Policy
Privacy
This page is generated from the same configuration that governs the running service. It describes what the software actually does — not aspirations.
What happens to a citation you check
Submissions are processed in memory and discarded after the response. Cached provider responses (keyed by a hash of the query) expire within 24 hours. Citation checks are sent with POST requests, so your submitted text never appears in a URL, browser history, or server access log line.
What is logged
Routine logs record provider names, error types, and timing — not the text you paste. Full submissions are not written to ordinary request logs.
Where your query travels
To check a citation, its bibliographic details (or identifier) are sent as queries to the enabled scholarly metadata providers listed on the Data Sources page. Those providers receive the bibliographic details needed to perform the lookup and apply their own terms; see the Data Sources page for the current list.
Cookies
One session cookie is used for security (request forgery protection and rate limiting). No advertising or tracking cookies.
Analytics
No analytics service is currently used. No third-party scripts run on the checker, and nothing records your form input.
AI and model training
No external AI service receives your submissions, and submitted text is not used to train any model.
Accounts
No account is required for the core free checker, and none is offered.
Search-engine indexing of results
Pages that contain your submitted content are marked noindex, and social-preview metadata never includes submitted citation text.
Contact
Privacy questions: privacy@citationcheck.org
Last verified against the implementation: 2026-08-07.