3. Privacy Policy Statement

Purpose

The Pakistan Journal of Gastroenterology (PJG) is committed to protecting the privacy, confidentiality, and security of personal information provided by authors, reviewers, editors, and readers. The Journal collects and processes personal data solely for legitimate editorial, publishing, and administrative purposes.

Personal information submitted to the Journal will be handled responsibly and in accordance with applicable data protection principles and international best practices in scholarly publishing.

3.1 Information Collected

The Journal may collect the following information during manuscript submission and publication:

Full name
Institutional affiliation
Email address
Postal address
Telephone number (where applicable)
ORCID iD (if provided)
Funding information
Conflict of Interest declarations
Reviewer information
Editorial correspondence

Only information necessary for editorial and publishing activities is collected.

3.2 Purpose of Data Collection

Personal information is collected to:

Process manuscript submissions.
Conduct peer review.
Communicate editorial decisions.
Publish accepted articles.
Maintain accurate publication records.
Manage reviewer assignments.
Improve editorial and publishing services.
Comply with indexing and archiving requirements.

The Journal does not collect personal information for unrelated commercial purposes.

3.3 Confidentiality

All personal information and unpublished manuscripts are treated as confidential.

Editors, editorial staff, and reviewers must not:

Share confidential manuscripts with unauthorized individuals.
Disclose reviewer identities in confidential peer review models.
Use unpublished information for personal or professional advantage.
Share author information outside the editorial process without permission.

Confidentiality is maintained throughout the submission, review, and publication process.

3.4 Use of Personal Information

Personal information is used exclusively for editorial and publishing purposes.

The Journal does not sell, rent, or disclose personal information to third parties for marketing or commercial purposes.

Information may be shared only when necessary with:

Publishing service providers.
DOI registration agencies (e.g., Crossref).
Indexing and abstracting databases.
Archiving services.
Legal or regulatory authorities where required by law.

3.5 Reviewer Privacy

Reviewer identities and reports are handled according to the Journal's peer review policy.

Reviewer information will remain confidential unless:

The Journal operates an open peer review model and reviewers agree to disclosure.
Disclosure is required by law.
A reviewer voluntarily chooses to reveal their identity.

3.6 Cookies and Website Analytics

The Journal website may use cookies and analytics tools to:

Improve website functionality.
Monitor website performance.
Analyze visitor traffic.
Enhance user experience.

Cookies do not collect sensitive personal information and may be disabled through the user's browser settings.

3.7 Data Security

The Journal implements reasonable administrative and technical measures to protect personal information against:

Unauthorized access.
Accidental disclosure.
Data loss.
Misuse.
Unauthorized modification.

Although every effort is made to maintain security, no electronic system can guarantee absolute protection.

3.8 Author Rights

Authors may request the correction of inaccurate personal information held by the Journal.

Requests relating to personal information should be submitted to the Editorial Office through the Journal's official correspondence channel.

Published information forming part of the scholarly record may not be removed except in accordance with the Journal's Correction, Retraction, or Withdrawal Policies.

3.9 Third-Party Services

The Journal may use trusted third-party platforms to support editorial and publishing activities, including manuscript management systems, DOI registration services, plagiarism detection software, indexing services, and digital archiving platforms.

These services are used solely to facilitate scholarly publishing and operate under their respective privacy and security policies.

3.10 Policy Updates

The Journal reserves the right to revise this Privacy Policy periodically to reflect legal, technological, or editorial developments.

The most recent version of the policy will always be available on the Journal website.

Contact

Questions regarding this Privacy Policy may be directed to the Editorial Office through the contact information provided on the Journal's official website.