1. What iCohort is
iCohort is a platform that connects people who are interested in medical research. We help users describe research projects, search for collaborators, and exchange messages once an application is accepted. We are not a research institution, a clinical organization, a regulator, an institutional review board, or a publisher.
The research itself, the relationships between collaborators, and every decision that follows from a connection made on iCohort belong to the users involved.
2. Eligibility
You must be at least 18 years old to create an account. You must use iCohort in good faith for legitimate research, educational, or professional purposes related to medicine or the health sciences. You may not create an account on behalf of someone else without their authorization.
3. Your account
You are responsible for keeping your credentials secure and for all activity that occurs under your account. You agree to provide accurate information when you sign up and to keep your profile reasonably up to date. You may close your account at any time.
If you connect a third-party identifier (such as an ORCID iD), you confirm that you are the rightful holder of that identifier. Connecting an identifier does not make iCohort a verifier or guarantor of your credentials, employment, training, or clinical privileges.
4. Your content
You retain ownership of everything you post on iCohort, including project descriptions, applications, profile information, and messages. By posting, you grant iCohort a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, display, and transmit that content for the limited purpose of operating the platform and providing it to other users you intend to reach.
You are responsible for ensuring you have the right to post anything you submit and that it does not infringe anyone else's rights.
5. No patient data
You must not post or transmit any protected health information, patient identifiers, case-identifying details, or any HIPAA, GDPR, or other regulated personal data through iCohort. Project descriptions, applications, and messages are not the place for patient data of any kind.
You are responsible for compliance with all applicable privacy, research, and regulatory laws that apply to your work. iCohort does not host patient data.
6. Acceptable use
You agree not to:
- Harass, harm, threaten, defame, or discriminate against any user, or impersonate anyone.
- Post spam, advertisements, or content unrelated to research collaboration.
- Misrepresent your identity, training, affiliation, credentials, or the nature of a project.
- Scrape, copy, or systematically extract content from iCohort except as expressly permitted.
- Attempt to access accounts or data that are not yours, disrupt the service, or circumvent any security controls.
- Use iCohort to do anything illegal under applicable law.
We may suspend or terminate accounts that violate these rules, at our discretion, with or without notice.
7. Research, IRB, authorship, and intellectual property
Decisions about research conduct, ethics approval, regulatory compliance, data handling, authorship credit, contribution allocation, intellectual property, funding, and any agreements between collaborators are entirely between the users involved. iCohort is not a party to those decisions or to any research agreement that arises from a connection made on the platform.
We strongly encourage project owners to publish a clear authorship plan upfront and for collaborators to agree on roles and expectations in writing before substantive work begins. Disputes between collaborators are not adjudicated by iCohort.
8. Identity and verification
Some features may surface signals of identity (for example, a connected ORCID iD). These signals are informational only. iCohort does not guarantee any user's identity, qualifications, training, employment, licensure, or affiliation. You are responsible for performing whatever due diligence you consider appropriate before collaborating with another user.
9. Service availability
iCohort is provided on a best-effort basis, including during the early-access period. We do not guarantee uptime, data durability, feature continuity, or that the service will be free of bugs, interruptions, or errors. Features may change or be removed.
10. Termination
You may close your account at any time. We may suspend, restrict, or terminate your account if you violate these terms, if continued service would expose iCohort or its users to legal or reputational risk, or if we discontinue the service. Where feasible, we will give reasonable notice. Sections of these terms that by their nature should survive termination (including disclaimers and limitations of liability) will survive.
11. Disclaimers
iCohort is provided "as is" and "as available," without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, accuracy, or that any collaboration arranged through the platform will succeed, be appropriate, or produce a particular outcome.
We do not endorse any user, project, claim, or institution. The presence of a project, profile, or message on iCohort is not an endorsement of its content.
12. Limitation of liability
To the maximum extent permitted by law, iCohort and its operators will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, data, goodwill, opportunity, authorship, or research outcomes, arising out of or in connection with your use of the platform. Our total cumulative liability for any claim arising from these terms or the service is limited to the greater of the fees you have paid us in the twelve months preceding the claim, or one hundred U.S. dollars.
13. Indemnification
You agree to indemnify and hold harmless iCohort and its operators from any claims, damages, liabilities, costs, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising from your content, your use of the platform, your interactions with other users, your research conduct, or your violation of these terms.
14. Changes to these terms
We may update these terms from time to time. When we do, we will update the version at the top of this page. Substantive changes will be flagged in-product and you may be asked to accept the updated terms before continuing to use iCohort. Continued use after a material change constitutes acceptance.
15. Governing law
These terms are governed by the laws of the jurisdiction in which iCohort's operators are established, without regard to conflict-of-laws principles. The exact jurisdiction and venue will be specified before the early-access period ends.
16. Contact
Questions about these terms can be sent to the contact address that will be published before general availability. During early access, raise concerns through the feedback channel inside the product.