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Terms of Use

These Terms of Use (“Terms”) govern your access to and use of Research.com and any related websites, content, features, newsletters, tools, advertising widgets, referral links, redirects, resources, and services operated by Research USA LLC (“Research.com,” “we,” “us,” or “our”).

Research.com is operated by:

Research USA LLC
8 The Green, STE R
Dover, DE 19901
USA

By accessing or using Research.com, you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you do not agree to these Terms, you should not access or use the Site.

1. About Research.com

Research.com is an informational, editorial, referral, advertising, and comparison platform focused on colleges, universities, degree programs, online education, careers, rankings, financial aid, student loans, and related education topics.

Research.com is not a university, school, accrediting agency, licensing authority, admissions office, lender, employer, financial advisor, legal advisor, tax advisor, or government agency.

We do not provide academic instruction, confer degrees, process admissions, award financial aid, grant licenses, provide employment, approve loans, or make educational, financial, or career decisions on behalf of any institution, provider, lender, employer, or user.

Content on Research.com is provided for general informational and editorial purposes only.

2. Eligibility to Use the Site

You may use the Site only if you can form a binding agreement under applicable law. The Site is not directed to children under 13.

By using the Site, you represent and warrant that:

  • you are using the Site in compliance with applicable law;
  • any information you provide directly to Research.com is accurate, current, complete, and not misleading;
  • you will not use the Site for unlawful, fraudulent, abusive, harmful, deceptive, or unauthorized purposes.

4. No Admissions, Employment, Salary, Financial Aid, Loan, or Licensure Guarantee

RESEARCH.COM IS NOT AN ADMISSIONS OFFICE, SCHOOL, LENDER, EMPLOYER, OR LICENSING AUTHORITY. WE DO NOT GUARANTEE THAT ANY USER WILL BE ACCEPTED TO ANY PROGRAM, QUALIFY FOR FINANCIAL AID, RECEIVE A LOAN, OBTAIN EMPLOYMENT, ACHIEVE A SPECIFIC SALARY, OR QUALIFY FOR PROFESSIONAL LICENSURE.

WE ALSO DO NOT GUARANTEE TRANSFER CREDIT ACCEPTANCE, PROGRAM COMPLETION, CAREER ADVANCEMENT, EMPLOYER RECOGNITION, ACCREDITATION STATUS, CERTIFICATION ELIGIBILITY, OR ANY OTHER EDUCATIONAL, FINANCIAL, OR CAREER OUTCOME.

ANY DECISION TO APPLY, ENROLL, BORROW MONEY, PURSUE LICENSURE, CHANGE CAREERS, CONTACT A SCHOOL, SUBMIT INFORMATION TO A THIRD PARTY, OR RELY ON INFORMATION FOUND ON THE SITE IS MADE SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK AND RESPONSIBILITY.

5. No Guarantee of Accuracy, Completeness, or Availability

We aim to make the Site useful and to keep content reasonably current, but we do not guarantee that any content is complete, accurate, current, reliable, available, or error-free.

Educational institutions, degree programs, tuition, fees, deadlines, accreditation status, licensure requirements, transfer credit policies, financial aid availability, salary information, employment data, rankings, provider details, and other information may change at any time without notice.

Research.com reserves the right to modify, update, correct, remove, suspend, restrict, or discontinue any part of the Site or its content at any time without notice or liability.

6. Accreditation, Licensure, and Educational Information Warning

Accreditation status, state authorization, programmatic approvals, licensure pathways, certification requirements, transfer credit policies, and related educational or regulatory matters may change at any time.

It is your sole responsibility to confirm a school’s current accreditation status, program approval status, licensure eligibility, state authorization, and other material requirements with the school, relevant accrediting body, U.S. Department of Education resources, licensing authority, regulator, certification body, employer, or other official source before making any educational, financial, or career decision.

Research.com does not guarantee that any school, program, course, certificate, degree, or provider is accredited, remains accredited, meets licensure requirements in any state, satisfies employer requirements, qualifies for financial aid, or will be recognized by any regulator, certification body, licensing authority, employer, or educational institution.

8. Advertising, Affiliate Relationships, Sponsored Placements, and Commercial Influence

Research.com operates as a for-profit business and may maintain advertising, sponsorship, affiliate, referral, paid mention, data processing, commercial, or other business relationships with schools, universities, education providers, agencies acting on their behalf, brands, platforms, advertisers, advertising networks, and other third parties. Agencies and other representatives act on their own behalf and are not authorized to represent Research.com.

Research.com may receive compensation based on clicks, referrals, advertising impressions, sponsored placements, paid mentions in articles, processed data updates, outbound redirects, partner reporting, commercial agreements, advertising arrangements, or other advertising-related actions connected to certain content, links, listings, advertisements, widgets, buttons, or providers featured on the Site.

Research.com works with Esyoh as an advertising network partner for certain education-related advertising widgets, sponsored placements, referral links, and outbound referral activity.

Outside our ranking results, commercial relationships may influence certain content, listings, comparison results, featured placements, advertising widgets, sponsored links, article mentions, buttons, provider visibility, or the order in which such information appears on the Site. For non-ranking content, Research.com may apply its own editorial standards, internal criteria, data sources, business judgment, and commercial considerations in creating, organizing, and presenting content.

Our rankings are determined by our data sources, eligibility criteria, and published methodology. Universities, or agencies and other authorized representatives acting on their behalf, may pay Research.com to prepare and process current, institution-confirmed program data, but payment does not purchase inclusion, eligibility, a ranking score, or a ranking position, and payments and advertising arrangements do not influence ranking criteria, weights, scores, eligibility decisions, or the order of results. Any institution may submit verified data free of charge through our standard editorial channel. Sponsored, featured, or advertising placements should not be understood as endorsements, guarantees, or recommendations that any school, program, product, provider, or service is the best option for you.

Not all schools, programs, institutions, providers, products, or services available in the market are included on the Site.

Your use of the Site is also subject to our Affiliate / Advertising Disclosure and Privacy Policy.

9. Newsletters and Communications

Research.com offers a newsletter and conference alerts subscription and sends informational ranking and award notifications to researchers and institutions who have requested them.

If you subscribe to a newsletter or other communication from Research.com, you agree that we may send you communications related to the topics, resources, or services you requested, as well as administrative, legal, or service-related messages where appropriate.

You may unsubscribe from our newsletter and conference alerts or from ranking and award notifications at any time using the unsubscribe mechanism included in the message or by contacting us at [email protected].

Even if you unsubscribe, we may still respond to inquiries you initiate and send you service-related, transactional, legal, security, or administrative messages where appropriate.

10. Information You Submit to Research.com

Research.com may allow users to submit limited information directly to Research.com through our contact form, newsletter and conference alerts sign-ups, or email communications. Researchers may also submit profile updates, and universities or their authorized representatives may submit institutional and program data for our rankings.

The Site does not provide public user-generated content features such as public profiles, public forums, public comments, public discussion boards, or public posting areas. The Site also does not operate school application forms, lead forms, program inquiry forms, enrollment forms, request-information forms, or similar forms through which users submit personal information to schools or education providers.

By submitting information directly to Research.com, you represent and warrant that the information you provide is accurate, current, complete, and not misleading.

You agree not to submit information that:

  • violates any applicable law or regulation;
  • infringes, misappropriates, or violates the rights of any person or entity;
  • is fraudulent, deceptive, defamatory, abusive, harassing, threatening, obscene, hateful, or otherwise unlawful;
  • contains malware, spam, malicious code, or harmful material;
  • impersonates another person or entity or misrepresents your identity or affiliation;
  • includes personal information about another person without proper authority or consent;
  • includes confidential, sensitive, proprietary, or regulated information that you do not have the right to provide.

If you submit information on behalf of a university, institution, or other organization, you represent and warrant that you are authorized to do so and that the information has been confirmed by that organization. Submissions made under a separate written agreement with Research.com are also governed by that agreement. Research.com may verify any submission and is not obliged to publish it.

We reserve the right, but not the obligation, to review, reject, restrict, remove, delete, or decline to process any information submitted directly to Research.com at any time in our sole discretion.

If you click an advertising widget, sponsored link, referral button, outbound link, comparison link, advertisement, or similar feature and submit information on a third-party website after leaving Research.com, that information is submitted to the applicable third party, not to Research.com. Such third-party submissions are governed by the third party’s own terms, privacy policy, disclosures, and practices.

11. Feedback and Suggestions

Any feedback, suggestions, ideas, corrections, comments, or other non-confidential materials you send to Research.com by email may be used by Research.com without restriction or compensation to you.

Do not submit confidential, proprietary, sensitive, or third-party information unless you have the right to do so.

12. Prohibited Conduct

You agree not to:

  • violate any applicable law, regulation, or third-party right;
  • use the Site for unlawful, deceptive, abusive, fraudulent, harmful, or unauthorized purposes;
  • interfere with the operation, security, availability, or integrity of the Site;
  • attempt to gain unauthorized access to any part of the Site, systems, data, accounts, servers, or networks;
  • use bots, scrapers, crawlers, spiders, automated tools, scripts, or similar methods to access, copy, extract, or collect content or data without our prior written permission;
  • upload, transmit, or introduce malicious code, spam, malware, viruses, or harmful material;
  • impersonate any person or entity or misrepresent your identity or affiliation;
  • submit false, misleading, fraudulent, or unauthorized information through any newsletter sign-up, email communication, contact method, third-party link, advertising widget, referral button, redirect, or Site feature;
  • use the Site in a way that could damage, disable, overburden, impair, or interfere with the Site or any third party’s use of the Site;
  • attempt to bypass, disable, or interfere with any security, access control, rate limit, bot detection, referral attribution, or abuse-prevention feature of the Site;
  • use the Site to generate fraudulent clicks, fake inquiries, false submissions, artificial traffic, invalid referral activity, or manipulated attribution events;
  • use the Site or its content to develop, populate, or operate a competing product or service without our prior written consent.

13. Scraping, Data Extraction, and AI Training Restrictions

You may not, without our prior written consent:

  • copy, scrape, crawl, harvest, extract, download, index, cache, republish, distribute, or systematically collect Site content or data by automated, programmatic, or bulk means;
  • use the Site or its content to build, enhance, populate, verify, enrich, or support any database, directory, comparison engine, search engine, ranking platform, competing product, commercial dataset, advertising system, referral system, or similar service;
  • use any content, data, metadata, rankings, listings, editorial material, structure, taxonomy, compilations, school information, program information, or other materials from the Site for training, fine-tuning, evaluating, grounding, retrieval, optimization, development, or operation of any artificial intelligence system, large language model, machine learning model, automated system, or similar technology;
  • use our Site or content for model training, AI development, AI search, AI summaries, commercial data extraction, or AI-related commercial purposes without an express written commercial license from Research.com.

This section does not restrict search engines or AI search and answer services from crawling and indexing publicly available pages in accordance with our robots.txt and displaying limited excerpts with attribution and a link to Research.com, provided the content is not used for model training or bulk data extraction without our license.

Any unauthorized scraping, extraction, dataset creation, AI training use, automated access, attribution manipulation, fraudulent click activity, or similar exploitation may result in suspension of access, termination of permission to use the Site, legal action, and any other remedies available under law or equity.

14. Intellectual Property

All content on Research.com, including text, articles, rankings, lists, data compilations, design, graphics, logos, branding, layout, software, source code, databases, taxonomies, editorial selections, and other materials, is owned by or licensed to Research.com and is protected by intellectual property, database, unfair competition, and other applicable laws.

Subject to these Terms, Research.com grants you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to access and use the Site for personal, non-commercial, informational use only.

You may not, without our prior written consent:

  • copy, reproduce, republish, distribute, sell, license, rent, transfer, or commercially exploit Site content;
  • modify, adapt, translate, reverse engineer, or create derivative works based on the Site or Site content;
  • use our trademarks, trade names, logos, branding, or domain name in a way that implies affiliation, sponsorship, endorsement, ownership, or approval;
  • remove or alter copyright, trademark, attribution, or proprietary notices;
  • systematically scrape, extract, copy, or reuse content or data from the Site.

16. Privacy

Your use of the Site is also subject to our Privacy Policy, which describes how Research.com collects, uses, shares, and protects information.

By using the Site, you acknowledge that you have reviewed our Privacy Policy.

17. Disclaimer of Warranties

THE SITE AND ALL CONTENT, FEATURES, SERVICES, NEWSLETTERS, TOOLS, ADVERTISING WIDGETS, REFERRAL LINKS, REDIRECTS, RESOURCES, AND MATERIALS ARE PROVIDED ON AN “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” BASIS.

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, RESEARCH.COM DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, STATUTORY, OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, ACCURACY, RELIABILITY, AVAILABILITY, SECURITY, OR COURSE OF PERFORMANCE.

WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SITE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE, SECURE, CURRENT, COMPLETE, OR FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS, OR THAT ANY DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED.

WE DO NOT WARRANT OR GUARANTEE THE ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS, RELIABILITY, OR USEFULNESS OF ANY SCHOOL, PROGRAM, CAREER, SALARY, FINANCIAL AID, LOAN, ACCREDITATION, LICENSURE, OR THIRD-PARTY INFORMATION PRESENTED ON OR THROUGH THE SITE.

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties. In those jurisdictions, the above exclusions apply only to the extent permitted by law.

18. Limitation of Liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, RESEARCH USA LLC, RESEARCH.COM, AND THEIR OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, CONTRACTORS, AFFILIATES, LICENSORS, PARTNERS, AND SERVICE PROVIDERS SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, REVENUE, DATA, GOODWILL, BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY, EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY, CAREER OPPORTUNITY, OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO YOUR USE OF, OR INABILITY TO USE, THE SITE OR ANY THIRD-PARTY WEBSITE, LANDING PAGE, FORM, ADVERTISING WIDGET, REFERRAL LINK, REDIRECT, OFFER, OR SERVICE.

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, OUR TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ANY CLAIM ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THE SITE OR THESE TERMS SHALL NOT EXCEED ONE HUNDRED U.S. DOLLARS (USD $100).

Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations of liability, so some of the above limitations may not apply to you.

19. Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Research USA LLC, Research.com, and their officers, directors, employees, contractors, affiliates, licensors, partners, and service providers from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, judgments, awards, losses, costs, expenses, and fees, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, arising out of or related to:

  • your use of the Site;
  • any information, feedback, content, or materials you submit directly to Research.com;
  • your violation of these Terms;
  • your violation of applicable law;
  • your infringement, misappropriation, or violation of the rights of any person or entity;
  • your misuse of any third-party website, landing page, form, advertising widget, referral link, redirect, offer, or service accessed through or after leaving the Site.

20. Termination or Restriction of Access

We reserve the right, in our sole discretion and without liability, to suspend, restrict, block, or terminate your access to all or part of the Site at any time and for any reason, including if we believe you have violated these Terms, misused the Site, submitted false or fraudulent information, engaged in scraping or automated extraction, interfered with Site operations, manipulated click or attribution systems, or violated applicable law.

Sections of these Terms that by their nature should survive termination will survive, including provisions relating to intellectual property, feedback, submitted information, scraping and AI restrictions, disclaimers, limitation of liability, indemnification, governing law, arbitration, and dispute resolution.

21. Governing Law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, without regard to its conflict of laws principles, except to the extent preempted by applicable federal law.

22. Informal Dispute Resolution

Before initiating arbitration or another legal proceeding, you and Research.com agree to attempt to resolve any dispute informally for at least 60 days.

To begin this process, the party raising the dispute must send written notice to the other party describing the nature of the claim and the relief sought. Notice to Research.com should be sent to [email protected].

If the dispute is not resolved within 60 days after notice is received, either party may proceed as permitted under these Terms.

This informal dispute resolution requirement does not apply to matters eligible for small claims court or claims for injunctive or equitable relief relating to intellectual property, confidential information, unauthorized scraping, unauthorized AI training, unauthorized data extraction, fraudulent submissions, attribution manipulation, fraudulent click activity, or unauthorized access.

23. Mandatory Arbitration, Arbitration Opt-Out, and Class Action Waiver

PLEASE READ THIS SECTION CAREFULLY. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, YOU AND RESEARCH.COM AGREE THAT ANY DISPUTE, CLAIM, OR CONTROVERSY ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS, THE SITE, OR YOUR USE OF THE SITE SHALL BE RESOLVED ON AN INDIVIDUAL BASIS ONLY, AND NOT AS PART OF ANY CLASS, COLLECTIVE, CONSOLIDATED, MASS, OR REPRESENTATIVE ACTION.

You and Research.com agree that, except for matters eligible for small claims court or claims for injunctive or equitable relief relating to intellectual property, confidential information, unauthorized scraping, unauthorized AI training, unauthorized data extraction, fraudulent submissions, attribution manipulation, fraudulent click activity, or unauthorized access, any dispute shall be resolved by final and binding arbitration on an individual basis.

No arbitration or other proceeding may be joined with any other claim, and no person may act in a representative capacity or participate as a member of a class of claimants.

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, YOU WAIVE ANY RIGHT TO A JURY TRIAL AND ANY RIGHT TO PARTICIPATE IN A CLASS ACTION, CLASS ARBITRATION, PRIVATE ATTORNEY GENERAL ACTION, MASS ARBITRATION, OR OTHER REPRESENTATIVE PROCEEDING.

You may opt out of this arbitration agreement by sending written notice to [email protected] within 30 days of first accessing the Site or first agreeing to these Terms, whichever is later. Your notice must include your name, address, and a clear statement that you wish to opt out of arbitration. Opting out will not affect any other provision of these Terms.

24. Arbitration Procedure, Costs, and Delaware Venue

Any arbitration shall be administered by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, as modified by these Terms. The AAA rules are available at www.adr.org.

The Federal Arbitration Act shall govern the interpretation, enforcement, and proceedings under this arbitration provision.

Each party shall bear its own costs and attorneys’ fees in arbitration, except as otherwise provided by the AAA Consumer Arbitration Rules or applicable law. Research.com will pay the portion of arbitration filing and administrative fees as required by the AAA Consumer Arbitration Rules.

The seat and venue of arbitration shall be Delaware, unless the parties agree otherwise or applicable law requires a different forum.

If a claim qualifies for small claims court, either party may elect to bring that claim on an individual basis in a small claims court located in Delaware, if permitted by applicable law.

If the arbitration provisions in these Terms are found to be unenforceable with respect to any claim, then that claim shall be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Delaware, and you consent to the personal jurisdiction and venue of those courts.

25. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. When we do, we will revise the “Last Updated” date at the top of this page.

Updated Terms become effective when posted unless otherwise stated.

Your continued use of the Site after updated Terms are posted constitutes your acceptance of the revised Terms to the extent permitted by law.

26. Severability

If any provision of these Terms is found to be invalid, unlawful, or unenforceable, the remaining provisions will remain in full force and effect to the maximum extent permitted by law.

If any portion of the arbitration or class action waiver provisions is found unenforceable, the remainder of the dispute resolution provisions shall be enforced to the fullest extent permitted by law.

27. Assignment

Research.com may assign or transfer these Terms, in whole or in part, to any successor entity, affiliate, or in connection with a merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization, or sale of assets, without notice to you.

You may not assign or transfer your rights or obligations under these Terms without our prior written consent, and any attempted assignment in violation of this section is void.

Any permitted assignee shall be bound by these Terms.

28. Force Majeure

Research.com shall not be liable for any failure or delay in performance under these Terms due to events beyond our reasonable control, including natural disasters, pandemics, government action, internet or telecommunications failures, hosting provider outages, cyberattacks, labor disputes, war, terrorism, civil unrest, or other events outside our reasonable control.

29. Entire Agreement

These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy, Affiliate / Advertising Disclosure, and any other policies or legal notices posted on the Site, constitute the entire agreement between you and Research.com regarding your use of the Site. If you have entered into a separate written agreement with Research USA LLC, such as an advertising, data services, or partnership agreement, that agreement governs the services it covers and prevails over these Terms to the extent of any conflict.

30. Contact Us

If you have questions about these Terms, please contact:

Research USA LLC
8 The Green, STE R
Dover, DE 19901
USA
Email: [email protected]