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Elsevier Terms and Conditions of Sale for Indexing and Linking

Last updated: 03 December 2025

These Indexing and Linking Terms and Conditions, along with an applicable Indexing and Linking Order Form (“I&L Order Form”), are collectively the “Agreement” relating to the indexing and linking contract between the licensing organization (“you” or “your” or “Licensee”) and Elsevier B.V., or its affiliated companies (“we” or “us”), as reflected in an executed I&L Order Form.

1. Definitions

“AI System” means any software, hardware, or combination thereof that employs artificial intelligence techniques to perceive, interpret, reason, learn, generate output, or make decisions, whether autonomously or semi-autonomously including, but not limited to, intelligent agents, Model Context Protocol (MCP) systems, and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) systems;

“Authorized Users” means your employees and/or independent contractors or as otherwise agreed in Schedule 1 of the applicable I&L Order Form;

“Bibliographic Information” means the following: publisher and imprint name, language, open access status, journal name, ISSN, E-ISSN (including section within the journal or subject category where applicable), volume, issue, page numbers, publication, online publication, article type (research article, review, etc.), article title (including series title and accompanying conference information where applicable); author and editor details, affiliations and identifiers;

“Data” means the data elements as defined in Schedule 1 of the applicable I&L Order Form;

“Dataset” means the content package we will be providing under the applicable I&L Order Form as further identified in Schedule 1 of the applicable I&L Order Form;

"Full Text Articles" means a collection of individual scientific journal articles and other document types, such as book chapters, errata, editorials, short communications, monographs, conference proceedings (but excluding Pre-Prints and Supplementary Materials);

“Graphical Abstracts” means a single, concise, pictorial and visual summary of the main findings of the article; this could either be the concluding figure from the article or a figure that is specially designed for the purpose, which captures the content of the article for readers at a single glance;

“Elsevier Data” means the Dataset, Data, Confidential Information, data that can be used to identify an individual, and all other information and material that we transfer or otherwise make available to you under the applicable I&L Order Form including all generated, aggregated and derived data whether using the System or not;

“Link” means URLs that link from the Data in the Product(s) to the (i) corresponding records for abstract and indexing databases or (ii) ScienceDirect abstract page, on the respective Platform;

“Platform” means all our Elsevier products and solutions which host the Dataset or parts thereof, and any successor products and solutions as listed in Schedule 1 of the applicable I&L Order Form;

“Pre-Prints” means a version of a scholarly or scientific paper that precedes possible submission to an academic journal for formal peer review and publication in a peer-reviewed publication but that is made publicly available from a preprint server;

"Product(s)" as used in the applicable I&L Order Form, means your products listed in Schedule 1 of the applicable I&L Order Form;

“Research Highlights” means the bullet points that convey the core findings of the individual scientific journal articles highlighting what was distinctive about the research, and which are tagged in our Elsevier Header Metadata as <ce:abstract id="abs0010" class="author-highlights" view="all">;

"Snippets" means, if the applicable I&L Order form sets forth full text indexing, a few lines of contextually relevant query-dependent text or data which may include bibliographic metadata from individual Full Text Articles, limited to a maximum of 30 words;

“Supplementary Materials” means the datasets, files and other materials made available by us which are complementary to the PDF version of the Full Text Article;

“System” means the system that you use as specified on Schedule 1 of the applicable I&L Order Form.

Section 2. Rights Granted and Restrictions

2.1 Rights Granted

We grant to you and your Authorized Users a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable, worldwide right to access and use the Dataset on the System solely for internal research purposes (unless otherwise set forth in the applicable I&L Order Form) subject to the terms and conditions of the Agreement. Any use of the Dataset (and any part thereof including the Data) that is not explicitly granted under the Agreement is prohibited.

You may:

  • allow Authorized Users to load and technically format the Dataset on your System;

  • allow Authorized Users to access and index the Dataset as provided solely for the purpose of building the Product as defined in Schedule 1 of the applicable I&L Order Form;

  • allow Authorized Users to include the Data in the Product(s) and adapt the Data to conform to the format(s) of the Product;

  • display the Data on the Product’s user interface only, and Link to the corresponding record or abstract page, if applicable, on the Platform; all other services related to the Product, such as (but not limited to) alerts and e-mail services will not display abstracts. For the avoidance of doubt, the Data displayed in the Product may only be used for an individual user’s own research purposes, may not be used in any other application nor may be provided via any other delivery mechanism such as an API.

2.2 Restrictions

You and your Authorized Users will not:

  • create any derivative work and/or service (including resulting from the use of artificial intelligence tools) in a way that would compete with or have the potential to substitute and/or replicate and/or reverse engineer back to any of our existing products, services and/or solutions including a substantial part thereof or otherwise commercially use or allow commercial use of the derivative work, nor will you provide any access to Full Text Articles (if provided) received by the delivery mechanism in Section 3.1;

  • use the Dataset and/or Data in combination with an AI System (including to ingest, train an algorithm, test, process, analyze, copy, distribute, make publicly available, generate output and/or develop any form of AI System), except where such AI System, (i) is deployed on the System, (ii) is used in a closed hosted environment solely for use by the Authorized User, (iii) is used solely as an internal non-generative production efficiency tool for the indexing, entity extraction and normalization of Data, (iv) does not submit the Dataset and/or Data to an external AI System, (v) does not train the algorithm of an AI System; and (vi) does not share the Dataset and/or Data or any part thereof with a third party.

2.3 When we are the Elsevier B.V. contracting party, then we will make the Dataset accessible to you as set out in Schedule 1 of the applicable I&L Order Form, upon our receipt of the I&L Order Form in the territory of The Netherlands, as duly signed by you, which acceptance will be evidenced and timestamped by our authorized representative in the Netherlands.

When we are the Elsevier Inc. contracting party, then we will make the Dataset accessible to you as set out in Schedule 1 of the applicable I&L Order Form, upon our receipt of the I&L Order Form in the territory of The United States of America, as duly signed by you, which acceptance will be evidenced and timestamped by our authorized representative in The United States of America.

Section 3. Security, Grant of Access, Formats and Delivery Mechanisms

3.1 Delivery

Access to the Dataset will be provided through the method(s) as identified on Schedule 1 of the applicable I&L Order Form.

3.2 Protection from Unauthorized Access and Use

You will use reasonable efforts to:

  • limit access to and use of the Dataset by Authorized Users;

  • inform your Authorized Users about the usage restrictions of the Agreement; additional license terms may apply (e.g., for open access content, images, graphs) and you and your Authorized Users should always first clear the rights for reuse with the relevant rights holder;

  • create or continue to maintain if operational, a Link, as set forth in the applicable I&L Order Form. Such Link will lead the end user to the corresponding record or abstract page if applicable on the Platform. You agree that a Link will be implemented in such a manner that a separate browser tab is opened to display the corresponding record or abstract page if applicable on the Platform and the end user gets seamless access to subscribed content subject to the end user having a subscription agreement in place with us;

  • ensure that the Link is displayed more prominently than links to the other versions of the article (i.e. higher page ranking and with at least the same size button and text) and that the Link is clearly recognizable as the final, published version, in the event you index multiple instances of the Full Text Article;

  • ensure that the Dataset will be deleted after the Data is created;

  • limit access to the System and/or Product by a secure authentication mechanism and issue any passwords or credentials used to access the Dataset only to Authorized Users, not divulge any passwords or credentials to any third party, and notify all Authorized Users not to divulge any passwords or credentials to any third party;

  • promptly upon becoming aware of any unauthorized use of the Dataset and/or Data, inform us and take appropriate steps to end such activity and to prevent any recurrence;

  • upon our request, promptly remove all material (including Data) from the Dataset from your System and/or Product if we no longer retain the right to provide such material or if we have reasonable grounds to believe that such material is unlawful, harmful, false or infringing;

  • provide, as set forth in the applicable I&L Order Form, on a monthly or quarterly basis to us complete and accurate usage data reports on your usage activity in a mutually agreed upon format. If the I&L Order Form does not specify reporting, then the default will be monthly. Such reports may be accessed by third party vendors retained by us for the purpose of your usage analysis;

  • include the attribute ‘noarchive’ in the metarobot element (e.g., <meta name="robots" content="NOARCHIVE" />) in all your webpages website(s) which includes the Dataset including Data or any part thereof;

  • implement and maintain a robots.txt rule to prevent (via the 'disallow' directive) the "Google-Extended" user agent and tools with similar technical capabilities;

  • immediately deactivate any credentials when no longer needed or where access presents a security risk;

  • implement and maintain your own appropriate program for credentials management and ensure access to the Dataset via such credentials is reviewed on an appropriate basis;

  • allow us to review the implementation of the Data in the Product by granting us one (1) subscription account to the Product, and to provide us with the right to suggest improvements to the display and ranking of the search results for Full Text Articles available on the Platform. The access to the Product will be used for the sole purpose of reviewing the implementation of the Data in the Product.

In the event of any unauthorized use of the Dataset and/or Data, we may suspend the access and/or require that you suspend the access from where the unauthorized use occurred upon notice to you and/or request for an audit as per Section 8. You will not be liable for unauthorized use of the Dataset and/or Data by any Authorized Users provided that the unauthorized use did not result from your own negligence or willful misconduct and that you did not permit such unauthorized use to continue after having actual notice thereof. You will be primarily liable for the compliance of all Authorized Users with the Agreement.

3.3 Security

You will comply with all applicable obligations set forth in the Information Security Requirements available at Elsevier Information Security Requirements and incorporated herein by reference.

3.4 Third Party Access

Except as set out in Section 2.2 Restrictions, the Dataset and/or Data may be accessed, processed, or hosted by third party vendors retained by you only with our express written permission and solely for the purposes as set out in the Agreement. For any such approved third party, you will ensure that the third party vendor will not ingest the Dataset and/or Data for any other reasons as defined in the Agreement, will keep such Dataset and Data secure in accordance with the terms of the Agreement, and will have no right or ability to use the Dataset and/or Data in any other product or service offering. You will ensure that the third party vendor will not use the Dataset and/or Data to train its algorithm or underlying product or service and that the third party vendor will immediately delete the Dataset and any Data from its servers upon termination or expiration of the Agreement or, if earlier, the agreement between you and the third party vendor. If retention rights are specifically set forth in the I&L Order Form, then the retention period does not apply. For the avoidance of doubt, any third party listed in Schedule 1 of the applicable I&L Order Form will be considered “expressly permitted by Elsevier” for purposes of this Section 3.4.

You warrant that you are responsible and liable for any third party vendors and any tools owned or used by such third party vendors under the Agreement.

Section 4. Confidentiality and Use of Name

4.1 Confidentiality

The terms and provisions of the Agreement, any amounts paid to us hereunder, and any and all other business information disclosed by either party (the “Disclosing Party”) to the other (the “Receiving Party”) before and in the course of its performance of the Agreement, which information is designated by the Disclosing Party as confidential or proprietary or which the Receiving Party should recognize from the facts and circumstances surrounding the disclosure of such information is confidential or proprietary to the Disclosing Party, will constitute confidential information, including any information of a confidential nature relating to the products, Elsevier Data, System, customers, pricing, operations, processes, plans, intentions, formats, algorithms or analytics applied thereto (“Confidential Information”) of the Disclosing Party. The Receiving Party will hold the Confidential Information of the Disclosing Party in confidence and will use such Confidential Information only for the purposes of fulfilling its obligations under the Agreement. The parties agree that these confidentiality obligations are essential to protect their legitimate interests. Any breach or threatened breach may cause irreparable harm, and the Disclosing Party may seek injunctive or equitable relief in addition to other remedies.

4.2 Use of name

In your public commercial communication, you will not make use of any trade name or trademark belonging to us. Any public reference to our trade names/rights will be subject to our prior approval which will not be unreasonably withheld.

4.3 Evaluation Interviews

Parties will schedule an interview to evaluate the use of the Dataset and/or Data under the Agreement and assess how and at what frequency the Dataset and Data are applied to research workflows and you will provide us with constructive feedback on improvement, identification and delivery.

Section 5. Termination

5.1 The Agreement may be terminated by either party forthwith

(a) in the event a party acts outside the permitted scope of the Agreement or is in material breach of any term, condition or provision of the Agreement, which breach, if capable of being cured, is not cured within thirty (30) days after the non-breaching party gives the breaching party written notice of such breach;

(b) in the event a party (i) terminates or suspends its business, (ii) becomes insolvent, makes an assignment for the benefit of creditors, or becomes subject to direct control of a trustee, receiver or similar authority, or (iii) becomes subject to any bankruptcy or insolvency proceeding.

5.2 For the avoidance of doubt, the foregoing contractual remedies apply in addition and not in substitution of any rights and remedies for breach available in law, including injunctive relief. Where you, or your Authorized Users, have made any part of the Dataset and/or Data available to third parties other than as granted under the Agreement, we will be entitled to terminate the Agreement with immediate effect. If retention rights are set forth in the applicable I&L Order Form and as noted below in 5.3, the retention right set out under Section 5.3 will cease to apply.

5.3 Unless otherwise agreed between the parties,upon termination of the Agreement, you will promptly and permanently delete all copies of Elsevier Data (including any back-up copies) entered into the System and/or any Product. If retention rights are specifically granted to you in the I&L Order Form, then the requirement to delete all copies of the Elsevier Data noted above does not apply to the extent that the Data is entered into the Productas permitted by the Agreement prior to the effective date of a termination without cause by you and usedsubject to the terms and conditions of the Agreement.

You will confirm to us in writing that you have complied with this Section 5.

Section 6. Proprietary Rights

6.1 Except as expressly set forth in the Agreement, you acknowledge that all right, title, interest, and ownership in and to the Elsevier Data (including copies of the Dataset that are installed on the System and/or Product and all other derivative works) remain with us and our suppliers. The unauthorized use, reproduction, or distribution of Elsevier Data could materially harm us and our suppliers. You agree that the Dataset, including all updates and changes made to the Dataset by anyone and materials related to the Dataset whether or not supplied by or developed by us, are our valuable property. We reserve the right to use, market, license, and sell all or any portion of Elsevier Data for any purpose, in any form, anywhere in the world.

6.2 We acknowledge that, as between us and you, all right, title, interest, and ownership in and to the System and/or the Product created by you remains with you. However, we claim rights and title in any Data included in the Product and where applicable a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, fully paid-up license to use the Data in the Product is herewith granted to you which rights remain subject to the terms and conditions of the Agreement.

Section 7. Our Warranties, Indemnifications and Liability

7.1 Warranties

We warrant that we either own or have the right to license the Dataset.

7.2 Disclaimer

Except for the express warranties and indemnities stated herein, and to the extent permitted by applicable law, we and our suppliers, expressly disclaim all warranties regarding the quality of the Dataset. The Dataset is made available “as is” and without warranties of any kind, either express or implied, including, but not limited to warranties of title, or implied warranties of merchantability, correctness, accuracy or fitness for a particular purpose. Use of the Dataset is at your and Authorized User’s own risk. Without prejudice to Section 2.2, we and our suppliers further expressly disclaim all warranties regarding the suitability or adequacy of the Dataset for use in combination with any form of artificial intelligence, and you acknowledge that use of the Dataset or any part thereof in combination with any artificial intelligence may generate results that are inaccurate and subject to bias.

7.3 Limitation of Liability

Except for the express warranties and indemnities stated herein, and to the extent permitted by applicable law, in no event will either party or its suppliers be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages including, but not limited to, loss of data, business interruption or loss of profits, arising out of or in connection with the Agreement, nor will our and our suppliers’ liability to you exceed in case of a fee-based Agreement, a sum equal to the Fees paid by you hereunder during the twelve (12) month period immediately preceding the date on which the claim arose and in case of a no fee-based Agreement, the amount of one hundred thousand Euros (100.000,00 EUR), even if we or any supplier have been advised of the possibility of such liability or damages.

7.4 Your indemnification

You will indemnify, defend and hold us harmless, within the rules of applicable law, for any loss, damage, costs, liability and expenses (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) arising from (a) gross negligence and acts of willful misconduct by you, (b) a violation of the subscription rights grant

(c) the use of any third party vendors including any tools owned or used by such third party vendors or (d) a breach of our intellectual property rights by you. If any such third party action or claim is made, we will promptly notify and reasonably cooperate with you.

7.5 Our indemnification

We will indemnify, defend and hold you harmless, within the rules of applicable law, for any loss, damage, costs, liability and expenses (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) arising from (a) gross negligence and acts of willful misconduct by us or (b) out of any third party action or claim that use of the Dataset in accordance with the terms and conditions herein infringes the intellectual property rights of such third party. If any such action or claim is made, you will promptly notify us and reasonably cooperate with us.

Section 8. Audit

8.1 You will for the Term and for three (3) years thereafter (or such longer period as may be required under the applicable law) maintain complete and accurate records of and supporting documentation in relation to your obligations under the Agreement.

8.2 You will, on reasonable notice, fully cooperate with an external auditor to provide relevant records and supporting documentation and provide such explanations as may in the opinion of such external auditor be necessary for audit purposes.

8.3 Each party will bear its own internal costs (including any remedial costs if applicable) and the costs of any third party advisors or auditors used by that party in relation to any audit undertaken in accordance with this Section 8.

Section 9. General

9.1 Force Majeure

Neither party’s delay or failure to perform any provision of the Agreement (other than payment obligations) as a result of circumstances beyond its control (including, but not limited to, war, strikes, fires, floods, power failures, telecommunications or Internet failures or damage to or destruction of any network facilities or servers) that prevents it from fulfilling its obligations under this Agreement (any such circumstances being “Force Majeure”) will be deemed a breach of the Agreement. The parties agree that the departure of one or more members of the Euro zone will not, in and of itself, be a "circumstance beyond its control" and will not have the effect of discharging or excusing performance of (any obligation under) the Agreement. Notwithstanding the foregoing, a party’s financial inability to perform its obligations will in no event constitute a Force Majeure.

9.2 Severability

The invalidity or unenforceability of any provision of the Agreement will not affect any other provisions of the Agreement.

9.3 Entire Agreement

The Agreement will bind and inure to our benefit, our successors and assigns. The Agreement contains the entire understanding and agreement of the parties and replaces and supersedes any and all prior and existing agreements, communications, proposals and purchase orders, written or oral, between the parties with respect to the subject matter contained herein and any of your terms and conditions. All Schedules attached or to be attached to the Agreement are incorporated herein and will be governed by the terms and conditions of the Agreement and unless otherwise specified in the Schedule, the terms of the Schedule will prevail.

9.4 Modification

No modification, amendment or waiver of any provision of the Agreement will be valid unless in writing and signed by the parties.

9.5 Assignment

You will not assign, transfer or license any of its rights or obligations under the Agreement unless you obtain our prior written consent, which consent will not unreasonably be withheld.

9.6 Privacy

The parties acknowledge that, in making the Dataset accessible to you, we will receive no personal data from you other than (1) the names and business email addresses of the Authorized Users for purposes of providing, managing and securing access to the System and (2) professional contact details of your employees and contractors who are involved in, and for purposes of, management, communications and payments under the Agreement. We will process such personal data for such purposes subject to the Elsevier Privacy Policy at https://www.elsevier.com/legal/privacy-policy. Each party is an independent controller of such personal data and will comply with its obligations related to the processing of such personal data under applicable data protection laws.

9.7 Relationship of parties

The parties recognize that they are independent contractors, that neither is an agent, employee, partner, or joint venturer of the other, and that neither is authorized by the other to waive any right, or assume or create any agreement or obligation of any kind in the name of, or on behalf of, the other or to make any statement that it has the authority to do so.

9.8 Survival

The following provisions will continue in force: Section 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 together with any other provisions which expressly or impliedly continue to have effect after expiry or termination of the Agreement. All other rights and obligations will immediately cease without prejudice to any rights, obligations, claims (including claims for damages for breach) and liabilities which have accrued prior to the date of termination.

9.9 Compliance with Laws

Each party will comply with all applicable laws and regulations relating to its duties and obligations under this Agreement. Elsevier reserves the right to deny access to the Dataset to any person or entity who is prohibited from receiving such access based on any applicable export control and trade sanctions laws or embargo programs.