Guidelines for Fair Use of e-Resources at IIIT-Hyderabad: Usage Policy

Electronic resources such as e-journals, e-databases, and e-books made available by the Library, IIIT Hyderabad are for academic and research purposes only.

These resources can be searched, browsed and material may be downloaded and printed as a single copy of articles as is done in the case of printed library material. Downloading or printing of a complete book an entire issue or a volume of one or more journals (called systematic downloading) is strictly prohibited.

Use of robots, spiders or intelligent agents to access, search and/or systematically download from these resources is also prohibited. Any violation of this policy will result in penal action as per the rules and regulations of the Institute.

Please be aware that systematic downloading will cause the publisher to block the entire community of users accessing these resources. The Library subscribes to E-Resources directly through the publishers and Aggregators/Service Providers/Agents as per the negotiated price fixed by eSS Consortium. The terms and conditions for using these resources are spelled out in electronic resource license agreements with each publisher. It is the responsibility of the individual users to ensure that the use of electronic resources does not breach the terms and conditions specified in the license agreements. Licenses vary from publisher to publisher; however, the general principles are as follows.

Permitted Not Permitted
  1. Viewing, downloading, copying, printing and saving a copy of search results
  2. Viewing, downloading, copying, printing and saving individual articles
  3. Using e-resources for scholarly, educational or scientific research, teaching, private study and clinical purposes
  4. Sending a copy of an article to another authorized user (i.e., current faculty, students or staff)
  5. Sending a copy of an article to another authorized user (i.e., current faculty, students or staff)
  6. Posting the URL to the publisher's version of the article on a class website (publisher links will allow only authorized users access)
  1. Use of robots or intelligent agents to do systematic, bulk or automatic downloading is not permitted
  2. Systematic downloading or printing of entire journal issues or volumes, or large portions of other e-resources is not permitted
  3. Using e-resources for commercial gain is not permitted (i.e., reselling, redistributing or republishing licensed content)
  4. Transmitting, disseminating or otherwise making online content available to unauthorized users (i.e., sending to mailing lists or electronic bulletin boards) is not permitted
  5. Posting the publisher's version or PDF of an article to an open class website is not permitted (instead, post the URL to the article which will allow only authorized users access)

Breaches of the license agreement with publishers could result in the suspension of access to the resources for the member institutions.