Privacy Statement

We take seriously our duty to process your personal data in a fair and transparent way. We collect and manage user data according to the following Privacy Statement.

There are four main categories of personal data stored by our journal platform; Website User data, Author data, Reviewer data and Editor data.

The minimum personal data that are stored are:

  • full name
  • email address
  • affiliation (department, and institution)
  • country of residence

Optionally, the user can provide:

  • salutation
  • gender
  • associated URL
  • phone number
  • fax number
  • reviewing interests
  • mailing address
  • ORCiD
  • a short biography
  • interests
  • Twitter profile
  • LinkedIn profile
  • ImpactStory profile
  • profile picture

We regularly backup our databases, and we use reliable cloud service providers (Amazon, Google Cloud, Linode) to ensure they are kept securely. Backups are regularly rotated and the old data is permanently deleted. We have a clear internal data handling policy, restricting access to the data and backups to key employees only. In case of a data breach, we will report the breach to the affected users, and to the press/journal contacts within 72 hours.

Personal information is only used to deliver the services provided by the publisher. Personal data is not shared externally except for author names, affiliations, emails, and links to ORCiD and social media accounts (if provided) in published articles and books which are displayed as part of the article/book and shared externally to indexes and databases. If a journal operates under open peer review then the reviewer details are published alongside the reviewer details.

When you browse our website, we collect anonymised data about your use of the website; for example, we collect information about which pages you view, which files you download, what browser you are using, and when you were using the site.

We use anonymised website usage data to monitor traffic, help fix bugs, and see overall patterns that inform future redesigns of the website, and provide reports on how frequently the publications on our site have been accessed from within their IP ranges.

We do not collect personal information that can be used to identify you when you browse the website.

We currently use Google Analytics for publication reports, and to improve the website and services through traffic analysis, but no personal identifying data is shared with Google (for example your computer’s IP is anonymised before transmission).

When registering an account we ask you to log in and provide certain personal information (such as your name and email address), and there is the option to register using an ORCiD which will pre-fill the registration form.

As part of submitting an article for publication, you will need to provide personally identifying information which will be used for the peer review process, and will be published. This can include ‘Affiliation’, ‘Competing interests’, ‘Acknowledgements’

Registering an account allows you to log in, manage your profile, and participate as an author, reviewer or editor. We use cookies and session information to streamline your use of the website (for example in order for you to remain logged-in when you return to a journal). You can block or delete cookies and still be able to use the websites, although if you do you will then need to enter your username and password to login. In order to take advantage of certain features of the websites, you may also choose to provide us with other personal information, such as your ORCiD, but your decision to utilize these features and provide such data will always be voluntary.

Personal data submitted with the article is collected to allow follow good publication ethics during the review process, and will form part of the official published record in order for the provenance of the work to be established, and for the work to be correctly attributed.

We do not share your personal information with third parties, other than as part of providing the publishing service

As a registered author in the system you may be contacted by the journal editor to submit another article

Any articles published on the platform are freely available to download from the publisher website in various formats (e.g. PDF, XML)

You are able to view, change and remove your data associated with your profile. Should you choose to completely delete your account, please contact us at support@ubiquitypress.com and we will follow up with your request as soon as possible.

To become a reviewer you must first register as a user on the website, and set your preference that you would like to be considered as a reviewer. No new personal data is collected when a registered user elects to become a reviewer.

When registering an account we ask you to log in and provide certain personal information (such as your name and email address)

Reviewers can also be registered by editors who invite them to review a specific article. This requires the editor to provide the reviewer’s First Name, Last Name, and Email address. Normally this will be done as part of the process of inviting you to review the article.

On submitting a review, the reviewer includes a competing interest statement, they may answer questions about the quality of the article, and they will submit their recommendation.

If you would no longer like to be registered as a reviewer you can edit your profile and  tick the box ‘stop being a reviewer’. This will remove you from the reviewer database, however any existing reviews you may have carried out will remain.

If you have been contacted by an editor to peer review an article this means that you have been registered in the system. If you would not like to be contacted for peer review you can reply to the email requesting that your data be deleted.

Co-author data is entered by the submitting author. The submitting author will already have a user account. According to standard publishing practice, the submitting author is responsible for obtaining the consent of their co-authors to be included (including having their personal data included) in the article being submitted to the journal.

The requested personal data for co-authors are at the bare minimum; first name, last name, institution, country, email address. This can also include; ORCID ID, Title, Middle Name, Biographical Statement, Department, Twitter Handle, Linkedin Profile Name or ImpactStory ID.

Assuming that it is accepted for publication, this data forms part of the official published record in order for the provenance of the work to be established, and for the work to be correctly attributed.

Author names, affiliations and emails are required for publication and will become part of the permanent cited record.

The co-author’s personal data is stored in the author database. This personal data is only used in relation to the publication of the associated article.

Any co-author data collected is added to the author database and is only used in association with the article the user is co-author on.

To receive a copy of your data, please contact us.