Author Publishing Agreement

1. Eligibility and Account

• You must be at least 18 years old and legally able to enter into this Agreement.
• You must provide accurate registration details and keep your account secure. You are responsible for all activity under your account.
• Your author profile (name, photo and “About me”) is shown with your published articles.

2. Originality and Authorship

• You confirm that you are the sole author of the article, or that you have written permission from every co-author and rights holder to submit it.
• The article must be your own original work and must not have been published elsewhere in a way that conflicts with the licence in clause 5.
• The article must not infringe any copyright, trademark, privacy right or other right of any third party.

3. No Plagiarism and Ethical Standards

• We have a zero-tolerance policy on plagiarism, including copying text, tables, data or ideas without attribution, and “self-plagiarism” of material you do not have the right to reuse.
• All quotations, statistics, data and ideas drawn from other sources must be properly cited and credited.
• Fabricated, falsified or misleading data, fake references and fake credentials are not allowed.
• If you used AI tools or other assistance to draft any part of the article, you remain fully responsible for its accuracy and originality and must disclose this when asked.
• We may run similarity or plagiarism checks. If a breach is found, we may reject the article, unpublish it, withdraw any certificate issued for it, and suspend or close your account.

4. Accuracy, Disclosures and Responsible Content

• You will take reasonable care to make sure the content is accurate, current and supported by reliable sources.
• You will disclose any conflict of interest, sponsorship or commercial relationship connected with the article.
• The article must not contain content that is defamatory, unlawful, hateful, discriminatory, obscene, harassing, misleading, or that promotes violence or illegal activity.
• The article must not contain confidential information or personal data about others without their consent.
• Articles are for general information only and are not professional medical, legal, financial or other advice.

5. Content Ownership and Licence

• You keep ownership of the copyright in your article. Nothing in this Agreement transfers ownership to the Organisation.
• You grant the Organisation a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual licence to publish, host, display, reproduce, distribute, format, translate, excerpt, archive and promote the article (including your name, photo and bio) on our website, apps, newsletters and social media channels.
• We may make editorial changes for clarity, grammar, formatting and compliance, without changing the meaning of your work.
• You may republish your article elsewhere, provided you acknowledge its first publication with us.

6. Third-Party Material

You are responsible for obtaining permission for any third-party text, images, tables, charts or other material in your article, and for crediting the source. Do not upload material you do not have the right to use. We may remove any material that appears to infringe someone else’s rights.

7. No Payment and No Fees

• The Author will not be paid. No fee, royalty, honorarium or other payment is due to the Author for the submission, review or publication of the article.
• The Organisation does not charge any fee to the Author for reviewing, publishing or issuing the certificate of publication.
• The Organisation does not promise any particular number of views, likes, readers or other results.

8. Editorial Review and Publication

• Every article is reviewed before it is published. Submitting an article does not guarantee publication.
• We may accept, request changes to, reject, unpublish, correct or retract an article at our discretion, including after publication if we find a breach of this Agreement, an error, or a legal or ethical concern. Editorial decisions are final.
• The status of your article (submitted, under review, published or rejected) is shown in your profile.

9. Certificate of Publication

When an article is published, a digital certificate is generated with a unique certificate number that can be checked on our verification page. The certificate is issued electronically and does not need a physical signature. We may withdraw a certificate if the related article is removed for breach of this Agreement.

10. Data Privacy

• Data we collect: your name, email address, phone number, profile photo, “About me” text, account activity, and the content you submit.
• Why we use it: to run your account, review and publish your article, show author details, issue and verify certificates, and contact you about your submissions.
• What is public: your name, photo, bio, article and certificate verification details (name, title and date). Your email address and phone number are not shown publicly.
• Storage and security: data is stored on Google Cloud services with access limited to authorised staff and service providers who need it to operate the platform. We do not sell your personal data.
• Your choices: subject to applicable law, you may ask to access, correct or delete your personal data, or withdraw your consent, by writing to [email protected]. Some minimal records (for example, certificate verification and agreement acceptance records) may be kept where needed for legal or integrity reasons.
• We handle personal data in line with applicable Indian law, including the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023.

11. Author Warranties and Indemnity

You confirm that everything you state in this Agreement is true. You agree to compensate and hold harmless the Organisation, its team and reviewers from claims, losses and reasonable costs arising from your breach of this Agreement or from any claim that your article infringes the rights of a third party or breaks the law.

12. Limitation of Liability

The platform and its content are provided “as is”. To the extent permitted by law, the Organisation is not liable for indirect or consequential loss, or for loss of data, reputation or opportunity arising from the use of the platform or from the publication, editing, unpublishing or rejection of an article.

13. Removal Requests and Corrections

You may request correction or removal of your published article by writing to [email protected]. We will act on reasonable requests within a reasonable time, subject to legal and editorial considerations. The licence in clause 5 ends for new uses once an article is removed, but does not affect copies already shared, cached or archived by third parties.

14. Term and Termination

This Agreement starts when you accept it and continues for as long as your article is published on the platform. Either party may end it by written notice. We may suspend or close accounts that breach this Agreement. Clauses that by their nature should continue (including 3, 5, 7, 10, 11, 12 and 15) survive termination.

15. Governing Law and Disputes

This Agreement is governed by the laws of India. The parties will first try to resolve any dispute in good faith. If it cannot be resolved, the courts at [Bhopal],India will have exclusive jurisdiction.

16. Changes to this Agreement

We may update this Agreement from time to time. The version number and effective date are shown at the top of this page. Each submission is governed by the version accepted at the time of submission. Continued use of the platform after a change means you accept the updated version for later submissions.

17. General

This Agreement is accepted electronically and is valid without a physical signature. It is the whole agreement between you and the Organisation about article publication. If any part is found unenforceable, the rest remains in force. A failure to enforce any right is not a waiver of that right.

18. Contact

For questions, privacy requests or complaints, please write to [email protected].