/ About the Royal Society

Terms, conditions and policies

General Terms of use

These are the general terms of use on which you may make use of this website and the sites listed here (which list may be updated from time to time), whether as a guest or a registered user ('you' or 'user').

Other websites associated with the Royal Society not listed are subject to their own specific terms and conditions (which you should review separately)

  • pictures.royalsociety.org
  • prints.royalsociety.org
  • makingscience.royalsociety.org
  • https://royalsocietypublishing.org, including the following subdomains:
    • royalsocietypublishing.org/journal/rsbl
    • royalsocietypublishing.org/journal/rsbm
    • royalsocietypublishing.org/journal/rsif
    • royalsocietypublishing.org/journal/rsnr
    • royalsocietypublishing.org/journal/rsob
    • royalsocietypublishing.org/journal/rspa
    • royalsocietypublishing.org/journal/rspb
    • royalsocietypublishing.org/journal/rsta
    • royalsocietypublishing.org/journal/rstb
    • royalsocietypublishing.org/journal/rsfs
    • royalsocietypublishing.org/journal/rsos
    • royalsocietypublishing.org/journal/rstl
    • royalsocietypublishing.org/journal/rspl

Please read these terms of use carefully before you start to use this site or any of those referred to above ('our sites'). By using any of ours sites, you indicate that you accept these terms of use and that you agree to abide by them. If you do not agree to these terms of use, please do not use our sites.

The terms and conditions of sale for event registration are available separately here.

Information about us

https://royalsociety.org is a site operated by The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society (we). The Royal Society is a learned society for science. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London". The Society is governed by its Council, which is chaired by the Society's President, according to a set of Statutes and Standing Orders The Royal Society is based at 6–9 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AG.

The Royal Society is a registered charity with registration number 207043. It is regulated by the Charity Commission.

Accessing our site

We reserve the right to withdraw or amend any service we provide on our sites without notice (see below).

We restrict access to some parts of our sites to Fellows of the Society. If you are provided with a user identification code, password or any other piece of information as part of our security procedures or given access to any information via the restricted part of our site, you must treat such information as confidential, and must not disclose it to any third party. On behalf of Council, we have the right to disable any user identification code or password, whether chosen by a Fellow or allocated by the Royal Society at any time, if the Fellow or user in question has failed to comply with any of the provisions of these terms of use.

You are responsible for making arrangements necessary for you to have access to our site. You are also responsible for ensuring that all persons who access our site through your internet connection are aware of these terms, and that they comply with them.

Intellectual property rights

We are the owner or the licensee of all rights in relation to our sites, and the material published on it, including without limitation, any written text, illustrations, photographs, graphics, data, videos or other audio or visual material ('Content') which is protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws.

Subject to any other licensing terms expressly referred to on our sites, you can use Content or other material from our sites for your own private use or for other non-commercial purposes but must not reproduce, modify, publish, distribute, communicate or reutilise such Content (or any part of it) in connection with any commercial purpose without first obtaining our prior written consent. Our status (and that of any identified contributors) as the authors of Content on our site must always be acknowledged, unless stated otherwise.

All text published under the heading 'Biography' on Fellow profile pages is available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

If you use any Content or any part of our sites in breach of these terms of use, your right to use our sites will cease immediately. Unauthorised use of our sites and/or Content may lead to us taking legal proceedings against you.

Reliance on information posted

Commentary and other materials posted on our site are not intended to amount to advice and may be inaccurate or out of date. We therefore disclaim all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed by you or any other party on any Content or information appearing on our sites.

Our site changes regularly

We aim to update our site regularly, and may change the Content at any time. If the need arises, we may suspend access to our site, or close it indefinitely without liability.

Our liability

To the fullest extent legally permitted the Content displayed on our site is provided without any representations, guarantees, warranties, terms or conditions as to its accuracy, quality or fitness for a particular purpose. We, other affiliated entities of ours and third parties connected to us hereby expressly exclude:

  • All representations, guarantees, warranties, terms or conditions which might otherwise be implied whether by statute, common law or equity; and
  • Any liability for any direct, indirect or consequential loss or damage incurred by any user in connection with our sites or in connection with user's inability to use any of our sites, or results of use of our sites, as well as any websites linked to our sites or any Content posted on them (whether such liability arises under tort (including negligence), breach of contract or otherwise, and is foreseeable or not).

This does not affect our liability for death or personal injury arising from our negligence, nor our liability for our fraud, nor any other liability which cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law. Nothing in these terms affects your statutory rights as a consumer, where applicable.

Information about you and your visits to our site

We process personal data about you or your visit to our site in accordance with . By using our site, you consent to such processing and you warrant that such personal data provided by you is materially accurate.

Additional Terms and Conditions of Supply

Contracts for the supply of goods or services formed through our site or as a result of visits made by you may be governed by additional terms and conditions of supply, that are available when you make a purchase.

Uploading material to our site

Whenever you make use of a feature that allows you to upload comments or post other material to our sites, or to make contact with other users of our sites, you must comply with the content standards and other requirements set out in our acceptable use policy. You warrant you will comply with those standards and requirements and will be liable for any losses or damages that we suffer if any claim is made against us (as well as any legal expenses we have to pay) as a result of you breaching that warranty.

Any material you post to our sites will be considered non-confidential, and by posting this material you give us a perpetual, irrevocable and royalty free right to use, copy, distribute and disclose to third parties such material for any purpose. We may disclose your identity to any third party rights holder if there is a claim from them that any material you post or upload to our site infringes their intellectual property or other legal rights. Any personal data you provide will be subject to our Privacy Policy.

We will not be responsible, or liable to any third party, for the content or accuracy of any materials posted by you or any other user of our site.

We have the right to remove any material or posting you make on our site if, in our opinion, such material does not comply with the standards set out in our acceptable use policy.

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 nor participate in an attack on our site.

By breaching this provision, you may commit a criminal offence and we may report any such breach to the police or law enforcement authorities and co-operate with those authorities by disclosing your identity to them.

You should take reasonable safety precautions to protect your own computer or device you use to access our sites against viruses and other external threats and we will not be liable for any loss or damage caused to your computer or device or for a loss of data due to reasons beyond our reasonable control.

Linking to our site

You may link to our site, 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 with us or that any approval or endorsement has been given by us where none exists.

Our site must not be framed on any other site without our prior written permission.

We reserve the right to withdraw the above linking or framing permission at any time. The website from which you are linking must comply in all respects with the content standards set out in our acceptable use policy.

If you wish to make any use of the Royal Society name (or that of any affiliate) or any Content on our site other than that set out above, please contact us for our prior permission.

Links from our site

Where our sites contain 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.

Jurisdiction and applicable law

The English courts will have jurisdiction over any claim arising from, or related to, your use of our sites or arising in connection with application of these terms of use although we retain the right to bring proceedings against you for breach of these terms in your country of residence or any other relevant country. We also submit to the jurisdiction of the courts in your country of residence to the extent that applicable law in such country mandates that relevant proceedings must be brought in those courts.

To the maximum extent legally permitted, 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.

Trademarks

THE ROYAL SOCIETY is a trade mark of The Royal Society and cannot be used for any commercial purpose without our prior written permission.

Variations

We may revise these terms of use at any time by amending this page. You are expected to check this page from time to time to take notice of any changes we made, as they are binding on you. Some of the provisions contained in these terms of use may also be modified or superseded by provisions of other specific terms and conditions or notices published elsewhere on our site.

Your concerns

If you have any concerns about material which appears on our site, please contact us – see royalsociety.org/contact-us.

Thank you for visiting our site.