Elsevier Terms Scorecard

Grade C — Standard consumer terms (score 64/100)

Elsevier reserves the right to modify terms without notice, claims a perpetual license to user content, and imposes a one-year statute of limitations on legal claims.

Perpetual content license, unilateral changes, and shortened claim window.

Terms at a glance

Sells your data
UNCLEAR
Forced arbitration
NO
Trains AI on your content
LIKELY
Collects biometric data
NO
Shares data with government
YES
Easy to cancel
UNCLEAR
Tells you before changes
NO
Deletes data on request
UNCLEAR

What the terms actually say

CONTENT PROVIDED TO US OR POSTED ON OR THROUGH THE SERVICE

you grant us... a royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, non-exclusive right and license to publish, post, reformat, index, archive, make available, link to, and otherwise use such Submission

You grant Elsevier a permanent, irrevocable license to use your content in any way they see fit, even after you stop using the service.

ABOUT THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS — Changes

Elsevier reserves the right to change, modify, add or remove portions of these Terms and Conditions at its sole discretion at any time and without prior notice.

Elsevier can change these terms whenever they want without telling you, and your continued use constitutes acceptance.

ABOUT THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS — Governing Laws and Venue

Any claim arising out of or in connection with your use of or inability to use the Service or the Content or any Submission must be brought within one (1) year after the event or such claim is barred.

You have only one year to bring a legal claim against the company, or you lose the right to sue forever.

INDEMNIFICATION

You hereby agree to indemnify and hold Elsevier... harmless from and against any and all third-party claims of liability, losses, damages and costs

You must pay for Elsevier's legal defense and any damages if a third party sues them because of your actions.

USING OUR SERVICES

You may not use Content from the Services in combination with an artificial intelligence tool, (including to train an algorithm, test, process, analyse, generate output and/or develop any form of artificial intelligence tool)

Elsevier restricts your use of their content for AI training, while their own license grants them broad rights to use your submissions for their business operations.

Last reviewed 2026-07-26 under rubric v3.5.

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