General terms and conditions for the publication of original documents on the institutional server of the University of Fribourg

These general terms and conditions (hereafter 'GTC') govern the dissemination of the scientific output of members of the University of Fribourg (hereafter, the ‘University’) via the institutional server of the University.

Article 1 - Mutual commitments between the author and the University

  1. The author  authorizes the University, and the University undertakes towards the author, to publish/disseminate his/her scientific work on the University's document server. 
  2. The University undertakes to assign a unique identifier (Digital Object Identifier). The conditions of use chosen by the author (e.g. Creative Commons Lisenses) are indicated both in the metadata and in the full text.
  3. By publishing his/her work on the document server, the author consents to the full text being used for text mining and data mining, as well as on plagiarism detection platforms.
  4. Publication on the document server is definitive, and the author may not subsequently withdraw his/her work.

Article 2 - Publication and intellectual property

  1. The author certifies that, at the date of acceptance of these GTC, he/she holds all copyright to his/her work. In addition, the author certifies that he has obtained the agreement of any publishing house and, where applicable, the publisher of the series in which his work has appeared. 
  2. In particular, the author must inform the University of any licenses, assignments or other rights granted to third parties concerning the publication, dissemination or distribution of the work.
  3. The Author further undertakes not to grant any rights to third parties which would in any way interfere with the rights conferred by these GTC. The Author shall reserve the rights and obligations arising from these GTC in any subsequent contract with third parties.

Article 3 - Electronic publication of the doctoral thesis

  1. In the case of publication of an electronic doctoral thesis, the author certifies that the electronic version of the work submitted to the University for authorized distribution conforms to the official version of the work approved by the thesis jury (imprimatur, with all required corrections completed), as well as to any printed version intended for publication.
  2. A version of the electronic thesis will be sent to the Swiss National Library for archiving purposes, thus ensuring the long-term preservation of this type of document.

Article 4 - Distribution

  1. The author remains free to publish/distribute the work as he or she sees fit. The University does not have exclusive distribution or electronic publication rights.
  2. The author may postpone electronic publication of his or her work for a maximum of two years by imposing an embargo. To do so, he or she must inform the Coordination Center for Documentation Centers & Open Science accordingly before publication. For the duration of the embargo, the publication's metadata remains accessible to all. Within the University, the metadata and full text remain accessible.
  3. The University is authorized to add standardized indications containing metadata to the full text of the publication.

  4. The University is authorized to indicate freely on any document, including in electronic format, the existence of the work by a brief abstract if necessary. This authorization does not imply any obligation on the part of the University to make use of it.

  5. The University undertakes, at the time of any distribution of the work, to include the name of the author in an appropriate manner and to include a warning concerning copyright, the printed version, the publishing house, the place of publication and the prohibition of any unauthorized reproduction of the work.

  6. The University declines all responsibility for the use made by persons accessing the work (copies, plagiarism, modifications, other attacks on the integrity of the work, and so on).

  7. Although the University will do its utmost to protect the work from misuse by third parties, it accepts no responsibility for, and gives no guarantee as to, the security and reliability of the equipment and technical means involved in the electronic hosting of the work. The author hereby waives any legal action or other action or measure against the University for the consequences of hacking. The author retains full rights against the perpetrators of such acts.

Article 5 - Legal responsibilities

  1. The author remains exclusively responsible, in accordance with all applicable legal provisions, for the content of his or her work, in particular with regard to quotations or other uses or references to the works of third parties.
  2. In particular, the author certifies that he/she has obtained all necessary written authorizations from the holders of rights to any third-party works reproduced in whole or in part in the work (illustrations, multimedia extracts, and so on) and undertakes to immediately release the University from any liability it may incur in this respect.
  3. The author is liable for any damage suffered by the University in the event of a breach by the author of the undertakings given in these conditions of use.

Article 6 - Costs and fees

  1. The costs relating to the electronic distribution of the work shall be borne by the University.
  2. No fee is payable to the author, in particular with regard to the distribution authorizations granted.

Article 7 - Validity

The GTC are valid for the duration of the relevant publishing agreement, which is itself for an indefinite period.

Article 8 - Termination

In the event of a breach of the GTC by the author, the university may terminate the publishing contract with immediate effect.

Article 9 - Jurisdiction and applicable law

Swiss substantive law is applicable to this agreement, with the exception of the conflict rules of private international law. The place of jurisdiction is Fribourg.