Privacy policy

Draft privacy policy — last updated 16 October 2026. This document is not yet final.

1. Controller and contact

“Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iași is the data controller for this journal platform. The journal team can be contacted at Str. Toma Cozma nr. 3, Iași 700554, Romania, or office@sportsisocietate.ro. You can use these details for privacy questions and requests, including asking to contact the University’s data-protection officer.

2. Information processed and its sources

We process account name, email, authentication identifiers and security information; author names, ORCID identifiers, affiliations and optional biographies; manuscripts, versions and uploaded files; reviewer invitations, availability, assignments and reports; editorial decisions and correspondence; and the public article information authorised for publication. Hosting and authentication providers process technical information such as IP addresses, request times, browser details and security logs. Passwords are handled by the authentication service, not displayed to editors.

Information comes from you, a submitting co-author, authorised editorial staff, reviewers and the technical services used to operate the platform. Public professional information may be used to identify prospective reviewers. A submitting author must inform co-authors that their information is being supplied. If information about you was supplied by someone else, contact the journal team for the source and relevant details. This does not replace the University’s own obligation to provide you with information about the use of your data.

3. Why information is used

Information is used to operate accounts, communicate about submissions, organise peer review, make editorial decisions, publish the scholarly record, manage corrections and protect the service. Depending on the activity and applicable law, processing may be necessary to provide a service you request, meet a legal obligation or carry out the University’s public-interest responsibilities. You can contact the journal team for information about the legal basis applicable to your circumstances.

Where an optional use requires your consent, you can choose whether to agree and withdraw that consent later. Reading this notice or creating an account is not treated as consent to all processing. No marketing or advertising tracking is enabled. Editorial decisions are made by people, not solely by an automated system.

Do not submit identifiable research participant data, medical records or other sensitive personal information through the general manuscript workflow. Contact the editorial team before sending material that needs special privacy safeguards.

4. Who can see information

Authors can access their own submissions and feedback released by an editor. Reviewers receive assigned review material with author-identifying information withheld by the application. Editors handle editorial records. Authorised auditors have read-only access to the editorial workspace for approved oversight and must follow confidentiality and data-minimisation requirements. Reviewers’ identities and confidential editor-only comments are not intentionally disclosed to authors. Editors check author-facing feedback before release. Uploaded document contents and metadata must also be checked; software alone cannot guarantee anonymity.

Published articles, author names and approved author details, article metadata and publication files become publicly accessible and may be indexed, downloaded or copied by readers and discovery services. Account passwords, private review records and confidential editorial correspondence are not publication content. The journal may share public article metadata with DOI-registration and indexing services for scholarly discovery.

5. Service providers and international processing

Cloudflare provides website hosting, delivery, contact-enquiry storage and the Turnstile security check used by contact and account-access forms, including registration, login, password-reset requests and sensitive Account Settings requests. Supabase provides account authentication, database and file storage, and verifies the security check for account-access requests. Fonts and application software are hosted with this website; Turnstile loads directly from Cloudflare. Journal correspondence and account messages also involve email service providers. External links, including ORCID, DOI and indexing websites, take you to separate services with their own privacy policies.

Service providers may process information outside the European Economic Area. You can request information about the locations and safeguards applicable to your data, including any relevant adequacy decision or contractual safeguards. The journal does not sell personal data.

6. Retention

Published articles and their associated scholarly metadata are intended to form a long-term scholarly record. Private account and editorial records remain stored until an authorised retention or removal process is performed. Retention takes account of submission handling, research integrity, complaints, legal obligations and security. Contact the journal team to ask about the retention period applicable to your records or to request their removal.

Closing an account does not automatically erase publications or all editorial records. Requests are assessed individually, taking account of applicable rights and exceptions, including legal obligations, freedom of expression, research and archiving safeguards, and legal claims. Information may also remain in backup copies until those copies expire or are replaced; removing information from the live service does not necessarily remove every backup immediately.

7. Your rights

Subject to the GDPR’s conditions and exceptions, you may request access, correction, erasure, restriction, portability or object to processing. Where processing relies on consent, you may withdraw that consent without affecting the lawfulness of earlier processing. You may also request information about international-transfer safeguards. Contact the journal team using the details above; we may request proportionate identity verification without asking for your password. Requests should normally be answered within one month, with any lawful extension explained.

You may complain to the Romanian National Supervisory Authority for Personal Data Processing (ANSPDCP), or another competent supervisory authority. You do not have to complain to the journal first. Updating an account email does not automatically amend the author identity or contact information recorded in an already submitted or published article; contact the team when that also needs correction.

8. Security, browser storage and contact

Access controls limit workspace functions by role; private file access is checked separately. These safeguards reduce risk but no online service can promise absolute security. Keep your password private and use a trusted device. Account settings let you request an email or password change. Read the Cookies policy for essential browser storage and hosting/security cookies. Blocking all storage can prevent login and related functions.

The contact form collects your name, email address, subject and message so the editorial team can respond to your enquiry. Messages are stored with Cloudflare separately from manuscript and review records, and are available only to authorised editors. Sender email addresses are not verified. Do not send passwords or sensitive research data through this form. Short-lived, keyed identifiers derived from your IP address and email address help limit spam; the form does not store your raw IP address in the enquiry record. Rate-limit identifiers expire within a day and are removed by an hourly cleanup. Hosting providers may separately maintain security logs. Messages remain while needed to handle the enquiry and any applicable record-keeping obligations; contact the team about retention or removal. Material changes to the way this service uses personal information will be reflected in this policy and communicated where appropriate.