This page holds both of Brieflands’ data-protection documents: the privacy policy, which explains what personal data we process and the rights you have over it, and the cookie policy, which explains the small files our websites store on your device and how you control them.
Privacy Policy (GDPR)
Brieflands is a scientific, technical, and medical publisher. We take the protection of the personal data of our authors, reviewers, editors, readers, and website visitors seriously, and we process personal data in accordance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and other applicable data protection laws. This policy explains what personal data we collect, why we collect it, who we share it with, how long we keep it, and the rights you have.
Brieflands acts as the data controller for personal data processed through its journals and websites. If you have any question about this policy or about how your data is handled, please contact us through our support portal.
Information We Collect
Information you provide to us
- Contact details, such as your name, email address, postal address, and telephone number;
- Account credentials (username and password) when you register for an account;
- Professional information, such as your affiliation, academic background, and fields of interest;
- Manuscript and peer review data when you submit to, review for, or edit one of our journals, including names, affiliations, and related correspondence;
- Payment details when you pay publication or service fees (card payments are handled by our payment providers; we do not store full card numbers);
- Your preferences, such as subscription and notification choices;
- Any information you choose to send us, for example through the support portal.
Information collected automatically
- Internet Protocol (IP) address, browser type, operating system, and Internet service provider;
- Referring and exit pages, the pages viewed on our websites, and date/time stamps;
- Information from cookies and similar technologies, as described in our Cookie Policy. Non-essential cookies are used only with your consent.
Third-party sign-in
If you sign in using a third-party account (for example, ORCID), authentication is handled by that third party. We receive only the account details you authorize the third party to share with us, such as your name, email address, and identifier.
How and Why We Use Your Data
We process personal data only when we have a legal basis to do so:
- Performance of a contract — to manage submissions, peer review, editorial workflows, production, and publication; to operate your account; and to process payments for our services;
- Legal obligations — to keep records required by accounting, tax, and publication ethics requirements;
- Legitimate interests — to operate, secure, troubleshoot, and improve our websites and services; to prevent fraud and misuse; to produce internal statistics; and to inform you about changes to our services;
- Consent — to send you marketing communications and to use non-essential cookies. You may withdraw your consent at any time (see "Your Rights" below).
When an article is published, the names, affiliations, and contact details of its authors are published as part of the article and shared with indexing, abstracting, archiving, and DOI registration services as part of the permanent scholarly record.
How Long We Keep Your Data
We keep personal data no longer than necessary for the purposes described above and for meeting legal requirements. Data that forms part of the published scholarly record — such as the author information published with an article — is retained permanently to preserve the integrity of the literature. When personal data is no longer needed, it is securely deleted or anonymized. If you no longer wish to act as an author or reviewer, you can tell us at any time through the support portal.
Disclosure and Sharing
We do not sell your personal data. We share it only in the following cases:
- With service providers who work on our behalf — for example, hosting and information technology, production and typesetting, payment processing, security and content delivery (Cloudflare), analytics (Google), and email and marketing automation (Brevo) — under terms that restrict their use of the data;
- With indexing, abstracting, archiving, and DOI registration services in connection with the publication of your article;
- With a scientific society, institution, or other partner on whose behalf we publish a journal, where necessary to provide the publishing services; usage statistics shared with such partners are aggregated and anonymized;
- With an academic institution, employer, or other entity that has given you access to a product or service, where you have consented;
- Where we are required to disclose personal data by law, court order, or a lawful request of public authorities;
- In connection with a sale, merger, or transfer of all or a substantial part of our business, in which case the recipient remains bound by this policy.
International Transfers
Some of our service providers process data outside the country in which you live. Where such transfers involve personal data protected by the GDPR, we rely on appropriate safeguards, such as standard contractual clauses or an adequacy decision of the European Commission.
Security
We use appropriate physical, technical, and administrative safeguards to protect your data. Access to personal data is limited to those who need it to perform their work and who are subject to confidentiality obligations. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure; if a breach affecting your personal data occurs, we will act in accordance with our legal obligations.
Cookies
Details of the cookies and similar technologies used on our websites, including how to give and withdraw consent, are set out in our Cookie Policy. You can change your cookie choices at any time using the "Cookie Settings" link in the footer of every page.
Your Rights
Subject to the conditions set out in the GDPR, you have the right to:
- Access — ask whether we hold personal data about you and receive a copy of it, together with information about the purposes of processing and the recipients of the data;
- Rectification — have inaccurate or incomplete data corrected;
- Erasure — have your data deleted where its continued processing is not justified;
- Restriction — have the processing of your data restricted in certain circumstances;
- Portability — receive the data you provided to us in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format and have it transmitted to a third party;
- Objection — object to processing based on legitimate interests, to direct marketing (including profiling), and to processing for scientific or historical research and statistical purposes;
- Automated decision-making — not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing that produces legal or similarly significant effects concerning you;
- Withdrawal of consent — withdraw any consent you have given at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of processing carried out before the withdrawal;
- Complaint — lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority.
To exercise any of these rights, please submit a request through our support portal. We may need to verify your identity before acting on a request.
Changes to This Policy
We may update this policy from time to time. The date of the latest revision is shown at the top of this page. Significant changes will be announced on our websites.
Contact
For any question concerning this privacy policy or the way Brieflands processes personal data, please contact us through the support portal.
Cookie Policy
Brieflands uses cookies and similar technologies on its websites. This policy explains what they are, which ones we use, and how you can control them. It supplements our Privacy Policy (GDPR).
What Are Cookies?
Cookies are small text files that a website stores on your computer or mobile device. Session cookies expire when you close your browser; persistent cookies remain until they expire or are deleted. Cookies set by us are first-party cookies; cookies set by our service providers are third-party cookies. We also use browser local storage, which works in a similar way, to remember settings such as your cookie choices.
How We Ask for Your Consent
On your first visit, a cookie banner lets you choose which categories of non-essential cookies you allow: Analytics, Personalization, and Marketing. No category is pre-selected, and non-essential cookies may be used only after you allow them. You can choose:
- Accept All — allow all three categories;
- Accept Selection — allow only the categories you have ticked;
- Reject All — allow none of the non-essential categories.
Your choice is stored on your device for 12 months, after which we ask again. You can change or withdraw your choice at any time using the "Cookie Settings" link in the footer of every page. Withdrawing consent is as easy as giving it. Google services additionally use Google Consent Mode: all Google signals are set to "denied" by default and are updated only according to the choice you make.
Cookies and Similar Technologies We Use
Strictly necessary (no consent required)
- Cloudflare security cookies (for example,
__cf_bmandcf_clearance) — set by Cloudflare, our security and content delivery provider, to protect our websites against bots and abuse. Their duration is set by Cloudflare and is typically short. - Consent record (local storage keys
consentIsShown,consentDate,analyticsConsent,adConsent,adUserData, andadPersonalization) — remembers the cookie choice you made, for 12 months.
Analytics (only with your consent)
- Google Analytics (
_gaand_ga_*) — helps us understand how visitors use our websites so that we can improve them. These cookies remain for up to two years and are loaded through Google Tag Manager.
Personalization (only with your consent)
- Allows us to remember your preferences and present personalized content. This choice also controls the Google "ad personalization" signal.
Marketing (only with your consent)
- Brevo (
sib_cuid) — set by Brevo, our email marketing and automation provider, to recognize returning visitors and measure engagement with our communications. Its duration is set by Brevo. - Google advertising signals (ad storage and ad user data) — control whether Google tags may store or use advertising-related data.
The exact cookies set by third-party providers may change over time; this list describes the main technologies currently in use.
Managing Cookies in Your Browser
Most browsers also let you block or delete cookies yourself. Note that blocking some cookies may affect how our websites work. Instructions for common browsers:
Questions
If you have any question about our use of cookies, please contact us through the support portal.