JQBio

Privacy Notice

PROTOCELL IO is the data controller for personal information collected via the JQBio website. This notice describes what we collect and how it is used in line with the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.

1. Authentication and Identity

  • Authors authenticate exclusively via Google Single Sign-On (OAuth 2.0). To verify your identity, JQBio receives your name, Google email address and avatar URL from Google. JQBio never receives or stores your Google account password.
  • Editors sign in to the Editorial Studio with a pre-approved email address. Passwords are cryptographically salted and hashed on our backend infrastructure.

2. Manuscripts and Confidentiality

  • Unpublished manuscripts, draft figures, supplementary files, peer-review correspondence and editor notes are strictly confidential.
  • Access to unpublished drafts is scoped by authentication and unique identifiers (UUIDs), and is limited to the submitting author and authorised editorial staff.
  • Co-author details provided by the submitting author (names, institutional affiliations, email addresses and ORCID iDs) are collected solely for scholarly attribution and notification.

3. Account and Profile Data

We store the profile data you declare in your account:

  • Full name
  • Correspondence email (which may differ from your Google sign-in email)
  • ORCID iD
  • Institutional role and affiliation

Linking an ORCID iD is optional and is used solely to connect your published works to your public scholarly record.

4. Lawful Basis

We process personal data for editorial workflow (contract), long-term scholarly record (public interest), and site operation (legitimate interest).

5. Account Deletion and the Scholarly Record

  • Unpublished submissions and accounts not linked to published work: you can request full deletion of your account and removal of your unpublished drafts.
  • Published articles: once an article is published with a permanent DOI, its published metadata (author names, affiliations and ORCID iDs) and the published paper form an immutable scholarly record. Under UK GDPR Article 17(3)(d), the right to erasure does not apply to processing for archiving purposes in the public interest or for scientific or historical research purposes. In line with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines, published scholarly works cannot be deleted retroactively, except through audited formal corrections or retractions.

6. Data Retention

  • Unpublished data is stored until it is deleted by the author or by editors. Once deleted, it is retained for 60 minutes and then deleted across all systems where deletion is required.
  • Unpublishing a published article takes approximately one hour from the first request to unpublish. We initiate the request and then complete all declarations.
  • All deletions and unpublishing are handled through tamper-proof mechanisms.

7. Cookies, Local Storage and Analytics

  • JQBio uses no tracking cookies, marketing pixels or third-party behavioural profiling.
  • Local Storage is used solely for encrypted authentication tokens (sb-<project>-auth-token).
  • Readership analytics (article views and PDF downloads) are aggregated and anonymised at the edge and server level.

Full details are set out in our Cookies and Local Storage Policy.

8. Third-Party Service Providers

  • Google LLC: author identity verification via Google Sign-In, and delivery of font assets. Sign-in is handled on Google's authentication servers in the UK, EU and US; JQBio does not store this authentication information directly.
  • DOI registration agencies (e.g. Crossref, DataCite): registration of public article metadata upon publication.

9. Your Rights

Under the UK GDPR you have the following rights:

  • Right of access: you can request a copy of the personal data we hold about you (a Subject Access Request).
  • Right to rectification: you can correct your data, including updating your correspondence email or affiliation in your account.
  • Right to erasure: subject to the scholarly record obligations described in section 5.
  • Right to restriction of processing: you can ask us to limit how we use your data.
  • Right to lodge a complaint: you can complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk.

10. Data Controller and Contact

The data controller is PROTOCELL IO. To exercise any of your rights, contact PROTOCELL IO at jqbio@protocell.io.