Terms of use

All TERN data, services, and tools (collectively referred to as "digital assets") are openly accessible. However, access to certain services requires user registration and authentication through the Australian Access Federation (AAF), a Google account, or CILogon. Registration is provided at no cost to users; however, TERN reserves the right to approve or decline requests for access to specific services.

Copyright

Copyright and other intellectual property rights in materials made available through TERN applications may be owned by the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN), hosted by the University of Queensland, or by third parties. Logos and trademarks are used with the permission of their respective owners.

Content provided through TERN web applications is made available under the licences and conditions specified by the relevant data providers. Users should refer to the licence, attribution requirements, and any other permissions associated with specific content to determine the applicable terms of use.

Disclaimer

TERN services are provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis. Users access and use TERN services at their own discretion and risk. TERN is not responsible for any loss, damage, or other consequences arising from the use of its services, including the use of data obtained through TERN or analyses performed using TERN infrastructure.

Links to external, third-party websites are provided for convenience only and do not imply any relationship with, endorsement of, or responsibility for the content, products, or services offered by those websites.

Privacy Statement

All TERN web applications, services and privacy are administered by the University of Queensland Website Terms of Use and Privacy Management Policy. All Indigenous data will be managed in accordance with Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Governance, prioritising self-determination, ethical engagement, and co-design with local communities.

When uploading datasets to the TERN Portal, TERN collects and stores personal information relating to dataset owners and contributors, including names, affiliations, addresses, and email addresses. This information may be made available to users to ensure that contributors are appropriately acknowledged and can be contacted regarding questions or requests related to the datasets.

Email Subscription

Some TERN services require email subscriptions to support service delivery and user communications. For example, all new and existing users registered for the TERN CoESRA Virtual Desktop are automatically subscribed to the platform users' mailing list. TERN may use this mailing list to communicate important information, such as scheduled maintenance, service updates, and planned downtime. Users who do not wish to receive these communications can unsubscribe at any time by following the instructions provided in the emails.

User Responsibilities

When access to TERN digital assets is granted, users accept the following responsibilities:

• Users are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality and security of their account credentials. Any suspected or unauthorised use of an account must be reported to TERN immediately via esupport@tern.org.au.
• Users must use all resources ethically, legally, and in accordance with applicable intellectual property rights.
• Users are required to acknowledge and attribute TERN infrastructure and digital assets in accordance with the Use Acknowledgement and Attribution guidelines.
• Users must not copy, distribute, or use copyrighted software without appropriate authorisation.
• Users must not share their account credentials with others to access TERN digital assets.
• Access to the TERN CoESRA Virtual Desktop is restricted to authorised users who have been registered and provisioned by TERN.
• Users should release virtual desktop resources when they are no longer in use.
• Users are responsible for regularly reviewing and cleaning up files stored in their CoESRA Virtual Desktop home directory.
• Users agree to report technical and access issues to the TERN Help Desk.

Data Retention

TERN, through its cloud partner ARDC NeCTAR nodes, provides:

• Staging storage for transferring data into TERN infrastructure.
• Working storage within the CoESRA virtual desktop environment under users' home folders.
• Shared public storage within the CoESRA virtual desktop environment for collaborative work.
• Group storage within the CoESRA virtual desktop environment to share data among closed groups.
• Storage for hosting datasets intended for publication and user access.
• Archival storage for the long-term preservation of data.

TERN relies on its cloud partners for data backup and storage services and, therefore, cannot guarantee absolute data security or preservation.

Users are advised not to use their CoESRA home folders for long-term data storage. Home folders are intended for data analysis and temporary or intermediate storage only. Datasets requiring long-term access and preservation should be transferred to CoESRA shared public storage or group storage.

To ensure the efficient use of storage resources, TERN reserves the right to remove files from CoESRA home folders associated with users who have not logged into the CoESRA virtual desktop environment for six months or longer.

Use Acknowledgement and Attribution

Reporting on the use of digital assets and research infrastructure is one of the performance indicators for TERN. Therefore, users are required to clearly acknowledge their source in the following format:

Users of TERN data, services, and applications must attribute the creators of the resources in accordance with the citation formats provided below and include version information where available. Citation information is provided within the collection metadata to appropriately acknowledge the individuals and organisations involved in the creation, collection, and management of the data.

Dataset and Data Product

Data Service and Application

All Vocabularies

The following is the recommended citation for a specific vocabulary:

Maintenance Policy

We strive to maximise uptime for all TERN data services, applications and platforms and minimise downtime when the systems undergo maintenance.

Downtime

TERN will use reasonable efforts to notify users of scheduled, emergency, and unplanned service interruptions. However, restoration times may vary depending on the nature and complexity of the issue and may be affected by dependencies on third-party cloud and infrastructure providers.

Use of Services and Platform

TERN digital assets collect aggregated usage statistics, including the number of users accessing services and general usage trends, to support service improvement, performance monitoring, maintenance activities, and reporting obligations to funding bodies.

TERN may also collect and analyse information about site visits and system activity for security monitoring, auditing, and incident response purposes, including protecting systems against unauthorised access and cyber threats, and to comply with applicable legal, regulatory, and law enforcement requirements.

Changes to Terms

TERN reserves the right to modify these Terms of Use and any associated information published on the TERN website at any time and without prior notice. Users are responsible for reviewing the current version of these terms.

Where there is any inconsistency between these Terms of Use and supplementary information or guidance published on the TERN website, these Terms of Use shall prevail unless otherwise expressly indicated.

Development Support

The following resources and services have been developed in collaboration with our partners, whose contributions we gratefully acknowledge.

TERN Data Discovery Portal

The TERN Data Discovery Portal incorporates resources and services provided by the following third-party organisations.

Mapping data

The region maps used in the search interface have been provided by the following agencies:

• Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation of Australia (v7) — Australian Government, Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment.
• Natural Resource Management (NRM) Regions (2023) — Australian Government, Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.
• Australian Standard Geographical Classification (ASGC) Digital Boundaries, Australia, July 2011 — Australian Government, Australian Bureau of Statistics.
• Australian Bureau of Statistics (edition 3, July 2021 to June 2026), Australia and State/Territory, ABS Website, accessed 4 June 2026.
• Australian Bureau of Statistics (edition 3, July 2021 to June 2026), Local Government Areas, ABS Website, accessed 4 June 2026.
• Australian Bureau of Statistics (31 July 2025), Outcomes from the review of the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS), ABS Website, accessed 4 June 2026.
• Australian Bureau of Statistics (edition 3, July 2021 to June 2026), Indigenous Locations, ABS Website, accessed 4 June 2026.
• Australian Bureau of Statistics (edition 3, July 2021 to June 2026), Indigenous Regions, ABS Website, accessed 4 June 2026.
• Australian Bureau of Statistics (edition 3, July 2021 to June 2026), Indigenous Areas, ABS Website, accessed 4 June 2026.

TERN Data Submission tool (SHaRED)

The current version of SHaRED builds on software originally developed by the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies at the University of Tasmania. Earlier versions (Versions 1 and 2) were developed by the University of Adelaide with funding provided through NeCTAR, a former NCRIS-enabled project.

TERN CoESRA Virtual Desktop

The development of CoESRA was supported in part by the NCRIS-enabled Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC) through its Data Enhanced Virtual Lab (DeVL) program, and by the Queensland Government Research Infrastructure Co-investment Fund (RICF) 2020.

TERN-ANU Landscape Data Visualiser

The initial version of the TERN-ANU Landscape Data Visualiser was developed in collaboration with the Centre for Water and Landscape Dynamics at The Australian National University.