Privacy Statement

Privacy Statement

Scientific Innovation Research Group (SIRG)

Scientific Innovation Research Group (SIRG) LLC ("SIRG", "SIRG Publisher", "we", "our", or "us") respects the privacy and confidentiality of authors, reviewers, editors, readers, registered users, contributors, and other individuals who interact with SIRG's journals, publishing platforms, websites, and related scholarly services.

This Privacy Statement explains how SIRG may collect, use, store, protect, and disclose personal information in connection with its academic publishing activities.

SIRG is committed to handling personal information responsibly and in accordance with applicable privacy and data-protection laws, contractual obligations, and recognized principles of responsible scholarly publishing.

This Privacy Statement applies to SIRG's publisher platform and should be read together with the privacy notices or policies of individual SIRG journals where applicable.

1. Information We May Collect

Depending on how you interact with SIRG, we may collect information necessary to operate our publishing and scholarly communication services.

This may include:

Registration and Account Information

  • Full name

  • Username

  • Password or authentication information

  • Email address

  • Institutional affiliation

  • Country or geographical region

  • Professional title

  • Areas of expertise or subject interests

Author and Manuscript Information

When authors submit manuscripts, SIRG may process information including:

  • Author names

  • Institutional affiliations

  • Email addresses

  • ORCID iDs

  • Author biographies

  • Corresponding-author information

  • Manuscript files

  • Supplementary files

  • Declarations and disclosures

  • Funding information

  • Conflict-of-interest information

  • Ethical approval information

  • Data availability statements

  • Author contribution information

  • Editorial correspondence

Reviewer Information

For peer-review purposes, SIRG may process:

  • Name

  • Email address

  • Institutional affiliation

  • Academic or professional expertise

  • ORCID iD, where provided

  • Reviewer profile information

  • Peer-review assignments

  • Reviewer reports

  • Editorial correspondence

  • Conflict-of-interest declarations

Editor and Editorial Board Information

For editors and editorial board members, SIRG may process:

  • Name

  • Academic or professional affiliation

  • Professional title

  • Email address

  • ORCID iD, where provided

  • Areas of expertise

  • Editorial role

  • Editorial correspondence

  • Manuscript handling information

Technical and Usage Information

When users access SIRG websites or publishing systems, certain technical information may be automatically processed, where applicable, including:

  • IP address

  • Browser type

  • Device type

  • Operating system

  • Date and time of access

  • Referring pages

  • Pages accessed

  • Session information

  • Technical logs

  • Security and error information

Such information may be used for security, system administration, troubleshooting, performance monitoring, and service improvement.

2. How We Use Personal Information

SIRG uses personal information only for legitimate purposes connected with its publishing, academic, administrative, technical, and communication activities.

These purposes may include:

  • Creating and managing user accounts.

  • Processing manuscript submissions.

  • Conducting editorial assessment.

  • Managing peer review.

  • Communicating editorial decisions.

  • Communicating with authors, reviewers, and editors.

  • Managing editorial boards and reviewer databases.

  • Producing and publishing scholarly articles.

  • Managing DOI and scholarly metadata registration.

  • Maintaining article and journal records.

  • Processing corrections, retractions, and other post-publication notices.

  • Responding to complaints and appeals.

  • Investigating research or publication misconduct.

  • Managing publishing agreements and copyright matters.

  • Providing technical support.

  • Maintaining platform security.

  • Preventing unauthorized access, abuse, or fraudulent activity.

  • Improving website and publishing-system performance.

  • Providing relevant service-related communications.

  • Complying with legal, regulatory, ethical, and contractual obligations.

SIRG does not use personal information for purposes unrelated to its legitimate publishing, academic, operational, legal, or administrative activities except where appropriate notice or consent is required.

3. Legal and Legitimate Bases for Processing

Where applicable under relevant data-protection law, SIRG may process personal information on one or more of the following bases:

  • Performance of a contract or publishing agreement.

  • Legitimate interests in operating and improving scholarly publishing services.

  • Compliance with legal or regulatory obligations.

  • Protection of the security and integrity of SIRG systems.

  • Establishment, exercise, or defense of legal claims.

  • Consent, where consent is required or appropriate.

The applicable legal basis may depend on the nature of the information and the specific processing activity.

4. Scholarly Publishing and the Public Record

SIRG recognizes that scholarly publishing creates a permanent academic record.

Certain information associated with published scholarly work may therefore remain publicly available as part of the publication record.

This may include, where applicable:

  • Author names

  • Institutional affiliations

  • ORCID iDs

  • Article metadata

  • Publication dates

  • Author contribution information

  • Funding disclosures

  • Conflict-of-interest statements

  • Data availability statements

  • Correction or retraction notices

  • Other information that forms part of the published scholarly record

Requests to delete personal information will be considered in accordance with applicable law and SIRG's obligations to preserve the integrity of the scholarly record.

SIRG will not ordinarily remove or alter legitimate publication records solely because an individual requests deletion of personal information.

5. Confidentiality of Manuscripts and Peer Review

SIRG respects the confidentiality of manuscripts, peer-review materials, editorial correspondence, and other non-public information obtained during the publication process.

Manuscripts under review are not intentionally disclosed outside the appropriate editorial and peer-review process except where disclosure is:

  • Authorized by the relevant parties.

  • Necessary to conduct the editorial process.

  • Required for research-integrity investigations.

  • Necessary to obtain specialist advice or additional evaluation.

  • Required by law or legitimate institutional procedures.

  • Necessary to protect the integrity or safety of the scholarly record.

Reviewers and editors are expected to maintain the confidentiality of manuscripts and unpublished information in accordance with applicable journal policies.

6. Double-Blind Peer Review

SIRG journals currently operate under a Double-Blind Peer Review model unless a journal's published policy explicitly states otherwise.

Under the double-blind process, reasonable measures are taken within the publishing system to prevent authors and reviewers from being identified to each other during peer review.

However, SIRG cannot guarantee absolute anonymity in all circumstances, including where identities may be inferred from manuscript content, citations, institutional information, public information, reviewer comments, or other circumstances outside the publisher's control.

7. Information Sharing and Third-Party Services

SIRG does not sell personal information for commercial purposes.

Personal information may be shared with trusted service providers or other parties where reasonably necessary to operate SIRG's publishing activities, provide requested services, protect security, comply with legal obligations, or maintain the scholarly record.

Depending on the service, such parties may include:

  • Hosting and infrastructure providers

  • Email and communication service providers

  • DOI and metadata registration organizations

  • Scholarly discovery and indexing services

  • Manuscript and similarity-checking services

  • Payment or financial service providers, where applicable

  • Technical support providers

  • Security and monitoring providers

  • Legal, regulatory, or professional advisers

  • Research institutions or other publishers where necessary to investigate publication-ethics concerns

SIRG seeks to limit information shared with third parties to information reasonably necessary for the relevant purpose.

Where third-party services process personal information on behalf of SIRG, SIRG seeks to use appropriate contractual, technical, and organizational safeguards where required.

8. Scholarly Metadata and DOI Registration

To support the identification, citation, discoverability, and interoperability of published research, SIRG may transmit article and publication metadata to relevant scholarly infrastructure providers and registration agencies.

Such metadata may include:

  • Article title

  • Author names

  • Affiliations

  • ORCID iDs, where provided

  • Abstract

  • Keywords

  • Journal title

  • Volume and issue information

  • Publication date

  • DOI

  • Funding information

  • Licensing information

  • Other bibliographic metadata

Some scholarly metadata is intended to be publicly discoverable and may be distributed through third-party scholarly services.

9. ORCID iDs

SIRG supports the use of ORCID iDs to help accurately identify researchers and connect authors with their scholarly contributions.

Where an ORCID iD is provided or connected to an SIRG account, it may be processed for purposes including:

  • Author identification.

  • Manuscript submission.

  • Editorial workflows.

  • Publication metadata.

  • Research attribution.

  • Synchronization with authorized scholarly services.

SIRG does not treat an ORCID iD as an organizational identifier. ORCID iDs identify individual researchers.

10. Cookies and Similar Technologies

SIRG's websites and publishing systems may use cookies and similar technologies to support essential website functions and improve the user experience.

Cookies may be used for purposes such as:

  • Maintaining user sessions.

  • Authentication and login.

  • Remembering preferences.

  • Supporting website functionality.

  • Improving system performance.

  • Security and fraud prevention.

  • Understanding general website usage.

  • Generating aggregated or statistical usage information.

Some cookies may be necessary for the operation of the publishing platform, while others may support optional functionality or analytics.

Users may be able to manage or restrict cookies through their browser settings. Restricting certain cookies may affect the functionality of some parts of the website.

11. Analytics and Usage Statistics

SIRG may use analytics or website-performance tools to understand how its websites and publishing systems are used.

Where analytics services are used, information may include:

  • Pages viewed

  • General usage patterns

  • Device and browser information

  • Approximate geographic information

  • Referring sources

  • Technical performance information

Analytics information is used primarily to improve website performance, usability, security, and publishing services.

Where required by applicable law, SIRG will provide appropriate notice and obtain consent for optional analytics technologies.

12. Data Security

SIRG takes reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect personal information against:

  • Unauthorized access

  • Unauthorized disclosure

  • Accidental loss

  • Destruction

  • Alteration

  • Misuse

  • Other inappropriate processing

Security measures may include access controls, authentication mechanisms, secure system configuration, backups, monitoring, and restricted administrative access.

However, no internet-based system or electronic transmission can be guaranteed to be completely secure.

Users should therefore take appropriate measures to protect their account credentials and should notify SIRG if they believe that their account or personal information has been compromised.

13. Access to Personal Information

Subject to applicable law, individuals may have rights concerning their personal information, including the right to:

  • Request access to personal information held about them.

  • Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete information.

  • Request deletion where legally applicable.

  • Request restriction of certain processing.

  • Object to certain processing.

  • Withdraw consent where processing is based on consent.

  • Request information about how their personal information is processed.

These rights may be subject to legal, contractual, ethical, security, or scholarly-record requirements.

14. Correction and Deletion Requests

Users may request correction of inaccurate personal information by contacting SIRG.

Requests for deletion will be assessed individually.

SIRG may retain information where necessary to:

  • Maintain the scholarly record.

  • Comply with legal or regulatory obligations.

  • Establish, exercise, or defend legal claims.

  • Investigate research or publication misconduct.

  • Maintain records required for legitimate publishing operations.

  • Prevent fraud or abuse.

  • Preserve the integrity of published research.

Accordingly, deletion of an account does not necessarily result in deletion of all information associated with previous submissions, publications, editorial activity, or scholarly records.

15. Data Retention

SIRG retains personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by applicable law or legitimate scholarly, contractual, legal, or operational requirements.

Submission and editorial records may be retained for appropriate periods because they form part of the history and integrity of the publishing process.

Information associated with published articles may be retained indefinitely where necessary to maintain the scholarly record.

16. Children's Privacy

SIRG's publishing platforms are intended primarily for researchers, academics, students, professionals, reviewers, editors, and other members of the scholarly community.

SIRG does not knowingly seek to collect personal information from children for purposes unrelated to its legitimate publishing activities.

If a parent or legal guardian believes that personal information relating to a child has been submitted improperly, they may contact SIRG for review.

17. International Data Processing

SIRG operates internationally and may process information across different countries or jurisdictions in connection with its publishing and technical infrastructure.

Where personal information is transferred across borders, SIRG seeks to apply appropriate safeguards and comply with applicable data-protection requirements.

Because scholarly publishing is international, certain publication metadata may be publicly accessible worldwide through scholarly databases, search engines, repositories, DOI services, and other academic infrastructure.

18. Research Integrity and Ethical Investigations

SIRG may process personal information when investigating concerns relating to:

  • Plagiarism

  • Fabrication

  • Falsification

  • Duplicate publication

  • Authorship disputes

  • Peer-review manipulation

  • Citation manipulation

  • Conflicts of interest

  • Research ethics

  • Data integrity

  • Other research or publication misconduct

Such information may be shared with editors, reviewers, authors, institutions, publishers, or other appropriate parties when reasonably necessary to investigate and resolve legitimate research-integrity concerns.

SIRG seeks to handle such information confidentially and proportionately while protecting the integrity of the scholarly record.

19. Advertising and Marketing Communications

Where SIRG uses advertising or promotional communications, such activities must remain separate from editorial decision-making.

SIRG may use contact information to communicate with users about relevant publishing services, journal activities, submissions, editorial matters, events, or other legitimate SIRG activities, subject to applicable law.

Users may have the ability to opt out of non-essential promotional communications where applicable.

Essential communications related to manuscript submissions, peer review, editorial decisions, account security, publishing agreements, or other necessary services may still be sent.

20. Links to External Websites

SIRG websites may contain links to external websites, services, repositories, scholarly databases, ORCID, DOI registration services, social-media platforms, institutional websites, and other third-party resources.

SIRG is not responsible for the privacy practices, security, or content of external websites.

Users should review the privacy policies of external services before providing personal information.

21. Changes to This Privacy Statement

SIRG may periodically update this Privacy Statement to reflect changes in:

  • Publishing practices

  • Technical infrastructure

  • Legal or regulatory requirements

  • Data-protection standards

  • Third-party services

  • Journal policies

  • Scholarly publishing practices

When material changes are made, SIRG may update the effective date or otherwise provide an appropriate notice.

The current version published on the SIRG website will constitute the applicable version.

22. Compliance with Applicable Privacy Laws

SIRG is committed to complying with applicable privacy and data-protection laws and regulations.

Depending on the circumstances and the individuals concerned, applicable requirements may include relevant provisions of:

  • The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

  • Applicable United States federal and state privacy laws

  • Other applicable international or national data-protection requirements

SIRG applies privacy and data-protection principles in a manner appropriate to the nature, purpose, location, and legal context of the relevant processing activity.

23. Contact Us

For privacy-related questions, requests for correction, access, or deletion, or other data-protection concerns, please contact:

SIRG Publisher – Privacy and Data Protection

Head of SIRG Editorial Department:
manager@pub.scientificirg.com

Editorial Office:
editorialoffice@pub.scientificirg.com

SIRG Publisher

Scientific Innovation Research Group (SIRG) LLC
Michigan, United States

Privacy Commitment

SIRG is committed to protecting the confidentiality and responsible use of personal information while recognizing the unique requirements of scholarly publishing.

We seek to balance individual privacy rights with the legitimate requirements of peer review, editorial independence, research integrity, publication ethics, legal compliance, and preservation of the scholarly record.

SIRG will continue to review and improve its privacy and data-protection practices as its publishing activities, technologies, and applicable legal requirements evolve.