The Clerk
Terms of Use
The Terms of Use for The Clerk, a Microsoft Word add-in for scholarly writing. They are separate from the Privacy Policy.
What The Clerk does
The Clerk is a Microsoft Word add-in for scholarly writing. It sits in a task pane beside your document, reads the passage you select, and suggests edits. Nothing in your document changes until you choose to apply an edit.
The Clerk works on the passage you select, or on a section or document only when you start a sweep. It never scans your document on its own.
Your responsibility for your writing
You stay in charge of your writing. Review every suggestion before you apply it, and keep your own judgment in control. The Clerk is a practical assistant, not a substitute for your authorship, your supervisor, your editor, or your journal's instructions.
A detector score is a signal for your own review, never proof of how a text was written. Do not use it as a verdict on authorship.
You are responsible for the text you submit, including its originality, citations, and compliance with your institution and journal rules.
Access codes
To use this site's own AI keys, you need a valid access code, unless you use your own API keys.
A code lasts 30 days from the first time this site accepts it. It is a shared secret, not a sign-in. The Clerk has no user accounts. Keep your code private. Opening the usage page (/clerk/usage) with a code counts as using it, and starts its 30 days if it has not been used before.
Price, renewal, and what happens when a code expires: To be confirmed by the publisher.
Your own API keys
If you add your own provider keys under Settings → Your own API keys, no access code is needed for checks on those keys. You pay your provider under that provider's terms. Your keys stay in your browser and travel only with your own requests to this site. You are responsible for keeping your keys private on your device.
Daily limits and availability
Daily limits apply per person and across the whole site, to AI requests, detector scans and the site's other paid services, to protect the site's own keys. If the counters cannot be checked, requests on the site's keys are refused rather than run without limits.
The Clerk is provided as a hosted service and may be unavailable during maintenance, provider outages, or platform changes.
Acceptable use
Do not use The Clerk to misrepresent authorship, to submit work you do not own, to evade academic integrity rules, or to break the law. Do not try to bypass access codes, daily limits, or provider gating, and do not probe, overload, or interfere with the service.
What happens on misuse, including suspension or refusal of service: To be confirmed by the publisher.
Intellectual property
Your document remains yours. The Clerk does not claim ownership of your text.
The Clerk, its name, and its site content remain the property of the publisher, except for third party models, detectors, and public sources it calls on your behalf, which remain theirs.
Liability
To be confirmed by the publisher.
Changes
These terms may change, with the last updated date changed and the new version posted on this page. Continued use after a change means you accept the new terms.
Notice period for material changes: To be confirmed by the publisher.
Contact
For questions about these terms, contact info@empiricquest.com.