Acceptance of terms
These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your access to and use of the Researchful platform, including the ResearchFlow, ResearchLib, ResearchLounge, and ResearchLab products, the website at researchful.app, and any related services (collectively, the "Service"). The Service is operated by Researchful ("we", "us", or "our").
By creating an account or using the Service, you agree to be bound by these Terms and our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, you may not use the Service. If you are using the Service on behalf of an institution or organization, you represent that you have the authority to bind that entity to these Terms.
You must be at least 16 years old to create an account. Users between 16 and 18 must have parental consent. Users under 16 may not use the Service, even with parental consent. If you are subject to your institution's policies on third-party tools, you are responsible for ensuring your use of Researchful complies with those policies.
Accounts
You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials and for all activity that occurs under your account. You must notify us immediately of any unauthorized use of your account or any other security breach. We are not liable for any loss or damage arising from your failure to comply with these obligations.
You agree to provide accurate, current, and complete information during account creation and to update that information to keep it accurate. We may suspend or terminate accounts that contain false information or that we reasonably suspect are not authorized by the account holder.
One person may create one account. Creating multiple accounts to circumvent plan limits, rate limits, or bans is prohibited and will result in termination of all related accounts.
Acceptable use
You agree not to use the Service to:
- Violate any law, regulation, or third-party right, including copyright, trademark, or privacy rights.
- Upload, store, or distribute malware, spyware, or any other malicious code.
- Attempt to gain unauthorized access to any part of the Service, other accounts, or the systems on which the Service is hosted.
- Interfere with or disrupt the Service, including by attempting to overload, crash, or reverse-engineer any component.
- Use automated scripts, bots, or scrapers to extract data from the Service, except through our public citation API when it becomes available and subject to its terms.
- Upload, store, or share content that is illegal, defamatory, harassing, hateful, or that incites violence.
- Use the AI agents to generate content intended to deceive, defraud, or harm another person, including deepfakes, impersonation, or fabricated citations presented as real.
- Resell, sublicense, or rent access to the Service without our written consent, except that institutions may provision seats to their own members under the Institution plan.
We may suspend or terminate accounts that violate these rules. We may also remove content that violates these rules and cooperate with law enforcement when required.
Academic integrity
Researchful is built to support, not replace, your intellectual work. The platform includes guardrails to make this explicit:
- Effort Balance Index — every chapter displays the ratio of student-authored content to AI-assisted content. You are responsible for ensuring this ratio meets your institution's standards before submission.
- Contribution labels — every paragraph carries a label (Student-Authored, AI-Assisted, or Quoted). You may convert labels, but the audit trail preserves the original.
- Compliance gate — the Compliance Agent blocks finalization until similarity, originality, bias, and fabricated-citation checks pass. You may override the gate only with explicit acknowledgment that the integrity report will reflect the override.
- Audit trail — every agent action, contribution label change, and override is logged with timestamp and is visible to anyone you share the project with.
You are solely responsible for any work you submit using Researchful. We do not guarantee that your institution will accept work produced with AI assistance, and we are not liable for any academic consequences arising from your use of the Service. You should consult your institution's academic integrity policy before using Researchful for graded work.
AI output and responsibility
The AI agents in Researchful produce output based on the inputs and sources you provide. While we design the agents to be source-bounded and to flag unsupported claims, AI output can be incorrect, biased, or incomplete. You are responsible for reviewing all AI output before including it in your work, for verifying factual claims against primary sources, and for the consequences of publishing or submitting work that contains AI-assisted content.
We do not warrant that AI output will be accurate, complete, or fit for any particular purpose. The agents may refuse to produce output if they detect potential integrity violations; this is by design.
Intellectual property
You retain all rights to the research, writing, sources, and other content you create or upload to the Service ("User Content"). By uploading User Content, you grant us a limited, non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, store, process, and display your User Content solely as necessary to operate the Service for you.
You represent that you have the rights to upload all User Content and that doing so does not violate any third-party rights. You are solely responsible for your User Content and the consequences of sharing it.
The Service itself — including the Researchful name, logo, brand, source code (where applicable), designs, documentation, and the ResearchLib citation graph — is owned by Researchful and protected by intellectual property laws. You may not copy, modify, distribute, or create derivative works from the Service without our written consent, except for User Content that you have created.
Plans and billing
Researchful offers several plans, including a Free plan, a Student Pro plan, and an Institution plan. Plan features, prices, and limits are published on our Pricing page and may change from time to time. Paid plans are billed in advance on a monthly or annual basis, depending on your selection.
By subscribing to a paid plan, you authorize us to charge the recurring subscription fee to the payment method you provide until you cancel. We will email a receipt for each charge. Prices are exclusive of applicable taxes unless stated otherwise.
If you upgrade or downgrade your plan mid-cycle, we prorate the difference. Refunds for partial billing periods are issued at our discretion; if you are unhappy with the Service, contact support@researchful.app within 14 days of a charge and we will review your request.
Cancellation
You may cancel your paid subscription at any time from /app/settings → Billing. Cancellation takes effect at the end of your current billing period. You retain access to paid features until then. After cancellation, your account reverts to the Free plan.
You may close your account entirely at any time. Closing your account triggers deletion of your personal data in accordance with our Privacy Policy. If you close your account within 30 days of a subscription charge, you may request a full refund by contacting support.
Disclaimer of warranties
The Service is provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, express or implied. We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free, secure, or that any AI output will be accurate or fit for your purpose. You use the Service at your own risk.
Any reliance on AI output, source metadata, citation graphs, or analyses produced by the Service is at your sole risk. We recommend verifying all factual claims against primary sources before publication or submission.
Limitation of liability
To the maximum extent permitted by law, Researchful shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or any loss of profits, data, or goodwill, arising out of or related to your use of the Service.
Our total liability for any claim arising from these Terms or your use of the Service shall not exceed the amount you have paid us in the 12 months preceding the claim, or $50, whichever is greater. This limitation applies even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages.
Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of certain damages, so some of the above limitations may not apply to you.
Governing law and dispute resolution
These Terms are governed by the laws of the jurisdiction in which Researchful is incorporated, without regard to conflict-of-law principles. Any dispute arising from these Terms or your use of the Service shall first be attempted to be resolved through good-faith negotiation. If negotiation fails, the dispute shall be resolved through binding arbitration rather than in court, except that you may bring small-claims court actions in your local jurisdiction.
You and Researchful waive any right to a jury trial and to participate in a class action. Claims must be brought in your individual capacity.
Changes to these terms
We may update these Terms from time to time. When we make material changes, we will notify you by email and post a notice on the dashboard at least 30 days before the changes take effect. Continued use of the Service after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms.
Contact
If you have any questions about these Terms, contact legal@researchful.app. For account, billing, or product questions, contact support@researchful.app. For security vulnerability reports, see Security.