Site Policies

Scope of application

These site policies apply to the following websites ("the websites"): the website of NBDC (biosciencedbc.jp), the websites under its subdomains, and webforms which NBDC manages on form.jst.go.jp ("the form").

Individual Service Policy

On the websites, JST provides several independent services. If the service has its own service policy, the individual service policy is applied as well as these site policies on using the service. In the case these site policies and individual service policy conflict, the individual service policy has priority.

Purpose of the Websites

The websites provide services and achievements developed through the Life Science Database Integration Project ("the Project"), the outcomes of the project of the Institute for Bioinformatics Research and Development (BIRD), which is the predecessor of the Project, and the outcomes of the Integrated Database Project entrusted by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT).

Link

Please feel free to link to the websites [or any of its content] excluding certain contents that are expressly prohibited from being linked.

Copyright

All online contents published on the websites are subject to copyright of JST or of any third parties. The copyrighted work should be handled differently according to the presence/absence of the individual policy. Please consult the following cases.

w/ individual policy

Please comply with the terms and conditions listed on each website.
(An example of such terms and conditions: Creative Commons License)

w/o individual policy

The information on the websites may be freely used for education, public relations, or information sharing, or for other lawful purposes to the full extent permitted by the law. In this case, please give credit for the usage of the documents or image data involved.
(Examples of credit: "Provided by Japan Science and Technology Agency", "© Japan Science and Technology Agency")
If you want to use the information on the websites for business or commercial purposes, please contact NBDC for prior permission.
Office of NBDC Program,
Department for Information Infrastructure,
Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST)
E-Mail :

Prohibited Uses

At the use of any service or information on the websites, the following act is prohibited.

1. Act to infringe the intellectual property of JST or the third party, privacy and other rights, act to damage honor, trust, property, and act to promote these actions.
2. Criminal act or act with the fear to be tied to a crime.
3. Act to violate public order and morals.
4. Act to violate or to be likely to violate laws and ordinances.
5. Act to interfere with the service or operation of the websites, such as illegal access, massive information transfer.
6. Act to save or distribute files or link to websites which damage the PC/server of any third party, such as files containing or infected with computer viruses.

When JST judges the above-mentioned act was performed, without any prior notice, JST may suspend the account of the corresponding user and any use of the websites and the services of the websites by the corresponding user, and delete any data saved by the corresponding user as part of using the services on the websites. JST bears no liability to any damage or loss to the corresponding user incurred by the suspension and deletion above.
When JST or any third party suffers damage or loss incurred by the act of a user, the corresponding user must compensate all the damage and loss of JST and the third party. This clause does not mean that JST bears the duty to monitor the information any user has registered.

Disclaimer

1. Users shall use the content of the websites and information in the content at their sole discretion and responsibility.
2. The content on the websites are created based on information and data assumed to be reliable at the time of creation: however, JST and the information providers do not guarantee the correctness, appropriateness or completeness of the content.
3. JST and information providers bear no liability for any damage resulting from the use of the service and/or information contained on the websites.
4. The websites may contain links to other websites which are not managed or operated by JST. JST and information providers bear no liability for the reliability of the content of the linked websites. Please use the content of any linked website at your sole discretion and responsibility.
5. JST may stop/interrupt the operation of the websites temporarily in the case of maintenance and/or update, inevitable accident and other needs. JST may terminate any or all services on the websites with prior notice to the users when JST judges that termination is unavoidable.
6. JST bears no liability to users for any damage or loss incurred by temporal stop, interruption, malfunction, trouble or termination of the websites, any damage or disappearance of the stored data by the services and other damages.
7. Users should resolve objections or disputes by their own responsibility and expense when the user is sued by the other user(s) or any third party or when objections occurred for the third party caused by violation of these site policies/individual service policy or the information the user registered for the service on the websites. JST has no liability to such objections or disputes.

Personal Information

1. Collection of information

JST automatically receives certain information from the user's browser, including the user's IP address, cookie information, pages viewed by the user and user environment (hereinafter referred to as "Access Information"), and records it onto JST's server in Japan.
Users need to provide JST with one's email address when subscribing to NBDC's email magazine. Users may be required to provide JST with personal data, such as name, organization, title, and email address, when posting one's opinion or question or registering for events organized by JST.
When JST is required to handle any personal information ("Personal Information") set out in the "Act on the Protection of Personal Information" and other related laws and regulations (the "Acts") in the course of its business, JST shall obtain the information in an appropriate manner.
JST may use the web analytics service provided by Google Inc. ("Google Analytics") on the websites. In the course, Google may collect user's access log.
The logs collected through Google Analytics will be managed under the Privacy Policy of Google Inc.

2. Purpose of use of information

JST uses information obtained for the purposes set out below. If the information obtained is Personal Information, JST will not use the Personal Information beyond the scope of the purposes described below without the consent of the relevant user, unless permitted under the Acts.

• For NBDC to provide and improve services;
• To analyze the information regarding user attributes or to extract the target of analytical questionnaires in order to analyze the details of information and services provided on the websites, its terms of use and its status of use, and provide the results of such analysis to information providers. JST will not include information that identifies an individual in the analysis results.
• To give notice regarding workshops, lectures, seminars and other events;
• To respond to user inquiries; and
• For any other purpose incidental to the abovementioned purposes.

With regard to use of Access Information by Google Inc., please review the Google Analytics' website for its terms of service, shown in section 1.

3. Management of cookies

Most web browsers allow users to disable or limit the use of cookies, either on specific or all websites. Refer to the websites below to manage cookies on major browsers.
When use of cookies are disabled or limited, you may not be able to use certain or all features of the services provided by the websites.

You can also block Google Analytics by installing the add-on below on your browser.

4. Disclosure of Information to third parties

JST shall not provide any Personal Information to third parties unless:

• user gives its consent;
• the information is disclosed or provided in the form of statistical data that does not identify individual users;
• required to be disclosed by law or ordinance, or judgment, order or decision of a court or administrative authorities;
• necessary to protect one's life, body or property but difficult to obtain user's consent;
• specifically necessary to improve public health or to promote children's sound development but difficult to obtain user's consent;
• necessary to cooperate with national authorities, municipal governments or their outsource parties to carry out administration set out by laws and ordinances, and obtainment of user's consent is likely to interfere with that administration;

For the convenience of the user and the smooth implementation of the service, JST may offer Access Information and any or all information received to the Database Center for Life Science (DBCLS) of the Research Organization of Information and Systems (ROIS), which NBDC collaborates with on research and development.

5. Security of Personal Information

JST will endeavor to safeguard the collected personal information from missing, leaking, misuse, alteration or destruction, through reasonable security measures and manage Personal Information appropriately through its management system and employee training, and take precautions so as not to divulge, lose or destroy the Personal Information. However, please note that it is impossible to assure absolute and perfect security measures.

6. Requests for notice of purpose of use, disclosure, amendment or termination of use of Personal Information

If JST receives a request from a user to disclose, amend, add, delete, suspend or terminate the use of, suspend third party provision of, or notify the purpose of use of the user's Personal Information, JST shall confirm that the applicant is the respective user and faithfully and promptly respond to the request in accordance with the provisions of the Acts.
If the request does not meet the requirements under the Acts, or the Acts or any other law or ordinance permits the refusal of the disclosure, JST may not comply with the user's request.
According to the JST's regulation there may be some fee or charge to be paid by users to JST for disclosure. In addition the user bears costs such as costs for communications from the user to JST, transport costs and costs incurred by the user to prepare material to identify the user as set out in the first paragraph of this item.

7. Enquiries

Please contact NBDC for disclosure requests, opinions, enquiries, complaints or any other matters regarding handling of Personal Information related to the websites.

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Transfer of the Services of the Websites

JST will announce the transfer of the services in the case that the operation of the websites is transferred to a third party for any reason. Notification will be posted on the websites. Users are considered to have agreed to the transfer of this service and the succession of claims and obligations at either of the earlier point in time when the user uses this service for the first time after notification or the end of notification period.

General Clauses

1. If any provision of these site policies/individual service policy should, for any reason, be held by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, or unenforceable, validity and enforceability of the remaining provisions shall not be affected. In addition, the provision assumed to be invalid, or unenforceable shall be revised automatically in minimum degree to the extent to be valid and enforceable.
2. These site policies shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Japan. In addition, when it is necessary to resolve any disputes which may arise between JST and users in relation to, or in connection with these site policies by lawsuit, the Tokyo District Court will be the exclusive court with jurisdiction of the first instance.

Continuous Improvement

JST reviews the handling of Personal Information and the operation condition of the websites from time to time, in an effort toward continuous improvement, and may amend the site policies as necessary. In case of amendment, JST shall publish a notice on the amendment on the websites for a reasonable period of time before the amendment is made, and then apply the amended policy to the users of the websites from the enforcement date of the amended policy.