Terms of service

These terms govern your use of Pagemark, a platform for publishing and discovering academic and creative work. Pagemark is operated by Pagemark HQ LLC, a Texas limited liability company (Texas Secretary of State file number 806711888), referred to in these terms as Pagemark, we, or us. By creating an account or using the site, you agree to these terms. If you don't agree, please don't use Pagemark.

Eligibility and your account

You must be at least 16 years old to use Pagemark, and older than that if the place you live sets a higher minimum age for using an online service without a parent's permission. If we learn that an account holder is younger than the age that applies to them, we will close the account and delete its data. You're responsible for your account: keep your password secure, keep your account information accurate, and don't impersonate another person or institution. You may delete your account at any time from Account settings.

Your work stays yours

You keep full ownership of everything you publish on Pagemark, your theses, papers, designs, documents, images, and writing. Posting your work does not transfer your copyright or any other ownership right to us. What is yours stays yours.

To run the service, you grant Pagemark a limited, non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, revocable license to host, store, reproduce, reformat for display, publicly display, and distribute the content you post, solely to operate and provide Pagemark. For example, this lets us store your files, make backups, convert work into the formats needed to show it across devices, display your project pages to the people you share them with, and list public work in search and discovery. You will not be paid for these rights, and this license does not let us sell your content. Apart from the aggregate-information use described in our Privacy policy, and any project you have specifically chosen to let us feature, we do not use your content for any purpose beyond running the service. The license ends when you remove the content or delete your account. After that we stop displaying and distributing it within a reasonable period, though removed content may remain in routine backups for a short time before it is overwritten.

Featuring public projects

If you are 18 or older, Pagemark may feature a project you have set to Public, together with your display name and profile photo, in material promoting Pagemark itself: our website, our social media accounts, our email, and our press materials, including paid promotion of those posts.

We credit you, and we will not state or imply that you endorse Pagemark. We may crop, resize, format, or show excerpts of a project for presentation, but we will not materially change what your work communicates.

You can turn this off at any time in Settings, for your whole account. If you do, we stop making new promotional material featuring your work and remove existing material from channels we reasonably control within a reasonable period. We cannot recall emails already sent, printed material, press coverage, or copies other people have shared or reposted.

This applies only to projects set to Public, and never to a project you have marked as published elsewhere. You need to have the rights and permissions for us to feature the project, including for any co-authored material or third-party images, figures, or recordings inside it. We will not show a co-author's name or photo unless that person has given their own permission.

This permission is limited to promoting Pagemark itself. It does not let us use your identity or your work to advertise another company's products or services, license your work to another company, or present you as recommending or endorsing Pagemark. We would ask you first.

In plain terms: this is how we show real work to people who haven't found Pagemark yet. Think of a project spotlight on our Instagram, or a short video showing a page you made, always with your name on it. It never puts your work in another company's ad, never sells it, and never presents you as a spokesperson. If you would rather not take part at all, one switch in Settings turns it off.

Your representations and warranties

Each time you post content, you represent and warrant that:

• You own the content, or you have all rights, licenses, and permissions needed to post it and to grant the license described above.
• Your content does not and will not infringe, misappropriate, or violate anyone else's copyright, trademark, privacy, or other rights.
• Posting does not breach any agreement you are bound by. This includes a copyright-transfer or publishing agreement with a journal or publisher, an embargo, or any prior-publication, exclusivity, or confidentiality term that applies to the work.
• Every co-author and contributor has agreed to the work being posted here.
• The work does not reveal confidential information, medical or patient details, student records, or information about research subjects, unless you have the authority to share it.
• Posting does not break a grant, funder, sponsor, or institutional agreement, or a court order.
• Any figures, images, datasets, or excerpts by someone else that appear in the work are included with permission or under a legal exception, with attribution where it is required.

You are solely responsible for confirming that you have the right to share your work, including any work that may be covered by a publisher or institutional agreement. If you are unsure whether you may post something, do not post it until you have confirmed your rights.

Indemnification

You agree to indemnify Pagemark against third-party claims, damages, and reasonable costs, including reasonable legal fees, to the extent they arise from (a) content you post or make available through Pagemark, or (b) your breach of the promises you make above about ownership, permissions, privacy, and intellectual-property rights. The realistic case is work posted without the right to share it: work covered by a publisher agreement or embargo, a co-author who never agreed, or someone else's material inside your own.

This does not cover anything caused by Pagemark's own negligence or misconduct, by changes Pagemark makes to your work, or by Pagemark's use of your work in its own marketing.

If a claim arises, Pagemark will tell you promptly, you control the defense using competent counsel, Pagemark may participate with its own counsel at its own cost, and you will not settle in a way that admits fault on Pagemark's behalf or imposes obligations on it without its agreement. Pagemark will cooperate reasonably with your defense.

What you may publish

• Only work you have the right to share. When you post a project you certify that you authored it or have permission from all authors and rights-holders to publish it.
• Check your obligations first: some journals, conferences, advisors, or funding agreements restrict where work may be posted. That responsibility is yours.
• No plagiarism, no passing off others' work as your own, and no content that infringes copyright or violates the law.

Acceptable use

• Be civil in discussions, no harassment, hate, or personal attacks. Comments should be questions and constructive feedback.
• Don't misuse the platform: no spam, no scraping accounts or content at scale, no attempting to break or bypass security measures.
• Don't upload malicious files or content unrelated to academic and creative work.

Other people's information

If you use Pagemark to access, collect, or use personal information about other people on Pagemark, you agree to do so only in compliance with applicable law. You agree not to sell that information, and not to scrape, harvest, or bulk-collect it by automated means. If you give us personal information about someone else, you confirm you collected it lawfully and gave any notices and obtained any consents the law requires.

Reports and removal

Anyone can report a project (for plagiarism, stolen work, or other violations) from its page. We review reports and may remove content or suspend accounts that violate these terms.

Termination and suspension

You may stop using Pagemark and delete your account at any time from Account settings. Pagemark may suspend or terminate an account, or remove content, if it breaks these terms, creates legal risk, or harms the platform or its users, and where practical Pagemark will tell you why. When an account is terminated, the license you granted ends and Pagemark stops displaying and distributing the content. The parts of these terms that should outlast your use of the service, such as ownership, your representations and warranties, indemnification, dispute resolution, and the limitation of liability, continue to apply.

Copyright and DMCA takedown

Pagemark respects the intellectual property rights of others and expects the same from its users. We respond to clear notices of alleged copyright infringement under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”). To file a notice, email our designated agent at legal@pagemarkhq.com with the following, as required by 17 U.S.C. 512(c)(3):

• Your physical or electronic signature, as a person authorized to act for the owner of the right that is allegedly infringed.
• Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to be infringed (or a representative list, if several works are covered by one notice).
• Identification of the material claimed to be infringing, with enough information to let us locate it, such as the project link.
• Your contact information, including an address, telephone number, and email address.
• A statement that you have a good faith belief the use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
• A statement that the information is accurate, and under penalty of perjury that you are authorized to act for the owner of the right.

When we receive a valid notice, we remove or disable access to the material within a reasonable period and, where appropriate, notify the person who posted it. If you believe your content was removed by mistake or misidentification, you may send a counter-notification to the same address that meets the requirements of 17 U.S.C. 512(g); we may then restore the material in 10 to 14 business days unless the original complainant notifies us that they have filed a court action. We terminate the accounts of repeat infringers in appropriate circumstances.

For our designated copyright agent's contact details and the full notice and counter-notification procedure, see our Copyright and DMCA policy.

Institution names and logos

Pagemark provides a public page for every US college and university so members of each school community can share their work under their school's name. School names, logos, other marks, and institutional colors or branding belong to their respective institutions. Pagemark displays them only to identify the institution a person, project, or page refers to, and their appearance does not mean a school sponsors, endorses, or is affiliated with Pagemark. Where a logo's source requires attribution, the credit appears on the page that shows it.

If you represent an institution and would like to claim its page, correct how the school appears, or request that its logo, colors, or other branding be changed or removed, use the “Claim this page” link on the school's page or email legal@pagemarkhq.com. We review these requests promptly and honor reasonable ones.

The service

Pagemark is provided as is and as available, without warranties of any kind. We work to keep the service reliable and your content available, but we can't guarantee uninterrupted operation. Pagemark is a hosting and discovery platform, the content of each project is the responsibility of its author, and appearing on Pagemark is not an endorsement or a peer review.

Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Pagemark is not liable for indirect, incidental, or consequential damages, lost data, or lost opportunities arising from your use of the site. To the maximum extent permitted by law, Pagemark's total liability to you for any claim relating to the service is limited to the greater of one hundred US dollars, or the amount you paid Pagemark to use the service in the twelve months before the claim.

These limits do not apply to liability that the law does not allow to be limited or excluded, or to fraud, gross negligence, recklessness, or willful misconduct. Nothing in these terms waives or limits any right you have under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act or any other consumer-protection law that cannot be waived in advance.

Resolving disputes

In short: if we have a dispute we can't settle by talking, we each agree to bring it in individual arbitration rather than in court, and not as part of a class action. You can opt out within 30 days and nothing else changes. You can always use small-claims court.

Talk to us first. Before either of us starts an arbitration or a lawsuit, that side agrees to email the other describing the problem and what they want done about it, legal@pagemarkhq.com for us, the email on your account for you, and both sides then have 30 days to try to resolve it. This binds Pagemark exactly as much as it binds you.

Agreement to arbitrate. If we can't resolve it, you and Pagemark agree that any dispute arising out of or relating to these terms or your use of Pagemark will be resolved by binding individual arbitration, administered by the American Arbitration Association under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, before a single arbitrator. The Federal Arbitration Act governs this agreement. The arbitrator's decision can be entered as a judgment in any court with jurisdiction. You and Pagemark are each giving up the right to a trial before a judge or jury.

Your right to opt out. You can opt out by emailing legal@pagemarkhq.com with your account email and the words “opt out of arbitration” within 30 days of first agreeing to these terms. Opting out costs nothing, changes nothing else in these terms, and will never be held against you. If you opt out, disputes go to the courts named in “Governing law”.

What is not covered. Either side may bring a qualifying claim in small-claims court. Either side may also ask a court for an injunction to protect intellectual property, or to stop unauthorized access to the service or attempts to break its security. Nothing here stops you from reporting anything to a government agency.

Who decides what. The arbitrator decides questions about the interpretation, scope, and enforceability of this arbitration agreement. Whether an agreement was formed at all is for a court to decide.

Where and how. Arbitration will be conducted by documents, phone, or video wherever the AAA rules allow. If an in-person hearing is needed, it happens in the county where you live or somewhere we both agree. Pagemark will pay all arbitration filing, administration, and arbitrator fees for any claim you bring, above what it would have cost you to file the same claim in court, unless the arbitrator finds the claim frivolous. Each side otherwise pays its own legal fees, except where the law says otherwise.

Many similar claims. If a large number of similar demands are filed against Pagemark at around the same time by or with the help of the same lawyers or firms, and they qualify as a mass arbitration under the AAA's Mass Arbitration Supplementary Rules, those rules govern how the demands are administered.

Time to bring a claim. Any dispute must be filed within one year after the claim arose. Otherwise it is permanently barred.

If part of this doesn't hold. If the class-action waiver below is found unenforceable as to a particular claim, that claim alone goes to court and the rest of this section still applies to everything else. If any part of this section is found to prohibit a claim seeking public injunctive relief, that part has no effect to the extent such relief must be available outside arbitration, and the rest of this section still applies. This section survives the end of your account. Any future change to this section applies only going forward and does not affect a dispute that already exists.

Individual claims only

You and Pagemark each agree to bring claims only on your own behalf, and not as a plaintiff or class member in any class, collective, consolidated, or representative action. The arbitrator may award relief only to the individual party seeking it, and only as needed to resolve that party's own claim, and may not award relief to anyone who is not a party. If a court decides this paragraph is unenforceable as to a particular claim or request for relief, that claim or request is severed and heard in court, and everything else stays in individual arbitration. This does not apply to any claim the law says cannot be waived.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Texas, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. For any dispute not subject to arbitration under the section above, a small-claims matter, a request for an injunction, or any claim if the arbitration agreement is found not to apply, you agree it will be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Collin County, Texas, and you consent to the personal jurisdiction of those courts.

Feedback

If you send us comments, ideas, or suggestions about Pagemark, we may use them for any purpose without any obligation to you, and we will not treat them as confidential. This does not apply to the work you publish on Pagemark, which is covered above and stays yours.

General terms

• If any part of these terms is found unenforceable, the rest stays in effect.
• These terms, together with the Privacy policy and the Copyright and DMCA policy, are the entire agreement between you and Pagemark about the service.
• If Pagemark does not enforce a part of these terms right away, that is not a waiver of its right to do so later.
• You may not transfer your rights under these terms to someone else. Pagemark may transfer its rights, for example if the service is acquired or reorganized.
• Pagemark may change, add, or discontinue features of the service as it develops.
• Pagemark is operated by Pagemark HQ LLC. These terms are between you and that company, not with any individual.
• If we change these terms, the changes apply going forward only. They do not change how a dispute that already exists between us is handled.
• Pagemark is free to use today. We may introduce paid features later. If we do, we will make clear what costs money before you pay for anything, and the work you have already posted stays yours on the same terms.
• Formal legal notices to Pagemark should be sent by email to legal@pagemarkhq.com.

Changes

We may update these terms as the product evolves. If changes are material we will update the effective date above and give notice in the product before they take effect, and those changes will apply only going forward. This revision names Pagemark HQ LLC as the operator, adds a Featuring section and a setting that let you choose whether Pagemark may feature your public work in its own marketing, adds an agreement to resolve disputes by individual arbitration with a 30-day opt-out and a class-action waiver, raises the minimum age to 16, and makes related changes. Continuing to use Pagemark after a change takes effect means you accept the updated terms.

Contact

Questions about these terms: legal@pagemarkhq.com.