Data Privacy and Security

The Data Privacy and Security Policy of the University of Marburg is available here. Please use the information on that page in case of data-privacy related contact.


Scholarly Publishing

The realm of scholarly publishing raises a number of considerations for compliance with GDPR, particularly around the regulation’s core principle of the right to be forgotten.
One function of scholarly publishing is to produce a historical record of the process involved in reviewing, editing, and publishing research and scholarship, with its own norms of confidentiality and privacy.
As such, this form of publishing falls within what the GDPR recognizes as a need “to reconcile the right to the protection of personal data pursuant to this Regulation with the right to freedom of expression and information, including processing for journalistic purposes and the purposes of academic, artistic or literary expression” (GDPR, Article 85).
More specifically, the GDPR specifies that “the right of erasure” (Article 17) holds in situations in which “the personal data are no longer necessary in relation to the purposes for which they were collected or otherwise processed.”
In scholarly publishing, data concerning the authors, editors, reviewers, and others involved in the editorial and publishing process remains necessary for the purposes of the journal or press, and, as such, forms part of a record that the GDPR allows “for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes the preservation of which is in the public interest” (Recital 65).

The data collected from registered and non-registered users of this publication system falls within the scope of the standard functioning of scientific publishing. It includes information that makes communication possible for the editorial process; it is used to inform readers about the authorship and editing of content; it enables collecting aggregated data on readership behaviours, as well as tracking geopolitical and social elements of scholarly communication. Those involved in the publishing process seek to be compliant with standards for data privacy, including the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) provision for “data subject rights” that include

  • (a) breach notification;
  • (b) right of access;
  • (c) the right to be forgotten;
  • (d) data portability; and
  • (e) privacy by design.
The GDPR also allows for the recognition of “the public interest in the availability of the data,” which has a particular saliency for those involved in maintaining, with the greatest integrity possible, the public record of scholarly publishing.

Cookie Policy

For this publication system to work properly, small data files called cookies have to be placed on the user's device. In particular, registration and login with journal's will only work after enabling cookies. Users can control and/or delete cookies as they wish.