What we collect, why, who sees it, and how to have it corrected or erased. Written for India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023.
Aaranya Scholarly LLP ("we") publishes the Aaranya Scholarly journals and runs this website. We are the data fiduciary for the personal data described here. Questions, requests and complaints: info@aaranyascholarly.com.
What we collect
Your account: name, email address, institution, country, and optionally ORCID iD, phone number (only if you verify by SMS), and the field you would review in. Your password is stored only as a one-way hash.
Submissions: the manuscript and files you upload, the title, abstract, keywords, cover letter and declarations, and the names, emails and affiliations of co-authors and of any reviewers you suggest.
Peer review: reviews, recommendations and comments, invitation responses, and the dates of each step.
Payments: the fee, its status and invoice details. Card and bank details are handled by our payment provider (Razorpay) and never reach us.
Usage: counts of article views and downloads, without your IP address. Signing in stores a login token in your browser; we use no advertising or tracking cookies.
Researchers we may invite to review: names, affiliations and publication lists from OpenAlex, a public scholarly index, used only to find suitable reviewers.
Why we use it
To run your account, and to handle your submission through editorial screening, peer review, decision, production and publication.
To contact you about your submissions, reviews and account (we send no marketing).
To publish accepted articles: the authors' names and affiliations, and the corresponding author's email, appear on the article and in the metadata we send to indexes such as Crossref and Google Scholar.
To collect publication fees and keep the accounts the law requires.
To keep the scholarly record honest: investigating misconduct, corrections and retractions, as our editorial policies describe.
We rely on the consent you give when you register and when you submit, and on the uses the Act allows for data you provide voluntarily for a purpose (such as submitting a paper for publication).
Who sees it
Editors of the journal you submit to see your submission and identity. Reviewers see an anonymised copy: no author names, affiliations or contact details. Authors never learn who reviewed their work.
Service providers who process data for us: Google Cloud (hosting, database, file storage, email and the automated assistants described in our AI policy), and Razorpay (payments). They may not use it for their own purposes.
Indexes and registries (Crossref, Google Scholar and others), for published articles only.
Authorities, where the law requires it.
We do not sell personal data.
Where it is processed
Our database and files are stored by Google Cloud in Mumbai, India (asia-south1). The automated pre-screening and editor's assistant use Google's Vertex AI service, which may process the anonymised text outside India; Google may not use it to train its models. Email is delivered through Google Workspace.
How long we keep it
Published articles are permanent: they are part of the scholarly record, and other work cites them.
Peer-review records of a submission (reviews, decisions, dates) are kept so decisions can be audited, appeals heard and misconduct investigated.
Accounts are kept until you ask us to delete them.
Payment records are kept for as long as Indian tax law requires.
Your rights
You can ask us to: tell you what data we hold about you and who we have shared it with; correct or complete it; erase it; and you can withdraw consent. Signed in, use Request deletion on your dashboard, or email us. We answer within 30 days.
Erasure has limits we cannot avoid: published articles, and the peer-review record of submissions, are kept for the reasons above (we remove what is not needed for them). Withdrawing consent does not undo processing already done, and a submission under review cannot continue without your data.
You may also nominate someone to exercise these rights for you in case of your death or incapacity.
Data about other people
If you give us someone else's details (co-authors, suggested reviewers), you confirm they know and agree. Anyone whose details we hold can use the rights above.
Our services are for researchers and are not intended for anyone under 18.
Grievances
Write to the Grievance Officer, Aaranya Scholarly LLP, at info@aaranyascholarly.com. If you are not satisfied with our answer, you may complain to the Data Protection Board of India.
Version 2026-10-08. Last updated 8 October 2026. Aaranya Scholarly LLP.
