The Healthcare Quality Professionals Journal (HQPJ) respects the privacy of authors, reviewers, editors, readers, website visitors, and other individuals who interact with the journal. This Privacy Policy explains the types of information that may be collected through the journal platform, how such information may be used, and the measures taken to support responsible handling of personal and scholarly information.
Information collected through manuscript submission, peer review, editorial communication, registration, website use, or other journal-related activities is intended to be used for legitimate scholarly publishing, editorial administration, communication, record keeping, platform operation, and publication-integrity purposes.
Scope of This Privacy Policy
This policy applies to information processed in connection with the journal website, manuscript submission and review processes, editorial correspondence, author and reviewer accounts, published articles, contact requests, and other scholarly publishing activities managed through HQPJ.
Information Collection & Usage
- Name, professional title, institutional affiliation, and country
- Email address, ORCID iD, and account details
- Manuscript files, reviewer reports, and editorial communications
- Conflict-of-interest disclosures and funding statements
- Technical website usage data, browser type, and log records
- Processing submissions, screening, and peer-review coordination
- Communicating editorial decisions and publication updates
- Maintaining permanent publication metadata and bibliographic records
- Handling research-integrity inquiries and corrections
- Ensuring platform functionality, security, and administration
Confidentiality of Submissions & Reviewer Privacy
Author Information
Author names, affiliations, correspondence details, and ORCID identifiers become publicly visible when an article is published to maintain accurate scholarly attribution.
Reviewer Confidentiality
Reviewer identities and confidential review correspondence are protected and accessible only to authorized editorial personnel managing peer review.
Unpublished Manuscripts
Unpublished manuscripts, research data, and reports are treated as strictly confidential documents and are not shared or misappropriated.
Patient Privacy, Sensitive Data & AI Precautions
- Remove unnecessary clinical, hospital, or personal identifiers.
- Obtain informed consent where identifiable details are essential.
- Avoid submitting passwords or sensitive identity documents via email.
- Comply with ethical, institutional, and legal confidentiality rules.
Unpublished manuscripts, identifiable patient information, sensitive clinical datasets, reviewer reports, and editorial correspondence must NOT be entered into external generative AI systems where data confidentiality and security cannot be guaranteed.
Cookies, Technical Data & Sharing
Cookies & Technical Records
The website may process technical logs (IP address, browser type, device information) and essential cookies to manage login sessions, platform security, user preferences, and performance. Users may control cookies via browser settings.
Information Sharing Restrictions
Personal information is shared only with editors, reviewers, publishing personnel, and technical service providers as necessary for publication. Information is never sold or used for commercial marketing or improper solicitation.
Data Security & User Responsibilities
Data Retention & Correction Requests
Journal records are retained as necessary to support peer-review history, editorial administration, and permanent scholarly record-keeping. Users may contact the journal to correct profile details; published records require separate editorial consideration to preserve academic transparency.
Investigations & External Links
Information may be shared confidentially during formal misconduct investigations to protect the scholarly record. HQPJ is not responsible for the privacy policies of external third-party links or repositories.
Names, email addresses, affiliations, account information, manuscript details, and other information submitted to Healthcare Quality Professionals Journal (HQPJ) should be used primarily for journal administration, scholarly communication, peer review, publication, research-integrity activities, and other legitimate editorial purposes. Confidential or personal information should not be disclosed or used beyond what is reasonably necessary for these purposes, subject to applicable scholarly, ethical, technical, institutional, and legal requirements.