About our privacy policy

This privacy policy applies to our websites, apps, and other services, including programs and events, that refer or link to this privacy policy (each, a “Service”). This policy may be supplemented by additional privacy statements, terms, or notices provided to you. The Elsevier company that owns or administers the Service, as identified therein, is the primary controller of your personal information provided to, or collected by or for, the Service.

Information we collect

We collect information about you in three ways: directly from your input, from third-party sources, and through automated technologies.

Information you provide to us

The types of personal information that we collect directly from you depend on the content and features of the Service you use and how you otherwise interact with us and may include:

• Contact details, such as your name, email address, postal address, phone number, and social media handle;
• Account login credentials, such as usernames and passwords, password hints, and similar security information;
• Other account registration and profile information, including educational, professional, and other background information, such as your field of study, current position, practice area and areas of interests, gender, ORCID ID, and photo;
• Content that you upload and share or store in your accounts, such as annotations, comments, contributions, and replies;
• Government-issued ID numbers;
• Information that you communicate to us, such as questions or information you send to customer support;
• Data that you provide to us as part of interacting with the Service, such as your favorites and search queries; and/or
• Communications preferences, such as your preferred language and the frequency, type, and format of the alerts you sign up to receive.

Data from your institution

We may obtain information about you from the institution with which you are employed or affiliated in order to activate and manage your access to and use of the institution’s subscription to the Service, including:

• Contact details, such as your name and institutional email address, postal address, and phone number;
• Other account registration information, such as job title; and/or
• Institutional user ID.

Data from other sources

We also may obtain contact details and other information about you from other entities within RELX and from third parties, including:

• Social networks when that you grant permission to the Service to access your data on one or more networks;
• Service providers that help us determine a location in order to customize certain products to your location;
• Partners with which we offer co-branded services or engage in joint marketing activities; and/or
• Publicly available sources and data suppliers from which we obtain data to validate or supplement the information we hold and to support the Service.

Device and usage data

The Service may automatically collect information about how you and your device interact with the Service, such as:

• Computer, device and connection information, such as IP address, browser type, and version, operating system and other software installed on your device, unique device identifier and other technical identifiers, error reports, and performance data;
• Usage data, such as the features you used, the settings you selected, URL clickstream data, including date and time stamp and referring and exit pages, and pages you visited on the Service;
• For educational Services, the course modules and test questions you view, answer, or complete; and/or
• For location-aware Services, the physical location of your device.

We collect this data through our servers and the use of cookies and other technologies. You can control cookies through your browser’s settings and other tools.  However, if you choose to block certain cookies, you may not be able to register, login, or access certain parts or make full use of the Service. For more details, visit the cookie notice of the Service.

How we use your information

We are committed to delivering a relevant and useful experience to you. Depending on how you interact with us and the Service, we use your personal information to:

• Provide, activate and manage your access to and use of the Service;
• Process and fulfill a request, order, download, subscription, or other transaction;
• Offer you customized content and other personalization to make the Service more efficient for you and more relevant to your interests and geography;
• Enhance and improve the Service, such as add new content and features;
• Notify you about changes, updates and other announcements related to the Service;
• Deliver targeted advertisements, promotional messages, and other information related to the Service and to your interests;
• Provide technical, product, and other support and help to keep the Service working, safe and secure; and/or
• Identify usage trends and develop data analysis, including for the purposes of research, audits, reporting, and other business operations, such as paying royalties and license fees to third-party content providers, determine the effectiveness of our promotional campaigns, evaluate our business performance, or in other ways pursuant to a customer agreement.

We may also use your personal information to:

• Respond to your requests, inquiries, comments, or concerns;
• Invite you to submit or review manuscripts or otherwise participate in our publishing programs;
• Issue payments and statements, such as royalties and editorial fees;
• Conduct and administer user testing and surveys as well as sweepstakes, competitions, and similar promotions;
• Provide you with relevant promotional messages and other information about products, events, and services of ours, our group companies, and third parties such as societies and sponsors;
• Enhance and improve our products, events, and services and develop new ones; and/or
• Comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes and enforce our agreements.

Administrator data

If you are an administrator of an institution with a subscription to a Service, we will use your details to communicate with you about your institution’s subscription and related services. If you supply us contact information of your colleagues, we may include a reference to you when we contact those individuals with communications about the Service.

Your communications preferences

You can customize and manage your communications preferences and other settings when you register with the Service, by updating your account features and preferences, by using the “opt-in/out” or subscribe/unsubscribe mechanisms or other means provided within the communications that you receive from us or by contacting us.  We reserve the right to notify you of changes or updates to the Service whenever necessary.

Data retention

We retain your personal information for as long as necessary to provide the Service and fulfill the transactions you have requested, or for other essential purposes such as complying with our legal obligations, maintaining business and financial records, resolving disputes, maintaining security, detecting and preventing fraud and abuse, and enforcing our agreements.

Data security

We take precautions to safeguard your personal information against loss, theft, and misuse, and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction through the use of appropriate technical and organizational measures.