Terms of Service

01 Your order and what's included

Your chosen package, order confirmation or agreed quotation sets out the service, price, video length and deliverables you have commissioned.

Our standard services include Video Lite, Animation Classic and Animation Plus, alongside separately quoted specialist and custom productions.

Depending on the package, production may include scientific scriptwriting, bespoke illustration, storyboard development, 2D or 3D animation, carefully selected existing footage or graphics, professional narration, music and captions.

Video Lite uses existing visual material; Classic and Plus include bespoke scientific animation. The exact scope is determined by your chosen package.

Our standard commission is for one agreed video or research project, unless a multi-video or combined-paper arrangement has been expressly agreed.

If you need additional video duration, languages, alternate formats, specialist visuals or other changes to the agreed scope, we'll discuss any additional cost with you before proceeding.

02 Payment, invoices and VAT

The price confirmed in your order or agreed quotation is the price for the specified services, subject to any applicable tax.

You can pay by card when placing your order or select our invoice option. Our standard invoices are payable within 45 days of receipt, unless otherwise agreed in writing.

We can accommodate university and institutional purchase orders, supplier registration and other normal procurement arrangements. Please provide any relevant requirements as early as possible.

UK VAT is charged at the applicable rate for UK customers. Our current standard rate is 20%. We do not normally charge UK VAT to non-UK clients where the relevant place-of-supply rules do not require it. Other applicable taxes remain the customer's responsibility where required.

Payments may be arranged in another currency where agreed. Discounts must be applied or agreed when the order is placed.

Where payment becomes overdue, we may pause ongoing work or the acceptance of additional commissions until the account is brought up to date. We reserve rights available under applicable law in relation to overdue commercial payments.

03 How production and approval work

Our scientific editorial and creative teams develop your video from the research material you provide.

You'll have the opportunity to review and approve the script, the storyboard where applicable, and the finished video.

Nothing is published without your final approval.

We welcome corrections, clarifications and feedback needed to ensure the agreed work communicates your research accurately. Reasonable amendments within the agreed project scope form part of our collaborative production process.

Once a production stage has been approved, substantial changes to the research focus, script, visuals or previously approved material may require additional work. Any additional charges will be discussed and agreed before that work is undertaken.

Your review and approval of the science is essential. We are responsible for the agreed professional production work, while you remain the subject specialist responsible for confirming the accuracy of the information supplied.

04 Timelines and delivery

We aim to complete projects within the production schedule discussed when your order is accepted.

Typical schedules depend on the package, complexity of the research, production requirements and the time needed for reviews and revisions.

Times shown on our website are estimates rather than guaranteed delivery dates, unless a specific deadline has been agreed in writing.

Researcher feedback, additional requests, delayed approvals and changes in project requirements may affect the schedule.

If you have a conference, publication embargo, grant-reporting deadline or other important date, please tell us early. We'll confirm whether we can accommodate it.

The completed video will be supplied in the agreed format. Additional editable production files or specialist output formats are included only where specifically agreed.

05 Your research and intellectual property

Your research remains yours. You retain ownership of the papers, reports, figures and other original materials you provide. We make no ownership claim over your underlying research.

You confirm that you have the necessary rights or permissions to supply materials for the agreed production and intended use. If a figure, photograph, logo or other asset needs permission from a publisher or third party, please let us know.

We will take reasonable care with materials provided to us, but you should retain your own original files and backups.

You should also notify us of any scientific, publication or institutional restrictions relevant to the production.

06 Ownership and reuse of your video

You own the bespoke animation created for you, excluding any third-party content included within it. Science Diffusion assigns its rights in the agreed bespoke finished work to the client, subject to the relevant agreement.

You may use your completed video for research communication, websites, social media, teaching, presentations, conferences, institutional promotion and commercial purposes, subject to any applicable third-party licence restrictions.

Some videos contain licensed music, photographs, stock footage or other third-party assets. Ownership of those individual assets remains with their respective rights holders.

These elements are licensed for use as incorporated within the finished video. They should not be extracted, sold or used separately unless you have the necessary permission or licence.

Our existing standard licensing arrangements limit physical reproduction to 500,000 copies of the completed animation without a separate agreement. Please contact us if you require a larger physical distribution.

SciTube publications are normally made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) licence, to the extent the relevant rights permit.

That public licence enables others to share and reuse appropriately licensed material non-commercially with attribution. It does not remove your own broader usage rights as the client.

No separate commercial licence fee is normally charged for your reuse of the agreed finished video. Where requested, branding or white-label arrangements can be agreed before production.

07 Publication and dissemination

Standard SciTube packages include publication and active dissemination through our relevant channels, following your final approval.

Standard public SciTube publications include research attribution, links to the original scholarly work where available, and a separate Crossref DOI for the video.

These services are included within our standard package price, rather than charged as mandatory extras.

Publication is optional. If you prefer the animation for private, institutional or internal use only, please agree this with us before production begins.

Choosing not to publish does not reduce the standard production price. Production-only work does not include the public SciTube publication or associated DOI.

Dissemination is designed to increase opportunities for people to discover your work, but the results vary according to audience interest, subject matter and other factors.

We do not guarantee a particular number of views, citations, collaborations, funding outcomes or other impacts. Where available, engagement figures may be used to help document outreach.

A SciTube video DOI identifies the video as a separate citable communication output. It does not represent journal peer review or replace the original research publication.

08 Confidentiality and embargoes

We respect the confidentiality of unpublished research, sensitive project information and commercial discussions.

Information shared for a project will be used for the agreed work and disclosed only where reasonably necessary to authorised staff, contractors or service providers supporting it, or where required by law.

Confidentiality does not apply to information already lawfully public, independently developed, or lawfully received without a duty of confidentiality.

If your research is under an embargo, requires institutional approval or needs a non-disclosure agreement, please tell us before production so we can agree appropriate arrangements.

We will not intentionally publish agreed confidential material before its authorised release.

09 Cancellation and refunds

We understand that research projects and funding circumstances can change. If you need to cancel, please notify us in writing as soon as possible.

For standard professional commissions, our existing cancellation milestones are as follows:

These charges are intended to reflect the substantial work and production commitments made as a project progresses. They apply only to the extent lawful and fairly justified in the circumstances.

For products without a bespoke storyboard, such as Video Lite, cancellation will be considered according to the work actually undertaken, costs reasonably incurred and applicable law, up to the agreed order value.

We will consider exceptional circumstances, including illness or significant unforeseen events, on a case-by-case basis.

If you are unhappy with the work, please tell us so we have a reasonable opportunity to review the issue and put it right. Concerns about unsatisfactory work will be considered fairly, taking account of the agreement and applicable rights.

If Science Diffusion cancels a project for reasons within its control and cannot fulfil the agreed service, appropriate refunds will be provided.

Refunds due under these terms will normally be returned to the original payment method and processed within 30 days, or sooner where required by law.

We cannot normally reimburse independent third-party costs incurred by a client outside the agreed SciTube service, except where legal rights require otherwise.

Nothing in this cancellation policy removes statutory cancellation, refund or other rights that apply to a particular customer.

10 If something goes wrong

We aim to deliver our services with reasonable care, skill and professional attention.

If you have a concern about a project, please contact the editorial team or your usual SciTube contact so we can investigate and discuss a suitable resolution.

Neither party is responsible for delays caused by events beyond its reasonable control, provided reasonable steps are taken to minimise their effects and keep the other party informed.

Nothing in these terms excludes or limits liability for fraud, fraudulent misrepresentation, death or personal injury caused by negligence, or other liability that cannot lawfully be excluded.

These terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales, subject to any mandatory rights or protections that apply elsewhere.

11 A few final points

We may agree different arrangements for larger commissions, institutional contracts, multi-video orders, repeat customers or specialist productions.

Where individually agreed written terms conflict with these standard terms, the expressly agreed project-specific terms take precedence.

These Terms of Service form part of your agreement with SciTube. They are separate from our general website Terms of Use and Privacy Policy .

If you need a purchase order, an institutional invoice, a specific licence arrangement or another contractual clarification, please discuss it with us before placing your order.

12 Contact and company details

If anything in these terms needs clarification, we're happy to help.