Terms of Use

A learning platform in Arabic and English: recorded programmes, a library of books read inside the site, short teaching reels uploaded by members, a science café for discussion in each world, debates, and a board for finding a study partner.

Polymath is for people aged 18 and over. By opening an account you confirm that you are, and that the date of birth you gave is true.

An account belongs to one person. Give us accurate details, and do not share your account or sell access to it.

Your password is yours to keep. If you think somebody has been in your account, change it at once, end the other sessions from your account page, and tell us.

Books in the free library are read on the site. Their files are not offered for download.

Books in the subscription library are read and downloaded while your subscription is active.

What you download is for your own reading. Republishing, uploading, distributing or selling it is a breach — and likely a breach of the author’s rights before it is a breach of ours.

The programmes, books, text and images we publish belong to their owners, and their being here does not transfer them to you.

What you are granted is a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to read and learn, which ends when your account or your subscription does.

What you publish — reels, comments, posts, voice notes, debates, messages and your profile — remains yours. By publishing it you give us a non-exclusive, free licence to store it and show it on this site and in its app to the people named in the privacy policy, which ends when you delete it, except for what stays under “Deleted account” as the privacy policy describes.

You are responsible for what you publish, and you confirm that you have the right to publish it and that it breaks neither the rules below nor the law.

When you upload a reel, you confirm that the video is your own work or that you have permission to publish it, and the time you confirmed it is kept. No reel is published until a person on our team has reviewed it.

Your notes and drawings on books are kept in your browser and never reach us, so we claim no right in them.

You may not publish here: threats, harassment, or incitement against anybody; hatred or incitement based on religion, origin, sex or anything else; defamation or false claims about real people; any sexual content, and under no circumstances anything that exploits a minor; violence or shocking imagery; other people’s personal data or pictures without their permission; impersonation of anybody, or a qualification or role that is not yours; advertising and spam; other people’s protected work without their permission; or anything unlawful.

Every post, comment, message and profile has a “Report” button. A person on our team reads every report, and nothing is removed automatically. If the content breaks these rules we remove it and tell the writer, and we do not tell them who reported it.

We may suspend or close the account of somebody who breaks these rules repeatedly, or once seriously.

A standing beside a member’s name means our team reviewed a document they provided when it was granted. It is not a certificate from us, not a licence to practise a profession, and not a guarantee that what they say is right.

Everything on Polymath — programmes, books, reels, and members’ answers in the café, including “Ask a specialist” answers — is for learning only. It is not medical, legal, financial or professional advice, and it does not replace a licensed professional who knows your situation.

Do not rely on anything you read here for a decision about your health or anybody else’s. In an emergency, call the emergency services.

If you find your work in a reel without your permission, file a complaint on the copyright complaints page — no account needed. We review it, and if it holds, the reel is removed and its author told. An account whose uploads are removed for this reason more than once may be closed.

Scraping the site, attempting to get round the reading and download limits, or reaching files your account is not entitled to.

Attempting to disrupt the service, or to test its security without our written permission.

The site is entirely free today. There are no payments and no fees.

When paid subscriptions are added, their prices, length, how to cancel and the refund terms will be published before they are switched on, and nothing will be charged without your explicit agreement to it.

We work to keep the site available, and provide it as it is, without promising that it will run without interruption or without errors.

We may add features, change them, or stop them. If we stop something you materially rely on, we will tell you first.

What members publish speaks for them, not for us. We do not review every post before it appears — reels excepted — but we act when told.

To the extent the law allows, we are not responsible for indirect loss arising from the use of the site or from reliance on its content. Nothing in these terms limits a responsibility that the law does not allow to be limited.

You may close your account whenever you like, from your account page. What is deleted then, and what stays, is described in the privacy policy.

We may suspend or close an account that breaches these terms, and will say why unless saying so is itself the harm.

We may amend these terms; the date at the top of the page says when they last were. If an amendment is material we ask for your agreement on your next visit, and it does not apply to you before you give it.