Policies and notices

These T&Cs describes the rules which you agree to when using our services. They outline what services we can provide for you and what therefore we need from you so we can provide these services.

The short version

• We ask you to only register an account for yourself and don’t share your password.
• Help us keep your personal details up-to-date by updating your contact details when you move organisations or departments.
• We will only use the data you give us so we can prepare for your experiment and/or visit, administer funding, enable us to operate the facilities you need to do your experiment, and so you can analyze the data afterwards. We will also use it to create statistics and reports that are required of us to meet our obligations for public accountability and the dissemination of information.
• You can find out why we ask for specific bits of information by reading our privacy notice.
• We ask you to follow our ICT acceptable use policy.
• We use cookies to make our site work and to help us learn how we can make it better.

Use of the Facilities websites

The Facilities websites are provided to you free of charge for your use to manage your interactions with the RAL Facilities (ISIS Neutron and Muon Facility and Central Laser Facility, we or us) subject to these Terms and Conditions, our UKRI ICT acceptable use policy and our Privacy notice.

The Facilities websites include:

• Your Details for registering and keeping your details up-to-date (users.facilities.rl.ac.uk/auth)
• Proposals systems for submitting applications for time at our facilities (proposal.facilities.rl.ac.uk)
• Visits for accommodation & travel requests (users.facilities.rl.ac.uk/visits)
• Safety Tests (users.facilities.rl.ac.uk/safetytest)
  Risk Assessments for ISIS Experiments (users.facilities.rl.ac.uk/eras)
• Mobile (m.facilities.rl.ac.uk)

Registration

• You must only create an account for yourself. You must not register on someone else’s behalf.
• You must ensure that the details provided by you on registration or at any time are correct and complete.
• You must inform us immediately of any changes to the information that you provided when registering by updating your personal details.
• Please check your details regularly. We may ask you periodically to check your details after a period of inactivity.

Password and security

When you register to use the Facilities websites you will be asked to create a password. You must keep this password confidential and must not disclose it or share it with anyone. You will be responsible for all activities that occur using your account. If you know or suspect that someone else knows your password you should notify us by contacting the ISIS & CLF User Office immediately.

If we have reason to believe that there is likely to be a breach of security or misuse of the Facilities website, we may require you to change your password or we may suspend your account.

Use of your information and your preferences

We use the information provided by you via these websites for the purposes of administering your experiment and/or visit and operating the facility for the benefit of the user community. We use the information in the creation of statistics and reports that are required of us. This information will be stored manually and/or electronically. For more information on how we use your information see our Privacy notice.

To note

• This Facilities website and its sub sites are managed by STFC which is part of UK Research and Innovation.
• These Terms and Conditions outline what services we can provide for you and what therefore we need from you so we can provide these services.
• Our Privacy notice describes how we how we use any personal information we collect about you when you use these websites.
• Our ICT acceptable use policy describes proper usage of and behaviour on our ICT systems with the overall aim of protecting the rights and privacy of all employees, and the integrity and reputation of the Research Council.
• If you do not agree to these terms and conditions, our ICT acceptable use policy, and/or our privacy notice, please do not register for or use the Facilities Site.

Amendments

We may update these Terms and Conditions from time to time and any changes will be notified to you via a suitable announcement on the Facilities Site. The changes will apply to the use of the Facilities Site after we have given notice. If you do not wish to accept the new Terms and Conditions you should not continue to use the Facilities Site. If you continue to use the Facilities Site after the date on which the change comes into effect, your use of the Facilities Site indicates your agreement to be bound by the new Terms and Conditions.

Please contact us if you have any question about our T&Cs

Please contact us if you have any questions

This Charter is the basis for a partnership between ISIS staff and facility users. ISIS staff and users work collaboratively to ensure that maximum impact is gained from experiments at the facility. The team of ISIS staff and users that is involved in each ISIS experiment is likely to work best when everyone knows what is expected from them.  This Charter helps us to achieve this.

How ISIS staff will work with you

• We will treat you fairly and with respect.
• We will be approachable, friendly and willing to help all those who use ISIS.
• We will have a positive, professional attitude, and will conduct activities with the highest scientific, technical, professional, and ethical standards.
• We will provide access to ISIS based on experiment feasibility and scientific merit through peer review (economic benefit for industrial proposals). We may also take into account country balance across the facility, and the needs of students, early career researchers and funded programmes, when allocating experiment time.
• We will provide scientific and technical advice before proposal submission, during experiment planning, during an experiment and often while data are being analysed and results being considered. We will provide scientific and technical staff to work collaboratively with you and to support your experiments.
• We will endeavour to ensure that ISIS and its instruments operate predictably and reliably. If an experiment cannot be conducted because of instrument or facility problems, the experiment will be rescheduled if it is still required.
• We will provide you with training on laboratory safety, and effective and responsible use of instruments. We will provide a safe working environment and safe systems of work.
• We will provide you with access to data taken during your experiments in accordance with our data policy.
• We will listen to, and act on, comments you give us about your experience of using ISIS and the facilities on the RAL site, through feedback questionnaires, surveys and direct comments.
• We will protect the data we hold about you as declared in our policies and in accordance with data protection requirements.

How you will work with ISIS staff

• You shall treat facility staff, other STFC staff and other facility users with respect and courtesy.
• You shall conduct activities with the highest scientific, technical, professional, and ethical standards, consistent with UKRI guidelines on good research conduct. You will have sought any ethics approval required for this work from your own institution.
• You shall talk with our staff to agree on the extent of collaboration expected. You shall recognize the individual contributions of your ISIS contacts, both instrument scientists and technical support staff, in any reports, oral or poster presentations, or peer-reviewed papers, commensurate with their input to the experiment; this may range from a named acknowledgment to co-authorship of a publication.
• You shall work with ISIS staff while planning experiments, including ERA completion, and confirmation of the scope of experiments including team members, samples, laboratory needs and equipment.
• You shall bring an experimental team capable of participating in the experiment after initial training and sufficient to support the needs of the experiment (Xpress experiments are the exception to this).
• You shall provide samples for experiments of agreed quality, quantity and composition – taking responsibility of any ethical approvals where required – and will let your local contact know as soon as possible if it becomes apparent that these will not be possible.
• You shall complete all required training and follow all safety and security rules. Please help us to maintain and promote a strong safety culture. You shall observe the rules and regulations concerning the appropriate use of IT equipment and systems.
• You shall submit an experiment report within 3 months of an experiment and make best efforts to analyse and publish results in a timely manner.
• You shall acknowledge ISIS on all publications and presentations containing results from work carried out at the facility (including use of materials characterisation facilities or material provided through the deuteration laboratory) and cite experiment DOIs in publications. Please tell us about publications resulting from work at ISIS.
• Please tell us when we’ve done things particularly well, and also when we’ve not met your expectations, through our standard surveys and through direct comment to us.
• You shall ensure that the data we hold about you is up-to-date.​

Please send any comments on this charter to Philip King

Version 23 February 2024

Explains what information we collect and why, how we use it, and how to review and update it

This Facilities website and its sub sites are managed by STFC which is part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

This privacy notice explains how we use any personal information we collect about you when you use these websites.

What information do we collect about you?

We collect personal information about you (e.g. your name, contact details, organization, and preferences) when you register with us or request to use our services. We also collect information when you voluntarily complete user surveys and provide feedback. Website usage information is collected using cookies.

When you request a particular service we may collect more personal information about you in order to process the request e.g. date of birth if you request a Federal ID.

How will we use the information about you?

We collect information about you to process your application to use our facilities, book your accommodation and travel, manage your account and, if you agree, to email you about various topics you have said you are interested in: Manage which mailing lists you are subscribed to

We use your information collected from the website to personalize your repeat visits to our website e.g. we collect which facilities you use or want to use so we only show you the relevant aspects of our systems.

If you agree, we shall show your name, organization and department to fellow registered users when they search for you so they can add you to their proposal or visit: Manage who we share your name and organization with​

If you give consent to be searchable and then withdraw this consent, you will not be able to be added to new proposals after this time but we will still need to use this information to process existing proposals.

When a proposal and visit is submitted, if you have been added as an experimenter or contact, then your name, organization, and email address will be included in the confirmation email sent to all those on the proposal and visit. Only your name and organization will appear on the proposal PDFs sent out to the facility access panels.

Sometimes we will need to share your contact details and print them on documents required for safety reasons e.g. your email and phone number on Experimental Risk Assessments you create. In these cases you will be asked to confirm/update them.

We ask you for emergency contact details when you are due to visit us in person for an experiment. (Hopefully we won’t ever need to use these!) We suggest asking a contact at your organization who will then be able to contact the relevant people: Manage your emergency contact details

To secure and give you access to your experimental data, we also share your information programmatically with other internal systems such as with our data cataloguing systems (e.g. data.isis.stfc.ac.uk). Our Federal ID system is shared with Diamond Light Source Ltd so, if you have a Federal ID, then the data associated with that account (your name, organization, date of birth) will also be shared with Diamond Light Source Ltd.

If you have requested special funding, we share information with relevant projects and bodies for reporting on funding e.g. Newton Fund, Laserlab Europe, Wellcome Trust, Diamond Light Source Ltd, within UK Research and Innovation.

If you have put in an expense claim then we share your information with UK SBS in order to process you request/claim. UK SBS is the organization STFC uses for its finance and accounting. Similarly, if you have requested funding for consumables on an experiment at a partner organization e.g. ILL we share your information in order to process your request/claim.

Occasionally we share information about submitted proposals with other scientific facilities to help manage consistency of access.

Responses to the following questions on submitted proposals may be made publicly viewable:

• Title
• Abstract
• PI and Co-I names and institutions
• Technique and instrument applied for, and no. days applied for
• Technique and instrument allocated, and no. days allocated

Occasionally we share anonymized data with similar scientific bodies to help develop strategy across the community e.g. to establish overlap of users between different facilities or scientific techniques. This may also include sharing anonymized equal opportunities data.

We don’t sell your information to third parties.

Your information may be shared with other organizations outside of STFC, only to enable administration and delivery of the services you requested or for the lawful, disclosed purposes of STFC. For example we will share information with taxis, hotels, airlines etc. as is necessary to deliver the travel and accommodation services your requested; we will share proposal details with organisations outside of STFC for proposal review or other purposes as part of internationally-funded programmes.

To meet the Research Councils’ obligations for public accountability and the dissemination of information, certain details (e.g. name, experiment title and non-technical summary) may be made available on the Research Councils’ web sites and other publicly available databases, and in reports, documents and mailing lists.

To prevent/detect spam and/or flag to us inappropriate use of our systems we store your IP address in our logs for up to 14 months.

Access to your information and correction

We want to make sure that your personal information is accurate and up-to-date.

It is important your name and organization is correct so we can show this information on proposals you are on and can address you by name in correspondence such as letters informing you of success/regret of your application.

We collect your email address so you can login and we can contact you about the status of your experiment.

We collect a phone number (work or mobile) so we can contact you about your proposal or experiment if we don’t think you will be able to receive an email in time (e.g. about changes to travel or accommodation arrangements).

It is important we have an up-to-date status for you as this enables us to produce statistics for our funding partners to show the makeup of our user base so we can offer the most appropriate services: Manage your details

You have the right to request a copy of the information that we hold about you. If you would like a copy of some or all of your personal information, please email us. We may make a small charge for this service.

You may ask us to correct or remove information your think is inaccurate.

Cookies

Cookies are text files placed on your computer to collect standard internet log information and visitor behavior information. They are widely used in order to make websites work (or work more efficiently). Cookies are also used to provide information to the owners of the website.

We use cookies on our website:

• To make the website work (i.e. are required for the operation of our website)
• To enable us to simplify the logging on process for registered users
• To help ensure the security and authenticity of registered users
• To track visitor use of our websites and to compile statistical reports on website activity to help us improve our website to make it easier for you
• To access the services you require.

We use Google Analytics to track visitor use of our websites. We have set the data retention period to the minimum available (14 months): How Google uses data when you use our partners’ sites or apps

We sometimes use Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and Facebook buttons and/or feeds. We embed and/or link to this third-party hosted content about our facilities for your convenience. These providers do however have their own privacy and cookie policies:

• How X (Twitter) for Websites widgets respect users’ privacy
• Google Privacy Policy (applies to YouTube)
• LinkedIn Plugins Terms of Use
• Facebook Data Policy

For further information visit www.aboutcookies.org or www.all​aboutcookies.org.

You can set your browser not to accept cookies and the above websites tell you how to remove cookies from your browser. However in a few cases some of our website features may not function as a result.

UK Research and Innovation Privacy Notice

Other websites

Our website contains links to other websites. This privacy notice only applies to the Facilities websites so when you link to other websites you should read their own privacy policies.

Changes to our privacy notice

We keep our privacy notice under regular review and we will place any updates on this web page.

This page was last updated on 8 September 2023

How to contact us

Please contact us if you have any question about our privacy notice or information we hold about you.

On 25 May 2018, the most significant piece of European data protection legislation to be introduced in 20 years came into force. The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) replaced the 1995 EU Data Protection Directive​. The GDPR strengthens the rights that individuals have regarding personal data relating to them and means there is one set of data protection rules for all organisations operating in the EU, wherever they are based.

We are committed to GDPR compliance and remain committed to providing robust privacy and security protections across our systems.

To ensure our systems comply with the new EU data protection rules, we ​reviewed all our systems and made some changes.

All users must register for themselves, if they are not already registered

Anyone who is to be added to a proposal as a co-investigator must be registered in the ISIS online system before they can be added (previously it has been possible for a proposal author to add other people without them being registered). This doesn’t affect anyone who is already registered – just people who are not already in the system.

Please ask any colleagues who are new to the facility to register so that you can add them to proposals – the registration site is here: https://users.facilities.rl.ac.uk/auth/CreateAccount.aspx​

Keep you better informed who we share data with

Across all our systems, we have made it clearer why we ask you for personal information.

We have updated our terms and conditions and privacy notice to better explain what we do with the personal data we collect.

We also added a privacy tab so you can update your details and have greater control over how we use your personal data.

When you look for people to add to a proposal, we have changed our search function to search by email address. You can copy and paste the email address in, and we also now suggest some people you have worked with before so you can add them without needing to search for them. Previously you could search by surname but then if there were multiple matches we had to share extra information to help you decide who to add and this is no longer possible.

Reviewed what is necessary we ask

We have stopped collecting ​information we no longer need.

Where we still need some of the personal information but not as much as before we have changed what we ask. For example, if anything happens to you while you are visiting us we need to have someone we can contact immediately. Previously we asked you for details of your next of kin but now we just ask you for an emergency contact phone number. This could be a contact number at your organisation who will then be able to contact others (colleagues, family, etc.) as appropriate.​

Please contact us if you have any question about GDPR

This policy describes how ISIS handles curation, access, ownership, usage, and storage of data collected at the facility, along with the responsibilities users of ISIS have pertaining to these topics.

ISIS is committed to the principles of FAIR data in order to support research, and the advancement of knowledge and technology. We release data in common, accessible formats under a permissive Creative Commons license, along with detailed metadata in a variety of human and machine-readable formats.

General principles

1. Acceptance of this policy is a condition of the award of beamtime at the ISIS Neutron and Muon facility (ISIS).
2. Users must not attempt to access, exploit or distribute ISIS data unless they are entitled to do so under the terms of this policy.
3. Deliberate infringements of the policy may lead to denial of access to data and/or denial of future beamtime requests.

Definitions

1. The term ‘raw data’ refers to the original data collected from neutron or muon detectors or imaging cameras.
2. The term ‘facility generated reduced data’ refers to raw data that have been automatically processed by facility-provided computing infrastructure with the purpose of, for example, removing unwanted signals in the raw data. Data manually reduced by the users of the facility are not covered by this term.
3. The term ‘metadata’ is information pertaining to data collected from experiments performed on ISIS instruments and data collected from creating facility generated reduced data. This includes (but is not limited to) the context of the experiment, scripts used to generate reduced data, the experimental team (in accordance with the Data Protection Act and the ISIS Privacy Policy), experimental conditions and other logistical information.
4. The term ‘result data’ refers to data and intellectual property arising from the manual reduction of raw data and associated metadata, and from the analysis of raw data, facility generated reduced data and associated metadata.
5. The term ‘principal investigator’ (PI) pertains to the PI identified on the ISIS experiment proposal.
6. The term ‘experimental team’ includes the PI and any other person to whom the PI designates the right to access resultant raw data, facility generated reduced and associated metadata.
7. The term ‘on-line catalogue’ pertains to a computer database of metadata containing links to raw data files, that can be accessed by a variety of methods, including (but not limited to) web browsers.
8. The term ‘facility-provided computing infrastructure’ pertains to computing infrastructure provided by the ISIS facility.
9. The term ‘long-term’ means a minimum of ten years.
10. The term ‘medium-term’ means a minimum of 6 months.
11. The term ‘curation’ denotes the storage, backup and protection of data in a manner that respects and guarantees the prescribed access-rights.
12. The term ‘embargo period’ denotes the period of time in which access to data is restricted to the experimental team only. ‘Embargoed data’ is data still within an embargo period.

Raw data, facility generated reduced data and associated metadata

Free and proprietary access to ISIS

1. All raw data and associated metadata obtained as a result of free (non-proprietary) access to ISIS will be treated as described in the rest of this section, with ISIS acting as the custodian.
2. All raw data and associated metadata obtained as a result of proprietary access to ISIS will be owned exclusively by the proprietary user. This data will be treated as described in the rest of this section, but will only ever be accessible to members of the experimental team, unless requested otherwise according to 3.4.6.
3. The principal investigator on a proprietary experiment can request any raw data or associated metadata obtained as part of the experiment be deleted from ISIS storage at any time.

Curation of raw data and associated metadata

1. All raw data will be created in standardized formats, for which the means of reading the data will be made available by ISIS.
2. Metadata associated with raw data that is automatically captured by instruments will be curated either within the raw data files, within an associated on-line catalogue, or within both.
3. Raw data and metadata will be stored initially on instrument-related computers, and will be migrated or copied to archival facilities for long-term curation.

Storing of facility generated reduced data and associated metadata

1. All facility generated reduced data will be created in well-defined formats that are readable at the time of creation either by facility or non-facility software, or both.
2. Facility generated reduced data will be stored on medium-term storage, subject to volume restrictions.

Concerning access to raw data and associated metadata

1. Raw data and metadata beyond the period that it is stored on instrument-related computers will long-term be accessible and searchable from the on-line catalogue.
2. Access to raw data obtained from an experiment is restricted to the experimental team for an embargo period of three years after the end of the experiment. Thereafter, it will become available to the wider community under the CC-BY license that obliges users to acknowledge ISIS and cite Digital Object Identifiers (DOI) that are linked to ISIS data. Any PI that wishes their data to remain ‘restricted access’ for a longer period will be required to make a special case to the Director of ISIS.
3. ISIS is required to comply with national legislation regarding personal and sensitive data. In such cases, even if the experiment is a result of grant funding, access to this data will remain restricted.
4. Personal and sensitive data is handled in compliance with all ethical requirements.
5. Some elements of the metadata associated with an experiment, such as the title, may be made publicly accessible at any time. This applies to all proposals regardless of whether they are allocated beamtime. Elements that can be made public are indicated to applicants during the proposals process and within the ISIS Privacy Policy. All other elements of the associated metadata are not made public at any time.
6. Any PI who wishes their data to be made publicly accessible before the end of the embargo period can ask ISIS to enable this by emailing isisdata@stfc.ac.uk. We aim to respond to all requests within 72 hours.
7. Raw data, along with associated metadata, that has been made publicly accessible may be utilized for machine learning purposes, provided that such use abides by the data license and complies with applicable laws and regulations.

Concerning access to facility generated reduced data and associated metadata

1. Facility generated reduced data and associated metadata will be accessible from the facility-provided computing infrastructure.

Concerning access to raw data, facility generated reduced data and associated metadata

1. Access to the facility-provided computing infrastructure is restricted to those who register with STFC/ISIS as users.
2. Access to embargoed data through the on-line catalogue will be restricted to experimental team members who register with STFC/ISIS as users. Data that is not under embargo will be openly accessible.
3. It is the responsibility of the PI to ensure that the experiment number (RB number) is correctly entered into the metadata for each raw data set, in order to correctly associate each data set with the PI. If this is not done, the experimental team may not be able to access the data via the on-line catalogue and any facility-provided computing infrastructure, and other users may inadvertently be given access rights to the data.
4. Appropriate STFC staff (e.g. instrument scientists, computing group members) may be given access to any ISIS data or metadata for facility-related purposes. ISIS undertakes to preserve the confidentiality of such data for the embargo period.
5. The on-line catalogue will enable the linking of experimental data to experimental proposals. Access to proposals will only ever be provided to the experimental team and appropriate STFC staff, unless otherwise authorized by the PI (with the exception of those parts of the online proposal which are flagged as publicly accessible within the proposal system).

Result data

Ownership of result data

1. Ownership of all result data derived from users manually reducing and/or analysing raw data using ISIS resources is determined by the contractual obligations of the person(s) performing the analysis.

Storing and curation of result data

1. It will not be the responsibility of ISIS to ensure that software to read / manipulate result data is available.
2. Result data created by users of facility-provided computing infrastructure will be stored on medium-term storage, subject to volume restrictions.
3. For STFC staff, the eData service is provided to upload result data and associated metadata for long-term storage, subject to volume restrictions. ISIS currently does not provide any such facility for non-STFC staff.

Access to result data

1. Access to the result data of analyses performed on raw data and metadata is restricted to the person or persons performing the analyses, unless otherwise requested by those persons.

Good practice for metadata capture and result data storage

1. The experimental team is encouraged to ensure that experimental metadata are as complete as possible, as this will enhance the possibilities for them to search for, retrieve and interpret their own data in the future.
2. ISIS undertakes to provide facilities for the capture of such metadata items that are not automatically captured by an instrument, in order to facilitate recording the fullest possible description of the raw data.
3. Researchers who aim to carry out analyses of ISIS data made available after the embargo period should, in addition to citing the data DOI also, where possible, contact the original PI to inform them and suggest a collaboration if appropriate.
4. PIs and researchers are encouraged to make result data they generate open access, and to link such data to available ISIS data DOIs.

Publication information

1. For STFC staff, references for publications related to experiments carried out at ISIS must be deposited in the STFC e-Pubs system https://epubs.stfc.ac.uk/ and comply with relevant UKRI and STFC open access policies.
2. All publications related to experiments carried out at ISIS are obliged to acknowledge ISIS and cite data DOIs of the experiments.

Policy review

The ISIS data policy is reviewed on an annual basis by a group of ISIS staff to keep it as relevant and accurate as possible. If you have any questions, feedback, or suggestions, please either email isisdata@stfc.ac.uk or comment on/open an issue at github.com/ISISDataPolicy/policy/issues.

Version May 2025

Research performed at ISIS is publicly-funded (unless directly paid for by industry or an overseas partner). The UK Research and Inovation (UKRI) policy on open access​ applies to publications which acknowledge a UK research council grant or which have a UKRI staff member as an author, which includes ISIS staff.

According to the policy all users and staff are expected to publish open access their peer-reviewed articles, conference proceedings, books, book chapters and edited collections.​

Users and staff should comply with the policy where this is possible. We are aware that the situation for papers coming from ISIS is sometimes complex, with work led by overseas researchers who may have different requirements for publications.

Key points

• Your publications from experiments at ISIS should contain an acknowledgement of the support received from ISIS. For example:

“Experiments at the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source were supported by beamtime allocation RBXXXXXX from the Science and Technology Facilities Council. Data is available here: https://doi.org/10.5286/ISIS.E.RBxxxxxx”

• For any publications arising from this work, please include relevant ISIS staff in the appropriate way (co-author, acknowledgement)
• If a publication includes an ISIS staff member as an author, or if the publication acknowledges funding from a UK research council grant, then the UKRI open access policy applies.
• All publications must be licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence (CC-BY) (excepting when subject to crown copyright), and a CC-BY-ND license in limited cases. Authors should include a set licensing statement in their submitted manuscripts to ensure the publisher is aware of the need to comply with the UKRI policy.
• Where funds are not available from a home institution to publish open access in a journal, users should use the green open access route when they deposit the accepted manuscript of the article with CC BY licence in an institutional or subject repository.
• Please see the ISIS Data Policy and the use of Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) created for ISIS data​

Please send information on your publications to the ISIS Impact Team

Cybersecurity is the responsibility of all of us. Cybersecurity issues can impact ISIS operations and the safety of our data. We are committed to working closely with all our visiting users to maintain a safe and secure environment. Your awareness and support are key to helping us protect ISIS and keep everything running smoothly.

Key Responsibilities

Acceptable Use Policy (AUP)
Read & Agree: You must read and agree to our Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) to ensure compliance.
Key Points: Respect privacy, avoid unauthorised access, and adhere to all guidelines provided.

User Accounts
Account Usage: Only use your assigned accounts. Sharing of credentials to unauthorised individuals is strictly prohibited.
Security: Maintain the confidentiality of your login details and report any suspicious activity immediately.

Personal Device Usage
Secure Network Access: Facility Users should connect only to the appropriate guest Wi-Fi. Plugging in devices physically is not permitted without prior authorization.
Device Security Compliance: Personal devices should have updated software, active antivirus protection, and strong passwords.
Data Protection: Do not store or access any ISIS data that is not directly related to your own research on your device.

Reporting Incidents & Data Handling

Reporting Incidents
Importance: Immediate reporting helps us address and mitigate potential threats swiftly.
How to Report: Reach out to your designated ISIS Local contact for any cybersecurity concerns or incidents. Provide detailed information about the incident, including what happened, when, and any relevant screenshots or logs.

Data Handling and Confidentiality
Data Storage: Store all research data and sensitive information in secure locations. Use encrypted methods for transferring sensitive data to prevent unauthorised access.
Confidentiality: Comply with all confidentiality agreements related to research data and facility operations. Do not disclose sensitive information to unauthorised individuals or external parties.

Facility Equipment and Network Use

Equipment Use
Authorised Use: Utilise facility equipment and software only for authorised purposes. Personal devices should adhere to facility guidelines if allowed.
External Experimental Device: If you intend to bring your device to run an experiment and require network connectivity, please notify us when filling out the ERA

Network Security
Access: Use the facility network responsibly. Do not attempt to bypass or disable security measures.
Reporting: Report any unusual network activity or security issues to ISIS Local contact or the IT team immediately.

Please contact us if you have any question about cybersecurity

ISIS recognises that outputs from AI tools might be used in the creation process of proposals to access the facility or reports from facility experiments, and that there are benefits as well as cautions with regard to this usage. In addition to specific content, AI tools can also help with, for instance, grammar and spelling, or for those with dyslexia to create written material, as well as other aspects of proposal or report production.

ISIS therefore allows the use of outputs from AI tools in proposal and report creation.  However, where such outputs are used, this must be cited within the proposal or report as a footnote or in the references (e.g. noting the URL of the tool that has been used).

Proposal or report creators are reminded that outputs from AI tools can be misleading and can be derived from sources that would otherwise not be trusted. Outputs should always be treated with caution and should be challenged using your own judgement and knowledge. It is the responsibility of the author of the proposal or report to ensure that information contained within the proposal or report is correct, and that material is not copied directly from other sources without appropriate acknowledgement of those sources (this would be considered as plagiarism). This policy applies to the use of generative AI for the creation of text, graphics, figures, reference lists or any other aspects of proposals or reports submitted to ISIS.

Please contact Philip Ki​ng​ with any queries.

It is important to know the shipping guidelines, radioactivity regulations, and personnel contacts prior to any sample shipment.

For more information and guidance on shipping samples, see our Shipping Guide for Users

We recognise that some visitors may have specific needs. View our commitment to accommodating these to the best of our ability.

View our guidance for pregnant and breastfeeding users

ISIS has a formal complaints procedure in the event that users cannot resolve any problems on a one-to-one basis or through discussions.

We hope that issues that users experience when working with ISIS can be resolved informally through discussion with the relevant ISIS staff members. In the event that this isn’t possible, to make a formal complaint about ISIS, you should contact Philip King, Associate Director for Partnerships and Programmes (philip.king@stfc.ac.uk), who will investigate the complaint and attempt to provide a satisfactory resolution.​

If you remain unhappy with the solution or intervention is required at a high​er level, the complaint will come under the jurisdiction of the ISIS Director Sarah Rogers (sarah.rogers@stfc.ac.uk).

Should the complaint remain unresolved, the final arbiter is the ISIS Ombudsman (the Chair of the ISIS User Committee):

Professor Wuge Briscoe

School of Chemistry
Cantock’s Close
Bristol
BS8 1TS. UK​

Wuge.Briscoe@bristol.ac.uk

UKRI’s complaints procedure can be found here.