Usage Conditions and Limitations

Software license: GeneNetwork source code is available under the GNU Affero General Public License, version 3 (AGPLv3). Source is written in Python, C, and JavaScript. Please contact RW Williams for a status report and access to code. A SourceForge repository is planned for Fall 2010.

The QTL Reaper module of GeneNetwork that is used by several mapping modules of GeneNetwork is available under the GNU General Public License at SourceForge.

Data sets that have been incorporated in the GeneNetwork belong to individuals, groups, and companies listed in the Status and Contacts page. Many data sets are still being generated and analyzed, and the data contributors have often agreed to remove protection and let other investigators view, share, and analyze data. We request that those of you analyzing these data and preparing publications do your best of acknowledge the original data sources. Please contact Robert W. Williams if you have questions regarding the status of data and what group to acknowledge.

If your work relies heavily on the GeneNetwork please consider acknowledging the grants that provide substantial support for this project (see bottom of all web pages). Please review the annotated References for relevant citations. For further details on use and citation of data in papers please read the section below on Academic, educational, and not-for-profit institutional use.

Commercial use of open GeneNetwork data sets is allowed. If GeneNetwork is useful to you and your company then we would like to enlist you as a corporate sponsor. Any use GeneNetworkdoes not include a license to any patent rights that any of the data providers may have that are independent of the database itself.

The Standard Disclaimers of Warranties. The use of GeneNetwork and data sets is provided free of charge. GeneNetwork is an experimental resource and all users should know that GeneNetwork contains coding and data errors--most of which are still unknown to data providers and programmers. As a result we do not and cannot provide any warranty regarding data or results generated using GeneNetwork. Please contact Robert W. Williams (email link at the bottom of each web page) if you suspect that data or results are erroneous.

The University of Tennessee (UT), its trustees, directors, officers, employees, and affiliates make no representation and extend no warranties of any kind, either express or implied, including warranties of correctness, accuracy, fitness for a particular purpose, merchantability, validity of patent rights claims (issued or pending), the absence of latent or other defects, whether or not discoverable. In no event shall UT or its trustees, directors, officers, employees, or affiliates be liable for incidental or consequential damages of any kind, including economic damage or injury to property and lost profits, regardless of whether UT, its trustees, directors, officers, employees, and affiliates shall be advised, shall have other reason to know, or in fact shall know of the possibility of the foregoing.

Large data sets. Data sets that have not been used in full publications will generally not be available for bulk downloading, redistribution, or analysis by other groups or in other databases without prior written agreement of those who generated the data. It is often possible to obtain access to entire unpublished data sets or large subsets of data on a collaborative basis. Please contact the data owner.

This restriction on bulk analysis is removed after component databases have led to full publications. Access to full data sets is available at our Data Sharing Zone.

Academic, educational, not-for-profit institutional use, or for-profit users. All public data in the GeneNetwork are currently available for analyses with the expectation that the particular data sources and providers will be acknowledged and cited appropriately in works or publications. Some data sets are still being generated, revised, expanded, or error-checked. We therefore recommend contacting groups who are generating these data. They will be able to help you analyze, interpret, and confirm results.

Acknowledgement is appropriate when (1) data taken from GeneNetwork play a minor or supporting role in a study or work, and (2) when you do not need assistance with the interpretation or analysis of the data, and (3) when data are used for research or educational purposes only. Data contributors usually annotate data sets (see the INFO pages), but some of these experiments are complex, and the annotation is often not complete. We recommend contacting the individuals and groups who generated data.

Co-authorship is appropriate to consider when data taken from GeneNetwork play a pivotal role in a study or when the interpretation or findings require insight into experimental details and statistical design (the metadata).

Disclaimer. The data providers make no guarantees or warranties as to the accuracy or completeness of or results to be obtained from accessing and using information from The GeneNetwork. We will not be liable to any user or anyone else for any inaccuracy, error or omission, regardless of cause, in the data contained in The GeneNetwork databases or any resulting damages. In addition, the data providers do not warrant that the databases will meet your requirements, be uninterrupted, or error-free. Data providers expressly exclude and disclaim all expressed and implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. Data providers shall not be responsible for any damage or loss of any kind arising out of or related to your use of the databases, including without limitation data loss or corruption, regardless of whether such liability is based in tort, contract, or otherwise.

Information about this text file:

This text file originally generated by RWW, March 2004. Updated by RWW, Nov 12, 2004; Dec 4, 2004; April 27, 2005; Sept 1, 2005; Sept 13, 2010.