Terms of Use

Scope of the Services

Oystack provides a digital research and writing environment designed to support academic, scientific, and scholarly workflows. The Services allow users to upload, store, organise, annotate, search, retrieve, and manage research materials, including but not limited to academic papers, manuscripts, datasets, notes, citations, and related content.

The Services are intended to function as an assistive research infrastructure. Oystack does not provide academic supervision, peer review, ethical approval, legal advice, or guarantees regarding research quality, validity, or compliance with institutional or publication standards. All responsibility for the interpretation, verification, citation, ethical use, and submission of research materials rests solely with the User.

Oystack may modify, expand, suspend, or discontinue any aspect of the Services at any time, with or without notice, subject to applicable law.

Eligibility and Account Registration

The Services are available only to individuals who are at least eighteen (18) years of age and who have the legal capacity to enter into binding agreements.

Access to certain features of the Services requires the creation of an account. When registering, you agree to provide accurate, current, and complete information and to keep such information up to date. You are solely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality and security of your account credentials and for all activities conducted through your account, whether authorised or unauthorised.

You agree to notify Oystack immediately of any unauthorised use of your account or any other breach of security. Oystack is not responsible for losses arising from unauthorised access resulting from your failure to safeguard account credentials.

Acceptable Use and Conduct

You agree to use the Services only for lawful purposes and in accordance with these Terms and applicable academic, professional, and ethical standards.

You shall not use the Services in a manner that:

• violates any applicable law, regulation, or institutional policy;
• infringes or misappropriates intellectual property, privacy, or other rights of any third party;
• involves plagiarism, misrepresentation of authorship, fabrication or falsification of data, or other forms of academic misconduct;
• interferes with, disrupts, or degrades the integrity, performance, or security of the Services;
• attempts to gain unauthorised access to systems, accounts, or data;
• reverse engineers, scrapes, exploits, or otherwise misuses the Services beyond their intended functionality.

Oystack reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to investigate suspected violations and to suspend or terminate access where misuse is identified.

User Content and Academic Materials

For purposes of these Terms, "User Content" means any content, data, files, documents, annotations, metadata, or other materials that you upload, submit, generate, or store through the Services.

You retain all ownership and intellectual property rights in your User Content. Nothing in these Terms transfers ownership of User Content to Oystack.

By using the Services, you grant Oystack a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, royalty-free licence to host, store, process, analyse, index, retrieve, and display User Content solely as necessary to operate, maintain, secure, and improve the Services, and to provide the Services to you.

You represent and warrant that you have all rights, permissions, and lawful bases necessary to upload and process User Content through the Services, including where such content contains personal data or third-party materials.

Automated and AI-Assisted Processing

Certain functionalities of the Services rely on automated systems, including artificial intelligence–assisted processing, to support research workflows such as content organisation, contextual retrieval, summarisation, or semantic analysis.

You acknowledge that such systems operate probabilistically and may generate outputs that are incomplete, inaccurate, or unsuitable for direct academic use. Oystack makes no representations regarding the originality, accuracy, or scholarly validity of automated outputs.

All decisions regarding reliance on, citation of, or submission of materials generated or assisted by automated systems remain the sole responsibility of the User.

User Content is not used to train public or third-party AI models without explicit consent.

Fees, Subscriptions, and Billing

Certain features of the Services may be offered on a paid subscription or usage-based basis. Applicable fees, billing cycles, and payment terms will be disclosed before purchase.

Unless otherwise stated, fees are charged in advance and are non-refundable, except where required by applicable law. Subscriptions may renew automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the renewal date.

You are responsible for all applicable taxes and charges associated with your use of the Services.

Intellectual Property of Oystack

All rights, title, and interest in and to the Services, including software, algorithms, interfaces, design elements, trademarks, and underlying technology, are owned by or licensed to Oystack.

Nothing in these Terms grants you any ownership or licence rights in Oystack intellectual property, except as expressly stated. You may not reproduce, distribute, modify, or create derivative works from the Services without prior written consent.

Third-Party Services and Content

The Services may integrate with or provide access to third-party services, platforms, or content. Such third-party services are governed by their own terms and policies, and Oystack is not responsible for their availability, functionality, or data practices.

Your use of third-party services is at your own risk.

Data Protection and Privacy

Oystack processes personal data in accordance with applicable data protection laws, including the UK GDPR and EU GDPR, and in accordance with its Privacy Policy.

Where Oystack processes personal data on behalf of institutional customers, Oystack acts as a data processor, and such processing is governed by applicable data processing agreements.

Disclaimers

The Services are provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis. To the maximum extent permitted by law, Oystack disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including warranties of accuracy, reliability, availability, and fitness for a particular purpose.

Oystack does not warrant that the Services will be uninterrupted, error-free, or free from security vulnerabilities.

Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Oystack shall not be liable for indirect, incidental, consequential, special, or exemplary damages arising from or related to your use of the Services.

Oystack's total aggregate liability shall not exceed the amount paid by you for the Services during the twelve (12) months preceding the claim.

Nothing in these Terms limits liability where such limitation is prohibited by law.

Governing Law and Jurisdiction

These Terms are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales. The courts of England and Wales shall have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute arising from these Terms or the Services.

Confidentiality

In the course of accessing or using the Services, each party may receive or obtain access to information belonging to the other party or to third parties that is confidential in nature. Each party acknowledges that such information constitutes proprietary and confidential material of the disclosing party or, where applicable, of the relevant third party, and that all right, title, and interest in such information remains solely with the disclosing party or such third party.

For these Terms, "Confidential Information" means all information disclosed by one party to the other, whether orally, electronically, or in writing, that is designated as confidential or that, by its nature or the circumstances of disclosure, a reasonable person would understand to be confidential. Confidential Information includes, without limitation, non-public business information, technical data, research materials, platform architecture, documentation, pricing, security procedures, and unpublished features or functionality. The Services themselves, including their design, structure, workflows, and underlying technology, constitute Confidential Information of Oystack.

Each party agrees to use the other party's Confidential Information solely for purposes consistent with these Terms and, where applicable, the Privacy Policy. Each party shall take reasonable measures to protect the confidentiality of such information and shall not disclose it to any third party except to employees, contractors, or professional advisers who have a legitimate need to know and who are bound by confidentiality obligations no less protective than those set forth herein.

Upon termination or expiration of the Services, each party shall, upon request, return or securely destroy all Confidential Information in its possession, except where retention is required by law or permitted under these Terms, including in respect of archival, audit, or legal compliance obligations.

Confidentiality obligations do not apply to information that is or becomes publicly available through no fault of the receiving party; was lawfully known to the receiving party before disclosure; is lawfully received from a third party without breach of confidentiality; is independently developed without use of Confidential Information; or is approved for disclosure by the disclosing party in writing. Disclosure may also occur where required by law or court order, provided that reasonable notice is given where legally permissible.

Compliance with Local Laws and Export Controls

The Services are operated and administered by Oystack from jurisdictions in which it maintains operations. Access to or use of the Services from locations outside those jurisdictions is undertaken at the User's own initiative and risk. Users are solely responsible for ensuring compliance with all applicable local, national, and international laws, regulations, export controls, and academic or institutional policies that apply to their use of the Services.

Oystack makes no representation that the Services are appropriate, lawful, or available for use in any particular jurisdiction.

Feedback and Suggestions

Any ideas, suggestions, comments, or feedback submitted to Oystack regarding the Services, whether through the platform, email, surveys, or other communications, are provided voluntarily. Such feedback shall be deemed non-confidential and non-proprietary.

To the extent permitted by law, you grant Oystack an irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual, royalty-free right to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, and incorporate such feedback into the Services or other products and services without attribution or compensation. Nothing in this provision obligates Oystack to implement or act upon any feedback provided.

Termination and Suspension

You may discontinue use of the Services at any time. Oystack reserves the right, at its discretion and to the fullest extent permitted by law, to suspend or terminate access to the Services where it reasonably determines that continued use would violate these Terms, applicable law, institutional requirements, or pose legal, security, or operational risks.

Upon termination, your right to access the Services will cease. Any outstanding fees owed become immediately payable. Oystack has no obligation to retain User Content beyond any legally required retention period, except where otherwise agreed in writing or required for compliance, dispute resolution, or legitimate business purposes.

Termination does not affect provisions that by their nature should survive termination, including intellectual property rights, confidentiality, disclaimers, limitation of liability, and governing law.

Dispute Resolution

Any dispute arising out of or relating to the Services or these Terms shall first be addressed through good-faith discussions between the parties to resolve the matter informally.

If a dispute cannot be resolved through such discussions, it shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales. Each party irrevocably submits to such jurisdiction and waives any objection based on forum or convenience.

Nothing in this section prevents either party from seeking injunctive or equitable relief to protect intellectual property rights, confidential information, or data protection interests.

General Provisions

These Terms constitute the entire agreement between you and Oystack concerning the Services and supersede all prior or contemporaneous agreements, communications, or understandings, whether written or oral.

If any provision of these Terms is held to be invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions shall remain in full force and effect and shall be interpreted to best reflect the original intent of the parties.

Failure by Oystack to enforce any provision shall not constitute a waiver of future enforcement of that provision or any other provision.

Oystack may assign or transfer these Terms in connection with a merger, acquisition, restructuring, or sale of assets. You may not assign these Terms without Oystack's prior written consent.

Contact Information

Questions regarding these Terms, the Services, or related legal matters may be directed to: