DaRUS Terms of Use

The following terms and conditions govern all use of the DaRUS website (https://darus.uni-stuttgart.de) (the Site) and the services offered on or through the Site (collectively, the Service). The site and the service are operated by the University of Stuttgart. The offer of the service is subject to the unchanged acceptance of all conditions listed here and all other operating rules, guidelines and processes published on the site by the University of Stuttgart, in particular the Rules of Use for Digital Information Processing and Communication Technology (IuK) at the University of Stuttgart, which apply in addition to these Terms of Use.

The operator of DaRUS reserves the right to change or replace the terms of use at any time with effect for the future. The operator refers to changed terms of use on the DaRUS website. It is your responsibility to inform yourself about them and to regularly check the terms of use for changes. Your continued use of the service after the publication of changes to the Terms of Use constitutes your acceptance of these changes.

In order to use the service, you must register with DaRUS. As a member, guest or partner of the University of Stuttgart you can authenticate yourself via Shibboleth. The ID, name and e-mail address of your institutional account will be used to create a DaRUS account. If you would like to use the service as an external partner, there must be a contractual agreement between you and the Universität Stuttgart in which the conditions of use are clarified. You are solely responsible for the activities that take place on your account.

The Service provides you with the ability to upload, transmit, publish, distribute, or otherwise post content to the Service. Content is stored as records of files and descriptive metadata and organized in Dataverses. For purposes of these Terms of Use, "Content" means, without limitation, all information, data, text, software, scripts, graphics and interactive features generated, provided or otherwise made available on or through the Service. The purpose of DaRUS is to collect, describe, preserve and make available research data. Before you submit content to Dataverses, you must ensure that the content complies with our Terms of Use.   You grant the Universität Stuttgart permission and all necessary licenses to make the content available for archiving, storage and access. You represent and warrant that you are legally entitled and authorized to grant permission to the Universität Stuttgart to archive, preserve and make accessible the user contributions in the manner described in these Terms of Use. You will not provide the Universität Stuttgart with any confidential or copyrighted information that you must or wish to keep secret. The Universität Stuttgart is not obliged to monitor the website, the service, the contents or the user contributions. The Universität Stuttgart may remove any user contribution at any time if it does not comply with the Terms of Use. The Universität Stuttgart may remove any user contribution that is neither published nor archived, upon notice to the contact e-mail address provided and upon expiration of a reasonable period of time. Archived data may be deleted after the expiry of the agreed archiving period.

DaRUS intends to store the contents at several locations and to use appropriate procedures to store the contents securely. Notwithstanding the foregoing, you acknowledge that the Universität Stuttgart shall not be liable for any loss of or damage to any User Content, either in whole or in part.

Records and dataverses may be made available to the public or to a limited number of registered users. The users of DaRUS or the administrators of a dataverse decide independently which public has access to their datasets or dataverses. If a dataset or dataverse is published, it is made available to the entire public.

Please note that user contributions are only formally checked by the operator and not with regard to content before they are made available to the public. You are solely responsible for the user contributions that you publish on or via the Service. Only content that may be publicly distributed may be published. After publication the submitter has no possibility to delete the content, the post can only be withdrawn, which means that the content is no longer visible on the DaRUS website, but still a basic landing page with metadata can be accessed via its original link and / or persistent identifier (DOI).

By publishing a dataset, the operator of DaRUS is granted the simple right of reproduction and public access, thus permanently authorizing it:

1. To make electronic copies of the digital object publicly accessible (possibly after expiry of a possible embargo period) and, if necessary, to modify it (formally) so that it can be reproduced on future computer systems. This permission excludes any modification of the content of the digital object. The right applies to all known as well as to all not yet known types of use.
2. For the purpose of reporting and passing on the digital objects to third parties, e.g. within the framework of national collective orders, in particular for the purpose of long-term archiving or for reporting to OpenAIRE.
3. To transfer the agreed rights and obligations to another repository (e.g. DaRUS' potential successor repository).

Authors are free without restriction to publish the research results before or after publication, modified if necessary or in extracts, printed elsewhere or electronically.

All data published in DaRUS are available for subsequent use by third parties. The type of permitted subsequent use is regulated by the granting of a license.  By downloading the data, the user assumes full responsibility for the use of the data. He or she is obliged to comply with the license provisions of the corresponding data record.

By posting or using user contributions on the website or otherwise via the Service, you make the following representations and warranties to the Universität Stuttgart and DaRUS:

1. You hereby undertake to use the Service in accordance with the relevant DFG or university codes of conduct for scientific integrity and for the use of personal data in research. See also the Guidelines for the Handling of Research Data of the DFG, the Research Data Policy of the University of Stuttgart as well as the Statutes of the University of Stuttgart for Safeguarding the Integrity of Scientific Practice and for Handling Misconduct in Science.
2. You take maximum precautions to ensure that the contributions (content) you post via DaRUS are free of harmful software, such as viruses, etc.
3. You may not upload, download, post, transmit or otherwise distribute any content that infringes copyright or other intellectual property rights, including but not limited to patents (applications), know-how, trademarks, trade secrets, publicity rights or other rights of any other person or entity.
4. The user contributions do not contain any personal data that could identify persons directly or indirectly, unless the consent of the persons concerned has been obtained and is accessible to the Universität Stuttgart at all times.

Irrespective of § 6 of the Regulations for the Use of Digital Information Processing and Communication Technology (IuK) at the University of Stuttgart, you are obliged to compensate the University of Stuttgart for all damages resulting from the violation of these Terms of Use.

When logging in via Shibboleth, the account ID, email address, real name (first name, last name) and affiliation of your institution's account will be used to create an account with the Service. This information is available to other DaRUS registered users. Your e-mail address may be used to contact you regarding DaRUS. DaRUS will not actively share or otherwise make available your account information to third parties.

In order to download data, it may be necessary to state your name and affiliation and answer any further questions. These data will be made available to the administrator of the respective dataverse. In order to download protected data, it is necessary to register with DaRUS. Detailed information can be found in the Darus Privacy Policy.

The Service (including, but not limited to, the Content and User Submissions) is provided "as is" and "as available" without any express or implied warranties of any kind. Specifically, the University of Stuttgart DOES NOT warrant that:

1. the content or user contributions are timely, accurate, complete, reliable or accurate;
2. the Service is secure or available at a particular time or place;
3. Any defects or errors in the User Content will be corrected;
4. the Content or User Submissions are free of viruses or other harmful components; or
5. The results of the use of the service will meet your requirements.

Your use of the Service is entirely at your own risk.