Privacy Statement

This policy statement explains what information we collect when visitors use our services and how we manage that information. It supersedes previous statements and is effective as of October 9, 2020. 

Ledger collects information when visitors create an account, submit manuscripts for review, sign up for the newsletter, or when they visit the website.  

When you create an account, we collect contact and professional affiliation information as well as automated information and analytics (e.g. IP address). When you submit manuscripts for review, we collect contact information, payment information where it applies, and automated information and analytics (e.g. IP address). We collect these to be able to open and maintain your account and our communication with our users, to inform readers about the authorship and editing of content, to be able to process submissions and payments, to monitor and improve our services, and to comply with legal obligations. When you visit the website, we may collect automated information and analytics (e.g. IP address) to improve our services and to develop insights into readership behaviors and geopolitical and social elements of scholarly communication. We store the data only for as long as it is necessary for us to fulfill the purposes stated above. Payment and billing data may be stored for longer to comply with legal and accounting obligations.  

We do not sell your information to anyone. We may share data that will assist in developing this publishing platform with the developer, Public Knowledge Project, in an anonymized and aggregated form, with appropriate exceptions such as article metrics. The data will not be sold by this journal or PKP nor will it be used for purposes other than those stated here. 

Our newsletter platform is provided by and managed by Mailchimp. When signing up for our newsletter through Mailchimp, you agree to Mailchimp’s privacy and data protection policies; for more information please see Mailchimp's policies.  

As an open-access academic journal, we continually try to balance the competing interests of privacy and information access. Those involved in editing this journal seek to be compliant with industry standards for data privacy, including the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) provision for “data subject rights.” The GDPR also allows for the recognition of “the public interest in the availability of the data,” which has a particular saliency for those involved in maintaining, with the greatest integrity possible, the public record of scholarly publishing. Public availability of certain data (such as viewing and citation metrics, corresponding author contact information, Ledger’s open review process, etc.) are integral to the process of running the journal, and in submitting a paper for review and publication you agree to allow us to do our best to strike that balance in as responsible a manner as we can. In that direction, you have the right to access your data, and to have your data amended or deleted as long as this does not unreasonably curtail our legal rights or violate this privacy policy, and we stipulate that we maintain industry standard mechanisms to ensure that your data is secure and that you are in control.    

For any questions regarding privacy and data protection, please contact us at ledger.editors@pitt.edu. 

When you submit articles for review, your submission will be kept confidential and private between you (the author), members of the editorial team, and the reviewers. Under US patent law, the public disclosure date in most cases is the date, after acceptance of the paper, that it is posted on the journal’s website. The submission and review phase is confidential and under normal circumstances is not considered to be a public disclosure. Authors are strongly advised to consult with their patent lawyer prior to submitting confidential material to Ledger.

We reserve the right to modify this privacy policy. If we modify it in any way that affects your rights, we will notify you in an appropriate way before the changes come into effect.