Terms and conditions

The following terms and conditions shall be governed and construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales, whose courts shall have exclusive jurisdiction. UKRIO may at any time revise these terms and conditions without notice.

Terms and conditions of use for the website www.ukrio.org

This website is owned by the UK Research Integrity Office (hereafter ‘UKRIO’), a registered company limited by guarantee and a registered charity in the UK.

Use of this website

Please read the following Website Terms and Conditions, which relate to information regarding general use of our website. By using this website, you are agreeing to these terms and conditions. From time to time we may change these terms and conditions, and will post revisions on our website. We recommend that you read these terms and conditions regularly.

Privacy

Use of the data that you provide us, or which is collected by use on this website, is governed by our Privacy Policy.
We try to ensure that the UKRIO website availability is uninterrupted and that transmissions will be error-free. However, due to the nature of the internet, we cannot guarantee that your access will not be suspended or restricted from time to time including to allow for repairs, maintenance or the introduction of new facilities or services. We of course try to limit the frequency and duration of any suspension or restriction. All of this website can be accessed for free and such access is at our discretion and may be changed without notice.

Intellectual Property Rights

The content, layout, design, data and graphics on this website are protected by UK and other international copyright laws. Other than downloading a small proportion of content, strictly for your personal, non-commercial use, or where this amounts to “fair use”, no part of the website may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording and/or otherwise) without our prior written consent. Any authorised uses of content, must include the customary bibliographic citation, including author attribution, date, report title and the URL http://www.ukrio, and must include the copyright notice.

The UKRIO trademarks and logos which are displayed on the website are the trade marks of UKRIO. Any use including framing, metatags or other text utilising UKRIO ‘s trade marks or other trade marks displayed, is strictly prohibited without our express written consent.

Permission for use of our intellectual property

Any request for permission of our content or images, or other use of our intellectual property not authorised under a subscription, should be made using the options on the contact page.

Links

This website contains links including hyperlinks which may take you outside www.ukrio.org . Links are provided for your convenience, and an inclusion of any link does not imply endorsement or approval by us of the linked website, its operator or content. We are not responsible for any website outside the UKRIO website.

Disclaimer

The information contained on this website is intended for: academic, medical and scientific researchers; organisations involved in such research; and members of the public. It is provided on an “as is” basis without representations or any kind of warranty made of any kind (whether express or implied by law). This includes warranty as to fitness for a particular purpose satisfactory quality, non infringement, compatibility, security and accuracy. Differences may occur also between the print and online text.

The opinions and views expressed on this website (including the UKRIO publications) are those of the individual authors and not necessarily those of UKRIO.

Descriptions or reference to a product or publication does not imply endorsement of that product or publication.

Pursuing misconduct

To the fullest extent permitted by law under no circumstances shall UKRIO be responsible for any losses, injury or damage (whether such losses were foreseen, foreseeable, known or otherwise) caused to any person or property (including under contract, by negligence, products liability or otherwise) whether they be direct or indirect, special, incidental or consequential, resulting from the application of the information on this website.

Your conduct

You must not use the website in any way that causes or is likely to cause the website or access to it to be interrupted, damaged or impaired in any way. You understand that you are solely responsible for all electronic communications and contents sent from your computer to us. You must use the website for lawful purposes only. You must not use the website for any of the following:

  • Fraudulent purposes in connection with a criminal offence or otherwise unlawful activity.
  • To send, use or re-use any material that is illegal, offensive, abusive, indecent, defamatory, obscene or menacing; or in breach of copyright, trademark, confidence, privacy or any other right; or is otherwise injurious to third parties; or objectionable; or which consists of or contains software viruses, political campaigning, commercial solicitation, chain letters, mass mailings or any spam.
  • To cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety.

 

Terms and conditions for seeking advice from UKRIO

Enquiries from individuals

Individuals, such as members of the public, research participants, patients, researchers and students, access UKRIO’s advisory service free of charge. Please fill out the form at https://ukrio.org/get-advice-from-ukrio/.

Enquiries on behalf of an organisation

Organisations which subscribe to UKRIO can use the form at https://ukrio.org/get-advice-from-ukrio/to get advice from us. Alternatively, they may contact UKRIO staff direct using the contact details we provided to them on subscribing.

Organisations which have not subscribed to UKRIO may make an initial contact in confidence at no charge using the form at https://ukrio.org/get-advice-from-ukrio/. Further follow-up is at UKRIO’s discretion. Please provide an email address for response. This can be an institutional or other email as you wish.

Guidelines for seeking advice
  1. UKRIO is an independent charity, offering support to the public, individual researchers and research organisations to further good practice in academic, scientific and medical research and in addressing allegations of poor practice, unethical behaviour and misconduct. We provide impartial advice to persons seeking guidance on issues of research conduct, including allegations of misconduct in research. UKRIO does not have any regulatory powers; it exists to advise and assist those who seek its help. UKRIO does not have a case investigation, oversight or adjudication role, but our representatives can and do participate in investigations of cases at the request of an employer, regulator or other appropriate body or person.
  2. Based on information provided, UKRIO will provide advice to the contact on how they might take forward the issue(s) in the most appropriate way. This will include suggesting which body or bodies might be best placed to assist in the resolution of the issue(s), which could include the employer. Our advice is not mandatory but reflects best practice in the conduct of research and addressing misconduct. Guidance from UKRIO should not be viewed as a substitute for legal advice from suitably qualified persons.
  3. UKRIO will keep a confidential record of any requests for assistance and all subsequent discussions. No other parties will be informed without your consent, unless clear evidence of criminal activity has been presented, there is an immediate need to involve others to prevent further risk or harm to people, animals or the environment, or we are otherwise under a legal obligation to do so. We also reserve the right to disclose details of our advice and correspondence if that advice is later misrepresented by you.
  4. In order for us to evaluate whether we can help with your enquiry, please complete the short form at https://ukrio.org/get-advice-from-ukrio/.
  5. If an enquiry falls outside UKRIO’s remit, we may be able to suggest other organisations which might be able to provide appropriate advice; however, the suggestion of other organisation(s) does not imply any endorsement by UKRIO.
  6. Disclaimer: Please note that all advice from UKRIO is specific to the particular enquiry under consideration, based solely on the information provided to us about that matter, and may not necessarily be applicable to similar enquiries either past or future. All advice is intended as practical advice, not legal advice. UKRIO accepts no liability for any loss or damage caused or occasioned as a result of advice given by it, its staff or volunteers. Advice given by UKRIO is not given for the purposes of court proceedings within any jurisdiction and may not be cited or relied upon for this purpose.
  7. Matters relating to non-UK jurisdictions: UKRIO is a UK charity and our remit is to promote good practice and high ethical standards in UK academic, scientific and medical research. Our expertise is understandably rooted in the legal, ethical and other structures under which research is conducted in the UK. As such, we may be unable to give advice on certain issues which arise in, or relate to, non-UK jurisdictions. Please also see (6), above.

Data Protection Act/ General Data Protection Regulation: Please note that the information submitted to UKRIO when seeking advice may be stored on our computer records for internal data processing purposes. We will not pass this data on to third parties. UKRIO is registered under the Data Protection Act (1988).

 

Terms and conditions for UKRIO online events

The online events, inclusive of webinars, online conferences, roundtables and all other online events with speakers and an audience, delivered by the UK Research Integrity Office (UKRIO) are provided for information, education and to foster collaboration.

UKRIO is an apolitical organisation and does not provide a platform for political views. Any views, advice or recommendations expressed in its online events are those of the speakers alone and should not be taken as an endorsement from UKRIO. UKRIO assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors, omissions or advice given in the content of its online events. While we typically aim to make recordings available within two weeks of the live presentation, we reserve the right to make decisions on dissemination and publication.

Where links are provided to other sites and resources of third parties, these links are provided for your information only. UKRIO neither endorses nor accepts responsibility for the contents of those sites or resources.

Please note that speakers have requested that their presentations are not hosted on any websites. Copyright of the presentation rests with the speaker and/or their institution unless otherwise stated. Use of any presentation for commercial gain or purposes requires the prior permission of the speaker.

 

Data Protection Act/ General Data Protection Regulation

Please note that the information submitted to UKRIO when making an enquiry about an event or booking a place at an event may be stored on our computer records for internal data processing purposes. We will not pass this data on to third parties. UKRIO is registered under the Data Protection Act (1988).

General conditions

It may be necessary for reasons beyond UKRIO’s control to change the content, timing, or speakers for an event. UKRIO also reserves the right to cancel an event. We will cancel events no later than 5 working days prior to the scheduled start date.

UKRIO reserves the right to amend or cancel your booking at any time.

 

Last modified April 2024