Terms of Service

1. Parties and Acceptance

These Terms of Service (the “Terms”) form a legal agreement between you and the developer of Academic Cat (学术猫, the “Service”).

By downloading, installing, opening, or using the Service, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agree to these Terms and our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, please stop using the App and uninstall it.

2. The Service

The Service is a paper tool for Chinese-speaking researchers. Its main features include:

• arXiv paper search, subject category browsing, trending papers, and daily update recommendations;
• paper details, author information, and references;
• “Ultra-short summaries” and “AI interpretation” generated by a large language model;
• title/abstract translation, and translation of English paper PDFs into Chinese;
• daily briefs per subject category;
• in-app PDF reading and download, and local file management;
• AI chat about papers and PDF files;
• favorites, favorite folders, reading history, and cross-device sync;
• paper PDF delivery by email (the “paper delivery email” feature);
• membership subscriptions and purchase restoration;
• the companion “Academic Cat” Chrome browser extension.

We may add, change, or discontinue features as the product evolves, and will give reasonable notice where appropriate.

3. Accounts and Sign-In

• You may sign in with Apple, WeChat, or an email one-time code, and may bind multiple sign-in methods later in Settings → Account Management.
• You must provide an email address that is valid, reachable, and belongs to you.
• If multiple third-party identities are bound to the same account and each previously had its own separate account, you may be offered an account merge. Merging moves the data associated with that identity into one account; the previous account is deactivated and can no longer be accessed through that identity alone. Read the merge notice carefully before confirming.
• You are responsible for keeping your device and credentials secure. Activity performed through your account is treated as yours. Contact us immediately if you believe someone else is using your account.
• You can review and end sessions on other devices in Account Management → Signed-in devices.

4. Acceptable Use

When using the Service you agree not to:

• scrape, crawl, or call our APIs in bulk through automated scripts, or otherwise circumvent daily quotas and rate limits;
• resell or redistribute AI-generated output or translated text at scale, or use it to train a competing model;
• submit or request unlawful, infringing, obscene, violent, hateful, or privacy-violating content;
• reverse engineer, decompile, modify, re-sign, or distribute modified versions of the App;
• interfere with the normal operation of the Service, or attempt unauthorized access to our servers, databases, or other users’ data;
• use the Service to infringe the intellectual property or trade secrets of others;
• use the Service for any purpose that violates the laws of the People’s Republic of China, including endangering national security, disclosing state secrets, or undermining ethnic unity.

If you breach these rules, we may restrict features, lower quotas, suspend, or terminate your account depending on severity. In serious cases we may report to the competent authorities as required by law.

5. AI-Generated Content and Translation

• AI output and machine translation are not legal, medical, investment, or any other form of professional advice.
• To the extent permitted by law, AI output and translations are provided “as is”, and we make no warranty as to their accuracy, completeness, or fitness for a particular purpose.
• Machine translation may contain terminology errors or semantic drift. For formal citation, refer to the original English text.
• Translated files have a validity period; they must be regenerated after expiry. Download or save them before they expire.
• Do not enter government ID numbers, bank card numbers, home addresses, health information, other people’s private data, or similar sensitive information into AI conversations.
• AI features for non-members are subject to a daily quota, which may change with our operating policy.

Where the Service provides generative AI features, they are offered in accordance with applicable Chinese regulations including the Interim Measures for the Administration of Generative Artificial Intelligence Services. We apply necessary safety measures to generated content but are not responsible for every model output.

6. Membership, Payment, and Refunds

• The App offers monthly, yearly, lifetime, and single-purchase plans. The plans, prices, and entitlements shown on the in-app membership page at the time of purchase govern.
• Purchases on iOS are processed by the Apple App Store and charged to your Apple ID upon confirmation. Purchases made inside WeChat are processed by WeChat Pay.
• Auto-renewable memberships renew within 24 hours before the end of the current period unless auto-renew is turned off before that time. On iOS you can manage or cancel in Settings → Apple ID → Subscriptions.
• Lifetime plans are a one-time purchase with no auto-renewal.
• For App Store purchases, refunds are handled by Apple under its refund policy. We cannot approve or deny refunds directly. You can request one through Apple’s “Report a Problem” page.
• You can restore previously purchased entitlements at any time using “Restore Purchases” on the same Apple ID.
• We reserve the right to change prices and entitlements. Changes do not affect the current membership period you have already paid for.

7. Intellectual Property

7.1 Paper content

Paper titles, abstracts, author information, and PDF files shown in the Service come from public academic platforms such as arXiv, and copyright remains with the original authors or rights holders. The Service only provides search, display, and reading assistance and claims no rights in that content. Your use of paper content must comply with the source platform’s license and the Copyright Law of the People’s Republic of China. Translated text is for your personal study and research use only.

7.2 The App

The App’s interface design, icons, copy, code, and related assets are our intellectual property. You may not copy, modify, distribute, or use them commercially without written permission.

7.3 Your content

Conversations, favorite folders, annotations, and reading records you create belong to you. To operate the Service (for example cross-device sync and AI generation), you grant us a non-exclusive, revocable license to store, transmit, and process that content only as necessary to provide the Service. The license ends when you delete the content or your account.

8. Changes, Interruptions, and Termination

• We may temporarily interrupt the Service for maintenance, upgrades, outages, or failures of third-party services (AI models, push delivery, cloud infrastructure), and will try to give notice in advance.
• The Service depends on arXiv and third-party AI providers. If a third-party API changes, rate-limits, or shuts down, related features may be limited or unavailable.
• You may stop using the App at any time. You can delete your account in Settings → Account Management; afterwards we will delete the associated server-side data within a reasonable period.
• If you materially breach these Terms, we may suspend or terminate your access to all or part of the Service.

9. Disclaimer of Warranties

The Service is provided “as is” and “as available”. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, we make no express or implied warranty that:

• the Service will be uninterrupted, timely, secure, or error-free;
• search results, paper metadata, AI-generated content, or machine translation are accurate, complete, or meet your expectations;
• PDF files downloaded through the Service are identical to the original version.

To the extent permitted by law we are not liable for service interruptions or data loss caused by network conditions, device failures, OS upgrades, third-party outages, or force majeure, though we will make reasonable efforts to help you recover.

10. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, we are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, or punitive damages arising from your use of or inability to use the Service, including lost profits, lost data, or lost research output. Our total aggregate liability for direct damages in any case will not exceed the amount you actually paid for the Service in the 12 months preceding the claim.

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability that cannot be excluded or limited by law.

11. Minors

If you are under 18, please read these Terms with a parent or guardian and use the Service, including paid features, only with their consent.

12. Changes to These Terms

We may revise these Terms to reflect feature changes, legal requirements, or operational needs. The revised Terms are published on this page with a new “Last updated” date. If a change materially affects your rights, we will highlight it in the App. Continuing to use the Service after the effective date means you accept the revised Terms.

13. Governing Law and Disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the People’s Republic of China, excluding its conflict-of-law rules. Disputes arising from these Terms should first be resolved through good-faith negotiation; if that fails, either party may bring an action in the competent people’s court at the defendant’s domicile.

14. General

• If any provision is held invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions stay in effect.
• Our failure or delay in exercising a right under these Terms is not a waiver of that right.
• These Terms together with the Privacy Policy are the entire agreement between you and us regarding the Service.

15. Contact

Questions about these Terms:

Email: arxivchat@gmail.com