Roles & Permissions

Alfred Scholar uses a role-based permission system to control what each workspace member can do. This ensures that sensitive actions (like deleting the workspace or managing members) are restricted to the right people.

Available roles

Every workspace member has one of the following roles:

Role	Description
Owner	Full control over the workspace, including managing members and deleting the workspace. The person who creates a workspace is automatically its owner.
Colleague	Can use all research features - uploading documents, writing manuscripts, managing citations, using AI chat, and running plagiarism checks. Cannot delete items or manage workspace members.
Reviewer	Limited access for peer review purposes. Can view specific manuscripts assigned for review and leave comments. Cannot access the broader research library or other workspace features.

Permission breakdown

Here is a detailed breakdown of what each role can do:

My Documents

Action	Owner	Colleague	Reviewer
Upload documents	Yes	Yes	No
View documents	Yes	Yes	No
Edit document metadata	Yes	Yes	No
Delete documents	Yes	No	No
Organize folders	Yes	Yes	No
Delete folders	Yes	No	No
Annotate documents	Yes	Yes	No

Manuscripts

Action	Owner	Colleague	Reviewer
Create manuscripts	Yes	Yes	No
Edit manuscripts	Yes	Yes	No
Delete manuscripts	Yes	No	No
Add images	Yes	Yes	No
Apply guidelines	Yes	Yes	No
Assign reviewers	Yes	No	No
View assigned reviews	Yes	Yes	Yes
Leave review comments	Yes	Yes	Yes

Citations

Action	Owner	Colleague	Reviewer
Add citations	Yes	Yes	No
Edit citations	Yes	Yes	No
Delete citations	Yes	No	No

Ask Alfred

Action	Owner	Colleague	Reviewer
Start new chats	Yes	Yes	No
View chat history	Yes	Yes	No
Delete chats	Yes	No	No

Plagiarism Check

Action	Owner	Colleague	Reviewer
Run plagiarism checks	Yes	Yes	No
View reports	Yes	Yes	No
Delete reports	Yes	No	No

Settings

Action	Owner	Colleague	Reviewer
Update workspace name	Yes	Yes	No
Invite members	Yes	No	No
Remove members	Yes	No	No
Change member roles	Yes	No	No
View billing & usage	Yes	Yes	No
Delete workspace	Yes	No	No

Trash

Action	Owner	Colleague	Reviewer
View trash	Yes	Yes	No
Restore items	Yes	Yes	No
Permanently delete	Yes	No	No

Changing a member’s role

Only workspace owners can change roles:

Go to Settings > Members.
Find the member.
Click the role dropdown and select the new role.

Note: You cannot change the owner’s role. To transfer ownership, contact support.

Best practices

Use the Reviewer role for external peer reviewers who only need to review specific manuscripts. This prevents them from accessing your full research library.
Use the Colleague role for active research collaborators who need to upload papers, manage citations, and write manuscripts.
Keep the Owner role for the primary researcher or lab lead who manages the workspace and team.

Next steps

Invite team members to your workspace.
Start uploading documents to build your research library.