Terms of service

Age and eligibility

Students aged 13–17 may use Essayfinder. We do not impose a general parent or guardian approval requirement. This does not override any parental authorization, contractual-capacity or other requirement imposed by the law that applies to you. If you cannot lawfully agree to these terms or grant the contribution permissions, do not create an account or submit a paper.

Do not misrepresent your age or create an account for someone who does not meet these requirements. Contact us if you believe an account belongs to a child under 13 so we can investigate and restrict access or remove information as appropriate.

Use papers for learning

Papers are reference materials, not work to submit as your own. Follow your institution’s academic-integrity rules, acknowledge sources and respect copyright. Access does not transfer ownership. Subject to rights provided by applicable law, it does not grant permission to republish, resell or redistribute a paper. On Essayfinder, Open Access means free online reading; it does not mean a paper is in the public domain or licensed under Creative Commons.

Student papers may contain errors, outdated information or unsupported claims. Publication does not mean peer review or endorsement. You are responsible for evaluating sources and your own work.

Your account

Provide accurate account information, keep your credentials private and tell us if you suspect unauthorized access. Do not impersonate others, share accounts to bypass access controls, or create additional accounts to obtain repeated free allowances. Full access to unlock-required papers requires an active account, verified email and an unlock for that paper.

Free access, credits and unlocks

• Each account receives one lifetime free paper unlock across all supported paper types. Logging in again or changing account details does not reset it.
• One approved, eligible contribution earns one credit, once. Duplicate or reclassified copies cannot earn another reward.
• An additional paper unlock costs one credit. Viewing a preview, uploading a file and rereading an unlocked paper do not spend credits.
• Credits are service access allowances, not money, and are not transferable or redeemable for cash.
• Open Access papers need no account or credit. Reading them does not create an unlock in your library.

An unlock permits repeat reading while the paper remains available. It does not guarantee that a paper will remain published indefinitely.

Contributing a paper

Only upload work you own or have sufficient permission to publish. Obtain any necessary coauthor and third-party permissions. Remove personal identifiers, confidential material and information you do not have permission to share.

You retain ownership of your work. Uploading involves storing, scanning, extracting and reviewing it. Before submitting for review, you must confirm your ownership or publishing rights, removal of identifying and sensitive information, and agreement to these terms, including the publishing permission below. We record the publishing-terms version and confirmation time with your submission. Approval is not guaranteed, and an upload alone earns no credit.

Do not submit malware, unlawful material, plagiarized work or deliberately misleading metadata. There is no contributor withdrawal feature and no editing or replacement of an approved paper. You can contact us about privacy, rights or safety concerns; nothing here prevents requests available under applicable law.

Your publishing permission

When you agree to these terms and submit a paper, you grant Essayclerk LLC a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, reproduce, scan, extract, format, index and display that paper and its submitted metadata for operating Essayfinder. You may continue to use your work and publish it elsewhere, subject to any other commitments you have made.

This permission covers public metadata and previews, full-text search, full reading by authorized members, and full public reading if an administrator designates the paper Open Access. Public previews and Open Access text may be indexed by search engines. Essayclerk LLC may permit its hosting, storage and other service providers to process the work only as needed to provide these functions. This license does not authorize selling your copyright, unrelated republication, or licensing your work for training generative AI models.

We may make technical changes needed for safe, readable presentation, such as extracting plain text and generating a preview. This does not authorize changing the substance of your work. Publication and attribution use the paper details and optional pseudonym you submit, subject to moderation.

The publishing license continues while the paper remains published, subject to applicable law and the rights and removal process below. Following removal, permission continues only as necessary for restricted backups, legal obligations and moderation or rights disputes; it does not permit continued public reading through Essayfinder. Older submissions remain governed by the contribution terms accepted for them. Changing this page does not expand a previous grant of permission.

Public previews and Open Access

Published metadata and bounded previews are publicly visible. Search can match the complete extracted text, but search results display only the preview. Administrators may designate papers Open Access after confirming publishing permissions. Open Access makes the full text readable without an account and available to search engines.

Making a paper Open Access does not issue another contribution reward or refund past unlocks. Returning it to unlock-required access does not recall copies already made by third parties.

Moderation and availability

We may decline, restrict or remove papers for rights, privacy, safety or policy concerns and may suspend accounts for misuse. Where available, a contributor may appeal a rejection or removal through the submission page. An appeal does not itself restore publication or award a credit.

Administrative removal reverses the original contribution reward once and provides a replacement credit for each affected reader unlock. A reversal can leave a contributor’s earned balance negative. Reinstatement restores eligible existing reader access without issuing another contribution reward.

Report a paper or request removal

Contact us using the details below if a paper infringes your copyright, contains personal or confidential information, or raises another rights or safety concern. Include the paper’s page address, the issue, how you are connected to the work or information, and a way for us to reply. Provide only the information needed to assess your request; do not send passwords, identity documents or sensitive student records unless we arrange a secure and necessary verification process.

We may ask for clarification or evidence of authority, restrict access while investigating, and explain the outcome to the affected parties where appropriate. Requests are reviewed individually. The absence of a self-service withdrawal feature does not limit rights available under applicable law. A contributor can use the submission page to appeal an eligible rejection or removal.

If we remove a paper, we stop serving it through Essayfinder’s public library and reader. We cannot guarantee removal of copies previously obtained by other people or held by search engines. Necessary credit, moderation and request records may be retained as described in our privacy policy.

Protect the service

Do not bypass access controls, harvest account information, interfere with security or availability, automate requests to evade limits, or use the service to infringe others’ rights. Report suspected vulnerabilities privately without accessing other people’s accounts or documents.

Service changes and your rights

Features and paper availability may change, and the service may be interrupted for maintenance or technical reasons. We do not guarantee academic results or the accuracy of contributed materials. Nothing in these terms excludes rights or responsibilities that applicable law does not allow to be excluded.

We may update these terms and will revise the date above. Material changes may require additional notice or agreement where applicable. Contact us if you have a question or dispute.