Privacy policy

Policy facts

These facts come from the journal’s settings in the portal, so they always describe how the journal actually works.

Who is responsible

Centre for Legal Research and Studies controls the data. Vidhi Aagaz processes it on the University’s behalf, on servers it operates, under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023.

In the terms of that Act, the University is the data fiduciary for the journal, and Vidhi Aagaz is the data processor that runs the journal’s platform for it. Vidhi Aagaz uses the data only to run the journal, on the University’s instructions.

What we hold

• For authors, we hold names, affiliations, contact details, manuscripts and declarations.
• For reviewers and editors, we hold names, contact details, areas of expertise and reviews.
• We do not track visitors beyond what is needed to run the site.

In more detail, the journal holds:

• Authors: each author’s name, designation, institution and email address, the ORCID iD if given, the files submitted, the declarations, the correspondence with the editors, and the record of each step the manuscript has passed through.
• Reviewers: name, email address, areas of expertise, the invitations sent and answered, the reports written and the certificates issued.
• Editors and Board members: name, role, affiliation, email address and the record of what they did on the platform. Their accounts can be protected with a second sign-in step, such as an authenticator app, and the journal requires it for those with the widest access.
• People who write to the journal: the name, email address and message given in the contact form or the complaint form, and the record of how the message was dealt with.
• People who order printed copies: the order, delivery and payment details that Vidhi Aagaz needs to fulfil the order.
• Readers: nobody needs an account to read the journal. The servers keep short technical logs, such as the address of a request, to protect the site against misuse.

Why we hold it

We use this data only to run peer review and to publish articles. It is never sold or used for unrelated marketing.

Authors and reviewers give us their data so that a manuscript can be submitted, reviewed and published, and we use it only for that purpose and for the duties that come with it: answering appeals and complaints, dealing with questions of publication ethics, issuing certificates and keeping an accurate record of what the journal has published. We email you about your manuscript, your review or your message. The journal may also send its calls for papers to scholars in its field, and every such email lets you stop receiving them.

What is published

When an article is published, the authors’ names, designations, institutions, ORCID iDs and declarations are published with it, and the authors’ names and the article’s details are sent to Crossref to register the DOI. The published record is permanent, because the scholarly record must not change silently. Reviewers’ names are never published and are not disclosed to the authors.

Who processes it

Your data is seen only by the people who need it: the editors handling a manuscript, the reviewers invited to assess it (who receive the manuscript but not the authors’ contact details), and Vidhi Aagaz staff where the running of the platform requires it.

Some data goes to services the journal relies on. Manuscripts are checked with Turnitin for similarity and with Turnitin AI detection for AI-generated text. Article details are registered with Crossref, and published articles are preserved by the PKP Preservation Network. Emails are delivered through an email service. Each receives only what it needs for its task.

Cookies

The site uses only the cookies it needs to work. When an editor, a reviewer or an author signs in, a cookie keeps them signed in for the session, and it expires or is deleted when they sign out. The site does not use advertising cookies, and it does not track readers across other websites. Reading the journal sets no cookie at all.

How long we keep it

Published articles and the information published with them are kept permanently. The record of how a manuscript was handled, including the reviews and the correspondence, is kept as part of the journal’s editorial record, because it may be needed to answer an appeal, a complaint or a later question about the work. Messages sent through the contact form are kept for as long as is needed to answer them and deal with any follow-up. Data that is no longer needed is deleted or anonymised.

How we protect it

The journal’s data is held on servers operated by Vidhi Aagaz and is sent over encrypted connections. Each journal on the platform can see only its own data. Access is limited to people who need it for their role, editors’ accounts are protected by a second sign-in step where their role requires it, and authors reach their manuscript on the tracker with a one-time code sent to their email address. Actions on the platform are logged, so that any misuse can be traced.

Your rights

You may ask to see, correct or delete your data, subject to the journal’s duty to keep the record of what it publishes. To make a request, write to editor.jgjg@academyclrs.org. Every request is logged.

Under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, you may also ask for a summary of the data held about you and how it is used, withdraw a consent you have given (which does not affect what was done before), and nominate another person to exercise your rights if you die or become unable to act. Data in a published article cannot be erased, but an error in it can be corrected under the journal’s corrections policy.

Grievances

If you have a grievance about how the journal has handled your personal data, please write to editor.jgjg@academyclrs.org with the words “Data protection” in the subject line. The grievance is passed to someone responsible for data protection for the journal, and you receive a written reply. If you are not satisfied with the reply, you may approach the Data Protection Board of India.

If this policy changes, the new version is published on this page.