Discovery Medicine is committed to protecting the privacy of authors, referees, and others who use our online submission & editorial system and journal websites. The limited personal data that are collected are never shared with advertisers or other third parties not directly connected to Discovery Medicine. Personal Data are shared only with organizations such as site hosting services used to publish Discovery Medicine. All reasonable practices are followed to ensure the ongoing protection of author, referee, and user personal data that may be collected and used during article submission, review, editing, production processing, publication, posting, and delivery of information related to all aspects of publication operations.
Your use of our websites and online submission & editorial system indicates your acceptance of this Privacy Policy.
To enable the processing of papers submitted to Discovery Medicine, Discovery Medicine collects personal data such as author names, ORCID IDs, email addresses, affiliations, phone and fax numbers, and other details in order to accurately identify authors as well as the individual submitting a manuscript, should that person not be a coauthor of the paper.
The terms noted below provide an accounting of how personal data are collected and used for the express purposes of preparing and publishing content, which include but are not limited to reviewing, editing, processing, publishing, hosting, billing for, and indexing content as part of routine publication processes through secure measures. In using Discovery Medicine sites, as well as the online submission & editorial system, authors and users agree to the privacy terms stated below.
As an author, referee, or site user, if you have any objections to any of the policies noted herein, you should not use Discovery Medicine websites or any related services, including the online submission & editorial system related to our sites.
1. Specifics Related to the Collection and Use of Personal Data
Personally identifiable information: The collection of author and referee details is required for accurate identification in the manuscript submission system, and is necessary for communication with editorial and production staffs. Personal data collected at the time of submission are also used to register authors and referees for accounts within the submission system. Visitors may choose not to supply personally identifiable information, but this may prevent the use of some or all of the features and functionality of the sites.
2. Non-Personally Identifiable Information
This is information that is neither used nor intended to be used to personally identify an individual and is neither associated with nor linked to personally identifiable information. These are data collected via Discovery Medicine–branded websites, and include information such as your Internet protocol (IP) address, browser type, browser language, and the date and time of your visit.
3. Aggregated Data
Data about the collective behavior of visitors to our sites may be aggregated and displayed. However, personally identifiable information is never disclosed other than as described herein.
4. Accessing and Removing Personally Identifiable Data
Users can request that any data they have provided to us be removed from our servers and computer networks by emailing directly to editorial@discovmed.com and making the request. Note that the request must come from the email address that is registered for the record in question.
5. Referee Data
The collection of details about manuscript reviewers in Discovery Medicine online submission & editorial system is required for proper solicitation of reviewers as well as appropriate editorial staff engagement in the processing of decisions on manuscripts submitted. Referee information will be held indefinitely but never shared with other parties, apart from other select journals with explicit permission of the referees.
6. Author Data
Author details are captured from our online submission & editorial system and used in the processing and publication of articles. They are also shared confidentially with Discovery Medicine production staff. Minimal author metadata are shared with third-party vendor(s) to permit article composition, including metadata capture, delivery of page proofs to the corresponding author, resolution of queries as processed by Discovery Medicine production staff, and the sharing of metadata as part of routine indexing of published content in professional publishing databases, such as PubMed, Web of Science, Crossref, ORCID, etc.
7. Editor and Editorial Advisory Board Member Data
The collection of details about editors and editorial advisory board members in Discovery Medicine online submission & editorial system is required for appropriate editorial staff engagement in the processing of decisions on manuscripts submitted. Editor and editorial advisory board member information will be held indefinitely but never shared with other parties.
8. Publication Site Hosting
Author and site user emails are collected by our online submission & editorial system.
IP addresses are used to allow institutional subscribers to activate and for statistical purposes including geographical data. IP addresses are not used to identify individuals.
At times, information may be disclosed under the strictest confidentiality to Discovery Medicine consultants as required for internal business reviews.
All other personal information collected at the manuscript submission stage, at any point during Discovery Medicine article production process, or on pages that offer to authors or site users additional alerting, announcement or other services is used expressly for the stated purpose.
Discovery Medicine reserves the right to update this Privacy Policy as required. Updates will be indicated by a “Last Update” date at the bottom of the page. Any continued use thereafter also constitutes your acceptance of the terms noted herein.
9. Others
Third-party sharing: Author metadata are shared with third-party vendors for the creation of articles and indexing services. Search engines index content directly from published content on Discovery Medicine websites.
Personal data stored in online submission & editorial system: Author and reviewer account profiles, with identifiable personal details, are preserved in Discovery Medicine online submission & editorial system after the processing of a specific article and are visible only to authorized staff within online submission & editorial system and Discovery Medicine. Email addresses or other personal information are never sold to third parties.
Updated on 10 January 2023
