Short Version

Publish real research. Don't plagiarize. Don't abuse the platform. Your work is yours. We reserve the right to remove content that violates these terms. Everything else is common sense.

1. Acceptance

By using Open Universitas — browsing, submitting research, or accessing the API — you agree to these terms. If you don't agree, don't use the platform. That's it.

These terms apply to all users globally. Open Universitas is operated as an independent platform. There's no corporate entity hiding behind it — it's a research publishing tool built to get work out of drawers and into public view.

2. What Open Universitas Is

Open Universitas is a platform for publishing independent research. It is not a peer-reviewed journal, a university, a government body, or a credentialing authority. Papers published here represent the views and findings of their authors, not the platform.

Publication on Open Universitas does not constitute peer endorsement, academic validation, or any form of certification. Confidence scores and evidence tiers are self-assessed by authors and community-reviewed — they are analytical tools, not official ratings.

3. Content Standards

Research submitted to Open Universitas must meet the following baseline requirements:

  • Evidence-backed: Every substantive claim must be supported by documentation, data, or a documented methodology. Assertions without evidence will be rejected or flagged.
  • Original work: You must be the author or have explicit rights to publish. Plagiarism — submitting others' work as your own — results in immediate removal and permanent ban.
  • Honest classification: Evidence tier, confidence score, and consensus status must be self-assessed honestly. Misrepresenting speculative work as empirically verified is a content violation.
  • Non-defamatory: Research may criticize ideas, methodologies, and institutions. It may not make false factual claims about specific identifiable living individuals designed to harm reputation.

Open Universitas does not prohibit:

  • Consensus-challenging or heterodox research
  • Research that contradicts established academic orthodoxy
  • Independent research without institutional affiliation
  • Controversial historical or archaeological interpretations backed by evidence
  • Speculative work classified honestly as speculative

4. Researcher Responsibilities

By submitting research, you confirm:

  • You are the author of the submitted work, or you have the legal right to publish it.
  • Your submission does not infringe any copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret, or other intellectual property rights of any third party.
  • Your work does not contain malicious code, exploits, or content designed to harm platform users or systems.
  • The evidence, data, and methodology described in your submission accurately represents your actual process. Fabricated data is grounds for permanent removal.
  • You have appropriately credited primary sources, datasets, prior work, and collaborators.

5. Intellectual Property & Licensing

You retain full copyright and ownership of your submitted work. Submitting to Open Universitas does not transfer ownership to the platform.

By publishing, you grant Open Universitas a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, display, and distribute your work in accordance with the license you selected at submission:

  • CC BY 4.0 (default): Anyone may share and adapt your work with attribution. The platform and readers may redistribute, mirror, translate, and build on your research.
  • CC BY-NC 4.0: Share and adapt with attribution, non-commercial use only. Institutional API access does not constitute commercial use of your paper itself.
  • Custom license: Specify at submission. Platform hosts and displays under whatever terms you set.

The Open Universitas platform code (frontend, backend, database schema) is released under the MIT License. You may inspect, fork, and deploy your own instance.

6. Acceptable Use

You may not:

  • Attempt to gain unauthorized access to platform systems, databases, or other users' submissions
  • Scrape the platform in a way that degrades performance for other users (bulk API access within rate limits is fine)
  • Submit automated spam, machine-generated filler content, or SEO manipulation attempts
  • Use the contact form or submission system for commercial solicitation unrelated to research
  • Impersonate other researchers, institutions, or the platform operators
  • Reverse engineer security measures beyond what responsible disclosure requires

Security researchers discovering vulnerabilities in the platform should report via security@openuniversitas.com. Responsible disclosure is appreciated and will not be penalized.

7. Content Removal & Account Actions

Open Universitas reserves the right to remove content that violates these terms without prior notice. Before removal, we will generally attempt to notify the submitting researcher by the email on file, except in cases of:

  • Fabricated data or evidence
  • Plagiarism
  • Active exploitation of platform systems
  • Content that creates legal liability (DMCA takedown requests, court orders)

Researchers may dispute removal decisions by emailing research@openuniversitas.com with subject line "Removal Dispute." We'll review and respond within 5 business days.

8. Disclaimers

Open Universitas is provided as-is. We make no warranties, express or implied, regarding:

  • The accuracy, completeness, or reliability of any published research
  • Platform uptime, availability, or data preservation (we aim for it, we can't guarantee it)
  • The fitness of any research for any particular purpose

Platform operators are not liable for decisions made based on research published here. Research is evidence — not professional advice, medical guidance, legal opinion, or financial recommendation. Apply your own critical thinking. That's the whole point.

9. Limitation of Liability

To the extent permitted by applicable law, Open Universitas and its operators will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, consequential, or punitive damages arising from your use of the platform, access to research, or inability to access the platform.

If you're in a jurisdiction where this limitation doesn't apply, our liability is limited to the amount you paid to use the platform (which, for most users, is zero).

10. Changes to These Terms

We may update these terms. If we make material changes, we'll note the date at the top of this page. Continued use of the platform after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated terms.

We won't add retroactive restrictions on previously published research without explicit researcher consent.

11. Contact

Questions about these terms:

Or use the contact form.