Privacy Statement

1. Ethical Standards

Personal Data Protection

Limited Use: Names, email addresses, affiliations, and other identities entered on the journal site may only be used for the purposes of publishing and operating the journal.
No Commercialization: Personal data is strictly prohibited from being sold, rented, disseminated, or misused for third parties or marketing purposes outside of journal operations.

Manuscript Confidentiality & Peer-Review Process (Review Confidentiality)

Manuscript Confidentiality: Editors and reviewers are required to maintain the confidentiality of the contents of unpublished manuscripts. Manuscripts may not be discussed, quoted, or disseminated to anyone without the written permission of the Author, including uploading the manuscript to any AI tool for any reason.
Privacy of Reviewers & Authors: In the Double-Blind Peer Review system, the identities of Authors and Reviewers are strictly hidden from each other to maintain evaluation independence, including uploading manuscripts to any AI tool for any reason.

Participant Privacy & Consent

Informed Consent: If the research involves a human subject (e.g., legal interviews, sociological studies, medical data), the subject's right to privacy must not be violated.
Data Anonymization: The identity of the respondent/informant must not be displayed publicly in the article unless there is valid written consent from the person concerned.

2. Case Handling

Case handling is carried out based on the party who committed the violation and the impact of the data leak that occurred:

1. Violation by Reviewer or Editor (Manuscript Confidentiality Leak)

If a reviewer or editor distributes an unpublished manuscript, steals an idea (peer review breach), or leaks the identity of the author/reviewer in a double-blind review system:

Internal Investigation: The journal manager (Editor-in-Chief) temporarily freezes the access of the reported party's account to conduct a search (audit trail in the OJS system).
Request for Clarification (Official Inquiry): The alleged perpetrator was asked for formal written confirmation regarding the alleged breach of confidentiality.
Ethical & Administrative Sanctions:
- If proven, the reviewer or editor will be permanently dismissed from the editorial board/assessor.
- The name in question can be reported to the institution of origin or included in the publication ethics blacklisting.

2. Infringement by the Author (Violation of the Privacy of the Research Subject)

If the author publishes the respondent's personal data, the results of legal interviews, or the identity of the informant without Informed Consent or without adequate anonymization of the data:

Hold/Suspension: If the manuscript is still in the evaluation process, the review or publication process is immediately stopped.
Post-Publication Action:
- Correction/Addendum: If the violation is minor and the respondent agrees, the journal publishes a revision to cover/anonymize the subject's personal data.
- Article Retraction: If the violation is serious (e.g. disseminating the victim's identity or sensitive data without permission that endangers the subject), the article will be officially withdrawn/revoked from publication in accordance with the COPE Retraction Guidelines.

3. Breach by Journal/Platform Managers (User Data Leakage)

In the event of a system incident (e.g. leak of email databases, passwords, or personal data of OJS accounts to a third party/spammer):

Data Breach Notification: Journal managers are required to announce and send open notifications to all users (Authors, Reviewers, Readers) regarding potential data leaks.
Technical Mitigation: System managers (IT/Journal Managers) are required to perform bulk password resets, cover server hygiene gaps, and update OJS security protocols.
Legal Responsibility: Referring to the personal data protection regulations (PDP/GDPR LAW), the managing institution (university) may be subject to administrative sanctions if it is proven to be negligent in maintaining the security of users' personal data.