Terms and conditions

1. This Photography Competition is organised by The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge (known simply as 'The Royal Society') of 6-9 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AG, registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales under number 207043.

How to enter

2. The opening date for entries is 00:00:01am (BST) on Friday 31 May 2024. The closing date of the prize draw is 23:59:59pm (BST) on Friday 23 August 2024. Entries received after this time will not be accepted.
3. All entries must be submitted via the Competition submission website: https://portal.royalsociety.org/photo-competition/
4. The Photography Competition is free to enter and no purchase is necessary.
5. The Royal Society will not accept:
   (a) responsibility for entries that are lost, mislaid, damaged or delayed in transit, regardless of cause, including, for example, as a result of any equipment failure, technical malfunction, systems, satellite, network, server, computer hardware or software failure of any kind; or
   (b) proof of transmission as proof of receipt of entry to the Photography Competition.
6. By submitting an entry, you are agreeing to be bound by these terms and conditions.  A copy of these terms and conditions is available on our website: https://royalsociety.org/journals/publishing-activities/photo-competition/terms-conditions/. If you have any questions, please contact Imagecomp@royalsociety.org
7. The Royal Society reserves the right to refuse entry, or refuse to award the prize to anyone in breach of these terms and conditions.

Eligibility

8. The Photography Competition is open to anyone studying or working in science at graduate level or above, except employees of the Royal Society, their families, agents or any third party directly associated with administration of the prize draw.
9. No more than 20 entries per person are permitted, and each entry may only be submitted to one category.
10. Photographs must not have been taken more than five years prior to the competition opening date of Friday 31 May 2024.
11. Entries must not have been selected as a winner in any other competition prior to the opening date of Friday 31 May 2024.
12. In entering the Photography Competition, you confirm that you are eligible to do so and eligible to claim any prize you may win. The Royal Society may require you to provide proof that you are eligible to enter the Photography Competition.
13. The Royal Society reserves all rights to disqualify you if your conduct is contrary to the spirit or intention of the Photography Competition.

Technical Requirements

14. Entries should be no larger than 10MB and be at least 300dpi, and should be submitted as either JPEG or TIFF files with no watermarks, signatures or borders included.
15. Permitted digital adjustments include tone and contrast, cropping, burning, sharpening, dodging, noise reduction, minor cleaning work, HDR, stitched panoramas, and/or within-camera focus stacking using multiple exposure taken at the same location at the same time. Any adjustments MUST be reported within the description and should not misrepresent the reality of nature. Focus-stacking after the images are taken is allowed for submissions to the micro-imaging category ONLY and MUST be clearly explained in the description.
16. The addition or removal of any animals or parts of animals, plants, people, objects, etc. is not allowed.
17. Entries must be accompanied by a description of the scientific phenomena shown, with information that could include, but is not limited to: location, species, behaviour and scientific context. A further description should be provided of how the shot was achieved technically, including any post-processing.
18. Submissions to the behaviour, ecology and environmental science, earth science and climatology, and astronomy categories that include computer manipulated and generated images, composite images, scientific illustrations, data visualizations, x-rays and CT scans will NOT be considered. However, submissions to the micro-imaging category ONLY can include micro-CT x-ray scans.
19. Images must not be false-coloured.
20. The images submitted must be taken with a camera. Images generated by Artificial Intelligence cannot be considered. The use of Artificial Intelligence in manipulating photos is also disallowed. Rules regarding the use of Artificial Intelligence are subject to change at short notice and without notification, so please monitor the Terms and Conditions page throughout.

Judging and notification

21. The competition entries will be judged by a panel of four judges based on 2 key criteria: they should be aesthetically pleasing, and convey an interesting scientific phenomenon. 
22. The winner of each category will be notified by email and will receive a £500 prize. The overall winner will be selected from the category winners and will receive an additional £500 prize, to amount to a total prize of £1,000 for the overall winner. Further, The Royal Photographic Society will supply to the winners individual certificates and 1-year memberships to The Royal Photographic Society.
23. The winner will be notified by email or telephone (using details provided at entry) and must provide a postal address and account information to claim their prize. If a winner does not respond to the Royal Society within 30 days of being notified, then the winner’s prize will be forfeited and the Royal Society will be entitled to select another winner in accordance with the process described above.
24. The monetary prize will be sent to the winner by wire-transfer.
25. The prizes are non-exchangeable and non-transferable. The Royal Society and The Royal Photographic Society reserve the right to replace the prizes with alternative prizes of equal or higher value if circumstances beyond either and/or both The Royal Society and The Royal Photographic Society’s control makes it necessary to do so.
26. The decision of the Royal Society regarding any aspect of the Photography Competition is final and binding and no correspondence will be entered into about it.
27. The winners' names will be published on our website and through a press release.
28. The Royal Society reserves the right to hold void, cancel, suspend, or amend the promotion where it becomes necessary to do so.

Ownership of competition entries

29. Any entry must be your original work and it must not infringe the rights of third parties including copyright, trade mark, trade secrets, privacy, publicity, personal or proprietary rights.  You agree to indemnify the Royal Society against any claim from any third party for any breach of this clause.
30. Full copyright title shall be retained by the author of any entry. By submitting your competition entry and any accompanying material (including any text, photographs, graphics, video or audio), you agree that the Royal Society may, but is not required to, make your entry available on its website https://royalsociety.org/journals/publishing-activities/photo-competition and any other media in connection with any publicity of the competition or otherwise (including, but not limited to, Google Arts & Culture and The Royal Photographic Society). You agree to grant the Royal Society a non-exclusive, worldwide, irrevocable licence, for the full period of any intellectual property rights in the competition entry and any accompanying materials, to use, display, publish, transmit, copy, edit, alter, store, re-format and sub-licence the competition entry and any accompanying materials for any legitimate purposes, including, but not limited to, marketing, publicity, advertising, fundraising and presentations.
31. By submitting an entry, you agree to waive any moral rights contained in your entry.
32. For the avoidance of doubt, by submitting your entry you warrant that all persons featured in your entry have given you their express consent for their image to be used and, in the case of vulnerable adults or persons under 18 years of age, you warrant that you have obtained express consent from their parent(s) or legal guardian(s).
33. By submitting an entry, you warrant that no animals were harmed or manipulated in the making of the image. Further, any and all ethical requirements must follow our guidance given in our ethics policy https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/research-ethics. Please note that proof of ethical standards may be requested.

Data protection and publicity

34. The Royal Society is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy and will only use your personal information in accordance with these Terms and Conditions and the Royal Society's Privacy Policy which is available on our website: https://royalsociety.org/about-us/terms-conditions-policies/privacy-policy.
35. By entering the Photography Competition, you agree that any personal information provided by you with your entry may be held and used by the Royal Society or its agents and suppliers to administer the competition (including, but not limited to, Google Arts & Culture and The Royal Photographic Society).
36. Winners may be required to participate in publicity related to the Photography Competition which may include the publication of their name and photograph in any media. You agree that your personal data may be used for this purpose.

Governing law

37. The Photography Competition will be governed by English law and entrants to the prize draw submit to the jurisdiction of the English courts.
38. The Royal Society reserves the right to update these Terms and Conditions from time to time and any updated version will be effective as soon as it is published on the website https://royalsociety.org/journals/publishing-activities/photo-competition/terms-conditions/