Privacy Statement

1. Information We Collect

The journal may collect personal information provided voluntarily by users when they register, submit manuscripts, participate in peer review, communicate with the editorial office, or use other journal services. This information may include:

• name and academic title;
• institutional affiliation and department;
• email address and other contact information;
• ORCID iD and other researcher identifiers, where provided;
• country or institutional location;
• username and account information;
• biographical information and areas of scholarly expertise;
• manuscript, review, editorial, and publication records;
• correspondence with editors and journal staff; and
• technical information generated through use of the website, such as IP address, browser information, and access logs where collected by the journal platform.

2. Purposes of Data Processing

Personal information may be used for the following journal-related purposes:

• creating and maintaining user accounts;
• processing manuscript submissions;
• managing editorial assessment and peer review;
• communicating with authors, reviewers, editors, and readers;
• verifying authorship, affiliations, and researcher identity;
• assigning manuscripts to appropriate editors and reviewers;
• publishing article metadata and author information for accepted articles;
• supporting indexing, DOI registration, metadata dissemination, archiving, and preservation;
• maintaining the scholarly record and publication history;
• improving journal administration, website performance, and security; and
• complying with legitimate editorial, ethical, institutional, or legal requirements.

3. Publication of Author Information

For accepted and published articles, information that forms part of the scholarly record may be made publicly available. This may include author names, affiliations, email address of the corresponding author, ORCID iDs, contributor statements, acknowledgments, funding information, conflicts of interest, and other publication metadata where applicable.

Such information may also be transmitted to scholarly infrastructure and services such as DOI registration agencies, indexing databases, library systems, institutional repositories, preservation services, and academic search platforms.

4. Peer Review Confidentiality

al-Kalim applies a double-blind peer-review process. Information contained in unpublished manuscripts, reviewer reports, editorial correspondence, and review records will be treated as confidential and used only for legitimate editorial and peer-review purposes.

Reviewer identities will not be disclosed to authors through the normal double-blind review process unless disclosure is required by an adopted editorial policy or applicable obligation.

5. Sharing of Personal Information

The journal does not sell personal information. Personal information may be shared only when reasonably necessary with:

• editors, editorial staff, reviewers, and authorized journal administrators;
• the journal's publisher or host institution;
• technical service providers supporting the journal platform, hosting, archiving, DOI registration, indexing, or publication workflow;
• research integrity or ethics bodies where required to investigate legitimate publication concerns; or
• competent authorities where disclosure is required by applicable law or formal legal process.

6. Data Retention

Personal information will be retained only for as long as necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, including editorial processing, preservation of the scholarly record, publication ethics, audit requirements, dispute resolution, and journal administration.

Some information associated with published articles and formal editorial records may need to be retained permanently as part of the scholarly and publication record.

7. Cookies and Website Usage Data

The journal website may use cookies or similar technologies that are necessary for account authentication, user sessions, security, accessibility, preferences, and website functionality. The journal platform may also collect technical usage information for operational, security, and statistical purposes.

Users may manage cookies through their browser settings; however, disabling essential cookies may affect the functionality of the journal website or submission system.

8. Data Security

The journal and its authorized platform administrators will take reasonable administrative and technical measures to protect personal information from unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, loss, or misuse. Nevertheless, no internet-based information system can guarantee absolute security.

9. User Responsibilities

Users are responsible for:

• providing accurate and current information;
• protecting the confidentiality of their login credentials;
• avoiding the submission of unnecessary sensitive personal information;
• ensuring that personal information about research participants included in manuscripts is handled ethically and lawfully; and
• obtaining appropriate consent or authorization where personal data of third parties are included in submitted materials.

10. Research Participant Data

Authors remain responsible for the ethical collection, storage, anonymization, reporting, and sharing of research participant data. Manuscripts should not contain personally identifiable participant information unless its inclusion is scientifically necessary, ethically justified, and supported by appropriate consent or authorization.

11. Third-Party Services and External Links

The journal website may contain links to or integrations with external services, such as ORCID, DOI services, indexing platforms, repositories, analytics services, or institutional websites. These third parties may operate under their own privacy policies. al-Kalim is not responsible for the privacy practices of external websites or services outside the journal's control.

12. Requests Concerning Personal Information

Subject to applicable law, journal policy, and the need to preserve the integrity of the scholarly record, users may contact the journal to request correction or updating of inaccurate personal information associated with their account.

Requests to delete or restrict information may be considered where appropriate. However, certain information may need to be retained where it forms part of the permanent scholarly record, publication history, ethics documentation, or other legitimate journal records.

13. Children's Privacy

The journal's submission and editorial services are intended for scholarly and professional use. The journal does not knowingly seek to collect personal information from children through author, reviewer, or editorial registration processes.

14. Changes to This Privacy Statement

The journal may revise this Privacy Statement when necessary to reflect changes in journal procedures, publishing technologies, institutional policies, or applicable requirements. The current version should be made available on the journal website.

15. Contact