Terms of Use

By using this site you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Notice. If you do not agree, please do not use the site.

1. What this site is

Awesome Papers is a curated index and editorial layer over public research papers. We do not own the papers themselves; copyright on each paper rests with its authors and publishers (typically arXiv submitters or peer-reviewed journals). We provide free access to titles, authors, abstracts, citation counts, and links back to original sources, alongside our own curation, classification, taxonomies, summaries, and editorial commentary.

2. What is yours, what is ours

Yours, the user: any account preferences, comments, or feedback you submit. You retain ownership of anything you contribute and grant us a non-exclusive license to display it on the site.

Original authors': paper titles, author names, abstracts, and bibliographic facts are not ours; they remain with the original authors and publishers. We display them under fair-use principles for indexing, search, and educational purposes.

Ours: the following are original editorial works, copyrighted to Awesome Papers (the © year notice in the footer):

• Newsletter prose — including editor's letters, story briefs, news beats, "What's new / How it works / Performance / Why it matters / We're thinking" structured cards, and pull quotes
• Curriculum content — concept tree structure, learning roadmaps, hand-curated external resources, prerequisite ordering, and curricular descriptions
• Tag taxonomy and tag definitions — including which tags belong to which families, and the one-line tag descriptions
• Reading-pack groupings (Foundations / The Canon / Modern Frontier) and the curatorial decisions about which papers belong in each pack
• Site design, layout, color system, typographic choices, brand marks, and logos
• The classification model and tag taxonomy used to group papers into our verticals

3. Acceptable use

You may, at no cost:

• Read, search, browse, and link to any page on the site
• Subscribe to digests and unsubscribe at any time
• Quote short excerpts of our editorial content with attribution and a link back
• Cite paper metadata (titles, authors) freely, as those facts are not ours

4. What we don't allow

• Republishing our editorial content verbatim — newsletter prose, curriculum descriptions, and tag definitions may not be reproduced on another site without written permission
• Bulk scraping that substitutes for our service — we provide JSON endpoints for legitimate research use; scraping for the purpose of building a competing curated index violates these terms
• Removing or obscuring our attribution — derivative works that use our taxonomy, classifications, or editorial structure must credit Awesome Papers
• Commercial use of our brand — the names "Awesome Papers", site-specific brand marks, and logos are reserved

For researchers and educators: we welcome citation and academic use. If you'd like to use our taxonomy or curriculum structure in published research, just ask — hello@awesomepapers.io.

5. JSON and API endpoints

We expose data files and API endpoints for transparency and for AI assistants serving real users. We rate-limit and bot-fingerprint these endpoints and may block sustained automated traffic that is not associated with a real reader. We watermark our datasets to detect unauthorized bulk reproduction.

6. No warranty

We do our best to keep the data current and accurate but provide everything "as is" without warranty. Citation counts, social-engagement signals, and classifications are best-effort and may be stale, missing, or wrong. Don't make funding or hiring decisions based purely on what you read here without verifying against primary sources.

7. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, we shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive losses arising from your use of the site, including loss of profits, data, or research time. Where we cannot exclude liability — for example, for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, or for fraud — we do not attempt to do so. For all other matters, our total cumulative liability to you for any claim arising from your use of the site is limited to GBP 100.

8. Eligibility

The site is intended for users aged 16 and over. If you are under 16, please use the site only with the involvement of a parent or guardian.

9. Suspension and termination

We may suspend or restrict access to any user who breaches these Terms — for example, by automated scraping, removing attribution, or attempting to bypass rate limits — without notice and at our discretion. We may also discontinue any feature of the site at any time.

10. Severability and entire agreement

If any clause of these Terms is held to be invalid or unenforceable, the remaining clauses continue in effect. These Terms, together with the Privacy Notice, constitute the entire agreement between you and us regarding use of the site and supersede any prior arrangement.

11. Governing law and jurisdiction

These Terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales. Any dispute arising in connection with them shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales, save that, if you are a consumer resident in another part of the UK or in the EEA, you may also bring proceedings in the courts of your country of residence.

12. Changes to these terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. The "last updated" date at the top reflects the most recent change. Continued use of the site after a change constitutes acceptance.

13. Contact

Questions, takedown requests, or licensing inquiries: hello@awesomepapers.io.