Papex
Early access

Terms of Service

Version 2.0 · Last updated 23 September 2026Privacy Policy

1. About these terms

These terms are an agreement between you and Papex Labs Ltd ("Papex", "we", "us"), a company registered in England and Wales under company number 17438789, with its registered office at 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2H 9JQ, United Kingdom. They govern your use of Papex, the service at papex.org and its related APIs and tools. By creating an account or using Papex, you agree to them. If you do not agree, do not use Papex.

Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle personal data. It is part of these terms.

2. What Papex is

Papex keeps a record of how research is produced. You can create Hypothesis, Discovery and Publication records, attach files and sources, sign exact versions, and publish them with a citable Papex identifier.

A Papex record shows who signed which content, when, and with which stated tools, sources and files. It is not:

  • peer review, or evidence that a result is scientifically correct;
  • proof of ownership, priority or authorship beyond what the signer states;
  • proof of a person's real-world identity, or an endorsement by any institution.

Papex does not verify statements made in records. Labels such as "stated", "declared", "self-reported" or "agent-reported" mark information we have not checked.

Papex has no payments, tokens or trading. Using Papex requires no blockchain transaction from you.

3. Accounts

  • You must be at least 18 years old and able to agree to these terms.
  • One account represents one person. Do not share it or act for someone else without their permission.
  • Your account has a Papex ID. Linking an ORCID iD or an institution is optional.
  • Keep your sign-in method, wallet and any delegate keys secure. You are responsible for what is done with them.
  • Keep your profile and affiliations accurate. An institutional email or ORCID link shows only what that check shows.

4. Your records

Drafts are private. Drafts, private notes and checkpoints are visible only to you and to people you choose to share them with.

Signing is your decision. When you sign a version, you confirm that:

  • you have reviewed the exact content you are signing;
  • you have the right to publish it, including any files, data and figures;
  • the authors, contributors, affiliations and sources you list are accurate, and co-authors agree to be named;
  • publishing it does not break any law, confidentiality duty or ethics approval.

Signed versions do not change. A signed version and its signature are fixed. Changes create a new version. Earlier versions stay part of the record.

Publishing makes a record public. A published record, its author names, the signer's Papex ID and signature, and its receipts can be read, cited and verified by anyone.

Withdrawing. Where Papex offers it, you can withdraw a published record. Withdrawal removes the content from public view and hosted files, but a notice that the record existed, its identifier and its receipts remain. Signatures and timestamps already made cannot be undone.

5. Rights in your content

You keep the rights you have in your content.

To run Papex, you give us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, store, copy, display, format, index and distribute your content, and to produce receipts, PDFs and other renderings of it. For private content, this licence covers only what is needed to provide the service to you and to the people you share with. For published content, it lasts as long as the record is kept, including after withdrawal for the parts that remain.

Readers can use a published record under the terms you chose for it, such as public reading or the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence (CC BY 4.0). Files may carry their own licence.

6. AI assistants and agents

You may use AI assistants, including through the Papex MCP package, to prepare drafts, suggest changes and read records. An assistant acts only within the permissions you grant, for example through a delegate key with a limited scope and expiry. You can revoke those permissions.

An AI assistant cannot sign, publish or make rights statements for you. You are responsible for everything you sign, however it was prepared. AI systems are never listed as authors. Model and tool names are shown as reported and are not verified by Papex.

7. Signatures and timestamps

Papex uses cryptographic signatures and hashes so that anyone can check a record independently. Papex may also timestamp a record's hash through OpenTimestamps, which anchors hashes in the public Bitcoin blockchain. Only the hash leaves Papex; your content does not.

These proofs depend on open standards and third-party networks. We do not control those networks and cannot guarantee their availability.

8. Acceptable use

Do not use Papex to:

  • publish fabricated, falsified or plagiarised research, or misstate authorship or contributions;
  • impersonate a person or institution, or claim an affiliation you do not have;
  • publish content you have no right to publish, or other people's personal data without a lawful basis;
  • upload malware, or attack, overload, probe or bypass the security of Papex;
  • harass others, send spam, or post unlawful content;
  • collect data from Papex at a volume or in a way that harms the service or its users;
  • mass-produce records with automated tools in a way that misleads readers.

9. Reports and moderation

Anyone can report content: signed-in users through the Report action, and anyone else by writing to legal@papex.org.

We may review reported content and, where it breaks these terms or the law, hide it from public view, limit features or suspend accounts. Hiding content does not change what was signed. The record may show a notice that it was restricted. Where we can, we tell the owner what we did and why. You can contest a decision by writing to legal@papex.org.

10. Papex software and brand

Papex's software, design and name belong to us or our licensors. These terms do not give you rights to them, except to use the service as intended. Parts of Papex, such as its protocol specification, may be published under open licences; those licences apply to those parts.

11. Other services

Papex relies on third-party services, such as our sign-in provider, ORCID and, if you use one, a wallet provider. Their own terms apply when you use them.

12. Fees

Papex is currently free to use. If we introduce paid features, we will tell you before they apply to you.

13. Disclaimers

Papex is provided "as is" and "as available". To the extent the law allows, we make no warranty that Papex will be uninterrupted, error-free or fit for a particular purpose, or that content published by users is accurate.

14. Limitation of liability

To the extent the law allows, we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, or for loss of data, profits or reputation. Our total liability for any claim relating to Papex is limited to the greater of the fees you paid us in the twelve months before the claim or £100. Nothing in these terms limits or excludes liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or any other liability that cannot be limited or excluded by law.

15. Suspension and closing your account

We may suspend or close accounts that break these terms or the law, or to protect users or the service.

You can delete your account at any time in your account settings. We then erase your account, drafts and other private content. Published records stay public as signed, because other people cite and rely on them; you can withdraw them first where Papex offers withdrawal. The Privacy Policy explains exactly what is erased and what is kept.

16. Changes

We may update these terms. For material changes, we will give notice by email or in the app before they take effect. If you keep using Papex after that, the updated terms apply.

17. Law

These terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have jurisdiction. If you use Papex as a consumer and live elsewhere, you keep the protection of the mandatory laws of your country and may also bring proceedings in your local courts.

18. Contact