# SciGround Terms of Service

Version 1.1 · Updated 2026-11-10 (UTC)

These Terms apply when you or your authorized representative expressly accept this version for SciGround access. Visiting the website, connecting an AI or an AI stating that it accepts does not by itself form that agreement. Existing separately agreed terms remain applicable until replaced by agreement. Publication does not open registration or change your access permissions.

## 1. Provider and eligibility

SciGround is provided by 株式会社リックライダー (Licklider, Inc.), a Japanese company at N&E BLD.7F, 1-12-4 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo, Japan. Its representative is 小林奨 (Tasuku Kobayashi). Contact: [contact@licklider.ai](mailto:contact@licklider.ai).

U.S. correspondence address: c/o Momiji, 6080 Center Dr, Suite 600, Los Angeles, CA 90045. This is a correspondence address; the contracting party is the Japanese company above.

The initial offering is for individuals and organizations in Japan and the United States. Every user must be at least 18, including users acting for an organization. Parental permission does not create an exception. A person accepting for an organization must have authority to bind it and authorize its users.

These Terms cover authorized SciGround API and MCP access. Public papers, open-source software and separately licensed artifacts retain their own licenses. These Terms are written in English.

## 2. Service and verification

SciGround supports research analysis and verification, connecting research materials, assumptions, results and claims to a particular research version. Your access-specific capabilities and input conditions determine the supported workflow. A marketing example does not add a capability to your access.

A successful check establishes the proposition and conditions identified in its result. It does not establish that measurements reflect reality, that unverified assumptions hold, or that every answer written by an external AI is correct. Statistical uncertainty remains part of the result. You remain responsible for research decisions, interpretation and publication outside the stated checks; Licklider remains responsible for its own service and legal duties.

The service is for research. Do not use it to make direct decisions about a person's diagnosis or treatment. Verification does not establish clinical suitability, journal acceptance or research success.

## 3. Permitted research materials

The initial intake is limited to data that are non-identifying, cannot be used to re-identify individuals, and are non-clinical. Synthetic and appropriately public datasets may be used if they meet these conditions. Public availability alone does not make data anonymous or authorize external processing. Identifiable, re-identifiable or clinical data, data with unclear rights, and data whose terms prohibit the requested external processing must not be submitted. SciGround does not provide an anonymization service or guarantee anonymity.

Before applying for access and submitting materials, confirm your rights, required participant permissions or other lawful grounds, institutional and ethics approvals, and compatibility with the disclosed providers, countries and sharing. Your application and submissions declare that those requirements are satisfied. Your acceptance is not consent from each research participant.

If an agreement or safeguard your institution requires is missing or uncertain, contact us before submission with a category-level description and the requirements. Do not send the source file or participant identities in that inquiry. The required arrangement must actually be completed before affected processing. An inquiry, acknowledgement, DPA request or checked box does not expand the initial intake or create a HIPAA business associate agreement. We do not offer dataset-specific legal or ethics clearance; accepting an upload does not establish its legality. Each party retains its own legal responsibilities.

## 4. Access and instructions

Protect your credentials and report suspected unauthorized use promptly. Your AI environment may submit instructions and receive results within the permissions you authorize. Review requested access and changes requiring your approval. An AI connection does not establish that all its answers are checked.

Do not bypass access controls, interfere with other users, provide unlawful instructions, submit materials without authority, or misrepresent verification scope or provenance. These restrictions do not prevent legitimate criticism or responsible defect reporting.

## 5. Rights, confidentiality and separate uses

You retain the rights you have in your submitted materials. You authorize automated processing necessary for the requested analysis, verification, storage, delivery and agreed service operations, subject to applicable processing terms and law. Submission does not transfer ownership or authorize publication of unpublished research.

Licklider personnel do not routinely read original research data, including for support or security troubleshooting. Support should use sanitized diagnostics and synthetic examples. This does not mean that automated processing stops, that administrative/account records cannot be accessed, or that the service uses zero-access encryption. Infrastructure-provider handling is described separately in the [Privacy Notice](/legal/privacy/).

Necessary handling of a verified lawful demand from a competent authority is an exception. We assess its authority and scope, limit access and disclosure to what is lawfully necessary, and give notice where legally permitted and appropriate. A request alone is not authority to disclose.

Original research files are excluded from Licklider's model-training program. These Terms grant no separate training, evaluation-dataset or resale permission. Any optional use of eligible derived task, error, correction or verification evidence requires a separate completed agreement and explicit permission at the applicable organization or workspace level before collection for that purpose. Service use remains available without that permission. No retroactive reuse of past uploads or automatic third-party or successor permission arises from these Terms. Consent to UX analytics is separate from training permission.

## 6. Records, revisions and sharing

A Record identifies a particular version, evidence and checking method. Changes may require new checks; a downloaded file does not update automatically. Do not present a modified or out-of-scope result as unchanged SciGround verification.

Subject to rights in your materials and identified third-party components, you may use and share research outputs. No exclusive intellectual-property right in numerical facts is promised. Before sharing, inspect the package and confirm the recipient's authority: evidence may include more than a summary. Revoking access does not recall copies already downloaded. Study withdrawal, disconnection and deletion are different actions.

## 7. Free access and future purchases

The initial offering is free. Free access does not authorize a charge or a change to paid access. Any future purchase requires separately disclosed prices and purchase conditions and your explicit acceptance. No subscription, credit purchase or automatic top-up is authorized by these Terms. Your chosen AI environment may charge separately under its own terms.

We do not promise a fixed uptime percentage or numerical support response time. This does not remove agreed service obligations or remedies required by law. See the [Commercial Disclosure](/legal/commercial/) and [Paid Service Terms](/legal/paid-terms/).

## 8. Suspension, termination and retention

We may restrict access where reasonably necessary to address unlawful use, material breach or a security threat, limiting the restriction to what is necessary. Where feasible and lawful, we explain the reason and allow a reasonable opportunity to resolve it. This does not authorize routine reading of original research data.

You may request account closure at [contact@licklider.ai](mailto:contact@licklider.ai). State whether you wish to close the account, revoke access or request erasure; these have different effects. Ordinary cancellation of a future paid subscription uses the online contract-management page under the Paid Service Terms; email and telephone are not standard subscription-cancellation methods. This distinction does not remove a legally effective notice or mandatory right. We clarify unclear requests without obstructing required cancellation or delaying statutory rights.

Research materials, results, history and the Record master are retained during the agreed service/Record contract period, until a valid earlier deletion request, subject to legal restrictions and applicable processing terms. There is no routine upload-age expiry during that period. After effective termination, you have 14 calendar days to export, followed by active-system erasure within 14 more calendar days, no later than day 28. A valid earlier erasure request has a 14-day active-system target, subject to any earlier legal deadline. Earlier erasure can end export availability.

The active-system schedule is not a promise that all backups, provider records or already-delivered external copies disappear by day 28. Obtain the applicable backup retention and processing arrangements before submitting data subject to a specific backup-expiry requirement. Mandatory return, erasure and protection duties, and a completed applicable DPA, take precedence. A legal hold must be specific, access-limited and limited to its lawful purpose. No long-term post-termination recovery service is promised.

Operational logs, optional UX analytics, security audit logs and privacy-request records have separate periods in the [Privacy Notice](/legal/privacy/#6-retention-and-deletion). No separate training retention right is created here. If you have purchased credits, the minimum ownership and balance records needed to honor a preserved balance may remain after account closure, subject to privacy rights and legal obligations. Re-registration and identity/authority verification permit balance restoration; research data are not kept or restored for that purpose.

## 9. Responsibility and liability

For ordinary negligence, Licklider's combined total liability under one customer's service agreement will not exceed USD 1,000 across its entire term, including both free and paid use. This is one aggregate limit, not a new limit for each incident, claim or renewal.

The cap does not apply to fraud, intentional misconduct, gross negligence or liability that cannot lawfully be limited. It does not cap legally required repayments or override mandatory data-protection liability. Nothing here removes statutory remedies, excludes every category of damages, or permits Licklider to decide conclusively whether it is liable.

## 10. Changes, law and contact

We identify the version and publication date of revised Terms and communicate material changes to affected customers through an available account contact or before further access, as appropriate. Where law or the nature of a change requires agreement, we obtain it before applying the change. A website update or continued use alone does not authorize a new training use or charge. Earlier versions remain in the [version history](/legal/#versions).

Japanese law governs, subject to mandatory protections applicable to the customer. To the extent lawful, the Tokyo District Court or Tokyo Summary Court, according to subject-matter jurisdiction, has exclusive jurisdiction in the first instance. This does not restrict a mandatory right to bring a claim elsewhere.

Questions, account requests and complaints: [contact@licklider.ai](mailto:contact@licklider.ai).