Who is Palimpsa for?
Palimpsa is built for academics and professional researchers who write, edit, cite and revise. It supports individuals and research groups.
QUESTIONS · ANSWERS IN PLAIN ENGLISH
Good questions
deserve real answers.
What Palimpsa does, how the research panel works, and what you should know about your documents. We’ll keep adding the questions researchers actually ask.
THE PRODUCT
What is Palimpsa?
A writing surface for serious work, with research and collaboration built in.
01
Is Palimpsa a word processor?
It is a focused writing surface with inline and block maths, structured tables, task lists and text alignment, alongside a source research panel.
Does it write or rewrite my work?
No. Palimpsa’s research assistant helps locate source material and check citations when you choose to use it. It does not write, rewrite or complete your text.
RESEARCH & CITATIONS
Sources, passages,
and checking.
Research capabilities are built into the same workspace as your draft.
Which sources can I search?
The current product site names arXiv, OpenAlex and Crossref as federated search sources. The available catalog may vary by source.
Can I search inside a paper?
Yes. Palimpsa’s public product information describes opening a PDF and searching its text from the research panel.
What does “verified” mean?
The legal draft defines verification as checking that quoted words appear exactly in the retrieved or uploaded source text. It does not certify the source’s accuracy, peer-review status, currency, context or version. Always inspect the original before relying on a quote.
Can I insert a citation or passage?
The product site describes inserting citations and pulling snippets into a paragraph. Review the source and citation details before using them in submitted or published work.
WORKSPACE & PRIVACY
Your work is synced
for collaboration.
See the published product description and the draft privacy notice together.
Where are my documents stored?
Real-time collaboration requires shared document data to be processed on a server. A local working copy supports editing and offline access; changes synchronize when connected. The exact hosting, retention and security details are being confirmed.
What is sent to Google Gemini?
The supplied Privacy Notice draft says that when an AI research feature is run, the selected excerpt and query are sent to Google through the Gemini API. The exact live data flow and retention details are marked for confirmation in the draft.
Are my documents used to train AI?
The supplied Terms and Privacy drafts say Palimpsa does not use your content to train AI models and does not allow its providers to do so for the service. Read the draft documents and check the open items for technical details still being confirmed.
What is the minimum age?
13. Under-16 users must consult a parent or guardian, as stated in the supplied Terms draft. The Privacy Notice draft was aligned to the 13+ requirement.
YOUR QUESTION IS PROBABLY USEFUL TO SOMEONE ELSE TOO
Ask Palimpsa ↗Didn’t find the answer?
Write to us. We’ll answer plainly, and we can add the question here for the next researcher.