This policy was last updated on July 1, 2024. 

This is the privacy policy (“policy”) for the web sites at aje.com and secure.aje.com and the services available via AJE (collectively our “web properties”), which are operated and provided by Research Square AJE, LLC (we, us and our), a subsidiary of American Journal Experts, LLC, a Limited Liability Company registered with the Department of State of Delaware, Division of Corporations, United States registered vide file no. 3129451. Research Square AJE, LLC (AJE) is located at 941 West Morse Blvd, Ste 100, Winter Park, FL, 32789. 

If you have any questions or comments about this Notice, or if you would like us to update information we have about you or your preferences, please contact us by: 

Sending an email to Data Protection Officer: [email protected] or writing to: 4th Floor, Tower A, Windsor IT Park, Sector 125, Noida, Gautam Budh Nagar, Uttar Pradesh, India – 201303 

We will only use the personal data gathered over this website as set out in this policy. Below you will find information on how we use your personal data, for which purposes your personal data is used, with whom it is shared and what control and information rights you may have. 

I. Summary of our processing activities

We provide author services intended to support researchers writing academic and scientific manuscripts, as well as informational resources on our web sites. Some of these resources and services are freely available or available on a trial basis, and some require purchase. The following summary offers a quick overview of the data processing activities that are undertaken on our website. You will find more detailed information under the indicated sections below. 

• When you visit our web properties for informational reasons without setting up an account, only limited personal data will be processed in order to service your request (see III). 
• If you create an account or subscribe to our newsletters, further personal data will be processed in the scope of such services (see IV and V). 
• If you purchase service 
• Your account information and other information provided during the transaction will be processed in order to complete payment and fulfill your order. If you use an institutional rate code to make use of reduced pricing negotiated by your employer, we may compile usage reports for the institutional owner of the rate code that may contain identifying information (see V). 
• We may share Personal Information with trusted service providers or our affiliates for payment processing, supplementing the information you provide us in order to provide you with better service, account administration, and customer support. Any third parties receiving your Personal Information from us are prohibited from using your Personal Information except for these purposes, and they are required to maintain the confidentiality of your information. 
• After you place an order on our Website, you may need to make payments for the services you have ordered. In order to process your payments, we use a number of third-party payment processors. Your payment will be processed by the payment provider you choose to process your payment via a payment gateway. If you give us banking or other payment mode details, we solely use such details to process payment refunds, if any, to you. The third-party payment processors we use also collect, use, and process your information, including payment information, in accordance with their respective privacy policies. 
• When you make a customer service inquiry, your personal information will be processed to connect your inquiry to your account data and provide relevant information and services. 
• Furthermore, your personal data will be used to provide you with relevant advertising for our services and products and for statistical analysis that helps us to monitor the performance of our internet properties, improve those properties, and personalize your experience. 
• Your personal data may be disclosed to third parties that might be located outside your country of residence; potentially, different data protection standards may apply. 
• We have implemented appropriate safeguards to secure your personal data and retain your personal data only as long as necessary 
• Under the legislation applicable to you, you may be entitled to exercise certain rights with regard to the processing of your personal data. 

II. Definitions

• Personal data: means any information relating to a natural person who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, or an online identifier. 
• Processing: means any operation which is performed on personal data, such as collection, recording, organization, structuring, storage, adaptation or any kind of disclosure or other use. 

III. Informational use of our web properties

When you visit our web properties for informational reasons, i.e. without registering for any of our provided services listed under IV and without providing us with personal data in any other form, we may automatically collect additional information about you which will contain personal data only in limited cases and which is automatically recognized by our server. 

Examples might include: 

• your IP address; 
• your device type, name and IDs; 
• the date and time of your requests; 
• the content of your requests; 
•  information on your browser version; 
• your screen resolution; 
• information on your operating system, including language settings. 

We use such information only to assist us in providing an effective service (e.g. to adapt our web properties to the needs of your device or to allow you to log in to our web properties), and to collect broad demographic information for anonymized, aggregated use. 

The personal data automatically collected is necessary for us to provide the website, Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. b GDPR, and for our legitimate interest to guarantee the web properties’ stability and security, Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. f GDPR. 

IV. Registration for our services

Access to our services is provided via a personal account with us. If your access to our content is provided by an organization or an institution like a university or a company, then you will also use an institutional code to identify yourself as an authorized user from that institution. A personal account is required to purchase services from us, receive updates and notifications about service status, and access the outputs of our services (e.g., edited and translated manuscripts). 

If you create a personal login with us then we will store and process the following: 

• Information (such as your name, user name and email address) that is provided by registration; 
• Information in connection with an account sign-in facility (e.g. log-in and password details); 
• Communications sent by you (e.g. via e-mail or website communication forms). 

The information that is necessary for the performance of the service is labeled accordingly. All further information is provided voluntarily. 

We will process the personal data you provide to perform functions that may include the following: 

• Identify you at sign-in; 
• Provide you with the services and information offered through the website or which you request; 
• Administer your account; 
• Communicate with you; 
• (behavioral) Advertising and profiling 
• Facilitate attendance of webinars 
• Provide access (where appropriate) to other Research Square AJE content if you so request 

For this, the legal basis is Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. b GDPR. The use of your personal data for behavioral advertising and profiling is done with consent, Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. a GDPR. 

We use the personal data and contact data you provide by registration to inform you directly about our additional products and services and to improve your experience on our web properties. The use of your personal data for directly advertising related products and services is with consent, Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. a GDPR. 

You can object to the use of your personal data for direct marketing at any time. We will then refrain from any processing to the extent it is related to such purposes. You may opt-out of direct marketing via opt-out links in any marketing communication or via user profile pages on the website (where available). You can also inform us about your objection by contacting our Data Protection Office at [email protected]. 

We offer an update service. This service is provided by means of a double-opt-in. Thus, you will receive an email containing a link by which you can confirm that you are the owner of the email address and wish to be notified via our email service. You can end this service by opting out via the link provided in each notification email. This notification service is based on your consent, Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. a GDPR. 

Registration data is kept until such time as an account deletion request is made. If such a request is received we will erase your data within 30 days. Statutory storage obligations or the need for legal actions that may arise from misconduct within the services or payment problems can lead to a longer retention of your personal data. In this case, we will inform you accordingly. 

V. Information about the specific uses that require registration

1. Purchasing services 

For the use of our services, you have to set up an account as described under IV. Your customer account retains your personal data for future purchases. You can correct and update your personal data in the “My Account” menu. To delete your account, please contact customer service at [email protected]. If you have purchased services with your account, deleting your account will prevent you from monitoring the progress of your submission or retrieving your completed files. We will not perform any action to your account without your express permission. This processing is based on Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. b. 

By statutory law we are required to retain the provided financial data in relation to transactions (including address, payment and order information) for ten years. However, after 2 years we will restrict the processing of your personal data to comply with the statutory requirements and will not process the personal data any further. Regarding this, the retention of your personal data is based on Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. c GDPR. 

2. Article alerts and Newsletters 

With your email address you can subscribe to our newsletters that provide you with the latest news about our products and services if you consent to receiving such newsletters. 

Our Website may include integrations with social media sites, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and ORCID, the “Share This” button, or interactive mini- programs. Where we have your consent, these features may collect your IP address and which page you are visiting on our Websites and may set a cookie to enable the feature to function properly. Social media features and widgets are either hosted by a third party or hosted directly on our Websites. Your interactions with these features are governed by the privacy policy of the company providing them. 

You can unsubscribe from this service by opting out via the link provided in each newsletter. If you inquired about a product or service and no longer wish to be contacted, you can email [email protected] citing the name of the product or service, and request that your email address be removed. 

VI. Automated decision making

We do not use your personal data for automated decision making which produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you, however we do use your personal data to offer you content and services which we believe may be of interest and to improve your experience on our web properties. 

VII. Ecommerce and payment solutions

We utilize tools such as Paddle, Paypal, Braintree, Fiserv, AllPago, and Zoho Books to manage your subscriptions, identity, payments, and authorizations. Additionally, we use Mandrill to provide subscription status notifications, and for subscriptions purchased via Paddle, Paddle will communicate directly as the merchant of record. If you do not wish for your data to be processed by these providers, please email [email protected] – however, you will be unable to purchase services and any active subscriptions will be canceled if you prevent or halt this processing. For additional information on the use your data by these providers, please refer to: 

• Paddle 
• Paypal 
• Braintree 
• Fiserv 
• AllPago 
• Zoho Books 
• Mandrill 

VIII. Third party content, social media plugins

The web properties may contain links to third parties. We are not responsible for the content and the data collection on respective third party properties; please check the privacy policy of respective websites for information of respective websites’ data processing activities. 

1. Social Media plug-ins 

We use the following social media plug-ins: Facebook, Twitter. This allows you to communicate with such services and like or comment from our web properties. Social media plug-ins enable a direct communication between your device and the servers of the social media provider, allowing the social media provider to communicate with you and collect information about you using our web properties. This processing is based on Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. f GDPR and represents our legitimate interest to improve your experience and to optimize our services. 

Please note that we neither have the control of the extent of personal data that is collected by the respective plug-in provider nor do we know the processing’s purpose or the period your personal data will be retained. 

a. Facebook Social plugins 

We use so-called social plugins (“plugins”) of the social networking site facebook.com provided by Facebook Inc., 1601 S. California Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA ("Facebook"). The plugins can be identified by one of Facebook’s logos (white “f” on blue tile or a “thumps-up”-sign) or by the additional text “Facebook Social Plugin”. The list of Facebook Social Plugins and their appearance can be accessed via: http://developers.facebook.com/plugins. 

If a user visits using such a plugin, the user’s browser directly connects to Facebook’s servers. The plugin and its content are made available directly on Facebook’s servers. 

Due to the integration of the plugin Facebook collects the information that a user is visiting the corresponding property. If the user is logged in on Facebook at the moment he or she visits the property, Facebook may be able to connect the session to the user’s Facebook account. If the user interacts with the plugin – for example if he or she presses the like button or comments on something – the user’s browser transmits this information to Facebook. Facebook stores this information. If a user is not a member of Facebook, Facebook may collect and store the user’s IP-address. Facebook states that it only collects anonymized IP-addresses in Germany. 

The reason for and scope of the data acquisition and information about the way in which the data is processed and used by Facebook, as well as the user’s rights in this respect and settings options for protecting the users privacy can be found under: http://www.facebook.com/policy.php. 

If the user is a member of Facebook and does not wish Facebook to collect personal data via this homepage and to link this with his data stored on Facebook, the user needs to log off from Facebook before going to this homepage. 

The user may also block Facebook’s plugins using add-ons for the user’s browser, for example the “Facebook Blocker“. 

b. Twitter/X 

We use the Twitter/X button. The button is provided by X Corp., 795 Folsom St., Suite 600, San Francisco, CA 94107, USA. (“Twitter”) The buttons are marked using the text “Twitter” or “Follow” and a stylized blue bird. The button enables the user to share on Twitter or to follow the provider on Twitter. 

If a user visits one of the properties using such a button, the user’s browser directly connects to Twitter’s servers. The Twitter-button and its content are loaded directly from Twitter’s servers. According to the provider’s knowledge, Twitter collects the user IP-address and the URL when the button is loaded from Twitter’s servers. However, this data is only used for loading and displaying the Twitter-button. 

Further information can be found in Twitter’s privacy statement under: https://twitter.com/privacy. 

Should you have any questions regarding our privacy policy, please contact us via the email address [email protected]. 

2. Do Not Track 

There are different ways you can prevent tracking of your online activity. One of them is setting a preference in your browser that alerts web properties you visit that you do not want them to collect certain information about you. This is referred to as a Do-Not-Track (“DNT”) signal. Please note that currently our website does not respond to these DNT signals from web browsers. At this time, there is no universally accepted standard for what a company should do when a DNT signal is detected. 

IX. Information sharing

Where personal data is disclosed to third parties for the purposes mentioned above, the legal basis for the transfer of your personal data is Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. b and f GDPR. Some of the recipients may reside outside the EEA. For further information about cross border transfer in general and transfers outside of the EEA see section on Cross border data transfers. 

We may disclose your personal data to contractors who assist us in providing the services we offer through our web properties. We will transfer only the information essential to provide the contracted services (e.g., your submitted manuscript and any special instructions). Such a transfer will be based on data processing agreements (Art. 28 GDPR). Therefore, our contractors will only use your personal data to the extent necessary to perform their functions and will be contractually bound to process your personal data only on our behalf and in compliance with our requests. You can limit the processing of personal data in submitted manuscripts by removing the relevant text from your manuscripts before submitting them via the web site. 

In the event that we undergo re-organisation or are sold to a third party, any personal data we hold about you may be transferred to that re-organised entity or third party in compliance with applicable law. 

We may disclose your personal data if legally entitled or required to do so (for example if required by law or by a court order). The legal basis for this will be Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. c GDPR (in conjunction with the respective national law). 

1. Usage Reports 

We may disclose anonymous aggregate statistics about users of the website in order to describe our services to prospective partners, advertisers and other reputable third parties and for other lawful purposes, but these statistics will include no personal data. We also supply standardized usage reports to institutional customers, which aggregate usage statistics for internal use by those customers and organizations. 

In addition to the above-mentioned anonymous reports and by special arrangement: 

When you purchase our services under an institutional agreement, we may process your personal data to create usage reports. These may include your name and email address. This data is necessary for the usage report as it provides information on the usage and overall interest in a particular service. 

The legal basis is Art. 6 (1) 1 lit. f GDPR. We have a legitimate interest to assess and evaluate the use of our content to be able to improve our services. We will retain this data securely for ongoing internal analysis and future reference.  

We may share the usage data with the institution or partner who provides your access to our services, (e.g. your employer, the institution you are a member of, your university etc. “Licensee”). The legal basis is Art. 6 (1) 1 lit. f GDPR. The Licensee has a legitimate interest in using the usage data to assess and evaluate the economic efficiency of its license and to ensure that users of institutional accounts are legitimate. Based on this evaluation, the Licensee can evaluate the need to increase or decrease the number of prepaid service requests or allocate costs internally. 

In addition, we ourselves have a legitimate interest in enabling the Licensee to use the usage data to conduct respective evaluation and assessments is also in our interest as it makes our service more attractive for the Licensees. 

If the Licensee resides outside the EEA, the transfer is safeguarded by a Commission’s adequacy decision such as the EU Standard Contractual Clauses. You can find further information about the aforementioned safeguards by contacting [email protected]. 

You may object to the transfer of the usage data to the Licensee at any time without reason by sending an email to [email protected]. 

X. Cross border data transfers

Within the scope of our information sharing activities set out above, your personal data may be transferred to other countries (including countries outside the EEA) which may have different data protection standards from your country of residence. Please note that data processed in a foreign country may be subject to foreign laws and accessible to foreign governments, courts, law enforcement, and regulatory agencies. However, we will endeavor to take reasonable measures to maintain an adequate level of data protection when sharing your personal data with such countries. 

In the case of a transfer outside of the EEA, this transfer is safeguarded by privacy the EU Model Clauses. You can find further information about the aforementioned safeguards by following this link https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-topic/data-protection_en. 

XI. Security

We have reasonable state of the art security measures in place to protect against the loss, misuse and alteration of personal data under our control. For example, our security and privacy policies are periodically reviewed and enhanced as necessary and only authorized personnel have access to personal data. Whilst we cannot ensure or guarantee that loss, misuse or alteration of information will never occur, we use all reasonable efforts to prevent it. 

You should bear in mind that submission of information over the internet is never entirely secure. We cannot guarantee the security of information you submit via our web properties whilst it is in transit over the internet and any such submission is at your own risk. 

XII. Data Retention

We strive to keep our processing activities with respect to your personal data as limited as possible. In the absence of specific retention periods set out in this policy, your personal data will be retained only for as long as we need it to fulfill the purpose for which we have collected it and, if applicable, as long as required by statutory retention requirements. 

XIII. Your rights

Under the legislation applicable to you, you may be entitled to exercise some or all of the following rights: 

require (i) information as to whether your personal data is retained and (ii) access to and/or duplicates of your personal data retained, including the purposes of the processing, the categories of personal data concerned, and the data recipients as well as potential retention periods. 

Request rectification, removal or restriction of your personal data, e.g. because (i) it is incomplete or inaccurate, (ii) it is no longer needed for the purposes for which it was collected, or (iii) the consent on which the processing was based has been withdrawn; 

refuse to provide and – without impact to data processing activities that have taken place before such withdrawal – withdraw your consent to processing of your personal data at any time; 

object, on grounds relating to your particular situation, that your personal data shall be subject to a processing. In this case, please provide us with information about your particular situation. After the assessment of the facts presented by you we will either stop processing your personal data or present you our compelling legitimate grounds for an ongoing processing; 

take legal actions in relation to any potential breach of your rights regarding the processing of your personal data, as well as to lodge complaints before the competent data protection regulators; 

require (i) to receive the personal data concerning you, which you have provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and (ii) to transmit those data to another controller without hindrance from our side; where technically feasible you shall have the right to have the personal data transmitted directly from us to another controller; 

not to be subject to any automated decision making, including profiling (automatic decisions based on data processing by automatic means, for the purpose of assessing several personal aspects) which produce legal effects on you or affects you with similar significance; and/or 

Your California Privacy Rights: Please see https://oag.ca.gov/privacy/ccpa  

You may (i) exercise the rights referred to above or (ii) pose any questions or (iii) make any complaints regarding our data processing by contacting us using the contact details set out below. 

XIV. Minors

If you are under the age of 18, you are not permitted to use the Sites and Services or to disclose Personal Information. 

Our web properties are not directed at children and we do not knowingly collect any personal data from children under 16 years old. However, if the parent or the guardian of a child under 16 years old believes that the child has provided us with personal data, the parent or guardian of that child should contact us at [email protected] to request the deletion of this data from our files. 

XV. Cookies

We use cookies for some of our website(s). However, to optimize our website’s efficiency, we use other identifiers to gather usage and performance data. We mainly use GTM/GA (read Google’s privacy policy) to count the number of unique visitors to a web page or service and to develop other statistics about the operations of our website 

XVI. How we protect personal information 

We maintain administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to protect against the loss, misuse, or unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction of the information you provide on our website. 

XVII. Contacting us 

Please submit any questions, concerns or comments you have about this privacy policy or any requests concerning your personal data by email to our Group Data Protection Officer. You can contact our Group Data Protection Officer via [email protected]. 

The information you provide when contacting us at [email protected] or [email protected] will be processed to handle your request. We will restrict the processing of the respective information in accordance with statutory retention requirements. 

XVIII. Amendments to this policy 

We reserve the right to change this policy from time to time by updating our web properties respectively. Please visit our web properties and check our respective current privacy policy. This policy was last updated on July 01, 2024.