Digital Learning Community Guidelines

Thank you for being part of the SfN online community. SfN has established this site to serve as another venue for professional networking and communications in support of the neuroscience community. To ensure the best possible experience for all members, SfN has established basic guidelines for participation. The purpose of this code of conduct is to address behavior, not to censor content or to inhibit conversation about late-breaking or controversial ideas. By joining and using this community, you agree that you have read and will follow these rules and guidelines. You also agree to reserve discussions, shared files, and content to those related to the purposes of this forum. For instance, please do not post solicitations, job postings, unrelated blog links, or other general commentary unrelated to this forum. This is a great medium through which to seek the advice of your peers, benefit from their experience, and participate in ongoing conversations about neuroscience broadly defined – scientific questions, professional development issues, opportunities for collaboration, support, etc. Questions should be directed to SfN staff via the Contact Us link on this site.

Please take a moment to acquaint yourself with these important guidelines. In order to preserve a climate that encourages both civil and fruitful dialogue, SfN reserves the right to suspend or terminate membership in this community for anyone who violates these rules.

The Rules

• Don't attack others. The discussions and comments are meant to stimulate conversation, not to create contention. Let others have their say, just as you may.
• Don't post commercial messages in any category, thread, or other areas of the site where others might see it.   
• State concisely and clearly the topic of your comments in the subject line. This allows members to respond more appropriately to your posting and makes it easier for members to search the archives by subject.
• Use caution when discussing products. Information posted on these threads is available for all registered participants to see, and comments are subject to libel, slander, and antitrust laws.
• All defamatory, abusive, profane, threatening, offensive, or illegal materials are strictly prohibited. Do not post anything that you would not want the world to see or that you would not want anyone to know came from you.
• Note carefully all items listed in the disclaimer and legal rules below, particularly regarding the copyright ownership of information posted.
• Please note that anything you post may be copied by others on the site and shared.
• Post your message only to the most appropriate category. Do not post your message to multiple categories unless your message applies to the specific topic or purpose of those categories.
• The SfN Guidelines for Responsible Conduct Regarding Scientific Communication and the SfN Ethics Policy apply to all communications on SfN community platforms, including Neuronline, and are incorporated herein. Suspected violations of these rules, guidelines or policies should be brought to the immediate attention of SfN Staff.

We reserve the right to reject or remove any message that violates the Community Guidelines or is deemed inappropriate. SfN will not editorially control postings; however, SfN reserves the right to delete any messages that, in the sole discretion of SfN, it deems to be inappropriate. SfN also reserves the right to take immediate action in response to complaints regarding misconduct.

Terms of Use

These terms (the “Terms”) govern any use by you of Neuronline (the “Site”) and all of the products, software, services, and web sites (collectively, the “Services”) offered by Society for Neuroscience (the “SfN”).

By accessing the Site and/or using any of the Services, you agree to be bound by all of the Terms and Conditions of this Agreement. Your activities on the Site or use of the Services may also be governed by additional guidelines, rules or agreements, all of which are incorporated by reference herein. SfN reserves the right to modify these Terms, at its sole discretion, with or without notice to you.

1.    Description of Services
The Services include access to a rich collection of resources, including various communications tools, forums, search services, and personalized content which may be accessed through any various medium or device now known or hereafter developed.

Unless explicitly stated otherwise, any new features that augment or enhance the current Services, shall be subject to the Terms. You understand and agree that the Service is provided “AS-IS” and that SfN assumes no responsibility for the timeliness, deletion, misdelivery or failure to store any user communications or personalization settings. You are responsible for obtaining access to the Service, and that access may involve third-party fees (such as Internet service provider or airtime charges). In addition, you must provide and are responsible for all equipment necessary to access the Service.

2.    Eligibility/Registration.
You agree that your activities on the Site and any use of the Services shall be in accordance with (a) these Terms (b) the Site’s Community Guidelines and (c) any applicable law, regulation or generally accepted practices or guidelines. Use of the Services is limited to parties that lawfully can enter into and form contracts under applicable law. Without limiting of the foregoing, minors may not use the Services without the supervision of a responsible adult.

You agree that you will not engage in any activity that, in SfN’s sole judgment, interferes with or disrupts the Services, the servers and networks which are connected to the Services, or the activities of others on the Site or the quiet enjoyment of others on the Site.  Your failure to comply with this requirement may result in immediate suspension of your right to access one or more of the Services. You acknowledge and agree that in the event of such suspension, you may be prevented from accessing the Services, your account details or any files or other Content (as defined in Section 5) contained in your account.

In order to use certain of the Services, you may have to first register by providing your real name, address, phone number, e-mail address, and/or other relevant information, as appropriate. By registering, you represent that you have all requisite right, power and authority to bind yourself to any applicable agreement(s) and to perform your obligations thereunder. If you are acting on behalf of a university or company, you represent that you are authorized to bind the university or company. You agree to provide accurate and complete information, and to update such information as necessary to keep it up-to-date and accurate. SfN reserves the right to review all registration applications, and to accept or reject any applicant(s) in its sole judgment. You may not transfer or assign your registration to any other party.

You are solely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of any password associated with any account you use to access the Services and for any and all activities that occur under your account.  If you become aware of any unauthorized use of your password or of your account, or of any other breach of security you must notify SfN immediately at neuronline@sfn.org. You understand that through your use of the Services you consent to SfN’s collection and use of your registration data and certain other information about you, all as set forth in the SfN’s Policy, posted below, and updated from time to time.

SfN may access, preserve, and/or disclose your account information, or Content if required to do so by law, or in a good faith belief that such access, preservation, or disclosure is reasonably necessary to (a) comply with legal process, (b) enforce the Terms; (c) respond to claims that any Content violates the rights of third parties, (d) respond to your requests for customer services, or (e) protect the rights, property, or personal safely of the SfN, its users, and/or the public.

3.    Fees.
Certain of the Services may require the payment of fees to SfN or other users. Any such fees, and acceptable methods of payment, will be detailed in the relevant agreement, rules or guidelines governing such Service(s).

4.    Acceptable Behavior.
Without limiting any other provision of these Terms, you agree that you will not:

1. upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available Content (as defined in Section 6) that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortious, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, invasive of another’s privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable;
2. harm minors in any way;
3. impersonate any person or entity, including, but not limited to, a SfN official, forum leader, guide or host, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity;
4. forge headers or otherwise manipulate identifiers in order to disguise the origin of any Content transmitted through a Service;
5. upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any Content that you do not have a right to make available under any law or under contractual or fiduciary relationships;
6. upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any Content that infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights of any party;
7. upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, “junk mail,” “spam,” “chain letters,” “pyramid schemes,” or any other form of solicitation;
8. upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any material that contains software viruses or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment;
9. act in a manner that negatively affects other users’ quiet enjoyment of the Services;
10. interfere with or disrupt the Service or servers or networks connected to the Service, or disobey any requirements, procedures, policies or regulations of networks connected to the Service;
11. intentionally or unintentionally violate any applicable local, state, national or international law, including any regulations having the force of law;
12. “stalk” or otherwise harass another; and/or
13. collect or store personal data about other users, except as is explicitly provided for in any applicable agreement or guidelines governing one or more of the Services;
14. set up additional account(s) to be used for deceptive purposes.

5.    Content.
SfN is not responsible for any information, data, text, photographs, graphics, video, messages, tags, or other material (collectively referred to herein as “Content”) posted by Users of the Site other than content posted by SfN. SfN makes no representations with respect to the accuracy, integrity, or quality of any such Content, and shall not in any way be liable for any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of the use of any Content posted, emailed, transmitted or otherwise made available via the Service.

You are solely responsible for any Content posted by you on the Site or offered by you through a Service, including, without limitation, for any errors or omissions in any Content, or any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of the use of any Content posted, emailed, transmitted, or otherwise made available via the Services. You represent that you have the right to post or transmit such Content, and, by posting or transmitting such Content, you give SfN a license to publish and distribute such Content though the Services and to incorporate such Content into other SfN websites, works in any format or medium now known or later developed.  You are solely responsible for protecting and enforcing any intellectual property and other rights in your Content; SfN shall have no obligation to do so on your behalf.

Content presented to you as part of the Services, including but not limited to advertisements in the Services and sponsored Content within the Services may be protected by intellectual property rights which are owned by the sponsors or advertisers who provide that Content through the Services (or by other persons or companies on their behalf). You may not modify, rent, lease, loan, sell, distribute or create derivative works based on such Content that you do not own unless you have been explicitly granted a license to do so by the owner of that Content, in a separate agreement.

You understand that by using the Services you may be exposed to Content that you may find offensive, indecent or objectionable and that, in this respect, you use the Services at your own risk.  SfN shall have the right, but not the obligation, to remove any Content that is violative of any law, regulation or guideline, or that it deems offensive, in its sole discretion.

With respect to any Content that you have submitted to the Site, you have the right to request SfN remove such Content, thus revoking any rights SfN has with respect to such Content. Requests of this kind are to be submitted to neuronline@sfn.org.

6.    Use and Storage of Information.
You acknowledge that SfN may establish general practices and limits concerning use of the Site and/or any Service, including without limitation, the maximum number of days that messages are stored, message board postings, other uploaded Content will be retained by a Service, the maximum number of messages that may be sent from or received by an account on a Service, the maximum size of any message or board posting that may be sent from or received by an account, the maximum disk space that will be allotted on SfN’s servers on your behalf, and the maximum number of times (and the maximum duration for which) you may access a Service given in a given period of time. You agree that SfN has no responsibility or liability for the deletion or failure to store any messages and other communications, including but not limited to message board posts, or other Content maintained or transmitted by a Service.

You acknowledge that SfN reserves the right to log off accounts that are inactive for an extended period of time. There is currently not a limit on the amount of accounts per person with the exception of fake accounts (accounts set up by a user to deceive the public as to the account holder’s identity or accounts set up to deceive the public as to the true identity of the user). Attempting to create Fake Puppet accounts may jeopardize your ability to access the Services, and your original account may be banned and/or closed. All accounts will be reviewed and approved by SfN. You further acknowledge that SfN reserves the right to modify these general practices and limits from time to time, in its sole discretion.

You acknowledge and agree SfN may access, preserve, and disclose your account information, and/or Content if required to do so by law, or, if it believes, in good faith, that such access, preservation, or disclosure is reasonably necessary to (a) comply with legal process, (b) enforce these Terms, (c) respond to claims that any Content violates the rights of third parties, (d) respond to your request for customer services; or (e) protect the rights, property, or personal safely of SfN, its users, and the public.

7.    Indemnity.
You agree to indemnify and hold SfN and its subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, agents, employees, partners and licensors harmless from any claim or demand, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, made by any third party due to or arising out of Content you submit, post, transmit or otherwise make available through the Service, your use of any Service, your connection to the Service, your violation of the Terms, or your violation of any rights of another user.

8.    Termination of Your Account.
By SfN. You agree that SfN may, under certain circumstances, and without prior notice, immediately terminate your account, any associated account(s), and access to any Service indefinitely or for a set period of time. A termination of an account, whether temporarily or permanent, may include limitations to accessing any Service(s), but your profile, including your posts, will not be deleted unless you instruct SfN to remove your profile. Cause for such termination shall include, but not be limited to, (a) breaches or violations of the Terms or other incorporated agreements or guidelines, (b) requests by law enforcement or other government agencies, (c) a request by you (self-initiated account deletions), (d) discontinuance or material modification to the Service (or any part thereof), (e) unexpected technical or security issues or problems, (f) extended periods of inactivity, (g) engagement by you in fraudulent or illegal activities, and/or (h) nonpayment of any fees owed by you in connection with the Services. Further, you agree that any termination by SfN shall be at SfN’s sole discretion and that the SfN shall not be liable to you or any third party for any termination of your account, any associated Content, or access to a Service.

By You. You are unable to terminate your account or delete your account data at any time for any reason.

9.    Disclaimer of Warranties.
You expressly acknowledge and agree that:

1. Your use of the Service is at your sole risk. The Service are provided on an “AS IS” and “AS AVAILABLE” basis. SfN expressly disclaims all warranties of any kind, whether express or implied including, but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title and non-infringement.
2. SfN makes no warranty that (i) a Service will meet your requirements; (ii) a Service will be uninterrupted, timely, secure or error-free; (iii) the results that may be obtained from the use of a Service will be accurate or reliable; (iv) the quality of any products, services, information or other material purchased or obtained by you through a Service will meet your expectations; and (v) any errors in the Site, a Service or any software will be corrected.
3. Any material downloaded or otherwise obtained through the use of a Service is accessed at your own discretion and risk, and you will be solely responsible for any damage to your computer system or loss of data that results from the download of any such material.
4. No advice or information, whether oral or written, obtained by you from the SfN or through or from the service shall create any warranty not expressly stated in these Terms.

10.    Limitation of Liability
SfN WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES OF ANY KIND, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, PUNITIVE, AND CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THESE TERMS, THE SITE, THE SERVICES, THE INABILITY TO USE ANY SERVICE, OR THOSE RESULTING FROM ANY GOODS OR SERVICES PURCHASED OR OBTAINED OR MESSAGES RECEIVED OR TRANSACTIONS ENTERED INTO THROUGH THE SERVICES.

11.    Copyright.
If you believe that SfN or any user of Service infringed your copyright in any material way, please notify our Copyright Agent at ptroxell@sfn.org and provide the following information:

1. An identification of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed.
2. An identification of the material on Service that you claim is infringing or is subject to infringing activity, with enough detail so that we can locate the material on our site.
3. Your name, address, telephone number and e-mail address.
4. A statement by you that you have a good-faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent or the law.
5. A statement by you declaring that the above information in your Notice is accurate, made under penalty of perjury, and that you are authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright interest involved.
6. Your physical or electronic signature.

12.    Miscellaneous

• Entire Agreement. These Terms and any agreements, guidelines, policies etc, incorporated by reference herein or applicable to particular Services constitute the entire agreement between you and SfN and govern your use of the Services and Content, superseding any prior agreements between you and SfN with respect to the Services and Content.
• Proprietary Rights. You acknowledge and agree that the Services and any necessary software used in connection with the Services contain proprietary and confidential information that is protected by applicable intellectual property and other laws. You further acknowledge and agree that Content or other information presented to you through the Services or by advertisers is protected by copyrights, trademarks, service marks, patents or other proprietary rights and laws. Except as expressly authorized by SfN, you agree not to modify, rent, lease, loan, sell, distribute or create derivative works based on the Services, the software, or any Content, whether in whole or in part.

Unless you have agreed otherwise in writing with SfN, nothing in these Terms gives you a right to use any of SfN’s trade names, trade marks, service marks, logos, domain names, or other distinctive brand features.

Without limiting the foregoing, SfN’s logos and service names are trademarks of SfN. You agree that you shall not display or use these marks in any manner, and that you will not remove, obscure, or alter any proprietary rights notices (including copyright and trade mark notices) which may be affixed to or contained within the Services.

• Governing Law; Disputes; Consent to Personal Jurisdiction. This Agreement will be governed by the Laws of the District of Columbia without regard to its principles regarding conflicts of law. In the event of any dispute between you and SfN, you agree to take all reasonable steps to resolve the dispute quickly and efficiently first, through good faith negotiations, and then, through formal mediation or arbitration if requested by SfN in its sole discretion. In the event of a dispute that cannot be resolved in accordance with the foregoing principle, the state and federal courts of DC shall have exclusive jurisdiction over any matter arising hereunder, and you hereby consent to personal jurisdiction in those.
• Waiver and Severability of Terms. The failure of SfN to exercise or enforce any right or provision of these Terms or any agreement shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision. If any provision of these Terms is found by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, the parties nevertheless agree that the court should endeavor to give effect to the parties’ intentions as reflected in the provision, and the other provisions of the Terms shall remain in full force and effect.
• Links/Other Web Sites. The Service may provide, or third parties may provide, links to other World Wide Web sites or resources. Because SfN has no control over such sites and resources, you acknowledge and agree that SfN is not responsible for the availability of such external sites or resources, and does not endorse and is not responsible or liable for any content, advertising, products or other materials on or available from such sites or resources. You further acknowledge and agree that SfN shall not be responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with use of or reliance on any such content, goods or services available on or through any such site or resource.
• No Right of Survivorship and Non-Transferability. You agree that your account is non-transferable and any rights to your ID, Content within your account terminate upon your death. Upon receipt of a copy of a death certificate, your account may be terminated and all contents therein permanently deleted.
• Notice. Any notice under this Agreement shall be sent by email to ptroxell@sfn.org
• Limitations Period. You agree that regardless of any statute or law to the contrary, any claim or cause of action arising out of or related to use of any Service or these Terms must be filed within one hundred and eighty (180) days after such claim or cause of action arose or be forever barred.
• Severability. If any one or more of the provisions in this Agreement are deemed void as a matter of law, then the remaining provisions will continue in full force and affect.
• Service Levels. SfN does not guarantee continuous, uninterrupted or secure access to the Service or the Site.
• Headings. Section headings are included in the Agreement for convenience only. They are not to be considered a part of this Agreement, and are not intended to be a full and accurate description of the contents hereof.
• Additional Acknowledgments. You acknowledge that: (a) You are entering into this Agreement voluntarily and without any duress or undue influence; (b) You have carefully read this Agreement and fully understand its terms, consequences, and binding effect; (c) You have sought the advice of an attorney of Your choice if so desired prior to entering into this Agreement; and (d) You understand that by performing under this Agreement, You agree to be bound by its the terms.

Copyright Notice

Copyright Society for Neuroscience (“SfN”). All Rights Reserved. All Content Copyright and other rights reserved by its Respective Owners. No Content May Be Duplicated Without Express Written Consent.

Any content, trademark(s), or other material that may be found on the website that is not SfN’s property remains the copyright of its respective owner(s). In no way does SfN claim ownership or responsibility for such items, and you should seek legal consent for any use of such materials from its owner.

Digital Millennium Copyright Act

SfN respects the intellectual property of others, and we ask our users to do the same. SfN may, in appropriate circumstances and at its discretion, disable and/or terminate the accounts of users who may be infringing the intellectual property rights of others.

If you believe that your work has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, or your intellectual property rights have been otherwise violated, please provide SfN’s Copyright Agent, in writing, with the following information:

• A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed;
• Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or, if multiple copyrighted works at a single online site are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works at that site;
• Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled and information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to locate the material; In order to expedite the processing of your notice, please include a url (link) to the webpage or data in question.
• Information reasonably sufficient to permit us to contact you, such as an address, telephone number, and, if available, an electronic mail;
• A statement that you have a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and
• A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that you are authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

Designated Agent

SfN has a designated Copyright Agent to receive notifications of claimed infringement:

Copyright Agent: Paul Troxell
By email: ptroxell@sfn.org
By mail:
Society for Neuroscience
Attn: Paul Troxell
1121 14th Street NW
Suite 1010
Washington, DC 2005

You acknowledge that if you fail to comply with all of the requirements set forth herein, your DMCA notice may not be valid.

It is often difficult to determine if a particular party’s intellectual property rights have been violated. We may request additional information before we remove any infringing material. And we may provide the alleged infringing party with your email address so that that person can respond to your allegations. If a dispute develops as to the correct owner of the rights in question, we reserve the right to remove your content along with that of the alleged infringer pending resolution of the matter.

Counter-Notice

If you believe that your submission that was removed (or to which access was disabled) is not infringing, or that you have the authorization from the copyright owner, the copyright owner’s agent, or pursuant to the law, to post and use the content on the website, you may send a counter-notice containing the following information to the Copyright Agent:

• Your physical or electronic signature;
• Identification of the content that has been removed or to which access has been disabled and the location at which the content appeared before it was removed or disabled;
• A statement that you have a good faith belief that the content was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or a misidentification of the content; and
• Your name, address, telephone number, and e-mail address, a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the federal court in the District of Columbia, and a statement that you will accept service of process from the person who provided notification of the alleged infringement.

If a counter-notice is received by the Copyright Agent, SfN may send a copy of the counter-notice to the original complaining party informing that party that SfN may replace the removed content or cease disabling it in 10 business days. Unless the party claiming to be the copyright owner files an action seeking a court order against the content provider, member or user, the removed content may be replaced, or access to it restored, in 10 to 14 business days or more after receipt of the counter-notice, at SfN’s sole discretion.