Privacy Policy

Last updated: 21 August 2026

Introduction

This Privacy Policy explains how personal information is collected, used, disclosed, retained, and protected in connection with the Journal of Robotics and Intelligent Systems (JRIS).

JRIS is published and operated by:

Birmand Scientific Publishing Ltd

Registered in England and Wales

Company Registration Number: 17376010

Registered Office:

Office 1655 J Z

182–184 High Street North

Area 1/1, East Ham

London E6 2JA

United Kingdom

For the purposes of applicable UK data-protection law, Birmand Scientific Publishing Ltd is responsible for determining how personal information covered by this Policy is processed.

Scope

This Policy applies to personal information processed through:

  • The JRIS website;

  • Open Journal Systems accounts;

  • Manuscript submission and peer review;

  • Editorial and reviewer activities;

  • Publication and production processes;

  • Journal enquiries and correspondence;

  • APC, waiver, invoice, payment, and refund administration; and

  • Related scholarly-publishing services operated on behalf of JRIS.

External services linked from the website may process information under their own privacy notices.

Information We May Collect

Account Information

We may collect:

  • Name;

  • Username;

  • Password in protected or hashed form;

  • Email address;

  • Salutation and preferred form of address;

  • Affiliation;

  • Department;

  • Country;

  • Mailing address where supplied;

  • ORCID iD;

  • Website or academic-profile address;

  • Reviewing interests;

  • Preferred roles; and

  • Communication preferences.

Submission and Publication Information

We may collect:

  • Manuscript title and abstract;

  • Keywords and subject classifications;

  • Author names and affiliations;

  • Corresponding-author details;

  • Author contribution statements;

  • Funding information;

  • Competing-interest disclosures;

  • Ethical-approval and consent information;

  • Research data and data-availability statements;

  • Manuscript files and supplementary materials;

  • Revision histories;

  • Editorial decisions;

  • Proof corrections; and

  • Publication agreements.

Peer-Review and Editorial Information

We may collect:

  • Reviewer invitations and responses;

  • Reviewer reports;

  • Confidential comments;

  • Editorial assessments;

  • Conflict-of-interest declarations;

  • Availability information;

  • Areas of expertise;

  • Editorial correspondence; and

  • Records required to investigate complaints, appeals, or suspected misconduct.

Communications

We may retain messages sent through email, website forms, OJS, or other authorised communication channels, together with information necessary to respond.

Payment and Financial-Administration Information

Where an APC is payable, we or an authorised payment provider may process:

  • Payer name and contact details;

  • Billing address;

  • Institution or organisation;

  • Tax-related information where required;

  • Invoice and transaction identifiers;

  • Amount and currency;

  • Payment status;

  • Waiver or discount information;

  • Refund information; and

  • Chargeback or payment-dispute records.

Complete payment-card or online-banking credentials are normally collected directly by the relevant financial institution or payment provider and are not normally received or stored by JRIS.

Technical and Usage Information

The website may automatically collect:

  • Internet Protocol address;

  • Browser and device information;

  • Operating system;

  • Login dates and times;

  • Pages viewed and referring pages;

  • Error logs;

  • Security and authentication records; and

  • Cookie or session information.

How We Obtain Personal Information

We may obtain personal information:

  • Directly from users when they register, submit a manuscript, complete a form, request a waiver, make a payment, or contact us;

  • From corresponding authors who provide information about co-authors and contributors;

  • From editors and reviewers participating in the editorial process;

  • From institutions, research organisations, or publicly available academic sources where appropriate;

  • From authorised providers supporting hosting, publishing, payments, DOI registration, preservation, security, or communications; and

  • Automatically through the website and its technical systems.

A person providing information about another individual should ensure that they are authorised to do so and that the individual has been appropriately informed.

Why We Use Personal Information

We may use personal information to:

  • Create and administer user accounts;

  • Receive and evaluate submissions;

  • Select and invite qualified editors and reviewers;

  • Conduct editorial assessment and peer review;

  • Communicate decisions, revision requests, proofs, and publication information;

  • Publish accepted articles and associated metadata;

  • Register DOIs and distribute publication metadata;

  • Support discoverability, archiving, and digital preservation;

  • Administer APCs, invoices, waivers, discounts, payments, and refunds;

  • Investigate ethical concerns, complaints, appeals, suspected misconduct, and security incidents;

  • Protect the confidentiality and integrity of peer review;

  • Maintain, secure, analyse, and improve the website;

  • Respond to enquiries and provide support;

  • Maintain financial, tax, accounting, and legal records;

  • Comply with legal or regulatory obligations; and

  • Send optional journal announcements or calls for papers where permitted.

Lawful Bases for Processing

Depending on the activity, we may rely on one or more of the following lawful bases under applicable UK data-protection law.

  • Contract: Processing may be necessary to administer an account, handle a manuscript submission, conduct publication arrangements, provide a requested service, or administer an APC transaction.

  • Legitimate Interests: Processing may be necessary for legitimate scholarly-publishing interests, including:

    • Administering peer review;

    • Selecting qualified reviewers and editors;

    • Preserving the integrity of the scholarly record;

    • Preventing fraud and misconduct;

    • Maintaining website security;

    • Communicating with contributors; and

    • Improving publication services.

  • Legal Obligation: Processing may be necessary to comply with applicable legal, tax, accounting, regulatory, sanctions, or law-enforcement requirements.

  • Consent: We may rely on consent for optional communications, non-essential cookies, or another activity where consent is the appropriate lawful basis. Consent may be withdrawn without affecting processing undertaken before withdrawal.

Peer-Review Confidentiality

Submitted manuscripts, reviewer identities, reviewer reports, editorial deliberations, and unpublished research are treated as confidential in accordance with the Journal’s peer-review model and policies.

Access is limited to people who reasonably require the information for editorial, technical, ethical, legal, or administrative purposes.

JRIS will not intentionally disclose an anonymous reviewer’s identity to an author unless:

  • The reviewer has agreed to disclosure;

  • Disclosure is required by law;

  • Disclosure is reasonably necessary to investigate serious misconduct; or

  • Another applicable Journal policy permits disclosure.

Publicly Available Publication Information

When an article is published, certain information becomes part of the scholarly record and will normally be publicly available, including:

  • Author names;

  • Affiliations;

  • ORCID iDs where supplied;

  • Corresponding-author contact information where displayed;

  • Article title and abstract;

  • Author contribution statements;

  • Funding and competing-interest disclosures;

  • Citation information;

  • Article files and supplementary materials; and

  • Corrections, retractions, or other publication notices.

Requests to remove information from a published article will be assessed in light of academic integrity, legal requirements, and preservation obligations.

Payment Processing

Where an APC applies, payment may be processed by a bank, financial institution, or payment service provider selected by Birmand Scientific Publishing Ltd.

The applicable provider will be identified before the payer is asked to submit payment information.

The provider may independently process information including:

  • Payer name and contact details;

  • Billing address and country;

  • Payment-card, bank, or account credentials;

  • Transaction identifiers;

  • Amount and currency;

  • Tax-related information where required;

  • Payment status; and

  • Refund or chargeback information.

The provider processes payment information under its own privacy notice, security procedures, and legal obligations.

JRIS may receive limited transaction information necessary to identify and administer the payment, such as:

  • Payer name and email address;

  • Billing institution or country;

  • Invoice or transaction reference;

  • Amount and currency;

  • Payment status; and

  • Refund or dispute status.

JRIS does not normally receive or store complete payment-card or online-banking credentials.

Sharing Personal Information

Where reasonably necessary and legally permitted, personal information may be shared with:

  • Assigned editors and authorised editorial staff;

  • Peer reviewers;

  • Copyediting, typesetting, production, and technical providers;

  • Website-hosting and OJS-support providers;

  • Banks, financial institutions, and payment service providers;

  • DOI-registration and metadata organisations;

  • Legitimate indexing, discovery, and preservation services;

  • Email and communications providers;

  • Similarity-checking and research-integrity services;

  • Professional advisers, auditors, insurers, or financial institutions;

  • Regulatory, judicial, tax, or law-enforcement authorities where required; and

  • Parties appropriately involved in investigating suspected publication misconduct.

We do not sell or rent personal information to third parties for their independent advertising purposes.

International Transfers

JRIS serves an international scholarly community. Personal information may therefore be accessed or processed outside the United Kingdom.

Where legally required, we seek to use an appropriate transfer mechanism, which may include:

  • UK adequacy regulations;

  • Approved contractual protections;

  • An International Data Transfer Agreement or approved addendum;

  • Contractual and security requirements imposed on providers; or

  • Another mechanism permitted by applicable law.

Cookies and Similar Technologies

The JRIS website may use cookies or similar technologies for:

  • User authentication;

  • Maintaining logged-in sessions;

  • Remembering preferences;

  • Website security;

  • Essential website operation;

  • Performance measurement; and

  • Understanding website use.

Strictly necessary cookies may be placed without optional consent where permitted by law. Non-essential cookies will be used only where an appropriate consent or legal mechanism applies.

Users may control cookies through browser settings, although disabling essential cookies may prevent certain OJS functions from working.

Data Retention

We retain personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this Policy.

Retention periods depend on the information and activity:

  • Published articles and essential publication metadata may be preserved permanently as part of the scholarly record;

  • Manuscript, peer-review, and editorial records may be retained to document decisions, resolve disputes, investigate misconduct, and protect publication integrity;

  • Account information may be retained while an account is active and for a reasonable period afterwards;

  • Financial and transaction records may be retained for the period required by tax, accounting, legal, or regulatory obligations;

  • Security and technical logs may be retained for a limited operational period; and

  • Optional marketing information may be retained until consent is withdrawn, an objection is received, or it is no longer required.

Information may be anonymised where continued use does not require identification.

Data Security

JRIS uses reasonable administrative, organisational, and technical measures designed to protect personal information against unauthorised access, loss, alteration, misuse, or disclosure.

Measures may include:

  • Account authentication;

  • Access controls;

  • Encrypted website connections;

  • Software updates and security monitoring;

  • Restricted editorial permissions;

  • Backup procedures; and

  • Confidentiality requirements for authorised personnel.

No electronic system can be guaranteed completely secure. Users should protect their passwords and notify us promptly if unauthorised access is suspected.

Data-Protection Rights

Depending on applicable law and the circumstances, individuals may have the right to:

  • Request access to their personal information;

  • Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete information;

  • Request deletion in certain circumstances;

  • Request restriction of processing;

  • Object to processing based on legitimate interests;

  • Object to direct marketing;

  • Request data portability where applicable;

  • Withdraw consent where processing is based on consent; and

  • Complain to a supervisory authority.

These rights are not absolute. Information may need to be retained to preserve the scholarly record, comply with legal obligations, establish or defend legal claims, or investigate publication misconduct.

Requests should be sent to: [email protected]

We may request reasonable information to verify identity before responding.

Right to Object

Individuals may object to the use of their personal information for direct marketing at any time.

They may also object to certain processing based on legitimate interests. Requests will be considered in accordance with applicable data-protection law.

Requests should be sent to: [email protected]

Communications and Marketing

JRIS may send operational communications necessary for manuscript processing, peer review, publication, account administration, payment administration, security, or policy compliance.

Where required by law, optional announcements, newsletters, or calls for papers will be sent only with consent or another appropriate lawful basis.

Recipients may unsubscribe from optional communications using an available unsubscribe facility or by contacting us. Unsubscribing from promotional messages will not prevent essential editorial or account-related communications.

Children’s Privacy

The JRIS website and publication services are intended primarily for adult researchers, academics, professionals, and university-level students.

We do not knowingly collect personal information directly from children for commercial purposes. If information has been collected from a child without appropriate authorisation, we will take reasonable steps to address the matter.

External Links

The website may contain links to independently operated external websites.

JRIS is not responsible for the privacy practices or content of those websites. Users should review the privacy notice of each external service they use.

Complaints

Concerns about the handling of personal information should be sent to: [email protected]

We will review and respond in accordance with applicable law.

Individuals may also complain to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office:

Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire SK9 5AF

United Kingdom

Individuals outside the United Kingdom may also have the right to contact the relevant data-protection authority in their country.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy to reflect changes in our services, technology, publishing activities, payment arrangements, or legal obligations.

The updated version will be published on this page with a revised date. Material changes may also be communicated through the website or by email where appropriate.

Contact

Birmand Scientific Publishing Ltd

Journal of Robotics and Intelligent Systems