This blog is for informational purposes only and should be considered a starting point. My goal is to share my thoughts and things that I've learned about the academic publishing industry and sharing information with the public, in order to help others who may be wondering about the same things. I try my best to keep information on this blog up to date and accurate but I can't guarantee it. If you see any errors or outdated information, please send an email to me via the address in the Contact tab and I will make the correction. 

Thoughts and opinions on this blog are my own. They do not necessarily reflect those of any organizations that I am affiliated with such as Authors Alliance, any places of employment, or people that I have worked with, such as coauthors of research papers that I have contributed to.

The information in this blog constitutes my best understanding of things, not official legal or medical advice (or any other kind of official advice for that matter). Any mention of legal topics like copyright or medical topics such as research findings does not constitute legal or medical advice, so check with a licensed legal professional, or licensed medical professional to get medical or legal advice. This website is not a replacement from official guidance from institutions such as the National Institutes of Health. If I say one thing and the NIH says another, go with what the NIH says.

I link to other websites where I think their resources will be helpful, but I am not liable for information on these other websites. They may have different privacy policies and terms and conditions than this website, so that is one thing to be aware of. I talk more about the privacy policy and terms and conditions for this website below. I don't make any money or receive any other form of compensation for linking to third-party websites. 

For official information on the National Institutes of Health's 2024 Public Access Policy, consult the NIH website.  For official information on publishers' policies, including on open access, copyright, and terms and conditions of publishing contracts, consult the publishers' websites (the big ones are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley, Taylor & Francis, Wolters Kluwer, and Sage, but there are other publishers in the publishing space). For information on the latest resources, consult websites of libraries and vetted nonprofit organizations such as Author's Alliance and SPARC. 

 

Privacy and Terms and Conditions

Data and No Ads

I don't run ads on this site and I pay money to the hosting service, Webador, to keep it ad-free. I have disabled Google Analytics in the interest of protecting your data. That said, Webador collects and sends anonymized information on how many people viewed the pages, which country people are viewing the pages from, and whether they viewed on desktop or mobile. I check this once in awhile to check on the reach of the blog but don't do anything else with this information. I'm big into privacy myself, and if you want to make your location anonymous, some things you can do are use a VPN, browse in incognito mode, or use browsers with do-not-track signals such as Brave. I'm not sure if Webador honors do-not-track signals, so I would check that. You can also clear your cookies and cache after each visit to the website or disable cookies (more on that part below).

Cookies

I enabled a cookie notice so that when you access this website, you get asked if you want to opt into or out of cookies, which are electronic files that get stored on your computer and save your preferences. At the bottom of their privacy policy, Webador mentions that cookies also note when you log into a website. You are welcome to opt out of cookies - that's what I usually do when I visit websites. 

Terms, conditions and privacy policy of website hosting platform

I chose Webador to host this site because their terms and conditions, as well as their privacy statement, seemed pretty reasonable and comprehensible to me compared to other hosting websites that I checked out. (I'm not being paid by them to say this - I just really like their platform.) In addition, they are transparent about how they use data and what companies they work with. They're also based in the European Union which means that they have to follow stricter data protection policies, at least in terms of storing the data.  As far as I can tell, they do not sell data to third parties (if I am wrong, please correct me on this). In their privacy statement, they do have a list of companies that they contract with for other things (for instance, Amazon S3 Ireland for storing and backing up files), so that is something to be aware of. 

Copyright

I'm all for collaboration and sharing so long as it happens in a way that is responsible and fair for all parties. Below are some disclaimers and boundaries that I've set for copyright.

You can share links to blog posts (just credit the website and me), understanding that I am not liable for the content on your website, account or platform that you share the links to. The material on this page, as well as the articles and website, belongs to Beyond the Paywall/Anna Castillo, except for third-party websites that I link to and photos from Unsplash creators (more info below). 

Other than sharing links, no part of this website may be copied, reproduced, used to train Large Language Models, or used in any form without prior written permission (this includes the content of blog posts). This blog is a passion project and I work hard on it. I would love for this work for reach more people and also want to ensure that if anything is reproduced or reused, I am part of the conversation and receive credit for original content. 

Pictures on this website belong to the photographers who took them and uploaded them to Unsplash for sharing, and I have added their names and linked to their Unsplash profile and photo URL so they get credit. I choose pictures based on aesthetics and being at least tangentially related to one of the topics that I write about. That said, the inclusion of pictures on a blog post does not mean that the photographer shares my views or endorses this website or post. They are not liable or responsible for anything on this website.

Note: some wording in this section comes from this article on copyright disclaimers by Ralph J. Woodie on Apt Tones, who has provided examples for creators to use. This guest post on Raelyn Tan's website by an attorney was also used as a reference. One caveat is that as Jackie, the attorney, notes, it does not constitute legal advice.. 

Large Language Models and Other Forms of AI

I do not use large language models (e.g. ChatGPT, Google Gemini) or any form of generative AI (artificial intelligence) to write or edit material on this website. All the articles and written content on webpages are by me. If you would like to use material on this website may be used to train Large Language Models or any other form of AI, contact me first using the email in the Contact tab of this website. I'll review your request on a case to case basis before making a decision and follow up with you. There are good uses for large language models and other forms of AI, but there are also a lot of factors to consider regarding when to use them and when to give permission for things that I wrote to be used for training.

Wherever possible, I have tried to create the layout of webpages manually. One caveat is the pages on this website have preloaded formats and it is unclear how much of that was done by generative AI models.