Similarity Check terms

Updated June 2019

SIMILARITY CHECK SERVICE TERMS

IMPORTANT NOTICE: These Similarity Check Service Terms (“Service Terms”) are a binding legal contract between you (“Member”) and Publishers International Linking Association, Inc. (d/b/a “Crossref” and together with Member, the “parties”), a nonprofit corporation (“Crossref”) organized under the laws of New York, USA. By click-through accepting these Service Terms, Member is agreeing to be bound by these Service Terms. Member may only sign these Service Terms OR access, or use the Service if Member is in compliance with and not in breach of the Membership Terms. If Member does not agree to these Service Terms or Member is in breach of the Membership Terms, Crossref is not willing to license any right to use or access the Service. In such event, Member may not access or use the Service. If you are entering into this agreement on behalf of a company or other legal entity, you represent that you have the authority to bind such entity to this agreement, and in such case, the term “member” shall refer to such entity.

The parties agree as follows:

1. LICENSE TO USE THE SERVICE.

2. LIMITATIONS AND FURTHER AGREEMENTS. The license granted by Crossref to Member in these Service Terms is subject to the following restrictions and agreements:

3. CONTENT.

4. SUSPENSION OF ACCESS. Crossref may, in its sole discretion, suspend access to all or any portion of the Service to (i) prevent damages to, or degradation of, the Service; (ii) comply with any law, regulation, court order, or other governmental request; (iii) otherwise protect Crossref from potential legal liability; (iv) address a breach of the Terms of Use (attached as Exhibit A); or (v) address a breach of the Crossref Terms of Membership, available at https://www-crossref-org.turing.library.northwestern.edu/membership/terms/, (the “Membership Terms”). With respect to the above, Crossref shall use reasonable efforts to provide Member with written notice prior to or within 24 hours following any suspension of access to the Service. Crossref may also, in its sole discretion, suspend access to all or any portion of the Service not less than 60 days after providing written notice to Member of its non-compliance with the requirement set forth in Section 1(c). Crossref shall (and shall work with the Vendor to, as applicable) restore access to the Service as soon as the event giving rise to suspension has been resolved.

5. PRICING AND PAYMENT. Pricing for the Service is set forth in Schedule 1. All payments are due net 45 days from date of the invoice.

6. SUPPORT. Support will be provided as specified in Schedule 1.

7. TERM AND TERMINATION. The duration of these Service Terms (the “Term”) consists of the Initial Term and any Renewal Terms, as defined herein. The Initial Term of these Service Terms will commence: (a) for a Member that is new to the Service and does not have an existing agreement in place covering Member’s use of the Service, upon Crossref’s approval of the Service application form, eligibility checks, and receipt of the first pro-rated annual Service fee, and (b) for a Member that is a current user of the Similarity Check service and has an existing agreement in place covering Member’s use of the Similarity Check service, on the date that the Member’s existing agreement for use of the Similarity Check service is terminated. In each case, the Initial Term will extend for the remainder of that calendar year (the “Initial Term”). Thereafter, provided Member has paid the applicable fees, these Service Terms will automatically renew each calendar-year (each, a “Renewal Term”), unless either party gives the other party written notice of its intent not to renew at least 30 days prior to the expiration of the end of the year. In the event of a material breach of these Service Terms, the non-breaching party shall provide the other party written notice of such breach and such other party will have a period of 30 days in which to cure the breach, if it can be remedied. In the event the breaching party fails to cure the breach within the cure period, or it is a breach incapable of remedy, in addition to whatever other remedies may be available at law or equity, the non-breaching party may terminate these Service Terms upon providing the other party prior written notice of termination. Notwithstanding the foregoing, these Service Terms shall terminate concurrently with the termination of the Membership Terms. Sections 3, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, and 15 will survive any expiration or termination of these Service Terms, irrespective of the reason for such termination, and will continue in full force and effect thereafter. Although the license to Content set forth in Section 3 is intended to survive termination of these Terms, following termination Member may request removal of any or all Content in writing pursuant to the terms of Section 3(b).

8. WARRANTY AND DISCLAIMER; LIMITATION OF LIABILITY.

9. INDEMNIFICATION.10. GOVERNING LAW. These Service Terms will be governed by the laws of the United States of America and the State of Delaware, excluding its conflict of laws rules.

11. CONFIDENTIALITY AND SECURITY.

12. COMPLIANCE WITH LAWS.13. INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS. Nothing in these Service Terms will make Crossref and Member partners, joint venturers, or otherwise associated in or with the business of the other. Crossref is an independent contractor of Member. Neither party will be liable for any debts, accounts, obligations, or other liabilities of the other party. The parties are not authorized to incur debts or obligations of any kind on the part of or as agent for the other, except as may specifically be authorized in writing.

14. GENERAL. Together with the Membership Terms (to the extent referenced herein), these Service Terms constitute the entire agreement and understanding between the parties with respect to the subject matter hereof and supersede and replace any and all prior or contemporaneous written or oral agreements. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the parties acknowledge that the Vendor and Member may enter into a separate agreement governing the licensing of Content by Member to the Vendor for use in the Service offered hereunder (a “Side Letter”). These Service Terms may be amended by Crossref by providing written notice to Member of the amendment. In the event that Crossref amends these Service Terms as set forth in this paragraph, Member may terminate these Service Terms on written notice to Crossref within 60 days of receipt of notice of amendment from Crossref. A party’s failure to insist upon or enforce strict performance of any provision of these Service Terms will not be construed as a waiver of any provision or right. If any provision of these Service Terms is held to be invalid or unenforceable, such determination will not affect the balance of these Service Terms, which will remain in full force and effect, and the offending provision shall be modified to the minimum extent required to render the provision enforceable. Member may not assign or transfer these Service Terms without the written consent of Crossref, which consent may not be unreasonably withheld, conditioned or delayed; provided, that Member may assign these Service Terms to an affiliate or subsidiary, or in connection with the sale of all or substantially all of Member’s assets or any merger, consolidation, or acquisition of a party that results in a change in the ownership of more than 50% of the voting interests of Member. Any assignment in violation of the preceding sentence will be null and void. Crossref may, with Member’s prior written permission, use and reference Member’s name as a subscriber to the Service in connection with truthful advertising or promotion of the Service. Except with respect to the Vendor’s rights under Sections 8 and 9, there are no third party beneficiaries of these Service Terms. Neither party will be responsible for any delays, errors, failures to perform, interruptions or disruptions in the Service caused by acts of God, flood, fire, earthquake, explosion, war, invasion, hostilities (whether war is declared or not), terrorist threats or acts, riot, or other civil unrest, national or regional emergency, strikes, lockouts, changes in law or regulations, storm, power failure, or failures of the Internet. The rights and remedies provided by these Service Terms are cumulative and use of any one right or remedy by either party will not preclude or waive the right to use any or all other rights or remedies. The said rights and remedies are given in addition to any other rights or remedies the Parties may have by law, statute, ordinance, or otherwise.

15. NOTICES. Written notice under these Service Terms shall be given as follows:

16. CONFLICTS. In the event of any conflict or inconsistency between the provisions of these Service Terms, any Side Letter, and any document incorporated by reference herein, including via a URL contained in these Service Terms, the following order of precedence shall be observed, in order of priority: (a) any Side Letter, but only with respect to terms governing the licensing of Content by Member to Turnitin pursuant to such Side Letter; (b) this Agreement; (c) the Membership Terms; and (d) any SOW. For avoidance of doubt, except with respect to terms governing the licensing of Content by Member to Turnitin pursuant to any Side Letter, this Agreement shall prevail over any such Side Letter in all other cases; and the terms of Section 1(c) are not “terms governing the licensing of Content by Member to Turnitin” for purposes of this Section.

17. AUTHORIZATION. The Member represents that the Member is in compliance with and not in breach of the Membership Terms as of the date hereof.

Rev. 3 June 2019

Schedule 1
Terms Applicable to Member’s Use of
Similarity Check, including the Turnitin System

This Schedule 1 describes the services being provided under the Service Terms, including services provided by Turnitin, LLC (“Turnitin”). The terms of this Schedule 1 are incorporated into the Service Terms by reference. If at any time Turnitin ceases to provide the services described herein, Crossref may, in its sole discretion, either (i) terminate the Service Terms without payment of any fee or penalty, or (ii) replace or amend this Schedule 1, including by changing the Vendor who is providing the Service, in accordance with the amendment procedure set forth in Section 14 of the Service Terms.

1. Definitions

Turnitin System” means the plagiarism detection software created and owned by Turnitin, LLC (“Turnitin”), a California limited liability corporation, and licensed to Crossref under the name, “Similarity Check” (as such name may be changed from time to time) that compares Submitted Text against a database to identify materials that may have been previously published or plagiarized, and produces a report showing instances of overlapping text (“Matching Report”). For the avoidance of doubt, provision of the Turnitin System will be part of the Service. The Service will also include any other reports, documentation, and other materials provided to Member via Similarity Check.

Snippet” means an excerpt from Content in the form of displayed text that consists of a sample of overlapping text identified through the use of the Service. The Snippet will be composed of a limited excerpt of and no more than a total of 24 lines of surrounding text, and must include bibliographic metadata for the document where the matching occurs and a Digital Object Identifier-based link to the content on Member’s website.

Vendor” means Turnitin.

2. Terms of Use

Member’s use of the Turnitin System must be in accordance with the terms of use attached as Exhibit A for reference and available at https://help.turnitin.com/Privacy_and_Security/Privacy_and_Security.htm under the heading “Acceptable Use Policy” (the “Terms of Use”). Continued use of the Turnitin System after any such revisions will constitute Member’s acceptance of such revisions to the policy.

3. License

To the extent Member has not entered into a separate Side Letter (as defined above), Member agrees that Crossref may sublicense Content to Turnitin on a non-exclusive, non-transferable (except as part of the sale of all or substantially all of Turnitin’s assets or any merger, consolidation, or acquisition of Turnitin), royalty-free basis solely for inclusion in a database (the “Similarity Check Database”) of Content maintained by Turnitin and used solely for purposes of the Turnitin System, and the similarity checking software created and owned by Turnitin and currently offered for license under the trademarks iThenticate, Originality Check, WriteCheck, Turnitin Revision Assistant, and Turnitin Feedback Studio (as may be re-branded from time to time), which compare submitted text materials against a database to identify materials that may have been previously published or plagiarized and produces a report (“Matching Report”) showing instances of overlapping text (the “Permitted Solutions”). The Similarity Check Database may be used solely for the purpose of indexing and comparing documents in order to generate the Matching Reports used in the Turnitin System and Permitted Solutions. For the avoidance of doubt, any Submitted Text and data generated through the Turnitin System will be owned by or licensed to Member for use consistent with the Service Terms.

Matching Reports provided to Member and to other Members participating in the Service will include access to the full-text of the Content item included in the Similarity Check Database in which the identified overlapping text appears. For every content item with a registered Digital Object Identifier (“Identifier”), Turnitin shall display the Identifier and shall link to the item via the Identifier when information about the item is displayed as part of the Service. Content may be used for the purpose of generating Matching Reports for non-member users of the Permitted Solutions, provided, however, that such Matching Reports will only include Snippets of Content, as well as the Identifier where available, and may not provide samples of or access to the full-text of Content.

4. Removal of Content

If Member requests removal of specific Content pursuant to Section 3(b)(i) of the Service Terms, the specific Content will be removed within 10 Business Days of Turnitin’s receipt of the request for such removal. If Member requests removal of all Content pursuant to Section 3(b)(ii) of the Service Terms, all of Member’s Content will be removed within 30 calendar days of Turnitin’s receipt of the request for such removal. “Business Day” means a day other than a Saturday, Sunday, or federal holiday in the United States.

5. Availability

Turnitin shall use reasonable efforts to make the Turnitin System, to the extent applicable, available for access over the Internet at least 99.5% of the time during each month of the Term, except for scheduled maintenance and repairs, failures related to Member’s systems and Internet access, and any interruption in the Turnitin System due to causes beyond the control of Turnitin or that are not reasonably foreseeable by Turnitin, including, without limitation: loss or theft of data; interruption or failure of telecommunication or digital transmission links; Internet slow-downs or failure; failures or default of third party software, vendors, or products; and communications, network/internet connection, or utility interruption or failure. In the event Turnitin fails to achieve the foregoing availability requirement, Turnitin shall use commercially reasonable efforts to correct such loss or interruption as quickly as practicable.

6. Fees

Fees for the Service are set forth at: https://www-crossref-org.turing.library.northwestern.edu/fees/#similarity-check-fees.

7. Support

Technical support for the Service is described at: https://www-crossref-org.turing.library.northwestern.edu/services/similarity-check/.

8. Audit

Member may, no more than once a year, at a mutually agreed upon date and time, to conduct security audits of the Turnitin systems on which Content resides to ensure compliance with the Service Terms. Such audits must not unreasonably interfere with Turnitin’s business and Turnitin will have no liability for any breach of security or other failure to comply with the Service Terms resulting from Member’s activities in connection with the audit. In the event that Member desires to use a third party to conduct the audit, such third party shall execute Turnitin’s then current standard non-disclosure agreement before being granted access to Turnitin’s facilities and systems.

9. Separate Node

Turnitin shall maintain Content as a separate node in its database.  

Exhibit A
Terms of Use

So that everyone can enjoy the Site, Turnitin reserves the right to suspend anyone’s access to the Site who violates this policy and the following provisions. Please do NOT:

1. restrict any other user’s enjoyment of the Site.
2. engage in unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, pornographic, profane, or otherwise offensive actions.
3. carry out or encourage criminal conduct, give rise to civil liability, or otherwise violate any law.
4. violate or infringe upon the rights of any third party, including, without limitation, patent, copyright, trademark, privacy, or any other proprietary right.
5. distribute anything that contains a virus or other harmful component.
6. distribute anything that contains false or misleading indications of origin or statements of fact.

Turnitin reserves the right to disclose information as necessary to satisfy any legal requirement, including regulations, government requests, court orders, or subpoenas. Turnitin also reserves the right to edit or remove any information, in whole or in part, that it deems objectionable, disruptive to the Site, or in violation of these terms.

In other words: please be respectful of others. Thank you.


If you are already a Crossref member and would like to sign up for Similarity Check, please check whether your metadata includes what you need for Similarity Check. If it does, that will lead you to an application form. Please contact our support team with any questions.

Page owner: Ginny Hendricks   |   Last updated 2019-June-30