Privacy Statement

Data Protection and Confidentiality
Privacy Statement
Responsible Collection, Use, and Protection of Personal Information

Privacy Commitment

Notulae Scientia Biologicae respects the privacy of authors, reviewers, editors, readers, registered users, and other persons who interact with the journal.

Personal information collected through the journal platform is used only for legitimate editorial, publishing, communication, administrative, technical, preservation, and reporting purposes connected with journal operations.

Personal information is not sold to third parties and is not used for unrelated commercial marketing.

Journal and Publisher Responsibility

Notulae Scientia Biologicae is owned and published by the Society of Land Measurements and Cadastre from Transylvania (SMTCT).

Administrative, technical, and publishing services may be provided by authorized personnel and service providers acting on behalf of the journal and publisher, including the journal platform, hosting, metadata, preservation, invoicing, and communication services.

Access to personal information is limited to persons who require it for legitimate journal-related responsibilities.

Information Collected

Depending on the user’s role and interaction with the journal, the following information may be collected:

Identity and Contact Details
Name, e-mail address, telephone number where provided, postal address, institutional affiliation, country, and professional role.
Academic Information
ORCID, institutional profile, subject expertise, publications, professional interests, and reviewer qualifications.
OJS Account Information
OJS account and user-role information, login activity, account preferences, and communication history.
Submission and Review Records
Manuscripts, supplementary files, reviewer reports, editorial decisions, correspondence, declarations, and publication metadata.
Technical Information
IP address, browser information, device information, server logs, cookies, and platform-security records.
Administrative and Billing Information
Payer details, billing entity, tax information, project information, payment references, and invoicing correspondence where applicable.

Purposes of Processing

Personal information may be used for the following purposes:

  • managing manuscript submission, editorial assessment, peer review, revision, acceptance, production, and publication;
  • communicating with authors, reviewers, editors, readers, and administrative contacts;
  • verifying authorship, affiliations, ORCID identifiers, reviewer expertise, and conflicts of interest;
  • registering and distributing metadata, DOIs, and publication records;
  • supporting indexing, preservation, archiving, and discoverability;
  • investigating ethical concerns, complaints, appeals, corrections, expressions of concern, and retractions;
  • administering Article Processing Charges, billing, and invoicing;
  • maintaining platform security, preventing misuse, and resolving technical problems;
  • preparing internal statistics and reports necessary for journal administration and development.

Editorial Confidentiality

Submitted manuscripts, supplementary files, reviewer reports, reviewer identities, editorial correspondence, unpublished data, and editorial decisions are treated as confidential.

Access is restricted to authorized editors, reviewers, technical staff, publisher representatives, and service providers who require the information to perform legitimate journal-related tasks.

Reviewers and editors must not use confidential manuscript information for personal, academic, commercial, or professional advantage.

Confidential content must not be uploaded to unauthorized artificial intelligence platforms or other external services.

Information Made Public

When an article is published, certain information becomes part of the permanent scholarly record. This may include:

  • author names and affiliations;
  • corresponding author contact information;
  • ORCID identifiers;
  • article title, abstract, keywords, and references;
  • funding and conflict-of-interest statements;
  • author-contribution statements;
  • ethical approval and consent information where relevant;
  • article metadata, DOI, publication history, and licensing information.

Authors are responsible for checking the accuracy of all personal, institutional, and publication metadata before final publication.

Sharing of Information

Personal and publication information may be shared only where necessary for legitimate journal operations, legal compliance, research integrity, or scholarly communication.

Relevant information may be shared with:

Editors and Reviewers
Publishing and Technical Staff
DOI and Metadata Services
Indexing and Preservation Services
Financial and Invoicing Services
Institutions or Authorities in Ethical Cases

Where credible concerns regarding misconduct, legal obligations, research integrity, safety, or ethical compliance arise, relevant information may be shared with institutions, ethics committees, funders, regulatory bodies, courts, or other competent authorities.

Cookies and Technical Data

The journal platform may use cookies and similar technical mechanisms necessary for login, session management, navigation, security, language preferences, and normal platform operation.

Server logs may record technical information such as IP address, browser type, date and time of access, requested pages, and system events. Such information may be used for security, diagnostics, platform maintenance, and aggregated usage analysis.

Data Retention

Personal information is retained only for as long as reasonably necessary for editorial, publishing, administrative, legal, preservation, financial, research-integrity, and scholarly-record purposes.

Submission, review, editorial, and publication records may need to be retained for an extended period because they form part of the journal’s editorial history and may be required to address corrections, ethical concerns, appeals, disputes, or legal obligations.

Published article metadata and the scholarly record are intended to remain permanently available.

Data Security

The journal and publisher apply reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational measures to protect personal information against unauthorized access, misuse, loss, alteration, disclosure, or destruction.

Users are responsible for protecting their account credentials and should notify the Editorial Office if they suspect unauthorized access to their account or personal information.

No online system can guarantee absolute security. Where a significant data-security incident occurs, appropriate action will be taken in accordance with applicable obligations.

User Requests and Rights

Users may contact the journal regarding access to, correction of, or clarification concerning their personal information.

Requests to remove or restrict personal information will be considered in accordance with applicable legal, contractual, editorial, preservation, research-integrity, and scholarly-record obligations.

Information forming part of the permanent publication record may not be removed merely upon request. Corrections to published metadata are handled through the journal’s editorial and post-publication procedures.

Information Concerning Minors

The journal platform is intended primarily for researchers, professionals, students, and institutional users engaged in scholarly communication.

Research involving minors must comply with applicable ethical and legal requirements, including appropriate consent or assent and protection of identifiable information.

External Websites and Services

The journal website may contain links to external platforms, databases, repositories, professional profiles, indexing services, payment services, and other third-party resources.

These external services operate under their own privacy and data-protection policies. The journal is not responsible for the privacy practices of third-party websites.

Policy Updates

This Privacy Statement may be revised when legal, technical, editorial, administrative, or publishing practices change.

The current version published on the journal website applies to the processing of information through the journal platform.

Privacy Enquiries

Questions, requests, or concerns regarding privacy and personal information may be submitted to the Editorial Office using the contact details available on the Contact page.

Related Policies