Data Management & Privacy Policy
InterPore Journal, which is published and owned by The International Society for Porous Media, is committed to protecting your privacy and the personal data you provide. Personal data are defined as any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person.
This Privacy Statement describes how personal data are collected, used, stored, and protected in connection with the operation of InterPore Journal.
The International Society for Porous Media acts as the data controller for personal data processed in connection with InterPore Journal. The journal uses Open Journal Systems (OJS), developed and hosted by the Public Knowledge Project (PKP), which acts as a data processor on behalf of the data controller for the purpose of providing and maintaining the publishing platform.
Scope and Purpose of Data Processing
The personal data collected from registered and non-registered users fall within the scope of the standard operation of a peer-reviewed scholarly journal. These data are processed to:
- support manuscript submission, peer review, editorial decision-making, and publication;
- enable communication between authors, editors, reviewers, and readers;
- inform readers about the authorship and editorial handling of published content;
- generate aggregated information on readership, usage, and scholarly communication patterns.
The journal’s editorial team uses personal data solely for purposes related to publishing, maintaining, and improving the journal. Personal data are not sold and are not used for purposes beyond those described in this statement.
Data that support the development and operation of the publishing platform may be shared with PKP in aggregated or anonymized form, with limited exceptions, such as article-level usage metrics.
Authors published in this journal are responsible for ensuring that any personal data relating to human subjects included in submitted or published research have been collected and processed in compliance with applicable ethical and legal requirements.
Legal Bases for Processing
Personal data are processed in accordance with Article 6 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
(https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2016/679/oj)
on the basis of:
- consent (Art. 6(1)(a)) where applicable, such as for optional services or alerts;
- contractual necessity (Art. 6(1)(b)) for the provision of editorial and publishing services;
- legitimate interests (Art. 6(1)(f)) in operating a scholarly journal and maintaining the integrity of the scholarly record.
Where consent is the applicable legal basis, it may be withdrawn at any time by contacting the Editorial Office. Withdrawal of consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out prior to withdrawal.
Data Subject Rights
In accordance with the GDPR, data subjects have the right to:
- access their personal data;
- rectification of inaccurate or incomplete data;
- erasure of personal data, where applicable;
- restriction of processing;
- data portability;
- object to processing;
- lodge a complaint with a competent supervisory authority.
The exercise of these rights is subject to the journal’s obligations to preserve the integrity of the scholarly record and the public interest in the availability of published research, in accordance with Recital 65 GDPR.
Information Collected and How It Is Collected
Registration
When registering for an account on the journal website, users may provide the following personal data:
- salutation
- given (first) name*
- family (last) name*
- preferred public name
- suffix
- username*
- password (encrypted)*
- email address*
- ORCID iD
- affiliation*
- country*
- mailing address
- working languages
- reviewing interests
- profile image
- bio statement/biography
- website
- phone or fax number
- registration date and last login date
- locales
- role registrations (author, reader, reviewer, editor)
* Required fields
This information is collected via the OJS platform and stored in the application database. Passwords are stored only in encrypted form.
Users may access and update their profile information at any time (with the exception of usernames and system-generated dates). System administrators, journal managers, and editors may access and edit this data via the backend of the system. Data are not publicly accessible and may be exported by authorized staff in XML format for administrative purposes.
User accounts may be removed or merged by the Journal Manager where appropriate, without affecting the integrity of editorial records.
Email Alert Service
When users register as Readers to receive email notifications of published content, their name, email address, and affiliation are collected for this purpose.
Manuscript Submission, Review, and Publication
When submitting a manuscript, authors provide personal data including name, email address, affiliation, postal address, and telephone number via the OJS platform.
Submitting authors create accounts for co-authors. For co-authors, the following data may be collected:
- salutation
- given (first) name*
- family (last) name*
- preferred public name
- suffix
- email address*
- country*
- website
- ORCID iD
- affiliation
- bio statement
- role (e.g. author, translator)
* Required fields
All submission-related information, including conflicts of interest, is stored in the OJS system and accessible to editorial staff and reviewers in accordance with their assigned roles and the selected review model.
If a manuscript is accepted for publication, author and article metadata will be published and made publicly available online, including through indexing services, metadata harvesting (e.g. OAI-PMH), and other dissemination mechanisms relevant to scholarly publishing.
Personal data relating to submissions are retained where necessary to preserve the scholarly record and are archived in the public interest for scientific and historical research purposes.
Use of Information
Personal data are used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and to communicate with users regarding submissions, reviews, editorial decisions, and account-related matters.
Payments
When an Article Processing Charge (APC) applies, an invoice is issued by the Treasurer Assistant of The International Society for Porous Media and sent to the corresponding author.
Payments may be made via PayPal, Stripe (including credit card payments), or bank transfer. Payment accounts are managed by The International Society for Porous Media. The journal does not store credit card details or other sensitive payment information.
Within the journal system, the only payment-related information retained is whether payment has been received for a given submission. The International Society for Porous Media separately retains confirmation of payment, the payment method used, and the payment date for accounting and administrative purposes.
Workflow Tracking and Storage
The OJS system records workflow information related to submissions, including:
- actions taken on submissions and timestamps;
- notifications sent;
- reviewer recommendations;
- editorial decisions;
- internal editorial discussions;
- editorial notes;
- files uploaded during submission and review.
This information is stored in the application database and secure file directories on the hosting server.
Access to Submission Data
Access to submission data is role-based. Journal Managers and the Editor-in-Chief have full access, while Editors, Reviewers, and Authors have access limited to submissions assigned to or submitted by them.
Data Erasure
Requests for erasure of personal data may be submitted to the Editorial Office at Laura.Lenz@interpore.org. Erasure requests are assessed in light of the necessity of retaining data for editorial, legal, and public-interest purposes in scholarly publishing.
Data Storage and International Transfers
Personal data are stored on servers operated by PKP and its hosting provider, Carbon60, located in Vancouver, Canada. Canada is recognized by the European Commission as providing an adequate level of data protection under the GDPR.
For further information, please see the Public Knowledge Project Privacy Policy:
https://pkp.sfu.ca/privacy/
Website Usage, Cookies, and Analytics
The journal website uses cookies necessary for session management and login functionality. Users may disable cookies via their browser settings, though this may affect functionality.
Further information is provided in the journal’s Cookie Policy:
👉 https://ipjournal.interpore.org/index.php/interpore/cookie
Aggregated usage data are collected via OJS usage statistics plugins, which are configured to anonymize collected information.
The website also uses Google Analytics, configured to collect anonymized or pseudonymized information about website usage. This information is used solely to evaluate and improve website performance and navigation.
For more information on how Google Analytics processes data, please see:
https://policies.google.com/privacy
Users may opt out of Google Analytics tracking by installing the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on:
https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout
External Links
The journal website contains links to external websites. InterPore Journal is not responsible for the privacy practices or content of external sites.
Social Media
InterPore Journal uses social media channels operated by The International Society for Porous Media, including LinkedIn, X (Twitter), and YouTube. Personal data shared via these platforms are processed in accordance with the respective providers’ privacy policies.
Complaints
Data subjects may lodge a complaint with a competent EU data protection supervisory authority if they believe their personal data have not been processed in accordance with applicable data protection laws.
Contact:
Last updated: January 2026
