Terms of Service

Effective Date and Agreement

These Terms of Service are effective October 1, 2026. By accessing or using Reference Checker, creating an account, or purchasing credits, you agree to these Terms and the Privacy Policy.

What the Service Does

Reference Checker compares submitted citation details with publication records returned by scholarly data sources. A status such as verified means the bibliographic record matched the sources checked; it does not validate a paper’s claims, research quality, originality, legal status, or suitability for a particular purpose. Results are evidence for review and should not replace your own academic or professional judgment.

User Accounts

You must provide accurate account information, keep your credentials secure, and promptly notify us of suspected unauthorized access. You are responsible for activity performed through your account. We may limit or suspend access when necessary to protect users, providers, or the service from fraud, abuse, security threats, or violations of these Terms.

Submitted Content and Permissions

You retain your rights in content you submit. You confirm that you have the right to upload and process that content. You grant Reference Checker and its service providers a limited permission to host, copy, parse, transmit, compare, display, secure, troubleshoot, and otherwise process the content as needed to operate and improve the reference-checking service, enforce these Terms, and comply with law. Retention and deletion are described in the Privacy Policy.

Free Daily Allowances and Historical Credits

• Guests can check 100 references per day, shared per network. Each signed-in account receives 500 free credits per day, with one credit per reference. Allowances reset at 00:00 UTC without check-in or rollover.
• Credits are deducted for references actually submitted for checking. Credits reserved for a failed or cancelled check are returned according to the service’s automated refund logic.
• Purchased credits do not expire while your account remains available, but they have no cash value, cannot be transferred or resold, and are lost when the account is permanently closed.
• Old registration and free monthly gift balances are retired. Purchased balances and orders are preserved separately and are not added to the daily allowance. New credit purchases are disabled. Reasonable request and concurrency limits apply to protect the service.

Purchases, Taxes, and Refunds

Credit packages are one-time purchases processed by the payment provider shown at checkout. Prices, currency, applicable taxes, and the number of credits are shown before you pay. Payment providers may apply their own terms and fraud checks.

Except where required by applicable law, completed credit purchases are non-refundable after credits are delivered. We will review duplicate charges, unauthorized transactions, or material billing errors reported through the Contact page. Failed or cancelled reference checks are handled through the automated credit-return rules described above.

Prohibited Activities

• Using the service or submitted content in violation of applicable law or third-party rights.
• Attempting to gain unauthorized access to systems, accounts, payment flows, private reports, or stored files.
• Creating accounts, manipulating identifiers, or using automation to obtain repeated free checks, credits, or paid features.
• Interfering with providers, bypassing technical limits, scraping the service at scale, or distributing malware or harmful code.

Availability and Third-Party Records

The service depends on third-party scholarly databases, payment providers, hosting, and network services. Records can be incomplete, delayed, inconsistent, or unavailable. We do not guarantee uninterrupted availability, exhaustive coverage, or error-free results. When sources conflict or cannot be reached, the product may present a review or unavailable status rather than a definitive conclusion.

Disclaimers and Limitation of Liability

The service is provided as is and as available. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, Reference Checker disclaims implied warranties and is not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for academic, publication, professional, or financial decisions made from a reference-check result. Nothing in these Terms excludes liability that cannot lawfully be excluded.

Changes and Contact

We may update the service, pricing, or these Terms. Changes do not reduce credits already purchased, except where required for legal, security, or abuse-prevention reasons. Material changes will be posted on this page. Questions, billing disputes, or legal notices can be submitted through the Contact page.