Synthesis of a Vocal Sound from the 3,000 year old Mummy, Nesyamun ‘True of Voice’

Abstract

The sound of a 3,000 year old mummified individual has been accurately reproduced as a vowel-like sound based on measurements of the precise dimensions of his extant vocal tract following Computed Tomography (CT) scanning, enabling the creation of a 3-D printed vocal tract. By using the Vocal Tract Organ, which provides a user-controllable artificial larynx sound source, a vowel sound is synthesised which compares favourably with vowels of modern individuals.

Full text

1
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS | (2020) 10:45000 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-56316-y
www.nature.com/scientificreports
Synthesis of a Vocal Sound from the
3,000 year old Mummy, Nesyamun
‘True of Voice’
D. M. Howard1*, J. Schoeld2*, J. Fletcher2, K. Baxter3, G. R. Iball4 & S. A. Buckley
2,5
The sound of a 3,000 year old mummied individual has been accurately reproduced as a vowel-like
sound based on measurements of the precise dimensions of his extant vocal tract following Computed
Tomography (CT) scanning, enabling the creation of a 3-D printed vocal tract. By using the Vocal Tract
Organ, which provides a user-controllable articial larynx sound source, a vowel sound is synthesised
which compares favourably with vowels of modern individuals.
e sound of a vocal tract from the past has been synthesised to be heard again in the present, allowing people
to engage with the past in completely new and innovative ways. e precise dimensions of an individual’s vocal
tract produce a sound unique to them1. If the tract dimensions can be scientically established, vocal sounds can
be synthesised by using an electronic larynx sound source2 and a 3-D printed vocal tract3. Since the restoration of
an exact vocal sound requires the perfect preservation of the so tissues, this is impossible for individuals whose
remains are only skeletal. Even where so tissue does survive, for example in mummied remains4, the vocal tract
can either be missing or distorted5. e process is only feasible when the relevant so tissue is reasonably intact, as
in the case of the 3,000 year-old mummied body of the Egyptian priest Nesyamun6, whose ‘in death’ vocal tract
acoustic output has been scientically synthesised. is acoustic output is for the single sound for the extant vocal
tract shape; it does not provide a basis for synthesising running speech. To do so would require knowledge of the
relevant vocal tract articulations, phonetics and timing patterns of his language. e synthesised vowel sound
based on the precise dimensions of his unique vocal tract is here compared to modern vowels as proof of method
and to demonstrate future research potential.
Having established the scientic recreation of a 3-D printed vocal tract unique to a living individual, the
‘Voices from the Past’ Project was set up to investigate this possibility for those long dead in cases where their
remains are suciently well preserved. With the need for optimum preservation of the vocal tract an essential
requirement, combined with the practical necessity for precise CT-imaging in close proximity to the individual
selected, the mummied body of Nesyamun was a highly appropriate choice. is was also true for archaeological
reasons.
e Egyptian Nesyamun (Fig.1) lived during the politically volatile reign of pharaoh Ramses XI (c.1099–1069
BC) over 3000 years ago, working as a scribe and priest at the state temple of Karnak in ebes (modern Luxor).
His voice was an essential part of his ritual duties which involved spoken as well as sung elements7.
With his mummied remains now displayed in Leeds City Museum, the current project is only the most
recent to examine Nesyamun, whose remains have been at the forefront of mummy studies for almost two centu-
ries. Following the unwrapping of his body in 1824, it was examined by members of the Leeds Philosophical and
Literary Society including three surgeons and a chemist whose multidisciplinary scientic investigation published
in 18288 was the rst of its kind. Following the development of X-rays, the body underwent radiological exam-
ination in 1931 at the University of Leeds’ School of Medicine, in 1964 by the University of Sheeld School of
Dentistry, and in 1990 at the University of Manchester by a team using endoscopy, histology, X-ray and early CT
scanning techniques9,10. ese combined studies revealed that Nesyamun had died in his mid-50s9 and had suf-
fered from gum disease and severely worn teeth, yet nonetheless “had a strong well-developed mandible”, which,
like the maxilla, was ‘prognathic’, and “clearly Nubian blood had once coursed through his veins”11.
1Department of Electronic Engineering, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey, United Kingdom.
2Department of Archaeology, University of York, The King’s Manor, York, United Kingdom. 3Leeds Museums and
Galleries, Leeds, United Kingdom. 4Medical Physics Department, Old Medical School, Leeds General Inrmary,
Leeds, United Kingdom. 5Institute for Prehistory, Early History and Medieval Archeology, University of Tübingen,
Tübingen, Germany. *email: david.howard@rhul.ac.uk; john.schoeld@york.ac.uk
OPEN
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved

2
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS | (2020) 10:45000 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-56316-y
www.nature.com/scientificreports
www.nature.com/scientificreports/
His con inscriptions give the name Nesyamun (Fig.2)7, but as one of the rst ancient Egyptian names to
be translated following the decipherment of hieroglyphs in 1822, this was initially read ‘Natsif-Amon’8 with at
least nine later variants9,12 until eventually corrected to Nesyamun9. is was a vital clarication within ancient
Egyptian culture in which the name was regarded as essential to an individual as their physical (mummied)
body and their soul (ka) and spirit (ba). It was also a fundamental belief that ‘to speak the name of the dead is
to make them live again’ (alternatively translated: ‘a man is revived when his name is pronounced’13), both by
living relatives and by the deceased themselves when appearing before the gods of judgement. Only those able
to verbally conrm that they had led a virtuous life were granted entry into eternity and awarded the epithet
‘maat kheru’, ‘true of voice’14, as applied to Nesyamun himself throughout his con inscriptions. In these texts,
Nesyamun asks that his soul receives eternal sustenance, is able to move around freely and to see and address the
gods9 as he had in his working life. erefore his documented wish to be able to speak aer his death, combined
with the excellent state of his mummied body, made Nesyamun the ideal subject for the ‘Voices from the Past’
project for which his body was re-examined using state-of the-art CT scanning equipment.
Since human remains have unique status not as ‘objects’ but as the remains of once-living people (see SI), it
was also necessary to consider the ethical issues raised by the research and its possible heritage outcomes15,16. e
team concluded that the potential benets outweighed the concerns, particularly because Nesyamun’s own words
express his desire to ‘speak again’ and that the scientic techniques used were non-destructive.
e CT images conrmed that a signicant part of the structure of Nesyamun’s larynx and throat remains in situ
as a result of the elaborate mummication process, thus enabling the vocal tract shape to be measured. e
tongue, however, has lost its muscular bulk over time and the so palate is not present as illustrated in Fig.3. e
dimensions of Nesyamun’s tract are 81.4 mm between the external front of the upper lip and the hard/so palate
boundary and 68.4 mm between the thyroid notch and the hard/so palate boundary. Comparable measurements
for two living adult males are 103.6/111.0 mm and 80.0/86.0 mm respectively. Nesyamun’s tract therefore appears
notably smaller than those of contemporary adult males.
Following the scans, a 3-D printed tract was created for Nesyamun and designed to be used with the Vocal
Tract Organ17 which provides an appropriate acoustic larynx source as a time domain waveform synthesis of
the Liljencrants-Fant (LF) larynx source which is commonly employed in speech synthesis18. e fundamental
frequency, loudness and vibrato rate and depth can be individually controlled. e tract incorporates a coupler at
its larynx end that is designed to t snugly over the output end of an Adastra model 952-210 (16 ohm, 60 Watt)
loudspeaker drive unit.
Figure4 shows long-term average spectra for (1) the source signal from the Vocal Tract Organ via the Adastra
loudspeaker alone (dotted line) and (2) the output from the 3-D printed vocal tract for Nesyamun placed atop
the Adastra loudspeaker (solid line). e joystick controlled version of the Vocal Tract Organ was used to create a
larynx input to the 3-D printed vocal tract of Nesyamun and the joysticks were not altered during the sound. Four
Figure 1. e mummied body of Nesyamun laid on the couch to be CT scanned at Leeds General Inrmary.
© Leeds Teaching Hospitals/Leeds Museums and Galleries.
Figure 2. Nesyamun’s name in hieroglyphs as shown in his con inscriptions.
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved

3
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS | (2020) 10:45000 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-56316-y
www.nature.com/scientificreports
www.nature.com/scientificreports/
formant peaks are evident in the output spectrum for Nesyamun’s 3-D printed vocal tract which are indicative of
four resonances in Nesyamun’s vocal tract within this frequency range.
Of vital perceptual importance in recreating a natural vocal sound is the application of some form of funda-
mental frequency variation. Nesyamun’s duties included speaking as well as chanting or singing the daily liturgy7,
so the vocal tract organ was used to provide a falling intonation in the male speech fundamental frequency range.
Narrowband (30 ms window) and wide-band (5 ms window) spectrograms for a few vibrato cycles of the output
are shown in Fig.5 and formant frequency values averaged throughout the sound measured using Praat19,20 are
shown in Table1.
e measured lower three formant values for the vowel of Nesyamun fall between the vowel in ‘bed’ and the
vowel in ‘bad’ within the formant data quoted in the classic 1952 work by Peterson and Barney21, based on the
closeness in frequency of the second and rst formants respectively. By way of a modern comparison, the rst
four formant frequencies averaged for six adult male English speakers for the vowels in ‘bed’ and ‘bad’, measured
using Praat, are given in Table1 and plotted in Fig.4. e match for F1 and F3 is remarkably good but there are
dierences for F2 and F4. ere will not be an exact match because: (1) no two vocal tracts are exactly the same
so there will always be formant frequency dierences between speakers, (2) any acoustic similarity between a
modern English pronunciation of ‘bed’ and bad’ and the language of Nesyamun cannot be assumed, and (3)
Figure 3. Final segmentation view (upper) and sagittal section of the two halves of 3-D printed Nesyamun’s
vocal tract (lower). e lack of tongue muscular bulk and so palate is clear.
Figure 4. Long-term average spectra for (a) the Vocal Tract Organ output larynx source (dashed), and (b) the
output from the 3-D printed vocal tract for Nesyamun acoustically excited by the Vocal Tract Organ output
(solid). e rst four formant positions averaged from six male English speakers are shown for the words ‘bad’
(+) and ‘bed (x).
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved

4
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS | (2020) 10:45000 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-56316-y
www.nature.com/scientificreports
www.nature.com/scientificreports/
Nesyamun’s vocal tract posture is not set for speaking any specic vowel; rather it is set appropriate for his burial
position. In addition, his tongue has lost much of its muscle bulk and his so palate is missing.
Aside from the archaeological possibilities based on the relatively rare survival of intact vocal tract so tissue
as in the case of Nesyamun, it is possible to estimate vocal tract shapes purely from skeletal information22 via, for
example, ellipses of dispersion for skull bony landmarks23. Making use of 3-D printed vocal tracts is one way to
recreate the sound output; it is also feasible to calculate the acoustic output based on digital waveguides24 and this
oers a future possibility of producing a dynamic acoustic output of spoken or sung utterances.
Previous attempts to recreate the voice of an ancient individual have employed soware techniques to animate
a facial reconstruction image to give an approximation of the original voice25,26. Recordings do exist of individ-
uals with extraordinary voices who died soon aer the introduction of sound recording, such as the last castrato
(Alessandro Moreschi - recorded in 1902 and 1904)27, but here is oered a vocal recreation that is based on an
extant vocal tract preserved over three millennia. is innovation has implications for the way in which the past
is presented to the public, either through conventional heritage interpretation displays or via digital interventions.
As a rare witness to a cataclysmic period in Egypt’s ancient history, Nesyamun also has a pre-eminent place
in the history of Egyptology. His body and con have been on permanent display in Leeds Museum for almost
two centuries, and although few visitors can read his con’s hieroglyphic texts for themselves, the possibility of
transmitting their vocalisation would not only full Nesyamun’s own wishes as he himself expressed, but make
them accessible to all28. Having considered and accommodated all ethical implications, the transmission of sound
resulting from his actual vocal tract aer a three millennia silence would mean that those who come to see him
would also be able to hear a sound from his vocal tract as an initial step, emphasising his humanity with the
potential to excite and inspire.
Similarly, the well-preserved temple of Karnak in which Nesyamun undertook his duties is the destination for
over a million visitors each year, providing further exciting possibilities for heritage interpretation within Egypt’s
tourist economy.
is innovative interdisciplinary collaboration has produced the unique opportunity to hear the vocal tract
output of someone long dead by virtue of their so tissue preservation and new developments in technology,
digital scanning and 3-D printing. While this approach has wide implications for heritage management/museum
display, its relevance conforms exactly to the ancient Egyptians’ fundamental belief that ‘to speak the name of the
dead is to make them live again’. Given Nesyamun’s stated desire to have his voice heard in the aerlife in order
to live forever, the fullment of his beliefs through the synthesis of his vocal function allows us to make direct
contact with ancient Egypt by listening to a sound from a vocal tract that has not been heard for over 3000 years,
preserved through mummication and now restored through this new technique.
Methods
In September 2016 Nesyamun’s mummified body was transferred from Leeds City Museum to the nearby
Computed Tomography (CT) Scanning Department at Leeds General Infirmary. Once within the scan-
ning room it was removed from its con and transferred onto the couch of a Siemens Denition (Erlangen,
Germany) multi-detector CT scanner. Positioned on the couch in a head-rst supine orientation (Fig.1), a high
resolution helical CT scan was performed from which contiguous axial images of 0.6 mm slice thickness were
Figure 5. Wide band 30 ms window (upper) and narrow band 5 ms window (lower) spectrograms for a quasi-
spoken falling intonation generated using a joystick controlled Vocal Tract Organ driving the 3-D printed vocal
tract for Nesyamun.
F1 (Hz) F2 (Hz) F3 (Hz) F4 (Hz)
Nesyamun tract 690 1870 2560 3420
Mean for 6 males ‘bed’ 594 1821 2578 3350
Mean for 6 males ‘bad’ 783 1542 2559 3227
Table 1. Measured average frequencies for formants one to four (F1–F4) throughout the sound created with the
3-D printed vocal tract for Nesyamun excited by the Vocal Tract Organ. Comparison data of averaged rst four
formant frequencies for six adult male English speakers for the vowels in ‘bed’ and ‘bad’ for comparison.
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved

5
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS | (2020) 10:45000 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-56316-y
www.nature.com/scientificreports
www.nature.com/scientificreports/
reconstructed covering the range from cranial vertex to hallux. Images were acquired at a tube voltage of 120kVp,
tube current-time product of 180mAs, detector coverage of 64 × 0.6 mm and helical pitch factor of 1.0 and were
reconstructed using a so tissue convolution kernel and a 450 mm reconstructed eld of view. In order to improve
visualisation of the vocal tract, a further set of axial, coronal and sagittal images covering cranial vertex to lung
apices were reconstructed using a 0.6 mm slice thickness and 220 mm reconstructed eld of view. All image sets
were exported in uncompressed DICOM format for further manipulation and processing.
ITK-SNAP29, which allows a three-dimensional structural representation of human tissues to be observed,
was used to view the airway between the larynx and lips which is itself isolated as a solid shape to enable the 3-D
printing process. On-screen, air is generally represented in black, with volumes of so tissue and bone being
represented in grey to white. e process of creating the vocal tract model itself involves semi-automatic growing’
of user-dened starting spheres within the black (air) volumes outwards to stop at so tissue/bone boundaries
which are denoted by a change in contrast. is process involves trial and error alongside close observation of the
determined boundaries. Making changes to the starting positions of the user-dened spheres and repeating the
process as necessary is a core element of this process. Post-processing hand-editing of the nal airway with direct
reference to the original CT data enables nal minor changes to be made as appropriate. In particular, the lack of
a so palate (see Fig.3) meant that its position had to be estimated prior to printing.
e resulting airway volume represents the inside of Nesyamun’s vocal tract as it is preserved. Whilst the
vocal tract so tissue is essentially intact and the oral and pharyngeal cavities are well represented (see Fig.3), the
tongue is desiccated therefore losing the majority of its bulk. In addition, the so palate is missing and the tract
boundary it normally forms has therefore been estimated. A virtual sheath is created around the airway to which
a loudspeaker coupler is added. e resulting vocal tract model is 3-D printed (Stratysys Connex 260 machine –
200 micron maximum linear printing error at this scale).
Data availability
e data supporting the ndings are fully available without restriction. Relevant data are available from the
corresponding author upon request.
Received: 4 June 2019; Accepted: 29 November 2019;
Published: xx xx xxxx
References
1. Story, B. H., Titze, I. . & Homan, E. A. e relationship of vocal tract shape to three voice qualities. J. Acoust. Soc. Amer. 109(4),
1651–1667 (2001).
2. Sleeth, L. E. & Doyle P. C. In Clinical Care and Rehabilitation in Head and Neck Cancer (ed. Doyle, P. C.) 231–246 (Springer, Basel,
2019).
3. D elvaux, B. & Howard, D. A. New Method to Explore the Spectral Impact of the Piriform Fossae on the Singing Voice: Benchmaring
Using MI-Based 3D-Printed Vocal Tracts. PLoS ONE 9(7) (2014).
4. Aufderheide, A.C. e Scientic Study of Mummies (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2003).
5. Watson, E. & Myers, M. e mummy of Baet-en-her-naht in the Hancoc. Museum: A radiological update. J. Egypt. Archaeol. 79,
179–187 (1993).
6. Tapp, E. & Wildsmith, . In e Mummy’s Tale (eds. David, A. & Tapp, E.) 132–153 (Michael O’Mara, London, 1992).
7. Moret, A. Le rituel du culte divin journalier en Égypte, d’après les papyrus de Berlin et les textes du temple de Séti 1er, à Abydos,
(Leroux, Paris 1902).
8. Osburn, W. An account of an Egyptian mummy, presented to the museum of the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society, by the late
John Blayds, Esq. (obinson & Hernaman, Leeds, 1828).
9. Wassell, B. e Con of Nesyamun the ‘Leeds Mummy’: the rst complete translation of the hieroglyphic texts (Leeds Philosophical and
Literary Society Ltd., Leeds, 2008).
10. David, A. & Tapp, E. (eds) e Mummy's Tale (Michael O’Mara, London, 1992).
11. Prag, J. & Neave, . Maing Faces: using forensic and archaeological evidence (British Museum Press, London, 1997).
12. Porter, B. & Moss, . Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Statues, Reliefs and Paintings, Volume I. Part
2: e eban Necropolis, Royal Tombs and Smaller Cemeteries (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1989).
13. Lichtheim, M. Ancient Egyptian Literature Volume III: the Late Period (University of California Press, Bereley, 1980).
14. Allen, J. P. Middle Egyptian: an Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge,
2000).
15. DCMS Guidance for the Care of Human emains in Museums, www.britishmuseum.org/pdf/DCMS%20Guide.pdf (2005).
16. Leeds Museums and Galleries Human emains Policy, www.leeds.gov.u/museumsandgalleries/about-us/policies-and-practice
(2015).
17. Howard, D. M. e Vocal Tract Organ: A New Musical Instrument Using 3-D Printed Vocal Tracts. J. Vo ic e 32, 660–667 (2018).
18. Fant, G., Liljencrants, J. & Lin, Q. G. A four parameter model of glottal ow. STL-QPSR 2, 119–156 (1985).
19. Boersma, P. Praat, a system for doing phonetics by computer. Glot Intern ational 5, 341–345 (2001).
20. Boersma, P. & Weenin, D. Praat: doing phonetics by computer [Computer program] Version 6.0.14, retrieved 13 May 2017 from,
http://www.fon.hum.uva.nl/praat/.
21. Peterson, G. E. & Barney, H. L. Control methods used in a study of the vowels. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 24, 175–184 (1952).
22. Budil, I. Functional reconstruction of the supralaryngeal vocal tract of fossil human. Human Evolution 9(1), 35–52 (1994).
23. B oë, L. J., Heim, J. L., Autesserre, D. & Badin, P. Prediction of geometrical vocal tract limits from bony landmarks: Modern humans and
Neandertallians in Speech Production: Models, Phonetic Processes and Techniques (eds. Harrington, J. & Tabain, M.) 103–119.
(Psychology Press, New Yor, 2005).
24. Speed, M., Murphy, D. T. & Howard, D. M. ree-dimensional digital waveguide mesh simulation of cylindrical vocal tract analogs.
IEEE Trans. Audio, Speech, Language Process. 21, 449–455 (2013).
25. Ogden, A. In e Facial Reconstruction, in Gristhorpe Man: a Life and Death in the Bronze Age (eds. Melton, N., Montgomery, J. &
nüsel, C.) 142–145 (Oxbow Boos, Oxford, 2013).
26. Avanzini, F., Cosi, P., Füstös, . & Sandi, A. When Fantasy meets science: An attempt to recreate the voice of Ötzi the “Iceman”.
Associazione Italiana Scienze della Voce (AISV) 3, 425–431 (2017).
27. Howard, D. M. Acoustic and physiological aspects of the castrato voice, In: Moreschi and the voice of the castrato, Clapton, N.,
London: Haus Boos, 227–258 (2008).
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved

6
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS | (2020) 10:45000 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-56316-y
www.nature.com/scientificreports
www.nature.com/scientificreports/
28. University College London Audio examples of different languages spoken in Egypt, http://www.ucl.ac.u/museums-static/
digitalegypt/sound/index.html (2002)
29. Yushevich, P. A. et al. User-guided 3D active contour segmentation of anatomical structures: Signicantly improved eciency and
reliability. Neuroimage 31, 1116–28 [Computer program] Version 3.6.0, retrieved 15 July 2017 from www.itsnap.org (2006).
Acknowledgements
We thank Steve Alty for technical support with tract measurements. Support for this research has been provided
by the Centre for Digital Heritage, University of York and Pharos Research. anks to Mengli Feng and Alex
Clarke for help with the 3-D printing process.
Author contributions
Original concept: J.S. Project design: J.S. and D.M.H. Historical and archaeological background: J.F. and S.A.B.
Heritage and ethical considerations: J.S., J.F. and K.B. Performed the experiments: D.M.H. and G.I. Analyzed the
data: D.M.H. and G.I. Contributed to the writing of the manuscript: D.M.H., J.S., J.F., K.B., G.I. and S.A.B.
Competing interests
e authors declare no competing interests.
Additional information
Supplementary information is available for this paper at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-56316-y.
Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to D.M.H. or J.S.
Reprints and permissions information is available at www.nature.com/reprints.
Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and
institutional aliations.
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or
format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Cre-
ative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. e images or other third party material in this
article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the
material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not per-
mitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the
copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
© e Author(s) 2020
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Terms and Conditions
Springer Nature journal content, brought to you courtesy of Springer Nature Customer Service Center GmbH (“Springer Nature”).
Springer Nature supports a reasonable amount of sharing of research papers by authors, subscribers and authorised users (“Users”), for small-
scale personal, non-commercial use provided that all copyright, trade and service marks and other proprietary notices are maintained. By
accessing, sharing, receiving or otherwise using the Springer Nature journal content you agree to these terms of use (“Terms”). For these
purposes, Springer Nature considers academic use (by researchers and students) to be non-commercial.
These Terms are supplementary and will apply in addition to any applicable website terms and conditions, a relevant site licence or a personal
subscription. These Terms will prevail over any conflict or ambiguity with regards to the relevant terms, a site licence or a personal subscription
(to the extent of the conflict or ambiguity only). For Creative Commons-licensed articles, the terms of the Creative Commons license used will
apply.
We collect and use personal data to provide access to the Springer Nature journal content. We may also use these personal data internally within
ResearchGate and Springer Nature and as agreed share it, in an anonymised way, for purposes of tracking, analysis and reporting. We will not
otherwise disclose your personal data outside the ResearchGate or the Springer Nature group of companies unless we have your permission as
detailed in the Privacy Policy.
While Users may use the Springer Nature journal content for small scale, personal non-commercial use, it is important to note that Users may
not:
use such content for the purpose of providing other users with access on a regular or large scale basis or as a means to circumvent access
control;
use such content where to do so would be considered a criminal or statutory offence in any jurisdiction, or gives rise to civil liability, or is
otherwise unlawful;
falsely or misleadingly imply or suggest endorsement, approval , sponsorship, or association unless explicitly agreed to by Springer Nature in
writing;
use bots or other automated methods to access the content or redirect messages
override any security feature or exclusionary protocol; or
share the content in order to create substitute for Springer Nature products or services or a systematic database of Springer Nature journal
content.
In line with the restriction against commercial use, Springer Nature does not permit the creation of a product or service that creates revenue,
royalties, rent or income from our content or its inclusion as part of a paid for service or for other commercial gain. Springer Nature journal
content cannot be used for inter-library loans and librarians may not upload Springer Nature journal content on a large scale into their, or any
other, institutional repository.
These terms of use are reviewed regularly and may be amended at any time. Springer Nature is not obligated to publish any information or
content on this website and may remove it or features or functionality at our sole discretion, at any time with or without notice. Springer Nature
may revoke this licence to you at any time and remove access to any copies of the Springer Nature journal content which have been saved.
To the fullest extent permitted by law, Springer Nature makes no warranties, representations or guarantees to Users, either express or implied
with respect to the Springer nature journal content and all parties disclaim and waive any implied warranties or warranties imposed by law,
including merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose.
Please note that these rights do not automatically extend to content, data or other material published by Springer Nature that may be licensed
from third parties.
If you would like to use or distribute our Springer Nature journal content to a wider audience or on a regular basis or in any other manner not
expressly permitted by these Terms, please contact Springer Nature at
onlineservice@springernature.com