Principles of Fair Use

This document has been prepared by the Advacheck OÜ (hereinafter referred to as the Provider) and contains the principles of proper conduct for users of the Advacheck system (hereinafter referred to as the System) in order to ensure the following:

• the effective use of checks at the organization’s disposal in accordance with the agreement and prevention of misuse of checks;
• the protection of personal data and legitimate user accounts, as well as prevention of disclosure of such information to third parties;
• the protection of user documents and reports against unauthorized actions by third parties (copying, deleting and other actions performed with documents).

Proper conduct when using the Advacheck system entails the use of the System to work with documents related to the user’s professional field; the protection of his/her login details by the user; the use of available checks for intended purposes, and the refusal to use the System to “adjust” the originality percentage to the required value and to search for ways of cheating.

1. The Provider does not limit the number of accounts that a subscribing organization can have in the System. All System users have to use their own accounts for their work (i.e. the username and password) provided by the organization’s System administrator. If the user does not have an account, they should contact the organization’s System administrator.
2. The Provider makes every possible effort to ensure the users’ personal data is protected. The System user should not share their own login details (username and password) with third parties (colleagues, students, administrators or other persons). The user has to inform the organization’s System administrator about any unauthorized use of their login details by third parties in order to change their password.
3. The Provider offers its clients an opportunity to use the System’s features for detecting text reuse in scientific and academic papers. The System user is allowed to carry out document checks to identify text reuse as part of his/her job responsibilities and solely for professional purposes. The System user is not permitted to use their account to provide any services to third parties, except as otherwise provided for in the License Agreement with the Provider.
4. The number of checks at the subscribing organization’s disposal is prescribed by the Agreement with the Provider. The System user is required to use text checks for their intended purpose, i.e. to identify reuse, and is not allowed to use the checks with the aim of “adapting” the text of the document until it meets the organization’s originality targets, or to achieve the same goal by cheating the System.
5. The System was created with the aim of improving the quality of scientific and academic papers and is a tool for assessing how appropriately and correctly the text has been reused. The System identifies overlaps between text fragments (including paraphrases and translations) in the document being checked and sources in the search area, and the organization’s experts are the ones who decide how appropriately and correctly the text has been reused using the text reuse report.
6. The Provider provides the organization’s System administrators with a set of tools for monitoring and managing users, such as access to the user’s activity log, and the capability to create, block and unblock accounts. The System administrator should monitor the use of checks by each user based on his/her login details at least once a quarter and analyze the performance indicators of the System to prevent misuse of checks and personal data leaks. Upon detection of suspicious activity from a user account, the System administrator has to block access to the account of such a user. User access to accounts or individual features of the System may be automatically restricted.
7. On receiving a message from a user about a leak of their account details, the System administrator has to change the password of this user.
8. The System administrator may remove restrictions imposed on the user’s account only if they are confident that the user has been using the System in accordance with these principles, and that the user account has not been compromised.