Earth and Planetary Insights (EPI) respects the privacy of its authors, reviewers, editors, readers, registered users, and all visitors to the journal website. This Privacy Statement explains how personal information may be collected, used, stored, and protected in connection with the journal's editorial, publishing, communication, and access-related activities.

EPI is committed to responsible data handling, transparency, academic integrity, and the protection of personal information within the framework of scholarly publishing. Personal data are processed only for legitimate journal-related purposes, including manuscript submission, peer review, editorial communication, publication management, reader notifications, user account administration, and the long-term maintenance of the scholarly record.

1. Scope of this Privacy Statement

This Privacy Statement applies to the use of the EPI journal website, including user registration, manuscript submission, editorial workflows, peer review activities, reader notifications, contact forms, and communication with the editorial office.

It applies to personal information provided by authors, co-authors, reviewers, editors, editorial board members, registered readers, librarians, institutional users, journal correspondents, and visitors who contact the journal or use its online services.

This statement does not apply to external websites that may be linked from the journal platform. Users are encouraged to review the privacy policies of any third-party websites they visit.

2. Personal Information We May Collect

Depending on the user's interaction with the journal, EPI may collect and process personal information such as name and surname, institutional affiliation, department or organization, country, email address, ORCID iD where provided, username and account information, author and reviewer profile details, areas of expertise and research interests, manuscript metadata, correspondence with the editorial office, peer review assignments and editorial roles, submission history and publication records, notification preferences, and technical information related to website use where applicable.

Authors may also provide information about funding, conflicts of interest, ethics approvals, acknowledgements, author contributions, and related scholarly declarations as part of the submission and publication process.

3. How Personal Information Is Used

Personal information is used only for purposes connected with the operation, management, and development of the journal. These purposes may include managing user accounts and registrations; enabling manuscript submission and editorial processing; supporting peer review and editorial decision-making; communicating with authors, reviewers, editors, and readers; publishing accepted articles and associated metadata; assigning and displaying author information; supporting citation, indexing, archiving, and discoverability; sending journal notifications, issue alerts, and relevant announcements; maintaining the accuracy and integrity of the scholarly record; responding to questions, requests, or technical issues; improving the usability and functionality of the journal platform; and complying with legal, ethical, and publishing obligations.

Personal information is not used for unrelated commercial marketing, sold to third parties, or shared for purposes outside the legitimate operation of the journal.

4. Author and Published Article Information

When a manuscript is accepted for publication, certain information becomes part of the public scholarly record. This may include author names, institutional affiliations, country, corresponding author details where applicable, ORCID iDs where provided, article title, abstract, keywords, references, funding information, conflict of interest statements, data availability statements, acknowledgements, DOI and article metadata.

This information is published to ensure academic transparency, proper citation, indexing, discoverability, and long-term scholarly access. Once published, article metadata may be shared with indexing services, metadata registries, libraries, repositories, discovery platforms, and scholarly infrastructure providers.

5. Reviewer and Peer Review Information

EPI may process personal information about reviewers for the purposes of reviewer selection, peer review management, editorial evaluation, quality assurance, and academic record-keeping.

Reviewer identities and review materials are handled according to the journal's peer review policy. In a double-blind or confidential review process, reviewer identities are not disclosed to authors unless the journal's policy explicitly provides otherwise or the reviewer has agreed to disclosure.

Reviewer comments, recommendations, and editorial communications are treated as confidential editorial materials. They are used only for the purposes of manuscript evaluation, editorial decision-making, and maintaining the integrity of the peer review process.

6. Reader Registration and Notifications

Readers may register with the journal to receive notifications about new issues, published articles, special issues, editorial announcements, and other journal-related updates.

Information provided during reader registration is used only for journal-related communication and account management. Registered users may update their profile information or notification preferences through the journal platform, where this functionality is available.

Readers who no longer wish to receive notifications may modify their account preferences or contact the editorial office for assistance.

7. Cookies and Technical Data

The journal website may use cookies or similar technical tools necessary for platform functionality, user login, session management, security, and basic website operation.

Technical information may include browser type, device information, IP address, access time, pages visited, and system logs. Such information may be used to maintain website security, diagnose technical issues, improve platform performance, and support responsible administration of the journal website.

Where analytics tools are used, they should be configured in a privacy-conscious manner and used only to understand general website usage and improve user experience.

8. Data Sharing and Third-Party Services

EPI may share limited personal or publication-related information with trusted third-party services when necessary for legitimate scholarly publishing purposes. These may include journal hosting and platform providers, manuscript management systems, DOI registration agencies, metadata and indexing services, archiving and preservation services, email notification systems, technical support providers, plagiarism or similarity screening services where applicable, and scholarly identification systems such as ORCID where applicable.

Only the information necessary for the relevant purpose is shared. EPI does not sell user data and does not provide personal information to third parties for unrelated advertising or commercial use.

9. Data Retention

Personal information is retained only for as long as necessary to support the journal's legitimate editorial, publishing, administrative, legal, and scholarly record-keeping purposes.

Because scholarly publishing requires long-term integrity of the academic record, certain information related to submissions, editorial decisions, peer review, publication metadata, and published articles may be retained for extended periods.

User account information may be retained while the account remains active. Users may request updates, corrections, or removal of certain personal information, subject to the journal's legal, ethical, editorial, and archival obligations.

10. Data Security

EPI takes reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect personal information from unauthorized access, misuse, loss, alteration, or disclosure.

These measures may include controlled access to editorial systems, user authentication, secure hosting arrangements, administrative safeguards, and responsible data management procedures.

While no online system can guarantee absolute security, the journal is committed to maintaining appropriate safeguards and responding responsibly to any suspected data protection issue.

11. User Rights

Depending on applicable data protection laws, users may have the right to request access to their personal data, request correction of inaccurate or incomplete information, request deletion of certain personal data, request restriction of processing, object to certain types of processing, withdraw consent for optional communications, and request information about how their data are used.

Requests may be subject to verification of identity and may be limited where retention is required for legal, editorial, ethical, archival, or scholarly record purposes.

Users who wish to exercise their rights may contact the editorial office using the contact details provided on the journal website.

12. Confidentiality of Editorial Communication

Editorial correspondence, reviewer reports, manuscript evaluations, and decision-related communications are treated as confidential materials.

Authors, reviewers, editors, and editorial staff are expected to respect the confidentiality of the editorial and peer review process. Manuscripts under review must not be shared, discussed publicly, or used for personal advantage before publication.

13. Children's Privacy

The journal website and its publishing services are intended for academic, professional, institutional, and scholarly use. EPI does not knowingly collect personal information from children for non-academic purposes.

If personal information from a minor is submitted in connection with academic authorship or scholarly activity, it should be provided with appropriate consent and in accordance with relevant institutional and legal requirements.

14. Updates to this Privacy Statement

EPI may update this Privacy Statement from time to time to reflect changes in journal operations, legal requirements, publishing practices, technical infrastructure, or data protection standards.

The current version of the Privacy Statement will be made available on the journal website. Users are encouraged to review this page periodically.

15. Contact

For questions regarding this Privacy Statement, personal data, user accounts, notifications, editorial communication, or privacy-related requests, users may contact the editorial office through the contact information provided on the EPI journal website.

Earth and Planetary Insights (EPI) is committed to protecting user privacy while supporting transparent, ethical, and responsible scholarly communication.