Terms of Service

The agreement

These terms are the agreement between you and PaperOrbit (paperorbit.org) for using this service. By creating an account, or by using the free funding search and try-it tools, you accept them. If the terms change in a way that matters, we will say so on this page and update the date at the top; continuing to use the service after that means you accept the change.

The service

PaperOrbit turns research publications you provide into draft communication materials (summaries, social posts, briefs, posters, slide decks and similar), builds a research profile and agenda from them, and searches public funding data for opportunities that may fit your work. Some features are free and some require a paid Researcher Pro subscription; what each plan includes is described on the pricing page.

Your account

You need an account for everything beyond the public funding search and the try-it box. Keep your password to yourself and give us a working email address; the account is yours alone and you are responsible for what happens under it. You must be able to form a binding contract to hold one.

Plans, billing and cancelation

Researcher Pro costs $15 per month or $120 per year. Purchases are made through Stripe acting as the merchant of record, using its Link checkout: for payment purposes Stripe is the seller, your card details go only to Stripe, and any sales tax or VAT owed on the purchase is calculated and added at checkout based on your billing address.

You can cancel at any time from the Manage subscription link in Settings. Cancelation takes effect at the end of the period you already paid for; there are no partial refunds for time remaining, though if something has gone genuinely wrong, contact us and we will sort it out. New accounts get a free trial of Pro; when it ends, the account moves to the free tier and nothing is deleted.

The free tier's limits (number of papers, monthly generations, what is shown as a preview) are described on the pricing page and may be adjusted over time. Because every generation costs us real money to produce, the monthly generation limits apply to both tiers.

Your content

Your papers are yours. Uploading a publication gives us only the permission we need to store it and process it to provide the service: extracting a profile, generating the materials you ask for, and finding funding matches. We claim no ownership of your publications, your profile, or anything generated from them, and we never use your content to train AI models.

Nothing is published anywhere automatically. A public page for a paper exists only after you press publish, and unpublishing takes it down immediately.

Only upload works you have the right to upload. A paper you authored is the normal case; do not upload someone else's paywalled work.

Generated content

Everything PaperOrbit writes is a draft for your review. Generated text can be wrong, incomplete, or phrased in a way you would not sign your name to, which is why every output stays in your account until you copy it out yourself. You are responsible for checking anything you publish, submit, or send. The materials are built from the research profile you saved, so correcting that profile is the way to correct every output.

Nothing on this service is legal, medical, or financial advice.

Funding information

The funding search reads public sources: federal opportunity listings and IRS filings by foundations and charities. The foundation data is retrospective by nature; it shows who a funder has already paid, never an open call with a deadline. We work to keep it accurate but cannot guarantee any listing, match, or figure, and a match is never a promise that a funder will consider or award anything.

Acceptable use

Use the service lawfully and as a research tool, which is what it is. Do not upload student records, grades, advising notes, or protected health information; the platform is built for published research and public funding data, and our privacy statement promises those things never enter it.

Do not probe, overload, or scrape the service, resell access to it, share one account among many people, or work around plan limits and metering. We may apply rate limits to keep the service standing for everyone.

Availability and changes

PaperOrbit is an early-stage product and features will change, improve, and occasionally be removed. We work to keep the service available and your data safe, but we do not promise uninterrupted service. If we ever discontinue the service, we will give you a reasonable opportunity to retrieve your content first.

Ending things

You can stop using PaperOrbit at any time, and can have your account and all its data deleted as described in the privacy statement. We may suspend or close accounts that violate these terms, after a warning where that is reasonable, and immediately where it is not.

Disclaimers and liability

The service is provided as is, without warranties of any kind, express or implied. To the fullest extent the law allows, PaperOrbit is not liable for indirect, incidental, or consequential damages, and its total liability for any claim is limited to the amount you paid for the service in the twelve months before the claim arose (or fifty dollars, if you have paid nothing). Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations, in which case these apply to the fullest extent permitted.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Illinois, United States, without regard to conflict of law rules.

Contact

Questions about these terms go through the contact page, or to the address on your account emails.