Trust
Trust & Integrity
Two parts: how The Clerk handles your text and keys, and where JEMSPRO sets out its own policies.
Part I · The Clerk
Your text, your keys, your call
What leaves your device, where it goes, and what is kept, as The Clerk actually behaves.
Your text
- Text is sent only when you start a check, and only the text that check needs: usually the passage you selected (or pasted, in a browser), with any study context, manuscript profile or reviewer comment you have set. The Clerk never scans your document on its own; section sweeps and whole-document scans run only when you start them.
- The text goes to this site's server, which passes it to the AI provider of the model you chose (or the default model, if you did not choose one). Detector check sends the selected text to Pangram. What each provider keeps is governed by that provider's own data policy.
- This site's server does not store your text. When a request fails, it logs why: The Clerk's own code never writes your text, or a model's reply to it, to those logs, and provider error messages are cleaned of anything that looks like a key before they are logged or shown. (The Clerk's local build, run on your own computer, also keeps a copy of your manuscript profiles on that computer.)
- Deep Research works at the journal level: your manuscript is never sent to it. Find gaps in this journal sends a short study summary from your manuscript profile, never the manuscript itself.
- Nothing in your document changes until you choose to apply an edit.
What stays in your browser
- Your own API keys (Settings → Your own API keys) are kept in this browser's storage on your device. They are not written to your document, and Data backup files leave them out.
- Your access code (Settings → Access code) is kept in this browser only, and Data backup files leave it out.
- Manuscript profiles, the reviewer comment bank and your check history are kept in this browser's storage. History is on by default; turn it off under Settings → Privacy.
Keys
- Your own keys travel only with your own requests to this site's
/api/clerk/*routes, in one request header. For that request only, a provider call uses your key instead of the site's. When the request ends, the key is cleared from the server's memory. Keys are never written to disk, cached beyond the request, or logged. - This site's own keys live in the server's environment and are never sent to your browser.
- Deep Research always uses this site's own key, never yours.
- Your key is only as private as your device and your HTTPS connection to this site.
Access codes and daily limits
Access codes and daily limits exist to protect the site's own keys. When the site uses access codes, a request on its keys needs a valid code; each pilot member has their own. Requests on your own keys never need one.
Daily limits apply per person and across the whole site, to AI requests, detector scans and the site's other paid services. With a code, your use is counted under the code's hash, never the code itself. The counters hold numbers only, never text or keys. A code lasts 30 days from the first time this site accepts it; to know when, the site keeps that end date under the code's hash, never the code itself. Requests on your own keys are not counted toward these limits. If the counters cannot be checked, requests on the site's keys are refused rather than run without limits.
A code is a shared secret, not a sign-in. The Clerk has no user accounts.
On the hosted site the server also adds up its use by day, for the person who runs it: how many requests of each kind of check, the model chosen or that ran, the provider, an estimated cost, the detector's band, whether a request succeeded, was refused or failed, and whether the site's keys or your own paid. Requests on your own keys are added up too, as numbers only. Under a code they are kept under a one-way reference, never the code. No text, prompt, reply, finding or key is part of them. The dashboard shows 90 days, and the store deletes each day a day later. With your code you can see your own figures, and only yours, on the usage page (/clerk/usage). Opening that page with a code counts as using it: if the code has not been used before, its 30 days start then, as they would in The Clerk.
If you ask for a pilot place with the form on the pilot page, what you enter there (name, email, institution, field and what you would use The Clerk for) is kept for the person who runs this site to read and answer by email, and for nothing else. Your internet address is not stored; a one-way hash of it is counted for an hour to limit repeated requests.
Detector scores
A detector score is a signal for your own review, never proof of how a text was written. Detector check shows how a passage reads to Pangram, so you can decide what to revise in your own voice. It is not a verdict on who wrote the text, and it should not be used as one.
Part II · JEMSPRO
The journal's policies
JEMSPRO sets out its policies on its own site, jemspro.org. This part says where each one is, and does not rewrite it: the journal's pages govern.
Peer review
The journal is peer-reviewed. It sets out its review process, from receipt to review, under About the journal.
Summary by EmpiricQuest of the journal's About page; the journal's pages govern.
Publication ethics
The journal's ethics policy covers authorship, data, conflicts of interest, similarity checks, corrections, research with people and animals, and how to report misconduct.
Summary by EmpiricQuest of the journal's ethics policy; the journal's pages govern.
Open access and fees
The journal is open access: it sets out what readers may do with its articles under About the journal.
JEMSPRO is supported by article processing charges (APCs). The APC is USD 100 per accepted manuscript, payable following acceptance and before publication. A 20% waiver applies where the submitting author's institutional affiliation is in sub-Saharan Africa or elsewhere in the Global South, reducing the charge to USD 80. There are no submission fees. Reading is free (open access).
Licences
JEMSPRO articles are published open access under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence (CC BY 4.0). Authors retain copyright in their articles.
The journal's ethics policy states the licence its published work carries. Each article's record states it too, and the current issue on this site shows it as the records give it.
Summary by EmpiricQuest of the journal's ethics policy; the journal's pages govern.
Editorial team and contact
The Editor-in-Chief is Rhonda McClam, PhD. The journal lists its editorial team and its editorial office; more on JEMSPRO.
Decisions to accept, revise or reject manuscripts are made by the Editor-in-Chief and the journal's editors, on the basis of scholarly merit and the reports of peer reviewers. The publisher, EmpiricQuest LLC, does not take part in or interfere with editorial decisions. Decisions are not influenced by the payment of article processing charges or by any other commercial consideration.