Terms & Conditions

1. Service

TaxoCheck finds taxon names in a PDF you upload, in the text and in the titles of the cited works, and compares them with public taxonomic catalogues (the GBIF Backbone first, then Catalogue of Life and other curated checklists) and with nomenclatural rules. For names in the reference list that the catalogues reject, it can compare the name with the title as published, through the DOI of the work. It reports possible problems.

2. No guarantee - a tool for experts

The result is an aid for authors, editors and reviewers. It can contain mistakes and can miss problems; catalogues change over time and sometimes disagree. The final decision, and the correctness of the manuscript, remain the responsibility of the author and editor. The service is provided “as is”.

3. Your documents

You keep all rights to what you upload. The PDF is processed in memory and is not stored. We store what was read from it (the names found, with short text snippets and the DOIs of their references) and the results, in your account, until you delete them. See the Privacy Policy.

4. Names you suggest

After a check you may suggest taxon names that the reader missed. A name is verified in the catalogue; if it is confirmed, it is added to our own list of names, which is used when reading every later article, by all users. By suggesting a name you agree to this. The list contains scientific names only, which are not personal data. Adding a name is free of charge and does not change the price of the check.

5. Payments and invoices

You see how much was found and the price before paying. The price is per distinct taxon name (species or higher taxon), counted once even if it appears in the text and in the references, with a minimum per document. A check is paid by card (Stripe) for that single check, and you receive an invoice for it. If a check fails for a technical reason, the payment is refunded automatically to the card. A check that completed is not refundable. The price is shown in euro.

6. Accounts and acceptable use

One account works on TaxoCheck and CitationCheck. Keep your password confidential. Automated mass use that burdens the service, attempts to bypass payment, or abuse of the system may lead to the account being suspended.

7. Sources and licences

Taxonomic data come from the GBIF Backbone and the Catalogue of Life (both CC BY 4.0) and other public checklists through the Global Names Verifier; the source of each answer is named in the report. Journal style rules come from the Citation Style Language project (CC BY-SA 3.0). These sources are the work of their own authors and are not endorsed by them.

8. Changes

We may change these terms and the prices; the current version is always on this page.

Last updated: 14 October 2026. This text is a plain-language draft and is to be reviewed.