Privacy Policy of Emerald Publishing House
Emerald Publishing House is committed to protecting the privacy and security of the personal data of our authors, reviewers, editors, and all users of our online platform and services. This Privacy Policy describes how we collect, use, process, and disclose your information in accordance with applicable data protection laws, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
1. Information We Collect
We collect personal data that is necessary for the provision of our academic publishing, peer review management, editorial, and other related services. The types of personal data we may collect include:
- Contact Information: Name, professional title, institution, email address, postal address, and telephone number.
- Professional Information: Academic qualifications, research interests, publication history, ORCID iD, and affiliations, particularly for authors, reviewers, and editors.
- Account Information: Usernames and passwords for accessing our online platform.
- Submission and Peer Review Data: Information related to manuscripts submitted, peer review comments, and editorial decisions.
- Payment Information: For certain services or transactions, we may collect payment details, though this is typically processed by third-party payment providers. We do not store full credit card details on our servers.
- Correspondence: Any communications you send to us, including inquiries, feedback, or support requests.
- Technical Data: IP address, browser type and version, time zone setting, operating system and platform, and other technology on the devices you use to access our platform.
- Usage Data: Information about how you use our website, products, and services.
2. How We Collect Your Information
We collect information through various methods, including:
- Direct Interactions: When you register an account, submit a manuscript, participate in peer review, subscribe to our newsletters, or contact us directly.
- Automated Technologies or Interactions: As you interact with our website, we may automatically collect technical data about your equipment, browsing actions, and patterns. We use cookies and similar technologies for this purpose.
- Third Parties or Publicly Available Sources: We may receive personal data about you from various third parties and public sources, such as institutional directories, research databases, or professional social media platforms, particularly when identifying potential reviewers or editors.
3. How We Use Your Information
We use your personal data for the following purposes, relying on various legal bases as outlined under GDPR:
- To Provide and Manage Our Services: For academic journal publishing, peer review management, editorial services, digital archiving, and journal distribution. This includes processing manuscript submissions, facilitating peer review, communicating editorial decisions, and managing author support (Contractual Necessity).
- To Communicate With You: To respond to your inquiries, send service updates, policy changes, or administrative information (Legitimate Interest, Contractual Necessity).
- To Improve Our Services: To analyze usage patterns, troubleshoot problems, and develop new features or services (Legitimate Interest).
- For Security and Fraud Prevention: To protect our platform, users, and data from unauthorized access, fraud, or other malicious activities (Legitimate Interest, Legal Obligation).
- For Open Access Solutions: To manage and process open access publishing fees and ensure compliance with open access mandates (Contractual Necessity, Legal Obligation).
- To Comply with Legal Obligations: To meet legal, regulatory, or ethical requirements, or to respond to lawful requests from public authorities (Legal Obligation).
4. Disclosure of Your Information
We may share your personal data with third parties in the following circumstances:
- With Journal Editors and Peer Reviewers: Necessary for the peer review process. Reviewers are typically anonymized to authors, but their identity may be known to journal editors.
- Service Providers: We work with third-party service providers who assist us in operating our business (e.g., IT and system administration, hosting, customer support, payment processing, data analysis). These providers are contractually bound to protect your data and only process it according to our instructions.
- Academic Institutions and Publishers: For co-published journals, or in cases of academic integrity investigations.
- Legal and Regulatory Authorities: When required by law or in response to valid legal processes.
- For Digital Archiving: Your published work and associated metadata may be shared with digital archiving services to ensure long-term preservation and accessibility.
We do not sell your personal data to third parties.
5. International Data Transfers
As a global publisher, your data may be transferred to and stored in countries outside of your country of residence, including countries outside the European Economic Area (EEA), where data protection laws may differ. When transferring data outside the EEA, we implement appropriate safeguards, such as Standard Contractual Clauses, to ensure your data receives an adequate level of protection.
6. Data Retention
We retain your personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which we collected it, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.
7. Your Data Protection Rights
Under GDPR, you have the following rights concerning your personal data:
- Right to Access: You have the right to request copies of your personal data.
- Right to Rectification: You have the right to request that we correct any information you believe is inaccurate or incomplete.
- Right to Erasure ("Right to be Forgotten"): You have the right to request that we erase your personal data, under certain conditions.
- Right to Restrict Processing: You have the right to request that we restrict the processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.
- Right to Object to Processing: You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.
- Right to Data Portability: You have the right to request that we transfer the data that we have collected to another organization, or directly to you, under certain conditions.
- Right to Withdraw Consent: Where our processing is based on your consent, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. This will not affect the legality of processing carried out before the withdrawal of consent.
To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the contact details provided below. We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it.
8. Security Measures
We have implemented appropriate technical and organizational security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorized way, altered, or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors, and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.
9. Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page and updating the "last updated" date at the top of this policy. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes.
10. Contact Us
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or our data processing practices, please contact us:
Emerald Publishing House
14 Merrion Square
Dublin 2
County Dublin
D02 X452
Ireland
If you are not satisfied with our response, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Data Protection Commission in Ireland.