The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the publisher of the e-journal Science, has contacted Hiroshima University on multiple occasions regarding usage from our network that was judged to constitute “excessive access.”

When using electronic journals, all users are required to comply with the license agreements concluded with publishers.
Even if access is not intentionally excessive, certain user environments or software settings may result in automated or mechanical access being identified as mass downloading, which could lead to suspension of access for the entire university.

Recently, the following cases have been reported in particular:

• Automatic access caused by link prefetching functions in web browsers
• Automatic access generated by reference management tools (e.g., EndNote, Zotero) through their automatic update or synchronization functions

These functions may access a large number of pages within a short period in the background without direct user action, and as a result, may be mistakenly identified by publishers as mass downloading.

To ensure the safe and continuous use of electronic journals, please review the following guidelines carefully and cooperate in appropriate use.

• Please access only the articles you need, individually.
  Downloading large numbers of articles at once—whether manually or automatically—constitutes a violation of license agreements.
   
• Do not use software or browser extensions that automatically download files.
   
• Browser extensions or similar tools that automatically retrieve or download all linked content may be regarded as mechanical downloading.
  Be sure to disable such functions before accessing electronic journals.
   
• If you use reference management tools (e.g., EndNote, Zotero), please turn off automatic updating or automatic retrieval of bibliographic data and PDF files.
   
• Please refrain from downloading articles in advance that you might read in the future.
   
• Even if PDF files are not saved, viewing or printing articles is treated as downloading.
  Printing multiple articles at once “for later reading” should also be avoided.
   
• When accessing a full-text PDF, click only once (single click).
  Multiple clicks may be counted as multiple downloads.

For more information on appropriate use of electronic journals and e-books, please refer to the library’s designated guidance page.
Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.