Terms of Service

Version 1.1-beta · Effective 2026-05-11

# Terms of Service

**Living SR&MA Platform**

**Version**: 1.1-beta
**Effective Date**: 2026-05-11
**Last Updated**: 2026-05-11

> This document is the English-language version of the Terms of Service, which is the **authoritative version**. A Japanese-language translation may be provided for reference. In the event of any conflict or inconsistency between the English and Japanese versions, the **English version shall prevail**.

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## 1. Introduction and Acceptance

### 1.1 Agreement

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your access to and use of the Living SR&MA Platform ("Platform", "Service", "we", "us", or "our"), a web-based tool for collaborative systematic reviews and meta-analyses, operated by Yuki Furukawa (古川由己), a sole proprietor in Japan ("Operator").

By creating an account, accessing, or using the Platform, you ("User", "you", or "your") agree to be bound by these Terms and our [Privacy Policy](/legal/privacy). If you do not agree, you must not use the Platform.

### 1.2 Beta Status

The Platform is currently provided as a beta service before the planned public paid launch. Beta features may be incomplete, changed, suspended, or discontinued. You should not rely on the Platform as the only copy, record, or storage location for any research data, uploaded files, or review decisions.

### 1.3 Eligibility

You must be at least 18 years old (or the age of majority in your jurisdiction) and have the legal capacity to enter into these Terms. If you use the Platform on behalf of an organization, you represent that you have authority to bind that organization to these Terms.

### 1.4 Changes to Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. When we do, we will update the version number and effective date. If we make material changes, we will notify you through the Platform or by email where practicable. Your continued use of the Platform after such notification constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms. If you do not agree to the changes, you must stop using the Platform and may request deletion of your account.

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## 2. Description of Service

### 2.1 Platform Overview

The Platform provides tools for:

- reference management and deduplication;
- title/abstract and full-text screening;
- data extraction from research studies;
- knowledge-base documentation;
- collaborative systematic review and meta-analysis workflows.

### 2.2 Service Availability

We strive to maintain the Platform's availability but do not guarantee uninterrupted or error-free operation. We may suspend or discontinue the Service, or any part of it, temporarily or permanently, with reasonable notice where practicable.

### 2.3 Open Source

Portions of the Platform's codebase may be released as open-source software under their respective licenses. These Terms govern your use of the hosted Service, not the open-source code itself.

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## 3. Accounts and Authentication

### 3.1 Account Creation

The Platform may use Google OAuth or other authentication methods. By signing in through a third-party identity provider, you authorize us to receive account information necessary to authenticate you, such as your name, email address, and profile picture.

### 3.2 Account Security

You are responsible for maintaining the security of your account and for all activities that occur under it. You must notify us promptly if you suspect unauthorized access.

### 3.3 Account Roles

Users are assigned roles within projects. Your permissions depend on the role assigned to you by the project owner or administrator.

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## 4. User Content, Research Data, and Intellectual Property

### 4.1 Definitions

"User Content" means content you upload, create, or input into the Platform, including screening decisions, extraction entries, comments, knowledge-base text, project configurations, and project-specific metadata.

"Third-Party Materials" means materials that may be owned or controlled by someone other than you or us, including journal articles, PDFs, abstracts, tables, figures, publisher content, bibliographic records, and other copyrighted or licensed materials.

"Research Metadata" means bibliographic or study-level data used in systematic review workflows, including titles, authors, journal names, publication years, abstracts, identifiers, citations, and study characteristics.

### 4.2 Your Rights in User Content

As between you and us, you retain any rights you have in your User Content. We claim no ownership over your User Content. These Terms do not grant you ownership of Third-Party Materials or Research Metadata where those materials are owned or controlled by others.

### 4.3 License to Operate

You grant us a limited, non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, store, process, transmit, display, copy, and modify User Content solely as necessary to provide, maintain, secure, and improve the Service, comply with law, and enforce these Terms. This license ends when the relevant User Content is deleted from the Platform, subject to backup, audit, legal-retention, and dispute-resolution requirements described in our Privacy Policy and Data Retention Policy.

### 4.4 Platform Intellectual Property

All rights, title, and interest in the Platform's software, design, documentation, workflows, and branding, excluding User Content, remain with the Operator or applicable licensors. You may not copy, modify, reverse-engineer, or create derivative works of the Platform's proprietary components except as permitted by applicable open-source licenses or mandatory law.

### 4.5 Data Export

You should regularly export and back up your User Content. We will make reasonable efforts to maintain export functionality, but we do not guarantee that any specific export format, backup, or recovery capability will always be available.

### 4.6 Data Processing Agreement

Where you, your institution, or another organization acts as the controller of personal data contained in project content (as described in our [Privacy Policy](/legal/privacy)), the [Data Processing Agreement](/legal/dpa) is incorporated into and forms part of these Terms between that controller and the Operator, and governs the Operator's processing of such personal data on the controller's behalf. Institutions that require a countersigned copy may request execution of the same document as described in its appendix.

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## 5. Third-Party Materials, PDFs, and Copyright

### 5.1 User Responsibility

The Platform allows you to upload, reference, organize, or process Third-Party Materials, including PDF documents. You are solely responsible for ensuring that you have all rights, licenses, consents, permissions, institutional approvals, and legal bases necessary to upload, store, copy, process, share, extract from, or otherwise use any Third-Party Materials through the Platform.

Where PDF storage is enabled, PDF files and user research files are stored in user-controlled BYOK storage, not in Operator-controlled storage.

This responsibility includes compliance with copyright law, publisher terms, institutional access rules, database license terms, research ethics requirements, and any confidentiality obligations that apply to you or your organization.

### 5.2 Warranty

By uploading, inputting, or using User Content or Third-Party Materials on the Platform, you represent and warrant that:

- your use of that content does not infringe any third-party intellectual property, privacy, confidentiality, contractual, or other rights;
- you have all permissions needed to grant the operational license in Section 4.3;
- your use of the Platform complies with applicable law and institutional policies;
- you will not upload individual patient-level data unless you have a lawful basis and all required approvals.

### 5.3 No Copyright Monitoring

We do not routinely monitor, review, or verify the copyright status, license status, accuracy, legality, or appropriateness of User Content or Third-Party Materials. We may remove, disable access to, or restrict content if we believe it may violate these Terms, third-party rights, law, or platform security requirements.

### 5.4 No Long Verbatim Copying

You must not use the Platform to store or reproduce substantial verbatim portions of copyrighted articles, books, tables, figures, publisher PDFs, or other protected materials unless you have the legal right to do so. This restriction applies to extraction fields, notes, comments, knowledge-base pages, exports, and any other text fields.

Short quotations may be used only where legally permitted, necessary for the review workflow, appropriately attributed, and limited to the minimum amount needed.

### 5.5 Copyright and Takedown Notices

If you believe content on the Platform infringes your copyright or other rights, contact us at **info@yukifurukawa.jp** with:

- identification of the work or right allegedly infringed;
- identification of the content at issue and information sufficient for us to locate it;
- your name, email address, and, where appropriate, mailing address;
- a statement that you have a good-faith belief that the use is not authorized by the rights holder, its agent, or law;
- a statement that the information in your notice is accurate and that you are the rights holder or authorized to act on the rights holder's behalf;
- your physical or electronic signature.

We may forward the notice to the relevant user or project owner. We may remove, disable, or restrict access to the relevant content while we investigate. Users who repeatedly infringe third-party rights may have their accounts suspended or terminated.

If your content was removed or disabled in response to a notice and you believe the removal was mistaken, you may send us a counter-notice at the same address, including your contact details, identification of the removed content, and a good-faith statement explaining why the material does not infringe. We may restore the content if the original claimant does not pursue the matter within a reasonable period. Knowingly submitting a materially false infringement notice or counter-notice may make you liable for resulting damages under applicable law, including Section 512(f) of the U.S. Copyright Act where it applies.

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## 6. Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) and Third-Party Services

### 6.1 BYOK Supabase and User-Controlled Storage

The Platform may support a Bring Your Own Key model for PDF storage or related infrastructure. When you configure your own third-party storage service:

- PDFs and user research files are stored in the third-party storage service you configure, not in Operator-controlled storage;
- you are responsible for the security, availability, retention, deletion, access control, and compliance of that storage service;
- you are responsible for all costs incurred through your third-party account;
- you are responsible for ensuring that the selected storage region and provider meet your legal and institutional requirements;
- if you revoke or change credentials without updating them in the Platform, related functionality may stop working.

### 6.2 BYOK LLM and AI Features

LLM-assisted features are currently disabled platform-wide. If these features are re-enabled, they may require additional notice, consent, configuration, and Privacy Policy updates before use.

If you later choose to use a BYOK LLM feature, you will be responsible for compliance with the LLM provider's terms, costs, data-transfer requirements, and any institutional or legal approvals required for sending content to that provider.

### 6.3 Third-Party Services

The Platform may rely on third-party services for hosting, authentication, email, payments, storage, analytics, or other operational needs. Your use of third-party services may be subject to their own terms and privacy policies. We are not responsible for third-party services except to the extent required by applicable law.

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## 7. Acceptable Use

### 7.1 Permitted Use

The Platform is intended for academic and research workflow support, especially systematic reviews and meta-analyses.

### 7.2 Prohibited Conduct

You must not:

- use the Platform for any unlawful purpose;
- upload content that infringes third-party rights or violates confidentiality obligations;
- upload malicious code or attempt to compromise the Platform;
- attempt to access other users' accounts, projects, files, or data without authorization;
- interfere with or disrupt the Platform's infrastructure;
- use bots, scrapers, or automated tools except through documented APIs or with written permission;
- resell, sublicense, rent, or provide service-bureau access to the Platform without our written consent;
- use the Platform to build a competing product or service;
- store substantial verbatim copyrighted content without authorization;
- misrepresent research data, authorship, project affiliation, or permissions.

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## 8. Fees, Payment, and Refunds

### 8.1 Beta and Free Access

The Platform may offer beta access or free-tier access with limited functionality. The scope, limits, and availability of beta or free access may change at any time with reasonable notice where practicable.

### 8.2 Future Paid Plans

Paid plans are not currently available in production. If paid plans are introduced, payment may be processed through a third-party payment partner or merchant of record. That payment partner may handle checkout, invoicing, tax calculation, tax collection, tax remittance, payment disputes, chargebacks, and refunds. By subscribing to a paid plan, you may also be required to agree to that payment partner's terms.

<!-- Pending launch-bundled update: revise this section for the Paddle production flip and publish Japan Specified Commercial Transaction Act disclosures before paid checkout is enabled. -->

### 8.3 Refunds

Except where required by applicable law, where a payment partner determines that a refund is required, or where we expressly agree otherwise in writing, fees are non-refundable. If you cancel a subscription after paid plans become available, you will generally retain access until the end of the paid billing period unless the applicable plan terms or payment partner terms state otherwise.

### 8.4 Specified Commercial Transaction Act (Japan)

For users in Japan, disclosures under the Act on Specified Commercial Transactions will be made available before paid plans are offered, and will identify the Operator as the service provider and our Merchant of Record (Paddle) as the seller of record for payment. Address and telephone number may be disclosed without delay upon request where permitted by law. Distance sales in Japan are not subject to a statutory cooling-off period.

### 8.5 Consumer Right of Withdrawal (EEA and UK)

If you are a consumer in the EEA or the United Kingdom, you generally have the right to withdraw from a distance contract within 14 days without giving a reason. Because the Platform is a digital service that is made available to you immediately, you expressly request and consent to performance of the Service beginning during the withdrawal period. If you withdraw within the 14-day period after performance has begun at your request, you may be charged an amount proportionate to the Service provided up to the time you informed us of your withdrawal, in accordance with applicable consumer law; your right of withdrawal is lost once the Service has been fully performed. Where paid plans are enabled, withdrawal and refund requests are administered by our Merchant of Record (Paddle) at checkout and in accordance with applicable consumer law. Nothing in this Section affects mandatory consumer rights that cannot be waived under the law of your country of habitual residence.

**How to withdraw.** To exercise the right of withdrawal, inform our Merchant of Record, Paddle.com Market Ltd, of your decision by an unequivocal statement — using the refund links in your transaction confirmation email, through https://paddle.net ("Request refund"), or by any other clear written statement. You may (but are not required to) use the following model withdrawal form:

> **Model Withdrawal Form**
> — To Paddle.com Market Ltd (Merchant of Record for the Living SR&MA Platform), via https://paddle.net or the contact details in your transaction confirmation email:
> — I hereby give notice that I withdraw from my contract for the supply of the following service: Living SR&MA Platform subscription (plan: ____________).
> — Ordered on: ____________
> — Name of consumer: ____________
> — Address of consumer: ____________
> — Signature of consumer (only if this form is notified on paper): ____________
> — Date: ____________

To meet the withdrawal deadline, it is sufficient to send your communication concerning the exercise of the right of withdrawal before the 14-day withdrawal period has expired.

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## 9. Termination and Data Handling

### 9.1 By You

You may request deletion of your account through the Platform or by contacting us. Account deletion, anonymization, retention, backups, and audit-log handling are governed by our Privacy Policy and Data Retention Policy.

### 9.2 By Us

We may suspend or terminate your account, project access, or specific functionality if:

- you breach these Terms;
- your use poses a security, legal, operational, or reputational risk;
- your content is alleged to infringe third-party rights;
- we are required to do so by law;
- the Platform or relevant beta program is discontinued.

Where practicable, we will provide notice and an opportunity to export User Content before termination, but we may act without prior notice where needed to protect users, third parties, the Platform, or legal compliance.

### 9.3 Service Discontinuation

If we decide to permanently discontinue the hosted Platform after general public launch, we will make reasonable efforts to provide at least 90 days' advance notice and keep export functionality available during that notice period. Beta services may be discontinued with shorter notice where necessary.

### 9.4 Effect of Termination

Upon termination, your right to use the Platform ceases immediately. Sections that by their nature should survive termination, including Sections 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14, shall survive.

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## 10. Disclaimers

### 10.1 Disclaimer of Warranties

THE PLATFORM IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, ACCURACY, AVAILABILITY, SECURITY, OR ERROR-FREE OPERATION, TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.

We do not warrant that:

- the Platform will meet your requirements;
- the Platform will be uninterrupted, secure, timely, or error-free;
- outputs, suggestions, exports, calculations, or decisions will be accurate or reliable;
- any User Content or Third-Party Materials will be preserved, recoverable, lawful, or complete;
- any errors will be corrected.

The Platform assists users in organizing and managing research workflows. It does not replace professional judgment, legal judgment, copyright review, research integrity review, institutional review, or methodological expertise. You are solely responsible for the accuracy, legality, copyright compliance, ethical compliance, and scientific validity of all data you upload and all decisions you make using the Platform.

### 10.2 Consumer Protection Savings Clause

This Service is designed for professional and research use. To the extent consumer protection laws in your jurisdiction apply and override any provision of these Terms, those provisions shall be deemed modified to the minimum extent necessary to comply with such mandatory laws.

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## 11. Limitation of Liability

### 11.1 Exclusion of Damages

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, THE OPERATOR SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, INCLUDING LOSS OF DATA, LOSS OF PROFITS, LOSS OF RESEARCH RESULTS, LOSS OF GOODWILL, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, RESEARCH INTERRUPTION, OR COSTS OF SUBSTITUTE SERVICES, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH YOUR USE OF THE PLATFORM.

### 11.2 Liability Cap

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, EXCEPT AS STATED IN SECTION 11.3, THE OPERATOR'S TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SERVICE SHALL NOT EXCEED THE TOTAL AMOUNT YOU PAID TO US FOR THE SERVICE IN THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS PRECEDING THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM.

### 11.3 Exceptions

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, willful misconduct or gross negligence of the Operator, its representatives, officers, employees, agents, or contractors, or any liability that cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law.

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## 12. Indemnification

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, you agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless the Operator from and against any claims, demands, damages, losses, liabilities, costs, and expenses, including reasonable attorneys' fees, arising out of or related to:

- your User Content or Third-Party Materials;
- your breach of these Terms;
- your violation of law, institutional policy, publisher terms, or third-party rights;
- your use of BYOK storage, BYOK LLM providers, or other third-party services;
- disputes between you and collaborators, project owners, institutions, publishers, or other third parties.

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## 13. Assignment and Transfer

You may not assign or transfer your rights or obligations under these Terms without our prior written consent.

We may assign or transfer these Terms, and may transfer or novate your account and associated data, in whole or in part, to a successor entity in connection with a reorganization, incorporation, merger, or transfer of all or substantially all of the business or assets to which the Service relates. Any successor must expressly assume the same privacy, security, and data-processing obligations, including any applicable data processing agreement obligations, that apply to the Operator under these Terms and related legal documents. The successor may use transferred account data and associated data only for the purposes for which the data was processed before the transfer, unless another lawful basis and any required notice or consent apply.

We will give you reasonable prior notice by email or through the Service before any transfer that changes the controller identity for your personal data. If you do not agree to the transfer, your sole remedy is to terminate your account before the transfer takes effect.

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## 14. Governing Law and Dispute Resolution

### 14.1 Governing Law

These Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Japan, without regard to conflict-of-law principles.

### 14.2 Jurisdiction

Any disputes arising out of or in connection with these Terms shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Tokyo District Court as the court of first instance.

### 14.3 Consumer Savings Clause

Nothing in these Terms deprives a consumer of the protection afforded by mandatory provisions of the law of the country in which the consumer is habitually resident. Where such mandatory provisions apply, they prevail over this Section 14 to the extent of any conflict.

### 14.4 Informal Resolution

Before filing a formal dispute, you agree to attempt to resolve the matter informally by contacting us at **info@yukifurukawa.jp**. We will attempt to resolve the dispute within 30 days.

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## 15. Contact

For questions, notices, copyright concerns, or support related to these Terms:

**Yuki Furukawa** (古川由己)
Email: info@yukifurukawa.jp
Website: https://sleepi.yukifurukawa.jp

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