Gatha Cognition

By using the Online Platform, you agree to the collection, processing and storage of your information as described in this policy, for the professional purposes set out below.

1. Information we collect

1.1 Information you give us

When you register, submit a manuscript or proposal, write to us, or buy something on the Online Platform, you may give us:

• Name and contact details: name, postal address, email, telephone or mobile number, fax.
• Academic and professional details: qualifications, designation, institution or employer, areas of expertise, and your ORCID iD if you add it.
• Account details: User ID and password.
• Manuscripts and related files: the manuscript, figures, data, cover letter, author details, and reviewer reports.
• Orders: what you bought, billing and delivery address. Card and banking details are entered on the payment gateway’s own page (CCAvenue or PayPal); we never capture or store them.
• Messages: comments, questions, feedback and other things you send us.
• Library membership: if you join a library on the Online Platform, or a librarian adds you, the library, your department, your role (for example student, teacher or research scholar) and how long your access lasts.
• Invitations to a librarian: if you use “Invite your librarian” on an institute or scholar page, the librarian’s name and email, the institute and your message.

1.2 Information collected automatically

Our server and our partners record technical information when you use the Online Platform, such as your IP address, browser type, the pages you visit and the date and time of your visit. When you read paid content through a library, we also record which article, chapter or book you opened and when (see Section 5). Section 4 explains cookies and how you can control them.

2. How we use your information

• To run your account and sign you in.
• To process manuscript submissions, peer review, editorial decisions, proofs and publication.
• To process orders, payments, delivery of printed books and access to digital content.
• To answer your questions, requests and comments.
• To send you service emails about your manuscript, review or order, and to tell you about our products, services, offers and calls for papers. You can ask us to stop the promotional emails at any time.
• To keep the Online Platform secure and prevent fraud and spam.
• To meet our legal, tax and regulatory obligations.

3. Legal basis for processing

• Your consent: for example analytics cookies and marketing emails. You may withdraw it at any time.
• A contract with you: for example handling your submission or your order.
• A legal obligation: for example keeping invoices.
• Our legitimate interests: for example the security of the Online Platform and research integrity checks, balanced against your rights.

4. Cookies, consent and analytics

The Online Platform uses a cookie consent tool (provided by ShareThis, which also provides the share buttons). On your first visit you can Accept All, Reject All, or choose by category, and you can change your choice later from the settings icon on the site. Some partners rely on “legitimate interest” rather than consent for certain data (such as cookies, IP address and pages visited); you can see the list of partners and object, per partner or in general, from the same settings.

Google Analytics. We use Google Analytics 4 to count visits and see which pages are read, so we can improve the site. It uses Google Consent Mode:

• Advertising storage and ad personalisation are always off. The site shows no ads.
• For visitors in the European Economic Area, the UK and Switzerland, analytics cookies stay off until you accept them in the consent tool.
• Elsewhere, analytics is on by default, and you can turn it off in the consent tool at any time.

The site also uses essential cookies, such as the session cookie that keeps you signed in and your shopping cart. These are needed for the site to work and cannot be switched off.

5. How we share your information

We share information only as needed to run the Online Platform and our publishing work:

• Within the editorial process: editors and reviewers see what they need for a manuscript. Peer review is double-blind, so reviewers do not see the authors’ names.
• Related parties: publishers whose books you order, agents, licensors and institutes, for example for dispatch of an order or institutional access.
• Your library: while you are a member of a library, its Library Admin (the librarian) sees your name, email, department, role, membership dates, and which of the library’s articles, chapters and books you opened and when. The library uses this to manage access, renew memberships, send you library notices and report use to its institution. The librarian can also send you a link to set or reset your password. Leaving the library stops new records; earlier records stay in the library’s use report.
• A librarian you invite: we email the librarian your name and message, with your email address as the reply address. We keep a record of the invitation to prevent repeated or unwanted emails.
• Service providers that work for us, listed below, plus our bank, email service providers, shipping and courier agents, and hosting and IT service providers.

Service	What it does	What it receives
CCAvenue, PayPal	Online payment	Order amount, your name, contact and billing details, and the card or bank details you enter on their page.
Google Firebase	Sends a one-time password (OTP) by SMS when you verify your mobile number	Your mobile number.
Google Analytics	Visit statistics	Pages visited, device and browser data, approximate location (see Section 4).
ShareThis	Cookie consent tool and share buttons	Your cookie choices and technical data about your visit.
Turnitin	Similarity (plagiarism) check of manuscripts	The manuscript file and title (see Section 6).
Crossref	DOI registration of published work	Published metadata, including authors’ names, affiliations and ORCID iDs (see Section 7).
OpenAlex	Citation counts for our publications	Only the DOIs of our published works. No personal data.

We may also disclose information to comply with the law, a regulation or a court order, or to protect the rights, property or safety of GATHA COGNITION^® or users of the Online Platform.

We do not sell your personal information to third parties.

6. Manuscripts under review

A manuscript under review is confidential, unpublished work. Only the editorial office, the handling editor and the invited reviewers can open it.

• Similarity check. Every submitted manuscript is checked with Turnitin (iThenticate). We send Turnitin the manuscript file and its title; your account is identified to Turnitin only by an internal number, not your name or email. The similarity report is shared with the editor, the reviewers and the author.
• AI-assisted pre-review. Before review, the editorial office may run a technical screening with an AI tool approved by us, under terms by which submitted content is not used to train AI models. The report is seen only by the editorial office and the handling editor, never by reviewers or authors, and every decision is made by a human editor. Details: AI Use Policy, Section 5b.
• Reviewers and editors must not upload a manuscript to any AI tool or share it with anyone.

7. Published and public information

Publishing is public by nature. When your article, chapter or book is published:

• Your name, affiliation, ORCID iD (if given), corresponding email (if shown in the article) and the work itself appear on the Online Platform.
• The publication metadata, including authors’ names, affiliations and ORCID iDs, is deposited with Crossref for the DOI. Crossref makes this metadata public, and indexing services such as Google Scholar and OpenAlex may pick it up.
• Each author with published work has a public scholar profile page listing their name, affiliation, ORCID iD, publications and citation metrics. Editorial board members are listed with name and affiliation on journal pages, and reviewers are acknowledged by name in the published issue.

Published records are kept permanently as part of the scholarly record and cannot be erased, but we will correct mistakes in them on request.

8. International data transfers

The Online Platform is used worldwide, and your information may be stored and processed in countries other than your own, including India and the countries where our service providers operate. When we transfer information internationally, we take reasonable steps to protect it as required by law, including any restrictions under India’s Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act on cross-border transfer and, for EU/UK users, appropriate safeguards such as Standard Contractual Clauses where required.

9. Data retention

We keep your personal information while your account is active, and afterwards for as long as needed to meet our legal, accounting, tax and regulatory obligations or to resolve disputes. Manuscript records and reviews are kept as part of the editorial record. Published work is kept permanently (Section 7).

10. Data security

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your information against loss, misuse and unauthorised access. These include encrypted (HTTPS) connections and manuscript files that only the people on a manuscript can open. Please keep your password confidential. You are responsible for any loss or misuse that results from sharing it.

11. Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have some or all of these rights:

• Access the personal information we hold about you.
• Correct inaccurate or incomplete information.
• Ask us to erase your information, subject to our legal retention obligations and the scholarly record (Section 7).
• Restrict or object to certain processing.
• Withdraw your consent at any time, where processing is based on consent.
• Receive a copy of your information in a portable format.
• Complain to your local data protection authority (EU/UK residents) or to the Data Protection Board of India (for grievances under the DPDP Act).

Registered users can update their own details from My Profile in their account. To close your account or delete your information, write to us (Section 14). You are responsible for the accuracy of the information you give us. We will respond within the time required by applicable law.

12. Children’s privacy

The Online Platform is not directed at children. Use is restricted to those aged 18 or above, or a minor accompanied by an adult, as set out in our Terms and Conditions. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children without appropriate consent.

13. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy by publishing a revised version on this page, with a new “Last updated” date at the top. Please check this page from time to time.