Terms of Service

Last updated: 12 August 2026

1. Who these terms apply to

These terms govern use of the automated proofreading service provided by Scriptreaders International, trading as ScriptReaders, of 37 Adekola Street, Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria (“we”, “us”) to you (“you”, “the author”). By creating an account, uploading a manuscript, or making payment, you agree to them.

Where you use the service on behalf of an institution or employer, you confirm you have authority to accept these terms on their behalf.

2. What we provide

Automated analysis of academic manuscripts: proofreading, copyediting suggestions, academic standards and citation checking, format correction, and language support for writers of English as an additional language.

Analysis is performed by software, not by a human editor. Results are suggestions, not applied changes. Nothing is altered in your manuscript unless you accept it.

We do not write, co-author, or develop the substance of your work. We do not generate content, construct arguments, produce or analyse data, or make claims in your name.

3. What we do not promise

• We do not guarantee publication or acceptance. Editorial decisions rest entirely with journal editors and peer reviewers.
• We do not guarantee that every error will be found. Accuracy figures describe typical performance on specific error classes, not completeness. See our Disclaimers.
• We do not verify factual, statistical, or scientific accuracy, and we do not confirm that cited sources exist or support your claims.
• We do not check for plagiarism or produce similarity reports.
• We do not guarantee uninterrupted availability.

4. Your account

• You must provide an accurate email address and keep your credentials secure. You are responsible for activity under your account.
• Accounts are for individual researchers. Sharing credentials so that others can scan their own manuscripts under your account is not permitted — see section 6.
• You may close your account at any time. Closing it deletes your manuscripts and scan history as described in our Privacy Policy.
• Tell us promptly if you believe your account has been accessed without your authorisation.

5. Your responsibilities

• You confirm the work you upload is your own, that you hold the rights necessary to submit it for processing, and that any co-authors have consented.
• You confirm that using an automated writing tool is permitted by your institution, supervisor, funder, or target journal, and that you will make any declaration they require. Checking this is your responsibility.
• You are responsible for reviewing suggestions before accepting them, and for the final manuscript you submit.
• You must not upload work you have no right to submit.
• You must not attempt to extract, reverse engineer, or resell the analysis engine, or access the service by automated means beyond normal research use.

6. Price, payment, and what a purchase covers

• The price is $0.005 per source word, calculated from the word count of the manuscript you upload. There are no tiers, no minimum, and no subscription. Nothing renews.
• We confirm the word count and show the price before any payment is taken. If our count differs materially from yours, we tell you before scanning rather than charging you afterwards.
• What the word count includes. You are charged for the manuscript text we proofread: the title, abstract, keywords, headings, body text, lists, quotations, figure and table captions, text inside tables, and footnotes.
• What it excludes. You are not charged for the reference list, for front matter such as the journal name, author affiliations, and correspondence details, or for running heads and page numbers. Text you have already deleted using tracked changes is not counted, and neither are field codes inserted by reference managers such as Zotero, Mendeley, or EndNote.
• How a word is counted. A word is a run of characters separated by whitespace. A hyphenated compound is one word; words separated by an em-dash are two. Numbers, units, and citation markers count. Punctuation standing alone does not. This is intended to track Microsoft Word’s own count closely, because that is the number you are most likely to check against — but where the two differ, the definition in these terms is the one that governs the charge.
• We keep the itemised breakdown behind every count, so a disputed charge can be re-examined line by line rather than argued from a single total.
• A purchase includes unlimited rescans of that manuscript for 7 days from purchase. “Unlimited” is bounded deliberately: it means no scan counter within that window, not an account-wide allowance across every document you own.
• A different manuscript is a separate purchase. A revision of the same manuscript — however substantial — is not, and neither is reformatting it for a different journal.
• Prices are in US dollars. Payment is processed by Squad; we never receive or store your full card details.
• Journal article processing charges and other publisher costs are never included and are payable by you directly to the publisher.
• Cancellation and refund entitlements are in our Refund Policy, which forms part of these terms.

To be completed: confirm whether prices are shown inclusive or exclusive of Nigerian VAT, and whether VAT applies to customers outside Nigeria.

7. Your content and our rights in it

Your manuscript remains your intellectual property at all times. Nothing in these terms transfers ownership to us.

You grant us only the limited licence necessary to process your manuscript in order to produce your results, including transmitting it to the service providers named in our Privacy Policy. That licence does not extend to using your work as training data, publishing it, or sharing it for any other purpose.

8. Availability and changes to the service

We aim for continuous availability but may suspend the service for maintenance, security, or circumstances outside our reasonable control. We may add, change, or withdraw features; where a change materially reduces what you have already paid for, we will tell you and offer a refund of the affected purchase.

9. Limitation of liability

Our total liability arising from your use of the service is limited to the fees you paid in the twelve months preceding the claim. We are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, including — without limitation — manuscript rejection, publication delay, lost funding, lost opportunity, academic penalty, or reputational harm.

Nothing in these terms excludes or limits liability that cannot lawfully be excluded under Nigerian law, including under the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2018, or liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud.

10. Suspension and refusal of service

We may suspend or terminate access where we believe the service is being used for academic misconduct, to process work you have no right to submit, or in breach of these terms. Where we terminate for these reasons we will explain why and refund any purchase not yet used.

11. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. The version in force for a purchase is the one published when you made it. Material changes will be reflected in the date above and communicated to account holders.

12. Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and the courts of Nigeria have jurisdiction over any dispute.

Nothing here removes any right you have under the consumer law of your own country. If you are a consumer in a jurisdiction whose law gives you rights that cannot be excluded by agreement, those rights continue to apply.

To be completed: confirm with a Nigerian lawyer whether you wish to specify a particular court or state within Nigeria, and whether arbitration is preferable for international customers.

13. Contact

Scriptreaders International
37 Adekola Street, Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria
support@scriptreaders.com