Acceptable use policy

The basics

Citation Check exists to help people check their sources before they publish. Almost everything anyone wants to do with it is fine. This page covers the small number of things that are not, and most of them come down to one idea: do not use a tool built for honesty to make something look more verified than it is.

Do not break the law

• Do not submit content you have no right to submit, including material that is confidential to someone else.
• Do not use the service to infringe copyright, to defame, or to harass.
• Do not use it to produce or launder disinformation.
• Do not use it where doing so would breach sanctions or export controls that apply to you.

Do not misrepresent what we told you

• Do not present a result as a guarantee of accuracy, or as our endorsement of your work.
• Do not display a badge, mark, or wording that implies we have certified a document.
• Do not alter a result and attribute it to us.
• Do not quote a supporting passage out of the context that made it supporting.

Do not use results against people unfairly

Do not accuse, grade, discipline, reject, or dismiss anyone on the strength of a result alone. The service is automated, it makes mistakes in both directions, and a person has to look at the underlying source before a decision gets made about someone.

If you use it in teaching, editing, hiring, or peer review, tell people it is part of the process and give them a route to challenge a result.

Respect the sites we read

• Do not use the service to get at content behind a paywall or a login you are not entitled to.
• Do not use it as a general-purpose scraper. It is for checking sources in a document you are working on.
• Do not point it at a single site repeatedly in a way that burdens that site.

Do not abuse the service

• Do not exceed your plan’s allowance, or work around a limit by creating extra accounts, clearing cookies, or rotating addresses.
• Do not resell, sublicense, or provide the service to others as if it were yours, unless we have agreed to it in writing.
• Do not reverse engineer the service, or use it to build a competing product.
• Do not scrape our interface, or automate against it outside an API we have given you.
• Do not attempt to gain access to systems or data that are not yours, or interfere with the service for anyone else.
• Do not upload malware, or content designed to disrupt the service.

The service is free today, with an allowance of 5 free scans, or 15 with an account and a maximum of 10,000 words per scan. If we add paid plans, their limits will be published before anyone is charged.

Academic and editorial integrity

The service is a checking tool, not a ghostwriter. If you use it on work you are submitting for assessment or publication, follow whatever rules your institution or publisher has about automated assistance. Those rules take precedence over anything convenient the tool makes possible.

Reporting misuse

If you see the service being misused, or you see our name attached to a claim we did not make, tell us at info@citationcheck.ai. Security vulnerabilities go to our security page instead.

What happens if you break this policy

Depending on what happened, we may get in touch, limit what your account can do, suspend it, or close it. Where it is reasonable and lawful to do so, we will tell you first and give you a chance to fix it. Serious cases, and anything we are legally required to report, we act on straight away.