Your unpublished dissertation drafts, research manuscripts, figures, and lab data belong exclusively to you. When you process a document through ScholarSpec, your formatted manuscript is securely staged for up to 24 hours so you can re-download it at any time. You have full control to delete your files instantly at any point. After 24 hours, all files are automatically and permanently removed. Your manuscripts are never used to train machine learning models.
1. Secure File Handling & Automatic Deletion
ScholarSpec is designed to minimise data retention while giving you reliable access to your formatted manuscripts:
- Secure 24-Hour Staging: After processing, your formatted manuscript is stored securely on Google Cloud for up to 24 hours (with standard encryption in transit and at rest). This allows you to re-download your submission-ready document at any time during this window without needing to re-upload or re-process.
- Instant User-Controlled Deletion: You can permanently delete your files at any time using the "Delete Files Now" control on your compliance report. Deletion is immediate and irreversible — your manuscript binary and all associated metadata are removed from our servers within seconds.
- Automatic 24-Hour Purge: If you do not manually delete your files, they are automatically and permanently removed after 24 hours. No server backups, cached draft copies, or archival copies of your research text are retained beyond this window.
- Zero AI Training: Your manuscripts, figures, tables, and bibliographies are never used to train, fine-tune, or improve any machine learning model.
- Uploaded handbooks: If you upload a handbook file or paste a guidelines link that is not already in our directory, we keep that handbook file and its extracted text so a person can review it and improve the university template. This copy is not tied to your account and does not include your manuscript. It is not part of the 24-hour manuscript deletion window. Deleting your manuscript does not delete the handbook.
2. Academic Intellectual Property & Copyright
You and your co-authors retain 100% of all intellectual property rights, copyright, and patent privileges in any document, abstract, or dataset submitted to ScholarSpec.
ScholarSpec claims zero ownership, license, or right of distribution over user documents. Using ScholarSpec does not constitute a public disclosure, pre-print publication, or prior art release under academic patent and copyright regulations.
3. Information We Collect
We adhere to data minimization principles. We only collect the minimal personal data necessary to provide and operate our service:
- Account & Login Information: If you sign in with Google, Microsoft 365, or Email, we only use your email address to log you in securely and allow you to access your formatted manuscripts.
- Inquiries & Issue Reports: If you use our Contact Us or University Guideline Report forms, we collect your email address, name (if provided), message, and contextual metadata (e.g. university handbook reference) to respond to your request.
- Technical & Aggregate Telemetry: Standard non-personally identifiable server logs (such as browser type, operating system, timestamp, and referring URL) to monitor uptime and prevent denial-of-service attacks.
- Custom guideline file: The handbook file or guidelines page you provide, together with its address or file name and the extracted text, so we can check it against the university or journal rules and keep a review copy for the template catalog. This copy is not tied to your account and does not include your manuscript. It is kept until we remove it, separate from the 24-hour manuscript window.
4. How We Use Information
We use the limited personal data collected strictly for:
- Logging you in securely and letting you format, review, and download your manuscripts.
- Answering direct inquiries, support tickets, and university handbook corrections.
- Reviewing a handbook or guidelines page you provided, so the university or journal template can be checked and later manuscripts can follow that target. The manuscript itself is not kept for that review.
- Fulfilling institutional licensing, procurement card (P-Card) processing, and invoicing requests.
- Protecting the platform against security threats and malicious abuse.
We will never sell, rent, or trade your personal data or email address to any third party, marketing broker, or academic paper mill.
5. AI & Large Language Model (LLM) Processing Terms
When semantic formatting classification or heading hierarchy structuring requires language model inference, ScholarSpec uses the Google Gemini API under Google's enterprise API terms with zero-data-retention guarantees:
- Privacy-Safe Structural Skeleton Only: Full manuscript bodies are never transmitted to any AI service. Only a minimal structural skeleton is sent — consisting of the first 8 words of section headings and short paragraph labels — solely to classify document sections (e.g. distinguishing "Abstract" from "Methodology"). Your research prose, equations, figures, and raw data never leave our servers.
- Zero AI Training: All AI processing uses Google's paid API tier with contractual zero-data-retention and no-training agreements. Your text is never used to train, fine-tune, or improve any foundation model.
- Formula & Data Quarantine: Mathematical formulas, equations, confidential raw datasets, and high-resolution figures are isolated and quarantined locally before any external processing, preventing unnecessary data exposure.
7. User Rights (GDPR & CCPA Compliance)
Depending on your jurisdiction (including the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, and the State of California), you possess statutory rights over your personal data:
- Right of Access & Portability: You may request confirmation and a copy of any personal data we hold associated with your email address.
- Right to Erasure ("Right to be Forgotten"): You may request the immediate deletion of your waitlist email, contact records, or support tickets.
- Right to Rectification: You may request correction of any inaccurate personal information.
To exercise any of these rights, please email us at [email protected]. Requests are processed within 30 days without fee.
8. Pre-Submission Baseline Assistant & Liability Disclaimers
ScholarSpec provides automated formatting calibration aligned with publicly available graduate school guidelines, library ETD specifications, and style manuals.
ScholarSpec functions as an author baseline assistant and does not guarantee thesis defense approval, journal manuscript acceptance, or degree conferral. University thesis committees and journal editorial boards maintain subjective review authority. Authors remain solely responsible for reviewing final output prior to official institutional submission.
ScholarSpec formats manuscripts and exports Microsoft Word (.docx) documents. ScholarSpec does not compile or produce PDF or PDF/A files. If an institutional repository or graduate school mandates PDF/A archiving, authors convert their final approved Word document to PDF/A using Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat prior to official repository deposit.
9. Privacy Officer Contact Information
If you have questions regarding this Privacy Policy, our file retention and deletion practices, or wish to submit a data erasure request:
Direct Email: [email protected]
General Inquiries: Contact Us Form
Response Commitment: Within 3-5 working days