Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

SOLAV Journal ("we," "us," or "our") respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you visit our website https://solav.me (the "Site"), submit manuscripts, or interact with our services.

This policy applies to all visitors, authors, reviewers, and users of SOLAV Journal services. By using our Site, you consent to the practices described in this policy.

2. Controller Information

Data Controller: Leothar Company
Address: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Email: [email protected]

As a data controller based outside the European Economic Area (EEA), we comply with EU data protection requirements when processing personal data of individuals in the EEA.

3. Information We Collect

3.1 Personal Information You Provide

Names, email addresses, and institutional affiliations when submitting manuscripts or registering accounts
Academic credentials, ORCID identifiers, and biographical information for authors and reviewers
Correspondence content when contacting editorial staff

3.2 Automatically Collected Information

IP addresses, browser type, device information, and operating system
Pages visited, time spent on pages, and navigation paths
Referrer URLs and search terms used to find our Site
Timestamps of visits and interactions

3.3 Cookies and Tracking Technologies

We use cookies and similar technologies for essential site functionality and analytics:

Category	Purpose	Provider	Retention	Legal Basis
Essential	Site security, load balancing, session management	Cloudflare	Session duration	Legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR)
Functional	Site search functionality	Google Custom Search	Session duration	Legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR)
Analytics	Website traffic analysis, user behavior insights	Google Analytics 4	26 months	Explicit consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR)

Note: Analytics cookies are only activated after you provide explicit consent via our cookie banner.

4. How We Use Your Information

We process personal information for the following purposes:

Manuscript handling: Managing submission, peer review, editorial decisions, and publication processes
Communication: Contacting authors, reviewers, and readers regarding submissions, publications, and journal updates
Site operation: Providing, maintaining, and improving our website and services
Analytics (with consent): Understanding visitor behavior to improve site performance and user experience
Legal compliance: Meeting statutory obligations and defending legal claims

5. Legal Basis for Processing

Our legal bases for processing personal data under GDPR:

Contract performance (Art. 6(1)(b)): Processing necessary to fulfill our publishing agreement with authors
Legitimate interests (Art. 6(1)(f)): Essential site operations, security, and functional features (e.g., Cloudflare, site search)
Explicit consent (Art. 6(1)(a)): Analytics tracking via Google Analytics (only activated after consent)
Legal obligation (Art. 6(1)(c)): Compliance with archiving requirements and scholarly record preservation

6. Data Sharing and Disclosures

We share personal information only in the following circumstances:

With service providers: Processors acting on our instructions (Cloudflare for security/CDN, Google for analytics/search, Zenodo for archiving)
With reviewers: Author names and manuscript content during peer review (single-blind review)
With publishers: Article metadata shared via OAI-PMH endpoint for harvesting by indexing services (CORE, BASE, OpenAlex)
Legal requirements: When required by law, regulation, or valid legal process

We do not sell personal information or share it for third-party marketing purposes.

With third-party services: When you click external links (e.g., social media share buttons), you are directed to third-party platforms governed by their own privacy policies. SOLAV Journal does not control third-party data practices.

7. International Data Transfers

Your data may be transferred to and processed in countries outside the EEA, including:

United States: Google Analytics, Google Custom Search, Zenodo (via CERN infrastructure)
European Union: Cloudflare EU data centers, Zenodo (CERN)

These transfers are safeguarded by:

EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework certification (Google)
Standard Contractual Clauses (Cloudflare)
CoreTrustSeal certification (Zenodo/CERN)

8. Data Retention

Published articles: Permanently retained as part of the scholarly record (archived via Zenodo)
Unpublished submissions: Retained for 3 years for editorial record-keeping
Analytics data: 26 months (Google Analytics retention setting)
Log data: Deleted after 30 days (Cloudflare standard retention)

9. Your Rights Under GDPR

If you are in the EEA, you have the right to:

Access your personal data
Rectify inaccurate or incomplete data
Request erasure ("right to be forgotten") where applicable
Restrict processing in certain circumstances
Data portability (receive your data in structured format)
Object to processing based on legitimate interests
Withdraw consent for analytics tracking at any time

To exercise these rights, contact: [email protected]. We will respond within 30 days.

10. Cookie Management

You can manage cookie preferences at any time:

Essential cookies: Cannot be disabled (required for site security/functionality)
Analytics cookies: Can be enabled/disabled via cookie banner or by clicking the fingerprint icon () in the bottom-left corner of any page
Browser settings: Configure your browser to block third-party cookies (may affect site functionality)

Withdrawing analytics consent does not affect essential site functionality.

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy periodically. The "Last updated" date at the top of this page will reflect changes. Continued use of our Site after changes constitutes acceptance.