Terms of Use

1. The Publisher, Scope and Acceptance

1.1 The Scientist's Notebook (the "Publication") is published by Gradescale Mortelmans (the "Publisher"), a sole proprietorship (Einzelfirma) registered in Switzerland.

1.2 The address for legal notices is legal@gradescale.fit.

1.3 By creating a member account or by subscribing to a paid membership, a person (a "Member") accepts these terms of use (the "Terms") and agrees to be bound by them.

1.4 The Terms govern the use of the website at the-scientists-notebook.com (the "Site"), the email publication distributed to Members (the "Newsletter"), the interactive estimation tools made available on the Site (the "Calculators") and any paid membership.

1.5 The Publication consists of the Site, the Newsletter, the Calculators and the articles, figures, Lab Reports, Guest Contributions and other material published in them (the "Content"), taken together.

1.6 Two further documents form part of the agreement between the Publisher and the Member: (a) the Risk & Medical Information Notice at /risk-medical-information-notice/ (the "Risk Notice"); and (b) the Privacy Notice at /privacy-notice/ (the "Privacy Notice"). The Risk Notice describes what the Publication is and is not, and the Privacy Notice describes the handling of the personal data of the Member.

1.7 Where the Terms and the Risk Notice address the same subject, the Risk Notice governs the description of the Publication and the Terms govern the contractual relationship between the Publisher and the Member.

2. The Publication and Memberships

2.1 A membership held without charge (a "Free Membership") provides the Member with published articles delivered by email and with access to the public parts of the Site and to the Calculators.

2.2 A membership for which a fee is payable (a "Paid Membership") additionally provides the Member with access to subscriber-only material, including documents published as "Lab Reports".

2.3 A Paid Membership is billed monthly or annually at the price shown at checkout (the "Fee"), and the monthly or annual period for which a Fee is paid in advance is a "Billing Period".

2.4 The Publisher may change what a Free Membership or a Paid Membership includes. Where a change materially reduces what a Paid Membership provides, the Publisher will give the Member notice and the Member may cancel.

3. Nature of the Content

3.1 The Publication is educational publishing about endurance-sport science, and it does not provide: (a) medical diagnosis; (b) treatment; (c) emergency care; (d) physiotherapy; (e) psychological care; (f) individualized nutrition planning; or (g) individualized coaching.

3.2 The Publication does not clear the Member to train, to race, to return to sport after injury or to lose weight, and nothing published in the Publication creates a clinical or coaching relationship.

3.3 Numbers reported in the Content, including study doses, training intensities, fluid and sodium intakes and clinical protocols, including those involving medication, describe what was studied, in whom and under what conditions.

3.4 Those numbers are reported as evidence and are not issued as instructions to the Member.

3.5 Do not start, stop or change any medication, insulin or device setting on the basis of anything published in the Publication.

3.6 An output of a Calculator is an estimate generated from the values entered and a published model. An output of a Calculator is not a diagnosis, a medical assessment, an injury-risk clearance or a determination that an activity is safe for the Member.

4. Responsibility of the Member

4.1 The Member decides what to do with the information published in the Publication. The Member is responsible for obtaining advice from a qualified professional who knows the medical history and circumstances of the Member before acting on anything published in it.

4.2 Advice of that kind is of particular importance where the Member: (a) has or suspects a medical condition; (b) is pregnant or postpartum; (c) is returning from injury; (d) is taking prescription medication; or (e) is making a substantial change to training load or body mass.

4.3 Each of the following is a reason to stop exercising and to obtain urgent medical assessment, regardless of anything published in the Publication: (a) chest pain; (b) fainting or loss of consciousness; (c) severe or unusual breathlessness; (d) new neurological symptoms; or (e) signs of heat stroke.

5. Fees, Renewal and Cancellation

5.1 A Paid Membership is billed in advance through Stripe, the payment service provider through which Fees are collected ("Stripe").

5.2 A Paid Membership renews automatically at the end of each Billing Period at the price then current, unless the Member cancels it before that Billing Period ends.

5.3 The Publisher will give the Member notice before any change to the Fee takes effect.

5.4 The Member may cancel a Paid Membership at any time from the member account. Cancellation stops future renewals, and access continues until the end of the Billing Period already paid for.

5.5 The Publisher does not refund a partially used Billing Period, except under clause 6 or where consumer law requires a refund.

6. Right of Withdrawal

6.1 A natural person acting for purposes outside their trade, business, craft or profession is a "Consumer" for the purposes of the Terms. A Consumer resident in the European Economic Area or in the United Kingdom is entitled to withdraw from a Paid Membership within 14 days of purchase, without giving reasons.

6.2 A Consumer who withdraws under clause 6.1 receives a refund of the amount paid.

6.3 The Publisher does not ask a Consumer to waive the right conferred by clause 6.1, and the Publisher does not rely on the digital-content exception to that right.

6.4 A Consumer withdraws by sending notice to legal@gradescale.fit within 14 days of purchase.

6.5 The Publisher will make the refund to the payment method originally used, normally within 14 days of being notified of the withdrawal.

7. Intellectual Property

7.1 The articles, figures, Calculators and other material published in the Publication are owned by the Publisher or used with permission, and are protected by copyright.

7.2 A membership grants the Member a personal, non-transferable right to read and use that material for the Member's own purposes.

7.3 The Member may quote short extracts of the Content with attribution and a link.

7.4 Without the written permission of the Publisher, the Member must not: (a) republish an article in full; (b) redistribute subscriber-only material to persons who are not Members; or (c) use the material to train a machine-learning model.

8. Guest Contributions

8.1 Some articles include material contributed by an invited third party (a "Guest Contribution"). The guest speaks from their own expertise, and the views expressed in a Guest Contribution are the views of that guest.

8.2 The Publisher takes reasonable care that a Guest Contribution is accurately represented and is attributed with the agreement of the guest.

8.3 The description by a guest of that guest's own practice is not advice to the Member.

9. Commercial Relationships

9.1 Some articles link to products or services, and some of those links may earn the Publisher a commission. A commission of that kind is disclosed where it arises.

9.2 A commercial relationship never determines what the evidence is reported to say.

10. Liability

10.1 The Publisher supplies general educational material about endurance-sport science, and the Publisher does not supply individualized medical, nutritional, rehabilitation or coaching services and does not assess any individual Member. The Publisher takes reasonable care that articles accurately represent the sources they cite, and corrects errors in the Content when those errors are identified.

10.2 The Publisher does not warrant: (a) that a finding reported in the Publication will hold for the Member; (b) that a study protocol reported in the Publication will transfer to the circumstances of the Member; or (c) that an output of a Calculator will match a measured value.

10.3 The Publisher is not liable for:

(a) indirect or consequential loss;

(b) loss of profit, earnings, income, sponsorship, race entry fees, travel costs or sporting opportunity;

(c) loss to the extent that it is caused by the decisions of the Member about training, nutrition, supplementation, medication or health, and where this limb applies the liability of the Publisher is reduced to the extent that the conduct of the Member contributed to the loss;

(d) loss arising from a third-party product or service linked to from the Publication, as against the supplier of that product or service; or

(e) loss arising from interruption or unavailability of the Site or of the Newsletter.

10.4 The Member remains responsible for the training and health decisions of the Member, including obtaining professional advice where the circumstances of the Member warrant it.

10.5 A Member who is a Consumer has rights under the mandatory law of the country of residence of that Consumer which the Terms cannot reduce. Nothing in the Terms affects those rights, and where a provision of the Terms conflicts with them, those rights prevail and the conflicting provision does not apply to that Consumer.

10.6 Each limb of clause 10.4 operates independently, and where a limb is found to be unenforceable the remaining limbs continue to apply.

11. Amendments

11.1 The Publisher may update the Terms, will publish the updated version on this page with a new version number and effective date, and will keep the superseded version available.

11.2 Where a change to the Terms is material, the Publisher will give Members notice in advance and will give a Member holding a Paid Membership the opportunity to cancel before the change takes effect.

11.3 Continued use of the Publication is not treated as acceptance of a material change to the legal position of the Member where the notice required by clause 11.2 has not been given.

12. Governing Law and Jurisdiction

12.1 The Terms are governed by Swiss law, and the Swiss courts have jurisdiction.

12.2 Clause 12.1 does not take away the protection of the mandatory rules of the country in which a Consumer is resident. Clause 12.1 does not remove any right under the home law of that Consumer to bring proceedings in the local courts.

13. Notices and Contact

13.1 Notices and questions under the Terms are sent to the Publisher at legal@gradescale.fit.