Privacy Statement

Rules for handling personal data of website users, authors, reviewers and other participants in the editorial process, protecting unpublished material and exercising rights concerning personal information.

01. Scope and responsible organisation

This statement covers information handled when visiting the journal website, registering in Open Journal Systems (OJS), submitting and assessing manuscripts, reviewing, publishing, corresponding and handling requests. It concerns authors, reviewers, editors, readers and other people whose information reaches the editorial office.

The journal’s founder and publisher, the Tashkent Institute of Irrigation and Agricultural Mechanization Engineers National Research University (the Institute), is responsible for organising personal-data processing and protection. The editorial office and authorised technical units act within their assigned authority. The Institute designates a unit or official responsible for processing and protecting data; requests are received through the editorial office.

Privacy contact: i_m_jurnal@tiiame.uz. Institute postal address: Republic of Uzbekistan, 100000 Tashkent, 39 Qori Niyoziy Street. Requests should identify the journal and the relevant account, manuscript or article where needed for handling the request.

The legal basis is the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan dated 02.07.2019, No. ZRU-547, On Personal Data, as amended, and binding implementing instruments. Rights and duties are determined by Uzbekistan law; professional publishing guidance is supplementary and does not replace legislation. The Institute organises processing as the database owner and/or operator within its actual functions and duties under Article 31 of the Law.

02. Information processed and its sources

  • Account and professional profile: name, email address, login information, affiliation, country, language, journal role, research interests and voluntarily provided identifiers such as ORCID.
  • Editorial material: manuscripts, coauthor information, cover letters, declarations, reviews, editorial decisions, interaction history and documents needed to examine research integrity.
  • Requests and mandatory records: correspondence, evidence of representative authority, and necessary contractual or accounting information where the relevant transaction actually takes place.
  • Technical information: session data and activity needed to operate OJS and, where logging is enabled, IP address, access time, browser details, page visits and errors; the specific information depends on the functions actually used and disclosed settings.

The main source is the user. Coauthor information may come from the corresponding author; professional information about prospective reviewers may come from public scholarly sources or recommendations. At first contact, the person is told the purpose and given an opportunity to correct information or decline optional interaction.

Required and optional fields must be distinguishable. Users should not upload identity-document details, home addresses, complete bank details or sensitive information unless a specific operation has an established need, basis and protected transfer method. Corresponding authors must inform coauthors about the transfer and ensure an appropriate basis, rather than consenting for them without authority.

03. Purposes, grounds and limits of use

Information is used to create and maintain accounts, communicate with participants, organise assessment and decisions, prepare publications and metadata, correct the scholarly record, handle requests, secure the website and meet mandatory requirements. The information used must be proportionate to the particular task.

Processing requires a specific ground under Article 18 of the Law: consent, necessity for a contract with the individual or pre-contractual steps they request, fulfilment of a statutory duty, or another applicable ground in that Article. Necessity, scope and restrictions must be identified for each operation. Referring to research integrity or the journal’s interests does not unconditionally authorise processing any information.

Before consent is obtained, the purpose, information involved, intended recipients and conditions must be explained. Under Article 21, consent must be recorded in a form that allows its receipt to be demonstrated; where consent is the ground for processing special-category personal data, it must be written, including as an electronic document. Changes of purpose require consent in accordance with Article 19. Acknowledging this statement does not authorise undisclosed purposes.

Registration or article submission does not subscribe anyone to advertising. Personal contact lists must not be sold, rented or used for unrelated commercial mailings. Withholding information genuinely necessary for a chosen function may make that function unavailable; declining optional information must not affect the scientific decision.

For minors and individuals legally declared incapable or of limited legal capacity, representation and written-consent requirements under Article 21 apply. For deceased individuals and those judicially declared dead or missing, heirs’ authority must be checked under the same Article. Kinship, a job title or article submission does not replace legally required authority. Consent to personal-data processing does not replace consent to research participation.

04. The public scholarly record and private information

Following acceptance, agreed information necessary for attribution and citation is published: author names, affiliations, title, abstract, keywords, bibliographic details, a DOI where assigned, ORCID identifiers supplied for publication and necessary declarations. A scholarly correspondence address is published only as an expressly agreed contact; an account-login email must not automatically become public. Inclusion of personal information in publicly accessible sources requires written consent in accordance with Article 29 of the Law.

Publications and open metadata may circulate through scholarly search engines, catalogues and repositories. When a DOI is registered with Crossref, the deposited bibliographic record becomes available through its public services; private profiles, passwords, correspondence and unpublished reviews must not be included. Describing these distribution routes is not a claim that the journal is indexed in a particular database.

The CC BY 4.0 licence on a published article does not open user profiles or editorial files or remove privacy rights. Identifiable information about research participants may be published only when the relevant ethics requirements and Informed Consent Policy have been met.

Closing an account is not the same as retracting a published article. Requests to correct or remove personal information in the scholarly record are considered separately under applicable law and correction rules. The journal does not promise removal of every copy held by independent recipients, but takes necessary action within its responsibilities and notifies recipients where required.

05. Access to manuscripts, reviews and sensitive information

Access follows role and need: authors access their material and correspondence intended for them; reviewers access assigned material and sufficient context; editors and staff access information within their tasks. Editorial-board membership or employment by the Institute does not confer access to every file. Access must be reviewed when responsibilities end.

Under double-anonymous review, information identifying authors and reviewers is not disclosed to the other side in the ordinary review process. Identifying files and technical metadata must be checked. Reviewer selection and independence are governed by the relevant policies; publicly naming a reviewer or disclosing their report requires a separate appropriate basis and must not be introduced retrospectively.

Unpublished material must not be used for personal research, shared with outsiders or uploaded to external generative artificial-intelligence services. Permissible tool use is governed by the separate artificial intelligence policy. Sharing with an assistant or consultant requires prior editorial permission, a conflict-of-interest check and a confidentiality obligation.

Authors must minimise research-participant personal data and exclude signed consent forms from open supplements. For verification, editors request sufficient, proportionate evidence through an agreed channel. Absolute secrecy is not promised in ethics cases: necessary information may be disclosed to affected parties or a competent organisation for fair consideration, with limited disclosure and protection of uninvolved people.

06. Recipients, external services and cross-border processing

Within the stated purposes, authorised Institute units, assigned editors and reviewers, and technical service providers engaged on an appropriate basis may receive access. Transfers for website hosting, service-message delivery or other support must be limited to necessity, with defined duties concerning confidentiality, security, further disclosure and completion of processing.

An external text-checking service or integration must not be used to transfer a full manuscript or personal information without disclosure. Before activation, the information transferred, purposes, recipient, retention terms, processing location and permissibility must be assessed. Users must receive information about the service actually used and material conditions before the relevant processing, on this page or through a separate clear notice.

Cross-border transfers are assessed under Article 15, while overseas storage and processing must also meet Article 27¹ of the Law. That Article requires storage in Uzbekistan of biometric and genetic data and data concerning service users held by telecommunications operators operating in Uzbekistan. Other data may be stored and processed abroad only when a statutory condition is met: recognised adequate protection in the destination state; contractual terms or corporate rules meeting approved requirements; or compliance with standards on the authorised body’s approved list. Consent alone does not substitute for these conditions.

Disclosure to public authorities, courts or an organisation investigating a substantiated concern requires an appropriate basis and must be limited to necessary information. Users are notified about recipients and actions where and as required by law. Independent external websites have their own terms; this does not remove the journal’s responsibility for any transfer it performs.

The Institute must register databases for which registration is mandatory under Article 20; registration or a particular hosting location must not be claimed without verification. Under Article 23, individuals must be informed in writing of purposes and rights when included in a database, and of transfer to a third party within 3 days, except for that Article’s express exceptions. A notification exception does not remove other legal requirements. Sharing public metadata does not authorise transfer of private editorial files.

07. Cookies, statistics and messages

Technically necessary cookies may be used to sign in to OJS and maintain a session. Blocking them in the browser may disrupt login or submission functions. Access to open articles must not depend on agreeing to optional advertising tracking.

Registration does not automatically authorise analytics or advertising cookies or external tracking. Their use requires disclosure of purpose, provider and duration, and consent where required. Choice and withdrawal options required by applicable rules must be available; optional tools must not be activated before necessary consent.

Usage statistics must minimise identifying information; research and statistical uses must meet applicable anonymisation requirements. An aggregated counter does not demonstrate that underlying technical logs contain no personal data. Such logs are processed separately for a disclosed purpose and limited period.

Submission, review and security notifications relate to the journal function being used. Optional news and marketing messages require a separate choice and an accessible opt-out. Unsubscribing from them does not end necessary correspondence concerning an active manuscript or affect its assessment.

08. Retention, deletion and backups

  • Account and contact information is retained while needed for an active role or request; when an account is closed, information requiring deletion is distinguished from information with a separate mandatory retention basis.
  • Editorial files are retained for assessment, integrity verification and justified dispute resolution within applicable periods; rejection neither requires immediate destruction of every record nor authorises indefinite retention.
  • Published articles and necessary bibliographic information are retained as the scholarly record subject to individual rights and binding decisions; accounting and legal records follow their applicable retention periods.
  • Technical logs and temporary files have periods justified by their specific tasks; once no longer needed, information is deleted or appropriately anonymised unless further retention has a lawful basis.

Consent-based processing must not be automatically extended after that basis ends. The specific period or criteria for determining it must be communicated at collection and on request. The research-data retention period in a separate policy is not an unconditional retention period for every journal profile and personal document.

Monthly backup of journal material is provided for, with copies held in the Institute’s data centre and library. Access to copies containing private information must be restricted; a backup is not a publicly accessible library item. This is a recovery measure, not an independent ground for indefinite personal-data retention.

Deletion must address operational systems and backups. Copies must follow a documented replacement and deletion cycle within mandatory time limits; deleted information must not return to ordinary processing when a system is restored. Preserving information for a specific proceeding requires a lawful basis, restricted access and reassessment when the matter ends.

Destruction follows Article 17 grounds, including achievement of the purpose, consent withdrawal, expiry of the agreed period and an effective court decision. If particular information must be retained under another mandatory provision, editors must identify that provision and limit retention to the corresponding information. An interest in keeping workflow history does not itself override a lawful destruction requirement.

09. Information security and incidents

The Institute must provide proportionate organisational and technical safeguards: access controls, individual accounts, protected transfer channels, software updates, oversight of administrative activity and backup-restoration checks. Staff and engaged personnel must maintain confidentiality and must not use information outside their assigned tasks.

Users must protect account credentials and report suspected unauthorised access. The editorial office does not request passwords or one-time authentication codes to handle manuscripts or requests. Identity-verification documents are provided only through an agreed method and to the extent necessary.

On discovering loss, unauthorised access or disclosure, the responsible unit must contain the incident, preserve necessary evidence, assess affected information and risks, restore protection and address causes. The Institute must make mandatory notifications to competent authorities and affected people within applicable deadlines, providing understandable information and necessary protective actions.

Incidents should be reported through the editorial contact with a short description; an entire exposed personal-data dataset should not be forwarded. Investigation does not authorise further distribution of a leak or public identification of a reporter without an appropriate basis.

Scientific editorial decisions are made by people. Automation does not remove Article 24 safeguards concerning decisions based solely on automated personal-data processing that affect rights and have legal consequences; statutory exceptions must not be presumed to apply automatically.

10. Rights, requests and updates

Within applicable law, individuals may obtain information about the existence and content of their data, purposes, grounds and access conditions; request correction, suspension of unlawful or excessive processing, and deletion on appropriate grounds; and withdraw consent. The right to approach a competent public authority or court remains independent of contacting the journal. Consent may be withdrawn under Article 21 in the form in which it was given or in writing, including an electronic document.

Requests should be sent to i_m_jurnal@tiiame.uz, describing the request and providing information sufficient to locate the record. To prevent wrongful disclosure, editors may proportionately verify identity or representative authority; a passport copy is not requested automatically. A response must not disclose another person’s data or a confidential reviewer identity without a basis.

The Law’s specific deadlines apply. Internal editorial-complaint timescales do not extend them. If a request is refused or restricted, the individual must receive the legal reason and available route of challenge; scholarly convenience does not replace the law.

  • Article 11: data must be changed or supplemented upon request within 3 days of the request; an established inaccuracy must be corrected without delay.
  • Article 22: written notice refusing information about processing must be sent within 10 days. This is a refusal-notice deadline, not general permission to postpone every action.
  • Article 24: the outcome of an objection to an automated decision covered by that Article must be communicated in writing within 10 days.

Concerns about editorial conduct are also handled under the Complaints and Appeals Policy. Research-participant data are governed together with the Informed Consent Policy and Data and Reproducibility Policy; their procedures are not duplicated here. Substantive changes to this statement must carry the actual update date and a clear notice; fresh consent is obtained where necessary. Changing the text does not retrospectively authorise previously undisclosed processing.

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ISSN 2181-1369 (Online)