The purpose of this data protection policy is to inform all users of Science Advance and this website about the type of personal data that is collected and processed by Science Advance and the company providing the hosting infrastructure for this website, as well as the purpose of said data processing.
Science Advance is taking data protection very seriously, and it is treating your personal data according to the legal requirements.
In particular, Science Advance complies with the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Please keep in mind that any data transmission over the Internet and any form of digital data processing can be affected by security flaws is software and hardware that are beyond the control of Science Advance.
A complete protection from unauthorized access by third parties can thus never be fully guaranteed.

As Science Advance does not fall in any of the categories of entities that are required to appoint a DPO according to the GDPR, it does not have a dedicated DPO.
Should you have any questions on this data protection and privacy policy, please contact us through one of the channels described in the impressum.

Personal data

Personal data is any information related to a natural person or data subject that can be used to directly or indirectly identify the person.
This website collects personal data only to the extent necessary and in a way that is legally permissible (see below for more details).

Cookies

This website does not uses cookies.

The backend of Science Advance’s website,  the WordPress dashboard, collects necessary cookies from logged-in users only. This only affects Science Advance staff who are logged in to the backend, as those cookies are necessary for user authentication. Website visitors are not affected.

Note that the third-party peer-review platform used by Science Advance, Scholastica, may use cookies on their website.

A cookie is a small file that is saved on the device with which you are accessing this website. Should you not want to be served a cookie when using this website, most common browsers can be configured to disallow the usage of cookies. This may affect the usability of websites  (such as the ability to opt out of the data collection for analytics, see below).

Sharing buttons

The sharing buttons for sharing content on social media and other platforms displayed on this website are provided by the WordPress plugin Shariff Wrapper. By design, the Shariff Wrapper plug-in does not transmit any data to the social media platforms and other sharing services unless one of the sharing buttons is explicitly clicked. Shariff Wrapper’s statistics feature is disabled on this site, so that no personal data about sharing activity is stored.

Data stored and processed of all users

Science Advance and the company hosting this website may collect, store, and process the following data of all users of Science Advance:

1. visited pages
2. time of access
3. number of transmitted bytes
4. link that lead to the page being accessed
5. browser used
6. operating system used
7. ip address from which it was accessed
8. data (text, files, tick boxes, …) entered in forms and search boxes

The data may be collected in server log files and for the purpose of analyzing how this website is being used (analytics) by means of the WordPress plug-in WP statistics.
Unless stated otherwise below, the data is saved exclusively on the servers of the company providing the hosting infrastructure for this website and on computers controlled by Science Advance (for the purpose of archiving and backup) and can only be accessed through password protected accounts on these systems and is not shared with any third party service such as Google Analytics.

Unless stated otherwise below, the data collected in this way is used exclusively for statistical analysis and improvement of the website as well as to ensure its safe and lawful operation.
In particular, ip addresses are saved only in pseudo-anonymized form, either hashed or with the last block truncated.

If the WP statistics plug-in is enabled, you have the option to opt-out of the data collection for analytics by performing the following steps: (1) Clear all cookies for this website in your browser. (2) Refresh the page. (3) Click/tap the button “opt out” in the banner at the bottom of the page.

Data entered into or resulting from the use of forms and transmitted via email

Data entered into or resulting from the use of forms on this website and such sent to Science Advance via email may be processed in additional ways.
In particular, it may be stored and processed on information technological devices controlled by members of Science Advance as well as in password protected collaborative working and cloud computing platforms such as Jira, Dropbox, Google Drive, and Google Docs/Google Sheets.
For data relevant for the peer-review and publication process additional rules apply (see the next section for more details).
If the data entered in such forms is stored or processed of purposes other than those described in the last section, the form contains a more detailed description of the type and purpose of the data storage and processing.
You have to tick a tick box on such forms to express your explicit consent to such additional data storage and processing.

Data stored and processed for and during the peer-review and publication process

During the peer-review and publication process (which includes the handling of appeals) additional personal data is collected, stored, and processed by Science Advance, as well as the third-party service Scholastica, namely:

1. written communication with and between authors, editors, and referees
2. the times and other meta-data associated with this communication
3. the email addresses and account names at other services used to carry out this communication
4. all data and material provided to Science Advance by the submitter, including the submitted work

This this data is permanently stored by Science Advance to ensure long-term accountability and justifiability of editorial decisions and to ensure a means of contacting the submitter or authors (e.g., in case of later corrections to published works).
Such data may further be stored and processed on the collaborative working platform Jira and the third-party service < href=”https://scholasticahq.com/”>Scholastica to the extent this is necessary to carry out and supervise the peer-review process.
On such platforms the data is accessible only through password protected accounts.

Science Advance retains the right to process this data for the purpose of performing statistical analysis of the peer-review process, correlate this data with other publicly available information, and to publish such analysis and the underlying data in a suitably anonymized form.
In doing this, Science Advance takes the utmost care to ensure that no personally identifying information is leaked and in particular that the anonymity of referees is guaranteed.

For accepted works, Science Advance publishes the work itself (including all companioning material and meta-data) in accordance with the terms and conditions.
In particular, as part of its service, Science Advance uploads the meta-data of accepted works, as well as parts or all of the work, to platforms such as Crossref, the Directory of Open Access Journals, Clarivate Analytics, and Clockss for the purpose of registering DOIs, making the work discoverable by readers, facilitate biometrics, and archiving.

Data publicly available on this website

Data that is publicly available on this website may be shared by Science Advance in posts on social media platforms including but not limited to Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, either directly of by means of third-party services such as buffer.com or IFTTT, in accordance with the license under which this data was published.

Backups

All data described above may be included in backups to ensure the continued availability of the services of Science Advance. Such backups are stored “off-site”, i.e., in a different physical location than the production system on servers or storage systems controlled by Science Advance or people working for Science Advance and access to which is suitably restricted with passwords. The data in backups is not processed and is stored in such a way that it can not even be directly accessed from the production systems.

Data protection

Science Advance uses strong and individual passwords for all accounts and services that can be used to access personal data of its users. Science Advance uses individual email accounts for each third party service to ensure a fine grained access to personal data, restricted to only those members of Science Advance who actually need access.

Data breach procedures

In case of a data breach that reveals otherwise not publicly available personal data in our own data handling systems or any of the third party services Science Advance relies on, all identifiable users will be notified in due time after a suitable assessment of the situation.

User rights

As a user, you have the right to request information about which of your personal data is stored and processed by Science Advance and for what purpose. You can demand that personal data is corrected (in case it is incorrect) or deleted (to the extend this is compatible with the terms and conditions of Science Advance and applicable law), and have the right to obtain a digital copy of the stored personal data. To contact Science Advance on such matters, please use one of the channels described in the impressum.

Data protection and privacy policy changes

Science Advance may change its data protection and privacy policy from time to time, at Science Advance’s sole discretion. Science Advance encourages its users to check this page for changes frequently. Your continued use of any service Science Advance provides, including but not limited to this website, after any change in this data protection and privacy policy constitutes your acceptance of such change.

Further aspects

Disclaimer of warranty

There is no warranty for the services provided by Science Advance, to the extent permitted by applicable law. Except when otherwise stated in writing, the copyright holders and/or other parties provide these services “as is” without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose or future availability. The entire risk as to the quality and performance of the services is with the user. Should the services prove defective, the user assumes the cost of all damages incurred.

Limitation of liability

In no event, unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, will Science Advance be liable to any user for damages, including any general, special, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use or inability to use the services provided by Science Advance, even if Science Advance has been advised of the possibility of such damages.

External content

Links to other works, websites, or other documents, including but not limited to hyperlinks on the website Science Advance-journal.org as well as in manuscripts published by Science Advance, may link to content that is beyond the control of Science Advance. Science Advance hence does not assume any kind of responsibility or liability for the content to which such links point or transmissions that can be received through them.

Right to modify terms and conditions

Science Advance retains the right to modify these terms and conditions following consultation with the Steering Board. All submitters of works undergoing peer-review at the time of change must be notified if affected by the changes. Submitters are always bound to the version of these terms and conditions at the time of the last (re-)submission.