Terms of Service

By accessing or using Referee3, including uploading a paper or completing a payment, you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service and our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the service.

You must be at least 18 years of age or the age of majority in your jurisdiction to use Referee3.

Referee3 (referee3.app) is an AI-powered academic paper review service operated by DCG LLC. You upload an academic paper in PDF or .docx format, and we generate up to three independent AI referee reports.

Each submission includes:

• A literature search grounded in your paper's claims
• A detailed review with specific suggested fixes for each concern
• Data suggestions drawn from a catalog of 4,700+ public datasets
• An editorial synthesis that ranks concerns by importance and provides an action plan

Processing typically takes 15 to 20 minutes. Each submission also includes two free revision rounds, where you can upload a revised draft and receive updated feedback.

All referee reports are generated by artificial intelligence models, including Anthropic Claude, OpenAI (via Codex), Google Gemini, and optionally local models such as Ollama/Gemma4 when private mode is enabled. No human referee reads or writes any part of the review.

Reviews are for informational purposes only. They are not a substitute for human peer review, journal editorial decisions, or professional academic advice.

Each report includes an "indicative recommendation" (such as Accept, Revise and Resubmit, or Reject). This is explicitly a rough signal intended to contextualize the feedback. The detailed comments, suggested fixes, and literature references are the substantive output — not the headline recommendation.

AI models can make errors. They may hallucinate citations, misinterpret methodology, overlook important issues, or generate inaccurate assessments. We explicitly instruct our models not to fabricate citations and include verification steps in our pipeline, but we cannot guarantee that every citation in a report corresponds to a real, published work. You should independently verify any citations, claims, or suggestions before relying on them.

You retain full ownership of any paper you upload to Referee3. By uploading a paper, you grant us a limited, non-exclusive license to process that paper solely for the purpose of generating your referee reports. We do not use your paper for any other purpose, and this license terminates once your reports have been delivered.

We do not claim ownership of the AI-generated reviews. Once delivered to you, the reports are yours to use however you see fit — incorporate them into your revisions, share them with co-authors, or discard them entirely.

The fee for each paper submission is $29.95 USD, processed via Stripe. Payment is required before report generation begins (except for authorized staff accounts used for testing purposes).

All fees are non-refundable except in the following circumstances or where otherwise required by applicable law:

• If we fail to generate any reports for your submission (for example, if all AI models fail during processing), you will be notified and may request a full refund.

If fewer than three reports are generated (for example, one model fails but the others succeed), the remaining reports will still be delivered and no partial refund is issued.

Referee3 is provided on an "AS IS" and "AS AVAILABLE" basis, without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including but not limited to warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement.

We do not warrant that the AI-generated reviews will be accurate, complete, error-free, or suitable for any particular purpose. We are not liable for any decisions you make based on the content of the reports, including but not limited to decisions about paper submission, revision strategy, or research direction.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Referee3 and its operator shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages arising from your use of the service. Our total liability for any claim related to a specific paper submission is limited to the amount you paid for that submission.

By using Referee3, you agree to the following:

• You will use the service only for its intended purpose: obtaining AI-generated feedback on academic papers.
• You will not upload content that infringes on another party's copyright or intellectual property rights. You represent that you have the right to submit any paper you upload.
• You will not attempt to overload, disrupt, or interfere with the operation of the service.
• You will not attempt to reverse-engineer, extract, or reconstruct the review prompts, pipeline architecture, or internal system logic used by Referee3.

Referee3 offers a "private mode" option. When enabled, your paper is processed using a local AI model running on our server. In this mode, your paper is not sent to any third-party AI service (such as Anthropic, OpenAI, or Google).

In standard mode (the default), your paper is sent to third-party AI providers for processing. These providers have their own terms of service and data handling practices.

Private mode is a feature designed to limit external data transmission. It is not a guarantee of absolute security, and we make no warranty regarding the security of any data processed through the service. Review quality in private mode will be lower than in standard mode, as local models are smaller and less capable.

You may use Referee3 without creating an account by submitting as a guest with your email address. If you create an account, you are responsible for maintaining the security of your credentials.

We reserve the right to suspend or terminate any account, or refuse service to any user, at our sole discretion, with or without notice, for any reason, including but not limited to violation of these terms.

We may update these Terms of Service from time to time. When we do, we will revise the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. Your continued use of Referee3 after any changes constitutes acceptance of the updated terms. We encourage you to review this page periodically.

These terms are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of California, United States, without regard to its conflict of law provisions. Any disputes arising from these terms or your use of Referee3 shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts located in the State of California.

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless DCG LLC and its officers, employees, and agents from any claims, damages, losses, or expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising from: (a) your use of the service; (b) your violation of these terms; (c) your violation of any third party's rights, including intellectual property rights; or (d) any content you upload to the service.

Any dispute arising from these terms or your use of Referee3 shall first be attempted to be resolved through good-faith negotiation between the parties. If the dispute cannot be resolved informally within 30 days, it shall be resolved through binding arbitration administered in accordance with the rules of the American Arbitration Association, conducted in the State of California.

Class action waiver: You agree that any dispute resolution proceedings will be conducted only on an individual basis and not in a class, consolidated, or representative action. You waive any right to participate in a class action lawsuit or class-wide arbitration against DCG LLC.

DCG LLC shall not be liable for any failure or delay in performing its obligations where such failure or delay results from events beyond our reasonable control, including but not limited to: outages or changes to third-party AI services (Anthropic, OpenAI, Google), internet or infrastructure failures, natural disasters, government actions, or any other force majeure event.

Referee3 relies on third-party AI providers (Anthropic, OpenAI, Google) and payment processors (Stripe) to deliver the service. These third parties are not parties to this agreement and are not liable to you under these terms. Your use of their services is governed by their respective terms of service and privacy policies.

Entire agreement: These terms, together with our Privacy Policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and DCG LLC regarding your use of Referee3 and supersede any prior agreements or communications.

Severability: If any provision of these terms is found to be unenforceable or invalid by a court of competent jurisdiction, that provision will be limited or eliminated to the minimum extent necessary, and the remaining provisions will remain in full force and effect.

Waiver: Our failure to enforce any provision of these terms shall not be deemed a waiver of that provision or our right to enforce it in the future.

Assignment: You may not assign or transfer your rights under these terms. DCG LLC may assign its rights and obligations without restriction.

If you have questions about these terms or about Referee3, use our contact form or email us at [email protected].