Privacy Statement

Rules governing the processing of personal data belonging to website users, authors, reviewers and other participants in the editorial process, the protection of unpublished materials and the exercise of rights relating to personal information.

01. Scope and responsible organisation

This policy applies to the processing of information when visiting the Technosphere Safety journal website, registering with Open Journal Systems (OJS), submitting and handling manuscripts, conducting peer review, publishing articles, corresponding with participants and handling enquiries. It covers authors, reviewers, editors, readers and other individuals whose information is received by the editorial office.

The journal's founder and publisher, the Tashkent Institute of Irrigation and Agricultural Mechanization Engineers National Research University (hereinafter the Institute), is responsible for organising the processing and protection of personal data. The editorial office and authorised technical departments act within their assigned powers. The Institute designates a department or official responsible for data processing and protection; enquiries are received through the editorial office.

Contact for privacy matters: technosphere@tiiame.uz. Postal address of the Institute: 39 Kari Niyazov Street, Tashkent 100000, Republic of Uzbekistan. Enquiries should identify the journal and relevant user account, manuscript or article where necessary for their consideration.

The legal basis is the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan No. ZRU-547 of 2 July 2019, "On Personal Data", as currently amended, together with mandatory regulations adopted for its implementation. Rights and obligations are determined by the legislation of Uzbekistan; professional publishing recommendations apply additionally and do not replace the law. The Institute organises processing as a data owner and/or operator within its actual functions and obligations under Article 31 of the Law.

02. Information processed and its sources

  • User accounts and professional profiles: given name, surname, email address, login credentials, institution, country, language, journal role, research interests and voluntarily supplied identifiers such as ORCID.
  • Editorial materials: manuscripts, co-author information, cover letters, declarations, peer reviews, editorial decisions, interaction history and documents required to investigate research integrity concerns.
  • Enquiries and mandatory records: the contents of requests, evidence of a representative's authority and necessary contractual or accounting information where the relevant transaction actually occurs.
  • Technical information: session data, actions required for OJS operation and, where logging is enabled, IP addresses, access times, browser information, pages visited and errors; the categories collected depend on the functions actually used and the settings disclosed.

The primary source is the user. Information about co-authors may be received from the corresponding author, while professional information about prospective reviewers may come from publicly available scholarly sources or recommendations. At first contact, individuals are informed of the purpose and given an opportunity to correct their information or decline optional interactions.

Required and optional fields must be distinguishable. Passport details, residential addresses, complete banking details or sensitive information should not be uploaded unless a specific operation has an established necessity, lawful basis and secure transfer method. The corresponding author must inform co-authors about the transfer of their information and establish an appropriate basis rather than consenting on their behalf without authority.

03. Purposes, legal grounds and limits of use

Data are used to create and maintain accounts, communicate with participants, organise expert assessment and decisions, prepare publications and metadata, correct the scholarly record, handle enquiries, maintain website security and fulfil mandatory requirements. The amount of information processed must correspond to the specific task.

Processing must be based on a specific ground under Article 18 of the Law: consent, necessity for performing a contract with the data subject or taking steps at their request before entering into a contract, fulfilment of a legal obligation, or another applicable ground under that Article. Necessity, scope and limitations must be established for each operation. References to research integrity or the journal's interests do not provide unconditional permission to process any data.

Before obtaining consent, individuals are informed of the purpose, data categories, intended recipients and processing conditions. Under Article 21, consent must be obtained in a form allowing evidence of its receipt; where consent is the basis for processing special categories of personal data, written consent, including an electronic document, is required. Changes in processing purposes require consent in accordance with Article 19. Reading this policy does not authorise undisclosed purposes.

Registration or article submission does not constitute a subscription to advertising. Personal contact lists are not sold, rented or used for unrelated commercial mailings. Failure to provide information genuinely necessary for a chosen function may make that function unavailable; refusal to provide optional information must not influence scientific decisions.

For minors and persons lacking or having limited legal capacity, the rules on representation and written consent under Article 21 apply. For deceased persons and persons declared deceased or missing by a court, the authority of heirs is verified under the same Article. Family relationships, official positions or article submission do not replace legally required authority. Consent to personal data processing does not replace consent to participate in research.

04. The public scholarly record and confidential data

After acceptance, agreed information necessary for attribution and citation is published: author names, affiliations, article title, abstract, keywords, bibliographic information, DOI where assigned, ORCID identifiers supplied for publication and necessary declarations. A scientific correspondence address is published only when explicitly agreed as a public contact; the email address used for login must not automatically become public. Written consent must be obtained for inclusion of personal information in publicly accessible sources in accordance with Article 29 of the Law.

Publications and open metadata may be distributed through scholarly search engines, directories and repositories. When a DOI is registered with Crossref, the submitted bibliographic record becomes accessible through its public services; private profiles, passwords, correspondence and unpublished peer reviews are not included in that record. Mentioning these dissemination methods does not constitute a claim that the journal is indexed in any particular database.

The CC BY 4.0 licence applied to a published article does not make user profiles or editorial records public and does not override privacy rights. Identifiable information about research participants may be published only when the relevant ethical requirements and the Informed Consent Policy have been satisfied.

Closing an account is not equivalent to retracting a published article. Requests to correct or delete personal information in the scholarly record are considered separately in accordance with applicable law and correction procedures. The editorial office does not promise to delete all copies held by independent recipients but takes necessary measures within its responsibility and notifies recipients where required.

05. Access to manuscripts, reviews and sensitive information

Access is granted according to operational necessity and role: authors may access their own materials and correspondence intended for them; reviewers may access assigned manuscripts and sufficient context; editors and staff may access materials within their assigned duties. Editorial board membership or employment at the Institute does not confer the right to view all manuscript records. Access is reviewed when appointments or responsibilities end.

During double-anonymous peer review, information revealing the identities of authors and reviewers is not ordinarily disclosed to the other party. Files and technical metadata that may identify participants must be checked. Reviewer selection and independence are governed by the relevant policies; public disclosure of a reviewer's name or report requires a separate appropriate basis and must not be introduced retrospectively.

Unpublished materials must not be used for personal research, shared with unauthorised persons or uploaded to external generative artificial intelligence services. Permissible use of such tools is governed by the separate Artificial Intelligence Policy. Sharing materials with an assistant or consultant is permitted only with prior editorial approval, a conflict-of-interest check and an obligation to maintain confidentiality.

Authors must minimise personal data relating to research participants and must not include signed consent forms in publicly accessible supplementary materials. During verification, the editorial office requests sufficient and proportionate evidence through an agreed channel. Absolute secrecy cannot be promised in ethics cases: necessary information may be provided to affected parties or a competent institution for fair examination, with disclosure limited in scope and unrelated persons protected.

06. Recipients, external services and cross-border processing

Within the stated purposes, access may be granted to authorised departments of the Institute, appointed editors and reviewers, and technical service providers engaged on an appropriate basis. Transfers for website hosting, delivery of operational notifications or other support are permitted only to the necessary extent, with defined obligations concerning confidentiality, security, onward transfers and termination of processing.

An external text-checking service or integration must not be used to transmit complete manuscripts or personal information without disclosure. Before connecting such a service, the categories of data transferred, purposes, recipient, retention terms, location of processing and permissibility of transfer must be assessed. Information about services actually used and significant processing conditions must be provided to users before the relevant processing, either on this page or in a separate understandable notice.

Cross-border transfers are assessed under Article 15, while overseas storage and processing are also assessed under Article 27¹ of the Law. That Article requires biometric and genetic data, as well as data concerning users of services held by telecommunications operators operating in Uzbekistan, to be stored in Uzbekistan. For other data, overseas storage and processing are permitted only where a condition established by law is met: the relevant country is recognised as providing adequate protection; contractual provisions or corporate rules meet approved requirements; or applicable standards from a list approved by the authorised body are observed. Consent alone does not replace these conditions.

Information may be provided to government authorities, courts or an institution investigating a substantiated allegation of misconduct only where an appropriate basis exists and to the necessary extent. Users are notified of recipients and actions in the circumstances and manner required by law. Following a link to an independent external website subjects users to that website's own terms; this does not remove the journal's responsibility for any transfer it carries out.

The Institute ensures the registration of databases for which registration is mandatory under Article 20; no registration or particular hosting location is claimed without verification. Under Article 23, individuals are notified in writing of the purposes and their rights when their information is included in a database; transfers to a third party are notified within 3 days, except for the exemptions expressly provided in that Article. An exemption from notification does not remove other legal obligations. Transferring public metadata does not authorise the transfer of confidential editorial records.

07. Cookies, statistics and communications

Technically necessary cookies may be used to sign in to OJS and maintain user sessions. Blocking these files in the browser may interfere with login or manuscript submission. Access to open articles must not depend on consent to optional advertising tracking.

Analytical or advertising cookies and external tracking tools are not automatically authorised by registration. Their use is permitted after disclosure of their purpose, provider and duration and the obtaining of consent where required. Applicable methods for choosing and withdrawing consent must be available; optional tools must not be activated before the necessary consent is obtained.

Usage statistics are compiled while minimising identifying information; anonymisation requirements are applied for research and statistical purposes. The existence of an aggregate counter does not establish that the underlying technical logs contain no personal data. Such logs are processed separately for the disclosed purpose and a limited period.

Operational notifications concerning submissions, peer review and security are associated with the journal function being used. Optional news and marketing messages require a separate choice and an accessible opt-out. Unsubscribing from them does not terminate necessary correspondence about an active manuscript or influence its assessment.

08. Retention periods, deletion and backups

  • Account and contact information is retained while necessary for an active role or handling a request; when an account is closed, it is determined which information must be deleted and which has a separate mandatory retention basis.
  • Editorial records are retained for manuscript consideration, research integrity checks and justified dispute resolution within applicable periods; rejection of a manuscript neither requires immediate destruction of all records nor authorises indefinite retention.
  • Published articles and necessary bibliographic information are retained as part of the scholarly record, taking account of individuals' rights and binding decisions; financial and legal documents are retained within the periods established for them.
  • Technical logs and temporary files have retention periods justified by their specific purposes; when they are no longer necessary, the data are deleted or appropriately anonymised unless a lawful basis for further retention exists.

A processing period based on consent is not automatically extended after that basis ends. The specific period or criteria for determining it are communicated when data are collected and upon request. The research data retention period established by a separate policy does not constitute an unconditional retention period for all journal profiles and personal documents.

Monthly backups of journal materials are provided for, with copies stored in the Institute's data centre and library. Access to copies containing confidential information must be restricted; a backup is not a publicly accessible library resource. This is a technical recovery measure and not an independent basis for indefinite retention of personal data.

Deletion must take account of operational systems and backups. A documented cycle for updating and deleting backup copies must be established within mandatory periods; deleted information must not be returned to ordinary processing when a system is restored. Retaining information for a particular investigation requires a lawful basis, restricted access and a reassessment of necessity after the investigation ends.

Destruction is carried out on the grounds established by Article 17, including achievement of the processing purpose, withdrawal of consent, expiry of the agreed period and a final court decision. Where particular information must be retained under another mandatory rule, the editorial office identifies that rule and limits retention to the relevant scope. An interest in preserving operational history does not itself override a lawful requirement to destroy data.

09. Information security and incident response

The Institute must implement proportionate organisational and technical measures, including role-based access restrictions, individual user accounts, secure communication channels, software updates, monitoring of administrative actions and testing restoration from backups. Employees and engaged persons must maintain confidentiality and must not use information outside their assigned duties.

Users must protect their credentials and report suspicious access. The editorial office does not request passwords or one-time verification codes for manuscript handling or enquiries. Identity-verification documents must be transferred only through an agreed method and to the necessary extent.

If loss, unauthorised access or disclosure is detected, the responsible department contains the incident, preserves necessary evidence, assesses the affected information and risks, restores protection and addresses the causes. The Institute fulfils mandatory notifications to competent authorities and affected individuals within applicable periods, providing clear information and necessary protective steps.

Security incidents should be reported through the editorial contact channel with a brief description of the circumstances; the entire exposed set of personal data should not be forwarded. Investigation does not authorise further dissemination of leaked information or public disclosure of the reporter's identity without an appropriate basis.

Scientific editorial decisions are made by humans. The use of automation does not remove the safeguards in Article 24 concerning decisions based exclusively on automated processing of personal data that affect rights with legal consequences; lawful exceptions must not be assumed to apply automatically.

10. Rights, enquiries and policy updates

Under applicable law, an individual may obtain information about the existence and categories of their data, processing purposes, legal grounds and access conditions, request correction, suspension of unlawful or excessive processing and deletion where the relevant grounds exist, and withdraw consent. The right to contact a competent state authority or court remains available regardless of an enquiry to the journal. Withdrawal of consent is formalised under Article 21 in the same form in which it was given or in writing, including an electronic document.

Requests should be sent to technosphere@tiiame.uz. It is sufficient to describe the request and provide information enabling the relevant record to be located. To prevent improper disclosure, the editorial office may proportionately verify identity or a representative's authority; a passport copy is not requested automatically. Responses must not disclose another person's personal information or a confidential reviewer's identity without an appropriate basis.

Specific statutory deadlines apply. Internal deadlines for editorial complaints do not extend them. Where a request is refused or restricted, the applicant is informed of the legal basis and available appeal procedure; scientific convenience does not replace the law.

  • Article 11: modification and supplementation of data upon request must be completed no later than 3 days after the request; established inaccuracies must be corrected without delay.
  • Article 22: written notification of refusal to provide information about processing must be issued within 10 days. This is a deadline for notifying a refusal, not general permission to postpone all actions.
  • Article 24: the outcome of consideration of an objection to an automated decision covered by that Article must be communicated in writing within 10 days.

Enquiries concerning editorial operations are also handled under the Complaints and Appeals Policy. Processing of research participants' information is connected to the Informed Consent Policy and the Data Availability and Research Reproducibility Policy; their procedures are not duplicated here. Significant changes to this policy are accompanied by the actual date of update and a clear notice; renewed consent is obtained where necessary. Amending the text does not retrospectively authorise previously undisclosed processing.

Legal sources and professional references

The principal legal source is the current legislation of the Republic of Uzbekistan. The official Uzbek text and the Russian text of the Law are linked below. Professional publishing recommendations serve as additional guidance and do not restrict rights established by law.

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ISSN 2181-3981 (Online)