Takedown policy
All material on BIROn is subject to temporary or permanent removal pending the outcome of any complaint.
Complaints would normally be concerned with the ownership of intellectual property rights, moral rights and other legal issues. Grounds for complaint may include (but are not limited to) third-party copyright issues, unauthorized copying, integrity, breach of confidence or data protection.
Complaints can be made in writing to the Repository Manager by emailing lib-eprints@bbk.ac.uk (please also cc p.rigg@bbk.ac.uk and r.atkinson@bbk.ac.uk) and state the following:
- Full bibliographic details of the material
- Website address where you found the material
- Confirmation that you are the intellectual property rights owner or are authorised to act for the rights owner
- The reason for which you think that your rights have been infringed and what action you wish us to take
Upon receipt of a complaint, the Repository Manager will follow the procedure below:
- Assess the validity of the complaint and acknowledge receipt of the complaint
- If the complaint is deemed to be valid, the item will be temporarily removed from public view in BIROn, pending further investigation.
- The Repository Manager will contact the contributor who deposited the material, who will be informed that the material is subject to a complaint and the specific allegations. The contributor will be invited to respond to any allegations.
- If necessary, the Repository Manager will spend a reasonable amount of time mediating between the complainant and the contributor in order to resolve the issue swiftly and amicably, to their mutual satisfaction.
- The complainant and the contributor will be encouraged to resolve the issue swiftly and amicably and to the satisfaction of both parties, with the following possible outcomes:
- The material is replaced on BIROn unchanged.
- The material is replaced on BIROn with changes.
- The material is permanently removed from BIROn and EThOS also informed if it appears on the British Library database.
- The full text is removed, with only the metadata describing the item remaining on open access
- If the contributor and the complainant are unable to agree a solution, the material will remain unavailable through the Birkbeck College Library until a time when a resolution has been reached.