Privacy Policy

Our Commitment to Your Privacy

ScholarCite is built with privacy as a core principle. We believe your academic work is yours alone, and we've designed our citation generator to respect that principle completely.

Data Collection and Storage

What We Store Locally (In Your Browser)

ScholarCite stores the following data locally in your browser using IndexedDB:

• Your citations: All citation data you create (titles, authors, publication details, etc.)
• Your bibliography: Your complete reference list and organization preferences
• Usage preferences: Settings like your preferred citation format and numbering mode

This data never leaves your device unless you explicitly export it (PDF, Word, etc.). We have zero access to your citations, bibliography, or academic work.

What We Do NOT Collect

• No user accounts or registration data
• No personally identifiable information (PII)
• No email addresses or contact information
• No credit card or payment information
• No tracking of your citations or research topics
• No sharing of your data with third parties for advertising

Third-Party Services

Analytics

We use Ahrefs Web Analytics to understand how visitors use our site. This service collects:

• Pages visited and time spent on site
• General location (country/city level only)
• Device type and browser information
• Referral source (how you found ScholarCite)

Ahrefs does not track individual users and does not use cookies. All analytics data is aggregated and anonymized. For more information, see Ahrefs Privacy Policy.

Metadata Lookup APIs

When you use our auto-fill features (DOI, PubMed ID, arXiv ID, ISBN lookup), we fetch metadata from trusted academic databases on your behalf:

• Crossref API: For DOI lookups of journal articles and conference papers
• PubMed/NCBI API: For medical literature metadata
• arXiv API: For preprint and technical paper metadata
• Google Books API: For book metadata via ISBN

How this works: When you enter an identifier (like a DOI), our server makes the API request to the external service and returns the metadata to your browser. We do not log or store the identifiers you look up or the metadata returned.

These services may have their own privacy policies. We recommend reviewing them if you have concerns:

• Crossref Privacy Policy
• NCBI Privacy Policy
• arXiv Privacy Policy
• Google Privacy Policy

Your Data Rights

Because all your citation data is stored locally in your browser, you have complete control:

• Access: You can access all your data anytime through the Bibliography page
• Export: You can export your bibliography to PDF, Word, BibTeX, or plain text
• Delete: You can delete individual citations or your entire bibliography at any time
• Portability: Export your bibliography and use it with any other tool

To clear all ScholarCite data from your browser, you can clear your browser's IndexedDB storage or use the browser's "Clear browsing data" feature.

Cookies

ScholarCite does not use cookies for tracking or analytics. We may use session storage or local storage for temporary UI state (like which dropdown is open), but these do not track you and cannot be used to identify you.

Data Retention

Your citation and bibliography data remains in your browser until you delete it. We recommend regularly exporting your bibliography as a backup, as browser data can be lost if you:

• Clear your browser data or cache
• Reinstall your browser
• Use browser privacy/incognito mode (data deleted when session ends)

Security

While we don't store your data on our servers, we take security seriously:

• Our site is served over HTTPS to encrypt data in transit
• We don't require passwords or store credentials
• All citation processing happens in your browser, not on our servers
• Metadata API requests are proxied through our server to protect your IP address from external services

Children's Privacy

ScholarCite does not knowingly collect any information from anyone, including children under 13. Our service requires no registration and stores all data locally in the user's browser.

International Users

ScholarCite is accessible worldwide. Since all citation data is stored locally in your browser, no data transfers occur across borders. Only aggregated, anonymized analytics data (via Ahrefs) is collected, which complies with GDPR and other international privacy regulations.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Changes will be posted on this page with an updated "Last Updated" date. Continued use of ScholarCite after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

Disclaimer

ScholarCite citation formatting is provided "as-is" for educational and research purposes. While we strive for accuracy, users should verify all citations against official style manuals before submitting academic work. We are not responsible for any issues arising from citation errors.

Contact Information

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or how ScholarCite handles data, please note that:

• We operate a privacy-first, no-account service
• We cannot access, recover, or modify your citation data (it's stored only in your browser)
• For technical questions, please refer to our About page