1. INTRODUCTION

The UNIDEL Journal of Engineering and Emerging Technologies (UJEET) is a scholarly, peer-reviewed journal established to promote the dissemination of high-quality original research, theoretical contributions, applied studies, reviews, technical papers, and other scholarly works within its stated areas of interest.

The journal is committed to maintaining high standards of academic integrity, editorial independence, transparency, fairness, confidentiality, and responsible scholarly communication.

Journal of Engineering and Emerging Technologies (UJEET) is committed to protecting the privacy, confidentiality, and personal information of its authors, reviewers, editors, editorial board members, readers, subscribers, and other users of the journal's services.

This Privacy Policy explains how UJEET collects, uses, stores, protects, and discloses personal information obtained through manuscript submission, peer review, publication, correspondence, website usage, and other journal-related activities.

The journal recognizes that responsible management of personal information is an important component of ethical scholarly publishing.

This policy should be read together with the journal's Editorial Policy, Publication Ethics Policy, Peer Review Policy, Copyright Policy, and Terms of Use, where applicable.

2. SCOPE OF THE PRIVACY POLICY

This Privacy Policy applies to personal information collected through:

· The UJEET website;

· Online manuscript submission systems;

· Peer-review systems;

· Author registration;

· Reviewer registration;

· Editorial correspondence;

· Email communications;

· Conference or journal-related activities;

· Subscription or notification services;

· Publication and indexing activities; and

· Other services operated by or on behalf of UJEET.

 

This policy applies to information relating to:

· Authors;

· Co-authors;

· Reviewers;

· Editors;

· Editorial Board members;

· Advisory Board members;

· Readers;

· Subscribers;

· Corresponding authors;

· Website users; and

· Other individuals who interact with the journal.

3. INFORMATION WE COLLECT

UJEET may collect personal information that is necessary for the effective administration and publication of the journal.

Such information may include:

3.1 Author Information

· Full name;

· Institutional affiliation;

· Department;

· Academic position;

· Email address;

· Telephone number, where provided;

· Country;

· ORCID iD, where provided;

· Research interests;

· Professional biography;

· Academic qualifications, where voluntarily provided;

· Correspondence relating to manuscripts; and

· Information contained within submitted manuscripts.

  3.2 Reviewer Information

     The journal may collect:

·  Name;

· Institutional affiliation;

· Email address;

· Academic qualifications;

· Research expertise;

· Areas of specialization;

· ORCID iD, where provided;

· Review history;

· Reviewer comments;

· Editorial correspondence; and

· Conflict-of-interest declarations.

3.3 Editor and Editorial Board Information

The journal may collect:

· Name;

· Position;

· Institutional affiliation;

· Professional biography;

· Contact details;

· Academic qualifications;

· Research interests;

· ORCID iD;

· Editorial responsibilities; and

· Editorial correspondence.

3.4 Website Information

When users visit the journal website, certain technical information may be collected automatically, such as:

· IP address;

· Browser type;

· Operating system;

· Device information;

· Date and time of access;

· Pages visited;

· Referring website;

· General geographic information; and

· Technical information necessary for website security and functionality.

4. PURPOSES FOR COLLECTING PERSONAL INFORMATION

UJEET collects and processes personal information only for legitimate journal-related purposes.

These purposes may include:

1. Processing manuscript submissions.

2. Communicating with authors.

3. Managing peer review.

4. Identifying suitable reviewers.

5. Managing editorial board activities.

6. Communicating editorial decisions.

7. Publishing accepted articles.

8. Maintaining an accurate scholarly record.

9. Detecting plagiarism and publication misconduct.

10. Managing conflicts of interest.

11. Providing journal notifications.

12. Responding to enquiries and complaints.

13. Maintaining website security.

14. Improving journal services.

15. Meeting legal, regulatory, institutional, or publishing obligations.

16. Preserving the journal's academic and publication records. 

5. LEGAL AND ETHICAL BASIS FOR PROCESSING INFORMATION

UJEET shall process personal information only where there is an appropriate legal or legitimate basis for doing so.

Depending on the circumstances, processing may be based on:

· Consent;

· Legitimate journal and scholarly publishing interests;

· Performance of a publishing or service relationship;

· Compliance with legal obligations;

· Protection of the journal's systems and records; or

· Other lawful grounds recognized under applicable data protection legislation.

The journal shall not collect personal information unnecessarily.

6. MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION AND PEER REVIEW

Personal information submitted as part of the manuscript process shall be used primarily for editorial and peer-review purposes.

Author information may be accessed by:

· Editors;

· Editorial staff;

· Appropriate reviewers;

· Publisher or journal administrators; and

· Technical service providers supporting the manuscript system.

Where the journal operates a double-blind peer-review system, reasonable measures shall be taken to prevent the identities of authors and reviewers from being unnecessarily disclosed to one another.

Where the journal operates single-blind or open peer review, the relevant identities may be disclosed in accordance with the journal's stated peer-review policy.

7. CONFIDENTIALITY OF MANUSCRIPTS

Manuscripts submitted to UJEET shall be treated as confidential during the editorial and peer-review process.  Editors, reviewers, and editorial staff shall not disclose unpublished manuscript content to unauthorized persons. Information obtained through peer review shall not be used for personal, academic, commercial, or competitive advantage.

Exceptions may apply where disclosure is necessary to investigate suspected research or publication misconduct, comply with law, or protect the integrity of the scholarly record.

8. PUBLICATION OF AUTHOR INFORMATION

When a manuscript is accepted and published, certain information becomes part of the public scholarly record.

This may include:

· Author names;

· Institutional affiliations;

· Country;

· ORCID iD, where supplied;

· Corresponding author's professional contact information, where appropriate;

· Author biographies, where provided;

§ Acknowledgements;

§ Funding statements;

§ Conflict-of-interest declarations; and

§ Other information required by the journal's publication standards.

Authors should therefore avoid including unnecessary personal information in manuscripts.

9. CORRESPONDING AUTHOR INFORMATION

The corresponding author's contact information may be published with an article where this is necessary for scholarly communication.

The journal may use the corresponding author's email address to facilitate:

· Communication regarding the article;

· Corrections;

· Post-publication enquiries;

· Research-related correspondence; and

· Maintenance of the scholarly record.

Authors who do not wish their personal email address to be publicly displayed may, where the journal permits, provide an appropriate institutional or professional email address.

10. REVIEWER PRIVACY

The identities and personal information of reviewers shall be treated according to the journal's peer-review model.

Reviewer information shall be used primarily for:

· Selecting appropriate reviewers;

· Managing peer review;

· Communicating review assignments;

· Maintaining review records; and

· Recognizing reviewer contributions where applicable.

11. EDITORIAL BOARD PRIVACY

Information relating to members of the Editorial Board may be published on the journal website where necessary to identify the journal's governance structure.

Publicly displayed information may include:

Name;

Academic title;

Institutional affiliation;

Country;

Academic discipline;

Professional biography; and

ORCID iD, where voluntarily provided.

Private contact information shall not be publicly displayed without appropriate authorization.

12. COOKIES AND WEBSITE TECHNOLOGIES

The UJEET website may use cookies or similar technologies to:

· Maintain website functionality;

· Remember user preferences;

· Improve website performance;

· Monitor website security;

· Understand general website usage; and

· Improve the user experience.

Where required by applicable law, the journal shall obtain appropriate consent before using non-essential cookies.

Users may be able to control cookies through their browser settings.

Disabling certain cookies may affect website functionality.

13. ANALYTICS

UJEET may use website analytics tools to understand general patterns of website usage.

Analytics information may include:

· Number of visitors;

· Pages viewed;

· General geographic location;

· Browser and device information;

· Referring websites; and

· General usage patterns.

Analytics shall be used primarily for improving the journal website and services.

Where third-party analytics services are used, the journal shall take reasonable steps to ensure that such services comply with applicable privacy requirements.

14. EMAIL COMMUNICATION

UJEET may use contact information to communicate with authors, reviewers, editors, and other users regarding legitimate journal activities.

Examples include:

· Manuscript submission confirmations;

· Peer-review invitations;

· Editorial decisions;

· Requests for revisions;

· Publication notifications;

· Corrections;

· Retractions;

· Journal announcements;

· Editorial communications; and

· Responses to enquiries.

Users may opt out of non-essential promotional communications where applicable.

Essential communications relating to submissions, reviews, publications, or account administration cannot necessarily be opted out of while the relevant relationship continues.

15. THIRD-PARTY SERVICE PROVIDERS

UJEET may use trusted third-party service providers to support journal operations.

Such services may include:

· Manuscript management systems;

· Website hosting;

· Digital publishing platforms;

· DOI registration;

· Plagiarism detection;

· Email delivery;

· Digital preservation;

· Indexing and metadata services;

· Payment processing, where applicable; and

· Website security and analytics.

Third-party providers shall receive only information reasonably necessary for the services they provide.

Where appropriate, the journal shall seek contractual or other safeguards for personal information.

16. DATA SHARING

UJEET does not sell personal information to third parties.

Personal information may be shared where necessary for legitimate journal operations, including with:

· Publishers;

· Hosting providers;

· Manuscript management platforms;

· DOI and indexing organizations;

· Peer-review systems;

· Research-integrity organizations;

· Legal or regulatory authorities where required; and

· Service providers acting on behalf of the journal.

The journal shall not disclose personal information for unrelated purposes without an appropriate legal or ethical basis.

17. RESEARCH INTEGRITY INVESTIGATIONS

Where there is a credible allegation of:

· Plagiarism;

· Fabrication;

· Falsification;

· Duplicate publication;

· Authorship misconduct;

· Peer-review manipulation;

· Ethical misconduct; or

· Other publication misconduct,

UJEET may process and disclose relevant personal information as reasonably necessary to investigate and resolve the matter.

This may include communication with:

· Authors;

· Co-authors;

· Editors;

· Reviewers;

· Institutional authorities;

· Research ethics committees;

· Research integrity offices; and

· Relevant publishing or professional organizations.

Such processing shall be conducted with appropriate confidentiality.

18. DATA SECURITY

UJEET shall take reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect personal information against:

· Unauthorized access;

· Loss;

· Theft;

· Alteration;

· Accidental disclosure;

· Destruction; and

· Other forms of unauthorized processing.

Security measures may include:

· Password protection;

· Access controls;

· Secure communication protocols;

· Restricted administrative access;

· Regular system updates;

· Backups; and

· Other appropriate information-security measures.

However, no electronic system can be guaranteed to be completely secure.

19. DATA RETENTION

UJEET shall retain personal information for as long as reasonably necessary for legitimate journal purposes.

Manuscript and publication records may need to be retained for extended periods because they form part of the scholarly record.

Records may include:

· Manuscripts;

· Peer-review reports;

· Editorial decisions;

· Author correspondence;

· Ethical investigations;

· Corrections;

· Retractions; and

· Publication metadata.

Personal information that is no longer required shall be securely deleted, anonymized, or otherwise appropriately disposed of, subject to legal, institutional, archival, and scholarly-record requirements.

 

20. INTERNATIONAL DATA TRANSFERS

UJEET may use publishing, hosting, indexing, manuscript-management, or other services located outside the country in which an author, reviewer, or reader resides.

Where personal information is transferred internationally, the journal shall take reasonable steps to ensure that appropriate privacy and security safeguards are applied in accordance with applicable data-protection requirements.

21. CHILDREN AND MINORS

UJEET's publishing and manuscript-management services are primarily intended for researchers, academics, professionals, and other adult users.

The journal does not knowingly seek to collect unnecessary personal information from children.

Where research involving minors is submitted for publication, the journal expects authors to comply with all applicable research ethics and consent requirements.

22. USER RIGHTS

Subject to applicable law, individuals may have rights concerning their personal information, including the right to:

· Request access to personal information held about them;

· Request correction of inaccurate information;

· Request deletion where legally permissible;

· Request restriction of certain processing;

· Object to certain forms of processing;

· Withdraw consent where processing is based on consent; and

· Request information about how their personal information is processed.

Requests should be submitted to the journal's designated privacy contact.

Certain information may need to be retained because it forms part of the permanent scholarly record or because retention is required by law.

23. CORRECTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

Individuals may request correction of inaccurate or incomplete personal information.

Authors may also request correction of:

· Names;

· Affiliations;

· ORCID identifiers;

· Contact information; and

· Other author metadata.

Where an error affects a published article, correction shall be handled according to the journal's Corrections and Retractions Policy.

24. WITHDRAWAL OF MANUSCRIPTS

Before publication, authors may request withdrawal of a manuscript in accordance with the journal's manuscript withdrawal policy.

Withdrawal does not necessarily result in deletion of all records relating to the manuscript.

The journal may retain appropriate records for:

· Editorial accountability;

· Research integrity;

· Legal compliance;

· Prevention of duplicate submission; and

· Documentation of editorial decisions.

25. PUBLICATION RECORD AND RIGHT TO ERASURE

Once an article has been published, information forming part of the scholarly record may not be deleted simply because an individual requests removal.

This is necessary to preserve:

· Academic integrity;

· Citation accuracy;

· Research history;

· Transparency;

· Version control; and

· The reliability of the scholarly record.

Where appropriate, corrections, anonymization, retractions, or other measures may be used instead of complete deletion.

26. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND PERSONAL DATA

UJEET recognizes that authors, reviewers, and editors may use artificial intelligence tools during scholarly publishing.

Users must not submit confidential personal information, unpublished manuscripts, reviewer reports, or other protected information to external AI systems unless appropriate confidentiality and data-protection safeguards are in place.

AI systems must not be used to:

· Generate or fabricate personal information;

· Circumvent privacy protections;

· Reveal confidential reviewer identities;

· Expose confidential manuscripts;

· Generate false research records; or

· Process confidential editorial information without authorization.

Authors, reviewers, and editors remain responsible for protecting personal and confidential information.

27. SOCIAL MEDIA AND PUBLIC COMMUNICATION

UJEET may use social media and other communication channels to promote published research and journal activities.

Where an article or author is promoted publicly, the journal may use information that is already part of the published scholarly record.

The journal shall avoid unnecessarily publishing private personal information.

Authors should be aware that information voluntarily posted on public platforms may be accessible to others.

28. LINKS TO OTHER WEBSITES

The UJEET website may contain links to external websites, including:

· Research databases;

· Indexing services;

· Institutional websites;

· Author profiles;

· ORCID;

· DOI services; and

· Other scholarly resources.

UJEET is not responsible for the privacy practices or content of external websites.

Users should review the privacy policies of external websites before providing personal information.

29. DATA BREACHES

Where UJEET becomes aware of a personal-data breach, the journal shall assess the nature and potential impact of the incident.

Where required by applicable law, the journal shall:

1. Investigate the incident;

2. Take reasonable steps to contain and correct the breach;

3. Preserve relevant evidence;

4. Notify appropriate authorities where required; and

5. Notify affected individuals where legally required or otherwise appropriate.

30. PRIVACY OF PEER-REVIEW COMMENTS

Peer-review reports shall be treated as confidential unless the journal operates an open peer-review model.

Reviewer comments may be retained as part of the editorial record.

The journal may disclose review-related information when necessary for:

· Research-integrity investigations;

· Appeals;

· Complaints;

· Legal requirements; or

· Other legitimate editorial purposes.

31. PRIVACY AND CONFLICT-OF-INTEREST DISCLOSURES

Conflict-of-interest information may be collected from authors, reviewers, and editors.

Relevant disclosures may be published with an article where necessary to promote transparency.

Private information that is not relevant to the conflict-of-interest statement shall not normally be publicly disclosed.

32. PRIVACY AND FUNDING INFORMATION

Funding information may be published with an article to promote transparency regarding research support.

The journal shall generally publish the name of the funding organization and relevant grant information where supplied by the authors.

Private financial information that is not necessary for research transparency shall not be published.

33. DATA PROTECTION COMPLIANCE

UJEET shall comply with applicable data-protection and privacy laws and regulations governing its operations.

Where the journal is operated in Nigeria, its privacy practices shall take account of applicable Nigerian data-protection requirements, including the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023 (NDPA) and applicable regulations, guidance, and requirements issued by the relevant Nigerian data-protection authorities.

Where UJEET processes information relating to individuals in other jurisdictions, applicable additional privacy requirements may also apply.

34. RESPONSIBILITIES OF USERS

Authors, reviewers, editors, and other users are responsible for ensuring that information they submit to UJEET is accurate and appropriate.

Users should:

Avoid submitting unnecessary personal information;

· Protect their account credentials;

· Notify the journal of suspected unauthorized account access;

· Respect the confidentiality of manuscripts and reviews;

· Obtain appropriate consent where they submit personal information relating to other individuals; and

· Comply with applicable privacy and research-ethics requirements.

35. CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

UJEET may periodically update this Privacy Policy to reflect:

· Changes in applicable law;

· Changes in publishing practices;

· New technologies;

· Changes to journal services;

· New security requirements; or

· Recommendations from relevant privacy and publishing organizations.

The updated policy shall be published on the journal website.

The Last Updated date shall be changed whenever substantive revisions are made.

36. CONTACT INFORMATION

Questions, requests, complaints, or concerns regarding this Privacy Policy should be directed to:

Editor-in-Chief
Journal of Engineering and Emerging Technologies (UJEET)
Faculty of Engineering
University of Agbor, Delta State.
P.M.b 2090
Agbor, Delta State, Nigeria.

Email: ujeet.eng@unidel.edu.ng
Telephone: +2348035817983
Website: www.unidel.edu.ng

37. APPROVAL AND REVIEW

This Privacy Policy has been approved by the appropriate authority of the Journal of Engineering and Emerging Technologies.

Approved By:  Engr. Prof. Samuel Amaechi Ike

Position: Dean, Faculty of Engineering, University of Delta, Agbor, Delta State.

Date Approved: 10^th August 2026

Effective Date: 10^th August 2026

Next Review Date: 10^th August 2027

Policy Version: 1.0

 

 

 

38. FINAL PRIVACY COMMITMENT

The Journal of Engineering and Emerging Technologies (UJEET) is committed to protecting the privacy and confidentiality of individuals who interact with the journal while maintaining the transparency and accountability required for responsible scholarly publishing.

The journal will collect and process personal information only for legitimate academic, editorial, publishing, administrative, security, legal, or research-integrity purposes.

UJEET will take reasonable measures to protect personal information and will strive to ensure that personal data are handled fairly, transparently, securely, and responsibly.

The journal also recognizes that the preservation of the scholarly record is an important public interest. Accordingly, privacy rights shall be balanced appropriately with the need to maintain accurate, transparent, and reliable academic records.