Any future fee will relate to an agreed research participation scope. Payment must not buy favourable findings, citation, authorship, data acceptance or analytical weight.
Partner status is separate from source eligibility. Sponsored papers and industry-body evidence are excluded under the project’s source policy. Original partner observations and any participant-funded studies require their own provenance, disclosures and review; they are not independent external validation merely because they are part of ZBW.
Authors do not have to become paying partners to discuss their work, correct an interpretation or contribute scholarly feedback. Confidential data must not be sent before an appropriate agreement and secure transfer process are in place.