Terms of Service

1. Eligibility and Account Access

The Service is intended for researchers, students, institutions, and related users who satisfy our account eligibility requirements. You must be at least 13 years old to use the Service. If you are under the age of legal majority where you live, you may use the Service only with the permission and supervision of a parent, guardian, or institution that is legally responsible for your use. We may deny access, require verification, or limit features based on account type, institutional affiliation, security concerns, or legal requirements.

2. Account Registration

• You must provide accurate, complete, and current registration information.
• You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your login credentials and for activity that occurs under your account.
• You must promptly notify us at support@stuve.app if you believe your account has been accessed without authorization.
• You may not share your account, impersonate another person or organization, or create accounts to evade suspensions, eligibility checks, or usage restrictions.

3. Paid Features, Billing, and Subscriptions

Some parts of the Service may be offered on a paid, subscription, pilot, or invoice-based basis. If you purchase a paid feature, you authorize StuVe LLC and our third-party payment processors to charge the payment method or invoice arrangement you provide for applicable fees, taxes, and renewals. Unless we state otherwise in writing, fees are non-refundable except where required by law. We may change pricing, plan features, or billing terms on a prospective basis by providing notice through the Service or by email.

Payment processing is provided by third parties. StuVe does not store full payment card numbers, but we may receive billing contact details, plan information, invoice records, payment status, and transaction identifiers needed to administer your subscription.

4. Acceptable Use

You agree not to use the Service to:

• Post content that is unlawful, defamatory, harassing, abusive, or discriminatory.
• Upload or share content unless you have the rights, permissions, and legal basis needed to do so.
• Upload malware, viruses, or any code designed to harm systems or users.
• Attempt to bypass security controls, probe vulnerabilities, or gain unauthorized access to accounts, data, or infrastructure.
• Scrape, harvest, or use automated means to access the Service in a way that exceeds normal authorized use.
• Interfere with the performance, availability, or integrity of the Service.
• Use the Service in violation of export controls, sanctions laws, privacy laws, or other applicable laws.

5. Content, Permissions, and Intellectual Property

5.1 Your Content

You retain ownership of the content, files, documents, comments, profiles, references, and other materials you submit to the Service ("User Content"). You grant StuVe LLC a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, store, reproduce, transmit, display, format, parse, index, create technical derivatives from, and otherwise process User Content solely as necessary to operate, secure, back up, troubleshoot, and improve the Service.

5.2 Your Responsibilities

You are solely responsible for ensuring that your User Content and your use of the Service comply with academic integrity requirements, intellectual property rights, confidentiality obligations, privacy restrictions, funder rules, and applicable law. If you upload or share material on behalf of another person or institution, you represent that you have the necessary authority and permissions to do so.

5.3 StuVe's Intellectual Property

The Service, including our software, branding, interfaces, workflows, and related materials, is owned by StuVe LLC or its licensors and is protected by applicable intellectual property laws. Except for the limited rights expressly granted in these Terms, no rights in the Service are transferred to you.

6. Collaboration, Visibility, and Shared Workspaces

The Service includes collaboration and publishing features. When you invite collaborators, publish a post, create a collaboration listing, or assign project visibility, you are responsible for the permissions and audience you select. Project owners and administrators remain responsible for managing membership, access, and content within their workspaces, even where StuVe enforces role-based access controls.

7. Third-Party Services

The Service may rely on third-party services for hosting, storage, authentication, email delivery, payment processing, and other operational functions. Your use of those third-party services may also be subject to their terms and privacy practices. StuVe LLC is not responsible for third-party services we do not control.

8. Privacy

Your use of the Service is also governed by our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated into these Terms by reference.

9. Availability, Changes, and Backups

We may modify, suspend, or discontinue all or part of the Service at any time, including for maintenance, security, compliance, or product changes. Features identified as beta, preview, or experimental may be incomplete or changed without notice. Although we take reasonable steps to protect data, the Service is not a substitute for your own records or backups, and you should keep copies of important research materials.

10. Suspension and Termination

We may suspend or terminate access to the Service if we reasonably believe you have violated these Terms, created risk for the Service or others, failed to pay amounts due, or where suspension is necessary for security, legal, or operational reasons. You may stop using the Service at any time. Sections of these Terms that by their nature should survive termination will survive, including provisions relating to intellectual property, disclaimers, limitations of liability, indemnification, and dispute resolution.

11. Disclaimers

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available." To the fullest extent permitted by law, StuVe LLC disclaims all warranties, whether express, implied, or statutory, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, non-infringement, availability, and accuracy. Outputs generated through the Service, including automated parsing, extraction, citation, or workflow features, may be incomplete, inaccurate, or unsuitable for your use case and should be independently reviewed before you rely on them.

12. Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, StuVe LLC and its officers, members, employees, contractors, and service providers will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for any loss of data, goodwill, revenue, profits, or research output, arising out of or related to the Service, even if advised of the possibility of those damages.

13. Indemnification

To the fullest extent permitted by law, you agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless StuVe LLC and its officers, members, employees, contractors, and agents from and against claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses arising out of or related to your User Content, your use of the Service, your violation of these Terms, or your violation of any law or third-party right.

14. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. If we make material changes, we will post the revised Terms on this page and update the "Last updated" date. Your continued use of the Service after the revised Terms become effective means you accept the updated Terms.

15. Governing Law and Disputes

Except where applicable law requires otherwise, these Terms are governed by the laws of the state in which StuVe LLC is organized, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service must be brought in a court of competent jurisdiction where StuVe LLC is organized or maintains its principal place of business, unless applicable law gives you the right to bring a claim elsewhere.

16. Contact

For questions about these Terms, contact us at: legal@stuve.app