Terms and Conditions for the ISRCTN registry website

Our terms and conditions changed as of 1st January 2019. Please read the amended terms and conditions below. By continuing to use the ISRCTN service, you are agreeing to the terms and conditions in their current form.

Thank you for visiting this website.

These website terms of use (“Terms") apply to this website operated by BioMed Central Limited (the "Site"). Any reference to ‘you’ or ‘your’ is a reference to you as a user of the Site or service.

By using the Site, you indicate that you have read and accept these Terms and agree to abide by and be bound by all such Terms. If you do not accept all applicable Terms, please refrain from using the Site. Please note that we may change these Terms from time to time without notice so you should review them each time that you visit the Site.

We draw your attention to the limitations on liability contained in clause 11 below and to the consents to data transfer and processing contained in clause 10 below.

In addition to these Terms the Site may have supplementary terms and conditions which apply to the services available on the Site ("Additional Terms"). Please ensure that you read any Additional Terms and the Privacy Policy as they form part of these Terms in respect of the Site. To the extent that the Additional Terms conflict with these Terms, the Additional Terms shall prevail (including, without limitation, any liability limitations or exclusions in the Additional Terms), but only in respect of the Site.


1. About us

  1. Each Site is operated by: (1) BioMed Central Limited, a company registered in England and Wales (registered company number 03680030) with registered office at The Campus, 4 Crinan Street, London, N1 9XW, United Kingdom, VAT number GB 823 8263 26 on behalf of (2) ISRCTN, a non-profit organisation (registered number 05551550), whose registered address is c/o BioMed Central Limited at The Campus, 4 Crinan Street, London, N1 9XW, United Kingdom (together, "we", "us", "our").
  2. We publish and maintain the ISRCTN registry (“Registry”). ISRCTN is a unique identification number necessary for the future publication of clinical trials and other studies. The Registry is a primary clinical trial registry recognised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). It accepts all clinical research studies (whether proposed, ongoing or completed). For more information, please visit: http://www.isrctn.com/page/about.
  3. THE SITE IS FOR INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY AND DOES NOT AIM TO PROVIDE ANY MEDICAL ADVICE. IF YOU HAVE ANY QUERIES REGARDING YOUR PERSONAL HEALTH, PLEASE CONSULT A QUALIFIED MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL. THE INFORMATION FROM CLINICAL RESEARCH STUDIES IS PROVIDED BY THE TRIALIST AND/OR SPONSOR OF EACH STUDY AND NOT BY US. THEREFORE, WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CONTENT OR THE ACCURACY OF THE INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN.

2. Contacting us

  1. For general comments on the Site, or to seek permission to do anything prohibited by or not contained in the Terms, or which requires our prior consent or agreement, you can contact us following the instructions found on the ‘Contact’ page on the Site.
  2. We respect the intellectual property rights of others, and we request that our visitors do the same. It is our policy to terminate the accounts of users who repeatedly infringe the rights of others. If you think your work has been copied in a manner that constitutes copyright infringement, you may notify our copyright agent, who can be reached at:
    BioMed Central Limited
    The Campus, 4 Crinan Street,
    London, N1 9XW,
    United Kingdom
    Attention: Legal Department
    e-mail: CopyrightAgent@springernature.com
  3. Please include all of the following in your notification:
    1. A physical or electronic signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive copyright that is allegedly infringed;
    2. a description of the copyrighted work you claim has been infringed;
    3. a description of where the material you claim is infringing is located on the site;
    4. your address, telephone number, email address and all other information reasonably sufficient to permit us to contact you;
    5. 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; and
    6. a statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

3. Using the Site

  1. Access to the Site is permitted on a temporary basis and we reserve the right to withdraw or amend the service we provide on the Site or part of the Site without notice. We will not be liable or responsible if for any reason the Site is unavailable.
  2. We may update the Site from time to time, and may change the content at any time. Please note that any of the content on the Site may be out of date at any time, and we are under no obligation to update it.
  3. All Open Access content published by us on this Site is marked as such and the relevant Creative Commons licence terms shall apply.
  4. With the exception of material marked "Open Access" which may be used in accordance with the relevant Open Access licence, you must not (whether directly or indirectly):
    1. attempt to circumvent security or interfere with the proper working of the Site or the servers on which it is hosted;
    2. distribute, transmit, syndicate, sell or offer to sell or otherwise make available all or any part of the Site or in any way seek to commercialise all or part of the combination of materials which together constitute the Site;
    3. distribute, transmit, syndicate, sell or offer to sell or otherwise make available any content, files, feeds or data from the Site, whether publically available or not, except as specifically permitted by the Site and in compliance with any applicable conditions or restrictions; or
    4. copy, download, or store any content, files, feeds or data from the Site, whether publically available or not, to make or populate a database or publication of any kind whatsoever, provided that for the avoidance of doubt this is not intended to restrict copying of an insubstantial part of any such material where you are able to show ‘fair dealing’ with it, in each case in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988; or
    5. alter, adapt or reverse engineer any part of the Site.
  5. All rights granted to you under these terms and conditions will terminate immediately in the event that you are in breach of any of them.
  6. It is your responsibility to ensure your equipment (computer, laptop, netbook, tablet or other mobile device) meets all the necessary technical specifications to enable you to access and use the Site and is compatible with the Site.
  7. We may, from time to time, restrict access to certain features, parts or content of the Site, or the entire Site, to users who have registered with us. You must ensure that any registration details you provide are accurate. If you choose, or you are provided with, a log-on ID (such as a username and password or other identifier) as part of our security procedures, you must treat such information as confidential and must not reveal it to anyone else. You are responsible for all activities that occur under your log-on ID and must notify us immediately of any unauthorised use or other security breach of which you become aware. We reserve the right to disable any log-on ID, at any time, if in our opinion you have failed to comply with any of the provisions of these terms and conditions or if any details you provide for the purposes of registering as a user prove to be false.
  8. We cannot guarantee the continuous, uninterrupted or error-free operability of the Site. There may be times when certain features, parts or content of the Site, or the entire Site, become unavailable (whether on a scheduled or unscheduled basis) or are modified, suspended or withdrawn by us, in our sole discretion, without notice to you. You agree that we will not be liable to you or to any third party for any unavailability, modification, suspension or withdrawal of the Site, or any features, parts or content of the Site.
  9. You may only play video or audio files using the media player on any Site or on the website of one of our licensees who is displaying such material with our authorisation. Where any videos or other materials are displayed through a third-party embedding service you must comply with all applicable conditions of that third party.
  10. You are solely liable and responsible for any third-party charges incurred by you in accessing and using the Site, including in particular any network charges for fixed or mobile internet use.

4. Linking

  1. You may establish a link to one or more website(s), provided that:
    1. the link is legal and not detrimental or damaging to and/or does not take unfair advantage of our reputation or business;
    2. such linking is not for advertising or promotional purposes (unless we have expressly agreed to it);
    3. the link is not from any website which promotes any political or religious views, or promotes or depicts intolerance, hatred, discrimination, violence, pornography or illegal activity (websites of any such nature being referred to as an "Unacceptable Forum");
    4. the link does not falsely or misleadingly imply or suggest that we endorse, approve of or are associated with the linked website, its webpages or any of its contents; and
    5. framing of the Site on any other website is not allowed and you must not provide access to the Site or part of it under any other URL.
  2. We may withdraw your right to link to the Site without notice and at any time (acting in our sole discretion).
  3. Subject to these Terms and to applicable Additional Terms you may only include links on any Site to third party websites or webpages if:
    1. the third party website is not an Unacceptable Forum, and the content of or linking to such third party websites or webpages does not breach any of the provisions set out in clause 6.3;
    2. the terms of use of such websites or webpages allows such linking;
    3. links are clearly and visibly marked as such;
    4. the content of any linked website or webpages are relevant and clearly related to the content to which it is linked; and
    5. the link will not result in any automatic download.
  4. Where the Site and/or applications contain links to other websites, webpages, resources, or mobile services which are proprietary to third parties, other users, advertisers or sponsors, such websites, webpages, resources and mobile services are provided for your information only and you access them at your own risk. We are not liable or responsible for the content or operation of third party websites, webpages, resources or mobile services. You should read any applicable terms and conditions and privacy policies.

5. User registration

  1. Where you are required to register to use the Site or part of the Site, it is your responsibility to provide accurate and complete registration details and to keep such details up to date. We are entitled to rely on any such registration details you provide to us.
  2. Unless stated otherwise, each registration is for a single user only and not for multiple users. If you choose, or you are provided with, a user identification code, password or any other piece of information as part of our security procedures, you must treat such information as confidential. You must not disclose it to any third party. You are solely responsible for any loss or damage you or we may suffer as a result of your failure to do so.
  3. Your registration with the Site must be in your own, real, name, not under any false or assumed name and not with any other person’s identity. You must not pretend to be a different person. You must provide a valid email address when you register for the Site. If you provide an email address to us then you warrant to us that you are entitled to receive email to such email address. You also acknowledge and agree that we may stop sending emails to you without prior notification.
  4. You are responsible for everything done using your registration details. You must not disclose your login details to any other person. If you think that another person may have access to, or be using, your registration details, you must inform us immediately.
  5. We may suspend, terminate or prevent your account and/or your access to the Site at our sole discretion. Where we suspend, terminate or prevent your registration, you must not attempt to re-register or submit any content, material or applications without our prior written consent.
  6. For the avoidance of doubt, where we suspend, terminate or otherwise prevent your account or your access to any Site, we may continue to publish or use your Content (as defined in clause 6) in accordance with the provisions of the applicable Terms.

6. Content

  1. You warrant and represent that the content of any website from which you include a link to the Site, or to which you post a link from a Site, will not be inappropriate. Without limitation, the content of third-party websites may be considered inappropriate if:
    1. it is misleading or gives a false impression as to its origins or approvals;
    2. it is defamatory, plagiarised (including self-plagiarism), abusive, malicious, threatening, false, offensive, insulting, discriminatory, profane, harassing, racist, sexist, indecent, obscene, pornographic, hateful or it advocates violence;
    3. it is in breach of confidentiality, privacy or other rights, or of any duty owed by you;
    4. it prejudices any active or pending legal proceedings of which you are aware;
    5. it contains unsubstantiated accusations of impropriety or personal criticism;
    6. it infringes any intellectual property rights proprietary to us or any third party;
    7. it is technically harmful (including but without limitation, computer viruses, logic bombs, trojan horses, worms, harmful components, corrupted data or other malicious software, harmful data or conduct and/or contains any other element which is intended to harm us or any third party, or to carry out or facilitate any fraudulent or dishonest transaction);
    8. it is spam or junk content or it promotes third party products or services or requests for donations or financial support;
    9. it impersonates another person or otherwise misrepresents identity, affiliation or status;
    10. it would be considered a criminal or statutory offence in any jurisdiction, or gives rise to civil liability, or is otherwise unlawful; and/or
    11. it is in breach of these Terms and/or of any Additional Terms.
  2. You must not attempt to avoid or undermine any protections we put in place for the security and operation of the Site.
  3. You must not attempt to gain unauthorised access to the Site, the server on which the Site is hosted or any server, computer or database connected to the Site or to attack the Site via a denial of service attack or by any means other than through a normal web browser in the generally-accepted manner, and in accordance with these Terms. By breaching the provisions of this clause, you may be committing a criminal offence. We shall report any such breach to the relevant law enforcement authorities and we will co-operate with those authorities by disclosing your identity to them and your right to use the affected Site whose use is subject to these Terms shall immediately and automatically cease.
  4. You shall indemnify us on demand and keep us indemnified against all liabilities, losses, damages, costs, claims and expenses (including any professional costs and expenses) suffered or incurred by us arising out of or in connection with any breach or alleged breach by you of this clause 6.

7. Your contributions

  1. All intellectual property rights in or arising out of or in connection with the Site (other than intellectual property rights in any materials provided by you) shall be owned by us.
  2. With regards to new contributions (“Contributions”) and subject to editorial acceptance of the Contribution, Contributions will be published made available under the applicable Creative Commons licence. Occasionally a different licensing and copyright regulation may be required for individual Contributions. To the extent possible the open access nature of such Contributions shall not be affected.
  3. You grant us a non-exclusive, irrevocable and sub-licensable right, unlimited in time and territory, to copy-edit, reproduce, publish, distribute, transmit, make available and store the Contribution, including abstracts thereof, in all forms of media of expression now known or developed in the future, including pre- and reprints, translations, photographic reproductions and extensions. Furthermore, to enable additional publishing services, such as promotion of the Contribution, you grant to us the right to use the Contribution (including any graphic elements on a stand-alone basis) in whole or in part in electronic form, such as for display in databases or data networks (e.g. the Internet), or for print or download to stationary or portable devices. This includes interactive and multimedia use as well as posting the Contribution in full or in part on social media, and the right to alter the Contribution to the extent necessary for such use. You grant to us the right to re-license Contribution metadata without restriction, including but not limited to author, name title, abstract, citation, references, keywords and any additional information as determined by us. For the avoidance of doubt, the Plain English Summary, Results (plain English), Study hypothesis, Intervention, Primary outcome measure, Secondary outcome measures, Publication and dissemination plan, IPD sharing plan statement, Basic results (scientific) and Additional files are covered by the CC BY licence. All other content is considered to be metadata and can be used without attribution. For Contributions submitted on or after 1st January 2019, you agree that the metadata can be reused without restriction on a CC0 basis.
  4. You warrant that:
    1. (i) you are the sole owner or has been authorised by any additional copyright owner to grant the rights defined in clause 7.3; (ii) the Contribution does not infringe any intellectual property rights (including without limitation copyright, database rights or trade mark rights) or other third party rights and no licence from or payments to a third party are required to publish the Contribution, (iii) the Contribution has not been previously published or licensed , (iv) if the Contribution contains materials from other sources (e.g. illustrations, tables, text quotations) appropriate written permissions has been obtained to the extent necessary from the copyright holder(s), you license us to use such materials in accordance with the grant of rights in clause 7.3 and have cited any such materials correctly;
    2. all of the facts contained in the Contribution are according to the current body of science true and accurate;
    3. nothing in the Contribution is obscene, defamatory, violates any right of privacy or publicity, infringes any other human, personal or other rights of any person or entity or is otherwise unlawful and that informed consent to publish has been obtained for all research participants;
    4. nothing in the Contribution infringes any duty of confidentiality which you might owe to anyone else or violates any contract, express or implied and all of the institutions in which work recorded in the Contribution was created or carried out, have authorised and approved such research and publication.

8. Third party content

  1. We are not liable or responsible for any third party content on the Site. Third party content includes, for example, comments, blogs and articles posted by any third parties, the content of advertisements, applications posted by other third parties and content accessed through applications.
  2. Open Access content may contain third party content not covered by the Creative Commons licence. Before using any content from the Site you are required to ascertain whether any third party rights within all images, diagrams, photographs or other illustrative material which are indicated within such an article as not being owned by the authors or us, that these should be cleared independently and appropriately with the relevant owner.

9. Intellectual Property Rights

  1. We are the owner or the licensee of all intellectual property rights in all Sites. All such rights are reserved in full. Our status (and that of any identified contributors) as the authors of content on our site must always be acknowledged.
  2. The proprietary content, design, look and feel, databases (and data) and images on this Site are protected by UK and other international intellectual property laws and are owned by us or our licensors. With the exception of material marked "Open Access" which may be used in accordance with the relevant Open Access licence, you must not:
    1. reproduce, store in any medium, including but not limited to a retrieval system, or transmit, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, broadcasting) nor, show in public any part of a website;
    2. create any derivative work or make any other adaptation, without our prior written consent;
    3. modify the copies you have displayed or printed in any way;
    4. use any illustrations, photographs, videos or audio sequences or any graphics separately from any accompanying text.
  3. Notwithstanding the provisions of clause 8.2, you may print a small proportion of content of this Site or display this on your screen or both, strictly for your personal non-commercial use.

10. Your personal information

  1. In addition to these Terms and the Additional Terms, please read the Privacy Policy at https://www.isrctn.com/page/privacy carefully as it governs our collection and use of information about you and states that we may collect your information in the UK and transfer it to companies within our group (including companies based outside of the UK and Europe). By using our Site, you consent to us obtaining, holding, processing and transferring your data as set out in the Privacy Policy.

11. Our liability

  1. The provisions of this clause 11 set out our entire financial liability (including any liability for the acts or omissions of our employees, agents and sub-contractors) to you in respect of all losses, claims or liabilities arising under or in connection with these Terms or your use of the Site generally, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty, or otherwise.
  2. The information and material contained on the Site is for general information purposes only and does not constitute advice on which you should rely, whether medical, legal, financial or otherwise. Such information and material may be incorrect or out of date and should not be considered as a definitive or complete statement. You should check any information and material on the Site and use your own judgement before doing or not doing anything on the basis of such information or material. Any description or reference to a product or publication does not imply endorsement of that product or publication. We make no representations or warranties with respect to the Site or its content. All warranties (express or implied) (including without limitation the implied warranties of satisfactory quality and fitness for purpose relating to the Site and/or its content) are hereby excluded to the fullest extent permitted by law. No representations or warranties are given as to the accuracy or completeness of the information or material provided on the Site or any website or webpage to which it is linked.
  3. Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence or for fraud of fraudulent misrepresentation or any other liability that cannot be limited by applicable law.
  4. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we, other members of our group of companies and third parties connected to us hereby expressly exclude any liability for:
    1. loss of or corruption to data; or
    2. loss of profit; or
    3. loss of anticipated savings; or
    4. loss of anticipated revenue; or
    5. loss of business; or
    6. loss of opportunity; or
    7. adverse effect on reputation and/or goodwill; or
    8. any indirect or consequential loss or damage save that for these purposes losses arising as a result of regulatory fines and damage to property shall to the extent arising as a natural consequence of the breach in question not be regarded as indirect or consequential.
  5. Subject to the provisions of clause 11.3 above, our total liability to you in respect of all losses and liabilities arising under or in connection with these Terms, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty, or otherwise, shall in no circumstances exceed an amount equal to the amount paid by you to us in the 12 month period immediately preceding the date on which such loss or liability arose or £250, whichever is the greater.
  6. Without prejudice to the generality of the exclusions of liability contained in this clause 11, we shall not be liable to you if you cannot access the Site properly or at all (wholly or partly) or if some of its features are unavailable to you due to events outside our control (including without limitation the performance of any internet service provider, the performance of any internet browser, limitations of the device you use to access the Site and/or any malicious or unintentional harm done by yourself or others).
  7. We shall have no liability to you for any loss, damage or inconvenience suffered due to the unavailability, withdrawal, corruption or loss of any data or content, material or other information or data from or on the Site, or for any use of or reliance on the content on the Site.
  8. Whilst we monitor the Site with a view to locating and fixing defects, you acknowledge and agree that we cannot and do not guarantee that the Site or any individual feature of each Site will be error free, be available at all times and/or be free from viruses and defects. We shall not be liable for any loss or damage caused by a virus, distributed denial-of-service attack, or other technologically harmful material that may infect your computer equipment, computer programs, data or other proprietary material due to your use of the Site or to your downloading of any content on it, or on any website linked to it. It is your responsibility to implement appropriate IT security safeguards (including anti-virus and other security checks) to satisfy your particular requirements as to the safety and reliability of content.

12. Maintenance of the Site

  1. You acknowledge and agree that from time to time we may need to suspend access to all or a part of the Site while we:
    1. fix defects and errors in the Site;
    2. install updates and undertake general diagnosis and maintenance of the Site; and
    3. undertake emergency maintenance and/or suspend access to the servers, and that as a result the Site may be less accessible or unavailable to you from time to time.

13. Severance

  1. If any court or competent authority finds that any provision of these Terms (or part of any provision) is invalid, illegal or unenforceable, that provision or part-provision shall, to the extent required, be deemed to be deleted, and the validity and enforceability of the other provisions of these Terms shall not be affected.

14. Variation

  1. We may revise these Terms at any time by amending this page or the page on which the Additional Terms appear. You must check this page, and the page of the Site where Additional Terms appear, from time to time to take notice of any changes we make, as they are binding on you. Some of the provisions contained in these Terms may also be superseded by provisions or notices published elsewhere on the Site, including without limitation in Additional Terms.

15. Jurisdiction and applicable law

  1. The law governing these Terms, 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 laws of England and Wales. The courts of England and Wales shall have exclusive jurisdiction to settle any dispute or claim that arises out of or in connection with these Terms or its subject matter or formation (including non-contractual disputes or claims). For our exclusive benefit and to the extent possible in the applicable jurisdiction, we retain the right to bring or enforce proceedings as to the substance of the matter in the courts of the country of your residence or, where these Terms are entered into in the course of your trade or profession, the country of the place of business in which you agreed to these Terms or (if different) the country of your principal place of business.