provide you with at least 28 calendar days’ prior written notice. We will provide such notice by sending you an email and/or notifying you on the Platform. Unless we state otherwise, changes will become effective 28 calendar days from the notice, unless you object. To object you must, before the changes take effect, notify us in writing and cancel your Subscription. In that case, your Subscription will continue under the old terms until the end of your current Subscription Period, at which point your Subscription and the Agreement will terminate.
9. Representations and warranties
Each party represents and warrants that it has the right to enter into the Agreement and perform its obligations hereunder and, in doing so, it will comply with all applicable laws, rules, and regulations.
You represent and warrant that:
You have all necessary rights, licenses, and permissions to provide or direct RG to obtain the Content for use in accordance with the Agreement.
The Content and its use as authorized under the Agreement will not violate any third-party rights, applicable laws, regulations, industry standards, these Terms or our conduct rules contained in our Platform’s Terms of Service.
The Content will not contain any harmful code, such as viruses or malware.
The Journal Subscription Service is provided on an “as is” basis, without warranties of any kind, including, without limitation, implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement. We make no representations or warranties regarding:
The Journal Subscription Service being entirely uninterrupted or error-free.
The accuracy, completeness, legality, decency, reliability, or availability of any third-party content, information, or websites, properties, or services displayed in or linked to from the Platform.
The reach or performance of any Journal Subscription Service features.
The accuracy of information on user profiles connected with RG Accounts.
Engagement or performance data.
Notwithstanding the above, any warranty claims against RG under mandatory applicable law remain unaffected; Section 11 (Limitation of liability) applies.
10. Indemnification
Each Party (the “Indemnifying Party”) will indemnify, defend, and hold the other (the “Indemnified Party”) and its officers, directors, agents, and employees harmless from and against any loss, cost, expense, claim, injury, or damage (including, without limitation, reasonable attorneys’ fees and expenses) incurred due to third-party claims ("Losses") arising out of or in connection with the Indemnifying Party’s violations of applicable law or breach or alleged breach of the Indemnifying Party’s representations and warranties set forth in this Agreement.
You (the “Indemnifying Party”) shall indemnify, defend, and hold RG (the “Indemnified Party”) and our officers, directors, agents, and employees harmless from and against any loss, cost, expense, claim, injury, or damage (including, without limitation, reasonable attorneys’ fees and expenses) incurred due to third-party claims ("Losses") arising out of or in connection with any allegation that any Content you provide or adopt infringes a third-party’s intellectual property or other rights.
The Indemnified Party will notify the Indemnifying Party promptly of any Losses for which it seeks indemnification and will permit the Indemnifying Party to control the defense of any third-party claim with counsel chosen by the Indemnifying Party, provided that the Indemnifying Party will not enter into any settlement that contains any admission of or stipulation to any guilt, fault, liability, or wrongdoing on the part of the Indemnified Party without the Indemnified Party’s prior written consent. The Indemnified Party will cooperate with the Indemnifying Party at the Indemnifying Party’s expense in the defense and settlement of any claim.
11. Limitation of liability
If we under-deliver the Journal Subscription Service, your remedy is limited to delivery of the undelivered portion.
Each party is liable without limitation for damages resulting from: (i) injury to life, body, or health; (ii) malicious conduct, willful default, or gross negligence (including that of its legal representatives or vicarious agents); (iii) fraudulent misrepresentation; (iv) breach of an express guarantee given by that Party; or (v) any liability that cannot be limited or excluded under applicable mandatory law, including claims under the German Product Liability Act.
In all other cases of simple negligence, the liability of each party is limited to the typically foreseeable damages at the time the Agreement was concluded. This applies in particular to breaches of cardinal contractual obligations (i.e., those obligations whose fulfillment is indispensable for the proper implementation of an agreement and on whose fulfillment the contracting parties can usually rely).
For simple negligent breaches of non-cardinal contractual obligations, each party’s total cumulative liability for all damages arising from or in connection with this Agreement in any 12-month period is limited to the total fees paid or payable to RG during that period. This cap does not apply to the liabilities listed in Section 11(2) or to simple negligent breaches of cardinal contractual obligations as per Section 11(3).
Indirect, special, incidental, punitive, or consequential damages (including loss of profit), are only recoverable to the extent they are "typically foreseeable damages" under Section 11(3) or fall under Section 11(2). Any broader exclusion of such damages is expressly excluded.
Your interactions with third parties found on or through the Platform are solely between you and them. We are not responsible for any loss or damage incurred as a result of such dealings and are under no obligation to become involved in any dispute between you and a third party.
12. Miscellaneous
Both parties agree to keep confidential information that is either marked as confidential or would normally be considered confidential information under the circumstances, and to use such information only for purposes of this Agreement. This obligation does not apply to information that is publicly known, independently developed without reference to the other party’s confidential information, or rightfully obtained from a third party.
All notices and other communications under the Agreement must be sent electronically, by email or via the Platform. We will send emails to the primary email address on the RG Account of the individual managing your Subscription and will also send invoices to any separate billing email address you provide.
This Agreement and all documents incorporated by reference are the entire agreement between the parties with respect to its subject matter and supersede all prior and contemporaneous understandings, agreements, negotiations, and discussions. Headings in this Agreement are for reference purposes only and do not affect its interpretation.
Neither party will be liable for any delay or failure to perform its obligations under the Agreement due to force majeure or other unexpected events at the time of conclusion of the Agreement.
RG may assign, delegate, or transfer this Agreement or its rights or obligations hereunder without your consent, including in connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganization, sale of assets, or other change of control. You may not assign, delegate, or transfer this Agreement or your rights or obligations hereunder without our prior written consent, which we will not unreasonably withhold.
The failure of either party to exercise any right under this Agreement will not be considered a waiver of any further rights.
The Agreement and its interpretation will be governed by and construed and enforced pursuant to and in accordance with the laws of the Federal Republic of Germany, without regard to any principles of conflicts of laws. All disputes and matters whatsoever arising under, in connection with, or incident to the Agreement will be litigated, if at all, in and before the Courts of Berlin, Germany.
If any provision of this Agreement is found to be invalid, illegal, or unenforceable, it will not affect the validity and enforceability of the remaining provisions. The parties will either replace the affected provision with a valid and enforceable provision that approximates the intent and economic effect of the affected provision, or strike such provision without further prejudice to the Agreement.
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