Privacy Policy

We take your privacy very seriously and are committed to protecting your personal data. Please read this privacy policy carefully as it contains important information on who we are, the personal data we collect about you and how it is collected and why we collect, store, use and share your personal data. It also explains your rights in relation to your personal data, how your data is kept secure and how to contact us in the event you have a complaint.

We collect, use and are responsible for certain personal data about (i) visitors to our website, (ii) authors using our services, (iii) editors and reviewers who we contact or engage services from, and (iv) publishers who we contact or engage services from. This website and our services are not intended for children and we do not knowingly collect data relating to children.

This privacy policy applies to Premier Science, part of Eworkflow Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (“eworkflow“). If you have any questions about this privacy policy, including any requests to exercise your legal rights, please contact us (see ‘How to contact us’ below).

This privacy policy is set out as follows:

  1. Key terms
  2. Personal data we collect about you
  3. How your personal data is collected
  4. How and why, we use your personal data
  5. Who we share your personal data with
  6. Where your personal data is held
  7. How long your personal data will be kept
  8. Transferring your personal data out of the UK and EEA
  9. Your rights
  10. Keeping your personal data secure
  11. How to complain
  12. Changes to this privacy notice
  13. How to contact us
  14. Governing law

1. Key terms

The key terms used in this privacy policy are as follows:

“We”, “us”, “our”eworkflow
“Personal data”Any information about an individual from which that person can be identified
“Special category personal data”Certain sensitive personal data, including: data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, philosophical beliefs or trade union membership;genetic data;biometric data (where used for identification purposes); ordata concerning health, sex life or sexual orientation. 
“Data subject”The individual who the personal data relates to 

2. Personal data we collect about you

The personal data we collect use, store and transfer about you depends on our relationship to you, and specifically on whether you are:

  • are a visitor to our website;
  • an author looking to get research peer reviewed and/or published through our platform;
  • an editor or researcher contacted about or offering services of peer-review; or
  • an editor, publisher, scientific journal or other reference source contacted about or publishing peer-reviewed work.

The types of data we collect can be split into broad categories, including identity data, contact data, financial data, transaction data, technical data, profile data, usage data and marketing and communications data. We may collect and use the following personal data about you within these categories depending on our relationship with you (each as applicable on a case-by-case basis):

a. All (any website visitor)

  1. Identity and contact data, including:
  2. your name, gender and contact information, including personal email address and telephone number, if provided to us.
  3. Technical and usage data, including:
  4. location data, if you choose to give this to us;
  5. information about how you use our website, IT, communication and other systems;
  6. retaining and evaluating information on your recent visits to our website and how you move around different sections of our website for analytics purposes; and
  7. internet protocol (IP) address, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform, and other technology on the devices you use to access our website.
  8. Marketing and communications data, including:
  9. your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties and your communication preferences.

b. Authors

  1. In addition to the data collected in relation to website visitors as above, we may also collect additional data on authors if you enlist our services to get your research peer-reviewed and/or published.
  2. Identity and contact data, including:
  3. additional identity and contact details, such as your address;
  4. details about your work including your research, its focus, aims and your links to other research bodies (such as higher education institutes);
  5. work information and contact details for you, including your place of work, work email address, contact number and details such as job title; and
  6. information on your work history, including past publications and peer-reviewed research, and your education and qualifications.
  7. Financial data, including:
  8. your billing information, transaction and payment card information, bank account, financial accounts and other relevant information.
  9. Transactional data, including:
  10. details about payments to and from you and other details of products and services you have purchased from us.
  11. Profile data, including:
  12. your username and password, purchases or orders made by you, your interests, preferences, feedback and survey responses.

c. Editors and reviewers

  1. In addition to the data collected in relation to website visitors as above, if you are a researcher who has been contacted or has offered services with regard to editing or peer-reviewing research through our platform, we may also collect additional data on you. This data will all be publicly available unless you specifically provide it to us.
  2. Identity and contact data, including:
  3. additional identity and contact details, such as your address;
  4. details about your work including your research, its focus, aims and your links to other research bodies (such as higher education institutions);
  5. work information and contact details for you, including your place of work, work email address, contact number and details such as job title; and
  6. information on your work history, including past publications and peer-reviewed research, and your education and qualifications.
  7. Profile data, including:
  8. your username and password, purchases or orders made by you, your interests, preferences, feedback and survey responses.

d. Publishers

In addition to the data collected in relation to website visitors as above, if you are editor or work for a publisher, scientific journal or other reference source and have been contacted or have offered services with regard to publishing peer-reviewed research through our platform, we may also collect additional data on you. This data will all be publicly available unless you specifically provide it to us.

  1. Identity and contact data, including:
  2. work information and contact details for you, including your place of work, work email address, contact number and details such as job title; and
  3. information on your work history, including past publications and peer-reviewed research.
  4. Profile data, including:
  5. your username and password, purchases or orders made by you, your interests, preferences, feedback and survey responses.

We collect and use this personal data for the purposes described in the section ‘How and why we use your personal data’ below. If you do not provide personal data we ask for, it may delay or prevent us from being able to engage with you.

3. How your personal data is collected

We collect most of this personal data directly from you — in person, by telephone, text or email and/or via our website. However, we may also collect information:

  • from publicly accessible sources, such as the internet;
  • from a third party with your consent, e.g. your employer;
  • from cookies on our website—for more information on our use of cookies, please see our cookie policy [insert link]; or
  • via our IT systems, e.g. our computer networks and automated systems on our website.

4. How and why we use your personal data

Under data protection law, we can only use your personal data if we have a proper reason. These reasons include:

  • where you have given consent;
  • to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations;
  • for the performance of a contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract; or
  • for our legitimate interests or those of a third party.

A legitimate interest is when we have a business or commercial reason to use your personal data, so long as this is not overridden by your own rights and interests. We carry out assessments when relying on legitimate interests to balance our interests against your own.

The table below explains what we use your personal data for and why for the various purposes which may apply if you are (i) a visitor to our website, (ii) an author, (iii) an editor or reviewer or (v) a publisher:

a. All (any website visitor)

What we use your personal data forType of dataOur reasons
To manage our relationship with youIdentity data Contact dataTo respond to communications either: for our legitimate interests in offering you the best servicein connection with a potential contract with you
Preventing and detecting fraud against you or usTechnical dataFor our legitimate interest, i.e. to minimise fraud that could be damaging for you and/or us
To enforce legal rights or defend or undertake legal proceedingsIdentity data Contact data Technical dataDepending on the circumstances: to comply with our legal and regulatory obligationsin other cases, for our legitimate interests, i.e. to protect our business, interests and rights
Gathering and providing information required by or relating to audits, enquiries or investigations by regulatory bodiesIdentity data Technical dataTo comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
Ensuring business policies are adhered to, e.g. policies covering security and internet useTechnical dataFor our legitimate interests, i.e. to make sure we are following our own internal procedures
Operational reasons, such as improving efficiency, training and quality controlIdentity data Technical dataFor our legitimate interests, i.e. to be as efficient as we can for your benefit
Statistical analysis to help us manage our business, e.g. in relation to website usage, our financial performance, customer base or other efficiency measuresIdentity data Technical dataFor our legitimate interests, i.e. to be as efficient as we can for your benefit
Preventing unauthorised access and modifications to systemsIdentity data Technical dataDepending on the circumstances: for our legitimate interests, i.e. to prevent and detect criminal activity that could be damaging for you and/or usto comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
Marketing our services to: existing and former customersthird parties who have previously expressed an interest in our servicesthird parties with whom we have had no previous dealingsIdentity data Contact data Marketing and communications dataFor our legitimate interests, i.e. to promote our business to existing and former customers
To share your personal data with members of our group and third parties that will or may take control or ownership of some or all of our business (and professional advisors acting on our or their behalf) in connection with a significant corporate transaction or restructuring, including a merger, acquisition, asset sale, initial public offering or in the event of our insolvency In such cases information will be anonymised where possible and only shared where necessaryIdentity data Contact data Technical dataDepending on the circumstances: to comply with our legal and regulatory obligationsin other cases, for our legitimate interests, i.e. to protect, realise or grow the value in our business and assets

b. Authors

What we use your personal data forType of dataOur reasons
Providing products and services to youIdentity data Contact data Financial data Transactional dataTo perform a contract with you or to take steps  before entering into a contract
To manage our relationship with youIdentity data Contact dataTo perform or enter into a contract with you To notify you about changes to our terms or our privacy policy
Conducting checks to identify our customers and verify their identity Other activities necessary to comply with professional, legal and regulatory obligations that apply to our business, e.g. under health and safety law or rules issued by regulatorsIdentity data Contact dataDepending on the circumstances: to comply with our legal and regulatory obligationsfor our legitimate interests
Updating and enhancing customer recordsIdentity data Contact data Profile dataDepending on the circumstances: to perform our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contractto comply with our legal and regulatory obligationsfor our legitimate interests, e.g. making sure that we can keep in touch with our customers about existing orders and new products or services

c. Editors and reviewers

What we use your personal data forType of dataOur reasons
Procuring services from youIdentity data Contact dataDepending on the circumstances: for our legitimate interests, e.g. to fulfil our service obligations to customersto perform a contract with you or to take steps before entering into a contract
To manage our relationship with youIdentity data Contact data Profile dataTo obtain the benefit of or enter into a contract with you
Conducting checks to identify you and verify your identity Other activities necessary to comply with professional, legal and regulatory obligations that apply to our business, e.g. under health and safety law or rules issued by regulatorsIdentity data Contact dataDepending on the circumstances: to comply with our legal and regulatory obligationsfor our legitimate interests
Updating and enhancing recordsIdentity data Contact dataDepending on the circumstances: to enable to performance of a contract with you or to take steps before entering into a contractto comply with our legal and regulatory obligationsfor our legitimate interests, e.g. making sure that we can keep in touch with you about services, orders and products being procured

d. Publishers

What we use your personal data forType of dataOur reasons
Procuring services from youIdentity data Contact dataDepending on the circumstances: for our legitimate interests, e.g. to fulfil our service obligations to customersto perform a contract with you or to take steps before entering into a contract
To manage our relationship with youIdentity data Contact data Profile dataTo obtain the benefit of or enter into a contract with you
Conducting checks to identify you and verify your identity Other activities necessary to comply with professional, legal and regulatory obligations that apply to our business, e.g. under health and safety law or rules issued by regulatorsIdentity data Contact dataDepending on the circumstances: to comply with our legal and regulatory obligationsfor our legitimate interests
Updating and enhancing recordsIdentity data Contact dataDepending on the circumstances: to enable to performance of a contract with you or to take steps before entering into a contractto comply with our legal and regulatory obligationsfor our legitimate interests, e.g. making sure that we can keep in touch with you about services, orders and products being procured

How and why we use your personal data — Special category personal data

We do not generally collect any special category personal data about you (this includes details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health, and genetic and biometric data) unless these are disclosed to us by you as being relevant to a particular matter. Nor do we collect any information about criminal convictions and offences unless these are disclosed to us by you.

In the limited circumstances where we process special category personal data, we will also ensure we are permitted to do so under data protection laws, e.g:

  • we have your explicit consent (and where you have voluntarily provided such information to us);
  • the processing is necessary to protect your (or someone else’s) vital interests where you are physically or legally incapable of giving consent; or
  • the processing is necessary to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

How and why we use your personal data – sharing

See ‘Who we share your personal data with’ for further information on the steps we will take to protect your personal data where we need to share it with others.

Marketing and initial communications

We may use your personal data to send you updates (including by email, telephone or post) about our products and services, or to contact you about the potential of you offering services either as a researcher or publisher.

We have a legitimate interest in using your personal data for marketing purposes and to contact you to ask you to offer services via our platform (see above ‘How and why we use your personal data’). This means we do not usually need your consent to send you these kinds of communications. If we change our approach in the future so that consent is needed, we will ask for this separately and clearly.

You do, however, have the right to ‘opt in’ and ‘opt out’ of receiving marketing and other communications at any time by:

  • contacting us (see ‘How to contact us’ below); or
  • using the ‘unsubscribe’ link in emails.

We may ask you to confirm or update your contact preferences if you ask us to provide further products and services in the future, or if there are changes in the law, regulation, or the structure of our business.

We will always treat your personal data with the utmost respect and never share it with other organisations for marketing purposes unless we have your consent to do so.

5. Who we share your personal data with

We routinely share personal data with:

  • third parties we use to help deliver our products and services to you, including AI platforms, other researchers, reviewers, editors and publishers; and
  • other third parties we use to help us run our business, e.g. marketing agencies, consultants or website hosts.

We only allow those organisations to handle your personal data if we are satisfied they take appropriate measures to protect your personal data.

We or the third parties mentioned above occasionally may also share personal data with:

  • our external accountants and auditors, e.g. in relation to the preparation and audit of our accounts, in which case the recipient of the information will be bound by confidentiality obligations
  • our and their professional advisors (such as lawyers and other advisors), in which case the recipient of the information will be bound by confidentiality obligations
  • law enforcement agencies, courts, tribunals and regulatory bodies to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
  • other parties that have or may acquire control or ownership of our business (and our or their professional advisers) in connection with a significant corporate transaction or restructuring, including a merger, acquisition, asset sale, initial public offering or in the event of our insolvency. Usually, information will be anonymised but this may not always be possible. The recipient of any of your personal data will be bound by confidentiality obligations.

Who we share your personal data with — further information

If you would like more information about who we share our data with and why, please contact us (see ‘How to contact us’ below).

6. Where your personal data is held

Personal data may be held on our servers in the United Kingdom and those of our service providers, representatives and agents as described above (see above: ‘Who we share your personal data with’).

Some of these third parties may be based outside the UK/EEA. For more information, including on how we safeguard your personal data when this happens, see below: ‘Transferring your personal data out of the UK and EEA’.

7. How long your personal data will be kept

We will not keep your personal data for longer than we need it for the purpose for which it is used.

Different retention periods apply for different types of personal data. Further details on this are available on request.

In general and in line with usual limitation periods, if we are no longer providing or procuring goods or services to or from you, or our relationship has otherwise ended, we will usually delete or anonymise your account data after seven years.

8. Transferring your personal data out of the UK and EEA

It is sometimes necessary for us to transfer your personal data to countries outside the UK and EEA. In those cases we will comply with applicable UK and EEA laws designed to ensure the privacy of your personal data.

We may transfer your personal data to our service providers located outside the UK and the EEA, specifically to the United States.

Under data protection laws, we can only transfer your personal data to a country outside the UK/EEAwhere:

  • there is an adequacy decision;
  • there are appropriate safeguards in place, together with enforceable rights and effective legal remedies for you; or
  • a specific exception applies under relevant data protection law.

Where we or our processors transfer your personal data outside the UK or EEA, we take reasonable steps to ensure that this is done in line with applicable data protection laws.

Any changes to the destinations to which we send personal data or in the transfer mechanisms we rely on to transfer personal data internationally will be notified to you in accordance with the section on ‘Changes to this privacy policy’ below.

9. Your rights

You may have the following rights in respect of your personal data:

  • Access (also known as a subject access request) – the right to be provided with a copy of your personal data;
  • Rectification – the right to require us to correct any mistakes in the personal data that we hold on you;
  • Erasure (also known as the right to be forgotten) – the right to require us to delete your personal data in certain situations where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. We may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request;
  • Restriction of processing – the right to require us to suspend processing of your personal data in certain circumstances, e.g. if you contest the accuracy of the data or if the use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it;
  • Data portability – the right to receive the personal data you provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and/or transmit that data to a third party. This will only apply to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you;
  • To object – the right to object, at any time to your personal data being processed. This can apply either for direct marketing (including profiling) or in certain other situations to our continued processing of your personal data, e.g. processing carried out for the purpose of our legitimate interests unless there are compelling legitimate grounds for the processing to continue or the processing is required for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims;
  • Not to be subject to automated individual decision making – the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing (including profiling) that produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you; and
  • To withdraw consent – the right to withdraw consent to use your personal data if you have provided us with such consent, easily and at any time. You may withdraw consent by contacting us (see ‘How to contact us’ below). Withdrawing consent will not affect the lawfulness of our use of your personal data in reliance on that consent before it was withdrawn.

If you would like to exercise any of those rights, please email us — see below: ‘How to contact us; and:

  • provide enough information to identify yourself (e.g. your full name and address) and any additional identity information we may reasonably request from you; and
  • let us know what right you want to exercise and the information to which your request relates.

10. Keeping your personal data secure

We have appropriate security measures to prevent personal data from being lost accidentally, or used or accessed unlawfully. We limit access to your personal data to those who have a genuine business need to access it. Those processing your personal data will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We also have procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so.

11. How to complain

Please contact us if you have any queries or concerns about our use of your personal data (see below ‘How to contact us’). We hope we will be able to resolve any issues you may have.

You may also have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant supervisory authority in your jurisdiction. For example, the UK’s Information Commissioner may be contacted using the details at https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or by telephone: 0303 123 1113.

Please contact us if you would like further information.

12. Changes to this privacy policy

This privacy policy was published on 14 March 2024 and last updated on 14 March 2024.

We reserve the right to change this privacy policy as our discretion from time to time — when we do we will inform you via our website or other means of contact such as email.

13. How to contact us

If you have any questions about this privacy policy or about the use of your personal data or you want to exercise your privacy rights, please contact us in the following ways:

Email address: riaz@eworkflow.com

Postal address: eworkflow Ltd, 85 Great Portland Street, London, England, W1W 7LT

14. Governing law

This policy is prepared in accordance with the laws of England and Wales and shall be governed and construed accordingly.

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