Terms and conditions

Description of Service

Academic Research Editors and any products, information, or other services that are offered through the website www.academic-research-editors.com (the “Services”) are provided subject to these Terms and Conditions. By using this website and/or the Services, the customer (“you”) expressly agree to these Terms and Conditions. You understand and agree that the Services are provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis. Academic Research Editors disclaims all responsibility and liability for the availability, timeliness, or reliability of the Services. Academic Research Editors also reserves the right to modify, suspend, or discontinue the Service with or without notice at any time and without any liability to you.

Your Intellectual Property Rights

Academic Research Editors and its employees and sub-contracted third-parties make no claims on any work submitted to us for proofreading or editing. Any documents (“Documents”) submitted will remain your intellectual property. Editors have signed a confidentiality agreement to waive their claim to any intellectual property submitted though the Services.

You represent that you have obtained all necessary third party rights, including, without limitation, copyrights, for any Documents or portions thereof that belong to third parties. It is your responsibility to determine if it is necessary for you to obtain, and for obtaining, any licenses required to use third party content which is part of the Documents. You agree not to use the Services for, and the Documents will not contain, any infringing, illegal, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, or racially, ethnically, or otherwise objectionable material, including, without limitation, any materials that could give rise to any liability to Academic Research Editors or which might adversely affect Academic Research Editors’ public image, reputation or goodwill.

You will be responsible for making back-up and archival copies of your documents. In no event will Academic Research Editors be responsible to you or any other person for any loss, corruption or alteration of documents.

Our Intellectual Property Rights

You acknowledge that Academic Research Editors owns all rights, title and interest in and to the Services and that these are protected by the laws of England and Wales and other international trademark and intellectual property laws. You also agree that you will not use any robot, spider, other automated device, or manual process to monitor or copy any content from the Service.

In accessing this Site, you agree that the Site is made available for your personal, non-commercial use only. Unless you have Academic Research Editors prior written permission, you are not permitted to copy, broadcast, make available to the public, download, store (in any medium), transmit, show or play in public, adapt or change in any way the material (or any part of it) contained on this Site for any purpose whatsoever.

Disclaimer of Warranties

Your use of this Site and the Services is at your sole risk. The Site and the Services are provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis. We reserve the right to restrict or terminate your access to the Site or the Services at any time. We expressly disclaim all warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose and any warranties that materials on the Site are non-infringing; that access to the Site and the Services will be uninterrupted or error-free; that the Site will be secure; that the site or the server that makes the site available will be virus-free; or that information on the Site will be complete, accurate or timely. If you download any materials from this site, you do so at your own discretion and risk. You will be solely responsible for any damage to your computer system or loss of data that results from the download of any such materials. We do not make any warranties or representations regarding the Services or the materials on this site in terms of their completeness, correctness, accuracy, adequacy, usefulness, timeliness, reliability or otherwise.

In certain jurisdictions, the law may not permit all or a portion of the disclaimer of warranties, so the above disclaimer may not apply to you, in whole or in part. In such cases, the disclaimer will apply to you to the extent permitted by applicable law.

Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, you acknowledge and agree that Academic Research Editors do not: (i) review the academic substance of documents submitted to it; or (ii) guarantee the quality, timeliness, accuracy or results of the services; or (iii) represent, warrant or guarantee that your use of the service will result in publication of your documents.

Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, you understand and agree that neither Academic Research Editors nor any of its affiliates or third party subcontractors shall be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, exemplary, consequential, punitive or any other damages relating to or resulting from your use of or inability to use this Site or the Services. These include damages for errors, omissions, interruptions, defects, delays, computer viruses, your loss of profits, loss of data, unauthorised access to and alteration of your transmissions and data, and other tangible and intangible losses.

This limitation applies regardless of whether the damages are claimed under the terms of a contract, as the result of negligence or otherwise arise out of or in connection with the use, inability to use, or performance of the information, services, products or materials available from this site, and even if we or our representatives have been negligent or have been advised of the possibility of such damages. Because some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages, all or a portion of the above limitation may not apply to you.

Under no circumstances will the total liability of Academic Research Editors to you for any reason relating to your use of this Site or the Services, whether arising in contract, tort or any other legal theory (including, without limitation, negligence or strict liability), exceed an amount equal to the fees paid by you to Academic Research Editors in the twelve months preceding the event giving rise to the claim.

This does not affect our liability for death or personal injury arising from our negligence, nor any other liability which cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law.

Privacy

Your email is used for correspondence and to send your completed work. Should our editor have any urgent enquiries then we may instead contact you via telephone. As part of the Service offered to you, the information you provide to us may be transferred to countries outside of the European Economic Area (“EEA”). These countries may not have similar data protection laws to the EEA. If we transfer your information outside of the EEA in this way, we will take appropriate steps to ensure that your privacy rights continue to be protected.

Two years after the last date on which you used our services any personal data retained by us will automatically be deleted. You can request us to delete your personal data sooner than this by emailing us at customerservices@academic-editors.com

Viruses, hacking and other offences

You must not misuse our Site by knowingly introducing viruses, trojans, worms, logic bombs or other material which is malicious or technologically harmful. You must not attempt to gain unauthorised access to our site, the server on which our site is stored or any server, computer or database connected to our site. You must not attack our site via a denial-of-service attack or a distributed denial-of service attack.

By breaching this provision, you would commit a criminal offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. We will report any such breach to the relevant law enforcement authorities and we will co-operate with those authorities by disclosing your identity to them. In the event of such a breach, your right to use our site will cease immediately.

Academic Research Editors will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by a distributed denial-of-service attack, viruses or other technologically harmful material that may infect your computer equipment, computer programs, data or other proprietary material due to your use of our Site or to your downloading of any material posted on it, or on any website linked to it.

Linking to and from our site

You may link to our home page, provided you do so in a way that is fair and legal and does not damage our reputation or take advantage of it, but you must not establish a link in such a way as to suggest any form of association, approval or endorsement on our part where none exists.

Our site must not be framed on any other site, nor may you create a link to any part of our site other than the home page. We reserve the right to withdraw linking permission without notice.

Where our site contains links to other sites and resources provided by third parties, these links are provided for your information only. We have no control over the contents of those sites or resources, and accept no responsibility for them or for any loss or damage that may arise from your use of them.

Maintenance of the site

Making your use of the Site enjoyable means that we may need to fix bugs, install updates and do general diagnosis and maintenance of the Site, which may make the Site less accessible or available for your use during those times. We may also need to be able to do emergency maintenance and/or suspend access to the servers where, in our reasonable discretion, we see the need to do that. We will try to have the Site available again as soon as we think it is safe to do so.

Confidentiality

We take confidentiality seriously. Your Document may contain information and materials of a confidential and/or proprietary nature (“Confidential Information”). We shall use the Confidential Information only for the purposes for which it was disclosed. Other information and materials may also be Confidential Information if they are identified as such. We value your trust and will ensure that all reasonable measures are taken to treat your Document in a secure and confidential manner. All our editors sign confidentiality agreements that prevent them from making use of or disclosing any material that is handled by them during editing. The obligations to maintain Confidential Information in confidence and not to disclose or use Confidential Information shall not apply to any information or materials that are generally known to the public or become known to the public through no fault or wrongful act or where disclosure is required or is necessary to comply with any applicable law, regulation, legal process or governmental request.

Service, Pricing and Title

We will provide you with a quote for the Service. Once we have accepted your order, you agree that we may process your order and begin the Service. You will not be entitled to cancel the order or receive a refund of the fee paid or payable (we may consider mitigating circumstances in determining whether or not a refund is made, but any decision will be at our discretion). We reserve the right to amend delivery times for our services or to withdraw services without notice and at our sole discretion and accept no liability for any inconvenience or loss consequent to such amendments.

The title in and to any services ordered from us does not pass to you until such time as we have received and processed a valid payment into our nominated bank account.

Your Order

When you place an order, you will receive a communication from us, by email or otherwise, informing you that an order has been accepted. Your order constitutes an offer made to us to purchase the services specified in the order. Your offer is only accepted by us once we have confirmed your order in writing. We reserve the right to delay your order while the payment awaits processing (during UK office hours).

We reserve the right to delay or refuse orders where a transaction contains incomplete details or details that cannot be verified, where the balance has not been fully paid, or where fraud is suspected.

Payment

All amounts and fees shall be payable in US dollars or pounds sterling and are, except where specifically stated otherwise, non-cancellable and non-refundable. You shall pay all sums due to us under this Agreement by the means of the payment specified in our Site and without any set-off, deduction, counterclaim and/or any other withholding of monies.

Payment by credit card

You shall provide to our payment provider (“Paypal”) valid, up-to-date and complete credit card details and any other relevant valid, up-to-date and complete contact and billing details. The provision of these details authorises Paypal to bill such credit card on the effective date for the charges payable. Payment of an order is required to be ‘fully cleared’ before work on your order can start and we cannot be held responsible for any delays due to fraud and identification checks.

Payment through a Paypal account

The placing of an order for services through our Site authorises Paypal to bill your credit card or bank account on the effective date for the charges payable. Payment of an order is required to be ‘fully cleared’ before work on your order can start and we cannot be held responsible for any delays due to fraud and identification checks.

Payment by bank transfer

If you wish to pay by bank transfer direct to our UK bank account you will be sent an emailed invoice specifying the amount owed. This amount will include a $25 transaction charge. The price stipulated in this invoice will remain valid for 30 days from the date on which it was issued. It is your responsibility to ensure that the amount of money transferred into our account is at least equivalent to the amount charged, once all fees have been deducted. Payment of an order is required to be ‘fully cleared’ before work on your order can start and we cannot be held responsible for any delays due to fraud and identification checks or other banking delays.

Account Payments

You may elect to pay us an amount in excess of your initial order value. In this event we will retain the excess funds in our account and we will notify you by email of the amount held. When you place further orders with us you may elect to use these funds, in whole or in part, as payment towards that order. After each such order we will send you a further email advising you as to the amount remaining.

Credit Account Facilities

We may, entirely at our discretion, offer selected customers credit facilities for use of our services in advance of payment. Customers (“you”) to whom we have extended credit facilities will be sent by us an emailed statement of the amount of monies owed to us on or around the last day of each calendar month. When either (a) the amount owed reaches a pre-specified amount, of which you will have been notified when the credit facility was initiated, or, (b) at least three calendar months have passed since you placed an order through the named account, or, (c) at any point otherwise at our discretion, you will be sent an invoice requesting payment of the outstanding amount and you agree to pay each such invoice within 30 days after the date of that invoice.

Refunds

Refunds at entirely at the discretion of Academic Research Editors. Where a refund is offered this does not imply any acceptance of liability or fault on the part of Academic Research Editors. If a refund is offered in the context of a complaint or dispute raised by you, you accept that such a refund constitutes a full settlement of that complaint or dispute.

Where the original payment has been made by credit or debit card or through a Paypal account any refund will be processed in full through Paypal and will be credited to the card or account from which the original payment was taken. Where the original payment was made by bank transfer or through any other money transfer service any refund will be sent by bank transfer to your nominated account. Refunds made by bank transfer are subject to the following conditions: (1) No such refund will be made for amounts less than $100. Where the amount to be refunded is less than $100 Academic Research Editors may, entirely at our discretion, agree to hold that amount in lieu of payment for towards orders made by you for our services in the future (see “Account Payments”, above). (2) Academic Research Editors may, entirely at our discretion, agree to pay any originating bank charges pursuant to the bank transfer. Academic Research Editors will not in any circumstances, however, be held liable for any intermediary or recipient bank charges.

Liability

You acknowledge that the eventual evaluation of Documents before publication will depend on third party publishers and other considerations beyond our control. We cannot be held legally responsible for papers not accepted for peer review or publication, or unsatisfactory outcomes of any nature, including the negligence of editors, staff, or claims of such negligence.

We cannot be held legally responsible for any expense incurred either in direct response to or as an indirect result of the editing, comments or report resulting from our Service, or any other communication with us. We do not recommend that you make significant decisions, such as the initiation of further experimental work, significant re-writing of a manuscript or the submission of Documents to a journal, solely on the basis of any communication from us. All communications arising from our Service should be viewed as opinion for consideration, not instructions that allude to specific actions. Significant decisions should be made following your careful consideration, with any necessary technical advice provided by technical specialists.

By using our Service you warrant that no part of your Documents contains content that is plagiarised. Plagiarism is a serious issue that warrants attention from all authors. Journal editors will often examine submitted text for evidence that plagiarism has taken place, but we do not routinely check your Documents for plagiarism. We cannot be held legally liable should any passage of text in your edited document later be identified as resulting from plagiarism.

Jurisdiction and applicable law

The English courts will have exclusive jurisdiction over any claim arising from, or related to, a visit to our site although we retain the right to bring proceedings against you for breach of these conditions in your country of residence or any other relevant country.

These terms of use and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with them or their subject matter or formation (including non-contractual disputes or claims) shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the law of England and Wales.

General provisions

The rights provided under this agreement are granted to you only and should not, without our prior written consent, be considered granted to any subsidiary or holding company. You may not, without our prior written consent, assign, transfer, charge, sub-contract or deal in any other manner with your rights or obligations under this Agreement.

This Agreement is not intended to benefit anyone other than you and cannot be enforced by a third party under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999.

Unless specifically provided otherwise, rights arising under this Agreement are cumulative and do not exclude rights provided by law.

If any provision (or part of a provision) of these Terms are found by any court or administrative body of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, unenforceable or illegal, the other provisions shall remain in force.

If any invalid, unenforceable or illegal provision would be valid, enforceable or legal if some part of it were deleted, the provision shall apply with whatever modification is necessary to give effect to the commercial intention of the parties.

We shall not be liable for any delay or failure to perform any obligation under these Terms if the delay or failure is caused by any circumstances beyond our reasonable control, including, but not limited to, acts of God, war, civil disorder, industrial dispute or technical failure.

No automatic right of cancellation exists under the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000 for downloaded goods, electronic or “softcopy” personalised services requested by you.

Your concerns

If you have any concerns about material which appears on our site, please contact enquiries@academic-editors.com.

Thank you for visiting our site.

Academic Research Editors