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Security report for scite.ai

Scite LLC · Technology · United States

Medium risk. 4 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

73/100

Risk levelMedium

0–100, higher is better. How it is calculated

Scite LLC operates a sophisticated AI-powered research platform designed to enhance the discovery, understanding, and evaluation of scientific literature. Leveraging a unique Smart Citation Index, the company provides researchers, universities, publishers, and corporations with tools to assess the reliability and context of citations. Founded in 2018 and now part of Research Solutions, Scite has established a strong market position with over 1.3 billion citations indexed and partnerships with major academic publishers. The platform offers a subscription-based SaaS model with free trials and organizational licensing, targeting a global research audience.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
73/ 100 · Medium
Checks completed
7of 7

NIS2 Art. 21(2)

  1. (a) Risk analysis and security policies: Not visible from outside
  2. (b) Incident handling: One indicator
  3. (c) Business continuity, backups and crisis management: Not visible from outside
  4. (d) Supply chain security: Not visible from outside
  5. (e) Secure acquisition, development and maintenance, including vulnerability handling: Partly checked
  6. (f) Assessing the effectiveness of security measures: Not visible from outside
  7. (g) Cyber hygiene and security training: Not visible from outside
  8. (h) Cryptography and encryption: Partly checked
  9. (i) HR security, access control and asset management: One indicator
  10. (j) Multi-factor authentication and secured communications: Not visible from outside

This scan rated NIS2 with an earlier keyword method that is no longer shown; rescan for the per-article view. Risk management, continuity, supply chain, training, MFA, management oversight (Art. 20) and incident reporting (Art. 23) need internal evidence, and Guard cannot tell whether NIS2 applies to this organisation.

GDPR is indicative only, based on publicly visible signals: Articles 7, 12, 13 and 32 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and Article 5(3) of the ePrivacy Directive. Not a certification or legal assessment.

Priority findings

4 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. Security headers

    Security headers are instructions your web server sends to every visitor’s browser. Missing ones leave visitors more exposed to attacks such as clickjacking and injected scripts.

    • High

      Missing Strict-Transport-Security header

      Forces HTTPS connections

      What to do: Add "Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains; preload"

      • CWE-319
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V3.4.1
    • High

      Missing Content-Security-Policy header

      Controls resources the browser is allowed to load

      What to do: Implement a Content-Security-Policy appropriate for your application

      • ASVS V3.4.3
      • OWASP Secure Headers: OWASP Secure Headers Project recommends Content-Security-Policy: default-src 'self'; form-action 'self'; base-uri 'self'; object-src 'none';…

  2. GDPR outside view

    These are the privacy signals visitors and data protection authorities look for under GDPR.

    • High

      No Cookie Consent Banner found

      GDPR requires explicit consent for non-essential cookies

      What to do: Implement a cookie consent banner that appears on first visit

  3. SSL/TLS

    TLS encrypts the connection and proves the site is really yours. Weak or expiring certificates trigger browser warnings and put traffic at risk.

    • High

      Weak Protocols Supported

      Server supports weak protocols: TLSv1.1

      What to do: Disable TLS 1.0, TLS 1.1, and all SSL versions

      • CWE-327
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V12.1.1

Need hands-on remediation? Email guard@offseq.com

Keep watching scite.ai

This scan found 22 issues across 6 checks. Monitoring re-runs those checks daily, emails you when something material changes and records each fix, so you can show progress.

Daily monitoring

Recommended

€25per month

  • TLS certificates and expiry
  • DNS records
  • SPF, DKIM and DMARC
  • Security headers
  • GDPR and NIS2 posture
  • Exposed services
  • Third-party trackers
  • Security score drift

Email alerts on material changes and an exportable JSON history of every change.

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Full report

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Results by check

Each check with its score, findings and the evidence it collected.

How this score is calculated

The security score runs 0–100, higher is better. It is the plain average of the security checks that completed in this scan, each counted equally. A check that could not run is left out: it counts neither as a pass nor as a fail.

Counted in this score

SSL/TLS
82
Security headers
30
Email security
70
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
73
Average
73

Not counted

  • NIS2 outside view: Re-weights evidence from the TLS, email, DNS, network and hygiene checks, so counting it would count that evidence twice. Shown on its own.
  • OffSeq Observations: An AI reading of the site, useful context but not reproducible evidence. Shown on its own.

Findings that cap the score at 49

Each of these is serious on its own, so while any is present the site cannot rate better than high risk, however good the other checks are.

  • The certificate is not trusted by browsers
  • The website is not served over HTTPS
  • A database, remote desktop, file-sharing or Telnet service is reachable from the internet
  • The page loads a script from a compromised source
  • The domain registration has expired
  • SPF authorises every server to send mail as the domain

Partial scans

When the site blocks Guard or most checks cannot run, the score covers only the checks that ran (usually DNS and email), is capped at 75 and is shown as partial, without a risk level.

Risk levels

  • Critical0–25
  • High26–49
  • Medium50–75
  • Low76–100

Technical appendix

Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.

Business context

Business profile

Scite's competitive advantage lies in its proprietary Smart Citation technology that classifies citations as supporting, contrasting, or mentioning claims, enabling more nuanced literature analysis. The company benefits from a robust partnership ecosystem including universities, publishers, and corporations, and has received multiple awards and grants validating its innovation. Revenue streams include individual subscriptions, enterprise licenses, and data services. The platform's growth is supported by a strong brand presence, extensive content coverage, and integration of AI assistants to improve research workflows.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with HTTPS enforcement, use of reCAPTCHA, and error monitoring via Rollbar. Privacy and cookie policies are comprehensive and GDPR compliant. However, explicit security policies and incident response contacts are not publicly documented, representing an area for improvement. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected. The use of multiple third-party scripts necessitates ongoing security audits to mitigate supply chain risks. Overall, the security culture appears proactive but could benefit from enhanced transparency and formalized disclosure mechanisms.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a dedicated security policy and incident response plan on the website.
  2. Implement a security.txt file to facilitate vulnerability disclosures.
  3. Explicitly configure and document security headers such as CSP, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  4. Provide a dedicated security contact email (e.g., security@domain.com) for reporting issues.
  5. Regularly review and audit third-party scripts and dependencies to minimize supply chain risks.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Scite LLC
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Scite LLC
Description
Scite is an AI-powered research tool that helps researchers better discover and evaluate scientific literature through Smart Citations—a revolutionary system that shows whether articles support, contrast, or simply mention a given claim. Founded in 2018, and now part of Research Solutions, Scite has indexed over 1.3 billion citations and partnered with more than 30 major publishers to provide researchers with unparalleled access to scientific literature.
Key services
Smart Citation Index, AI-powered literature search, Reference evaluation, Dashboards and visualizations, Assistant powered by large language models
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
React, Wistia video embedding, Rollbar error tracking, Google reCAPTCHA, AWS DNS, Google Fonts, Line Awesome Font, Churnkey, Facebook Pixel, Bing UET, Tapfiliate affiliate tracking, MathJax
Frameworks
React
Platforms
AWS
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of reCAPTCHA for bot protection
  • Rollbar for error monitoring
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Privacy policy and cookie consent implemented

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics (via GTM inferred), Rollbar
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
Google Ads, Facebook Pixel, Bing Ads
Tracking pixels
Facebook Pixel, Bing UET
Marketing tools
Churnkey, Chili Piper
Transparency
good

Site quality

Design
excellent
User experience
excellent
Content relevance
excellent
Navigation
excellent
Professionalism
excellent
Trustworthiness
high

Key observations

  1. Website is a professional AI-powered research platform with strong academic and corporate partnerships.
  2. Content is rich, well-structured, and includes video, testimonials, awards, and press coverage.
  3. Strong emphasis on trust, transparency, and ethical AI use.
  4. Multiple security and privacy best practices observed.
  5. No signs of malicious or suspicious activity.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a modern React-based single-page application architecture, hosted on AWS infrastructure. It integrates advanced technologies including Wistia for video content, Google Fonts, and multiple marketing and analytics tools such as Facebook Pixel, Bing UET, and Tapfiliate. The platform exhibits fast performance, excellent mobile optimization, and good accessibility features. SEO is well-implemented with comprehensive meta tags and Open Graph data. The technical stack supports scalability and rich user experience, though continuous monitoring of third-party dependencies is advised to maintain security and performance.
Standards and sources

Reference chips under each finding point to the standard, regulation or specification the finding relates to. They are taken from the official datasets below and mapped conservatively: a finding with no defensible link shows none. NIS2 and GDPR references mark where a finding is relevant evidence, not a compliance verdict. Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690 binds digital infrastructure and digital service providers; for other entities it is the most detailed public reading of the Article 21 measures. WCAG, EN 301 549, European Accessibility Act and Web Accessibility Directive references name the requirement an automated accessibility rule relates to; they are not a conformance verdict.

Retrieved 2026-10-25

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