Tools to Curb Abuse

Article 6 (Prohibited Use) of our Terms and Conditions states:

"…User agrees not to modify, alter, or create derivative works of the materials contained in ACS Web Editions or ACS Journal Archives without prior written permission from the ACS.

Articles and other information obtained as a result of access to ACS Web Editions and/or ACS Journal Archives are not to be systematically downloaded, re-published in any media, print or electronic form. Articles may not be downloaded in aggregate quantities or centrally stored for later retrieval.

Licensee (Consortium or Single Institution) acknowledges that ACS may prevent Members and their patrons, as the case may be, from using, implementing or authorizing use of any computerized or automated tool or application to search, index, test or otherwise obtain information from Licensed Materials (including without limitation any "spidering" or web crawler application) that has a detrimental impact on the use of the services under this Agreement. Licensee agrees to assist ACS in correcting unauthorized use of such methods or applications, and acknowledges that ACS may from time to time implement tools or other controls on Licensed Materials to regulate or restrict use of computerized or automated applications that are used to search, index, test or obtain information from Licensed Materials."

In an effort to assist you with notifying your users that such systematic downloading has occurred and jeopardizes future access to ACS content, we have prepared some quick messages you may use. Please feel free to modify and incorporate the following text at the links below into your own method(s) of notifying your users.

Notification Message

Subscribers should send a message to alert all users and those that may have potentially caused the excessive downloading similar to the following:

Dear Members of the Chemistry Department,

We have been notified by the American Chemical Society (ACS) of a very serious problem regarding XXXXXXXX’s access to ACS electronic journals. This is a very serious infringement and XXXXXX if continued, may possibly jeopardize all access to this valuable resource.

A user or users has downloaded massive, excessive amounts of information from the database which is clearly non-compliant and in violation of our licensing agreement.

Excessive downloading is systematic. It is not in anyway related to the printing of articles that would result from searching research topics, authors, publications from a particular institution, or references found in bibliographies or chapters of books. It is a user or users who are systematically, and/or automatically and very intentionally downloading numerous entire years worth of several major journals.

Currently, access to the ACS electronic journals may be restricted/and or not available for use until the problem is either resolved or when, through investigation, perpetrators have been narrowed to the specific IP address or range.

Please notify us immediately if you have any information that will allow us to resolve this problem immediately so that access may be restored.

Pop-up Notification
Subscribers can incorporate something similar to a pop-up warning box that would increase awareness of users as to the copyrighted nature of ACS content. The link to ACS Journals could point to an "Appropriate Use" web page, which requires a user to click on an "Accept" button before being passed to ACS Journals. The text on this page could state the following:

Access to American Chemical Society Journals is limited to current students, faculty, and staff of XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.

Articles and other information obtained from this electronic resource may not be systematically downloaded or re-published in any other medium, print or electronic form. Articles may not be downloaded in aggregate quantities or centrally stored for later retrieval.

	COUNTER-compliant ACS Usage Reports can now be accessed by your institution. Go to the ACS Usage Reports page today!

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