These General Conditions create a contract between you and Frontiers Media SA (Frontiers) which applies to your use of our websites, including those of Hosted Journals as defined below.
Frontiers is an award-winning Open Science platform and leading Open Access scholarly publisher. Our mission is to make science open, so that all may live healthy lives on a healthy planet. Founded in 2007 by neuroscientists Kamila Markram and Henry Markram, Frontiers has grown to become one of the world’s largest and most cited open-access publishers.
Frontiers publishes its own journals (referred to here as Frontiers Journals) and journals owned by third parties (referred to here as Hosted Journals). When we refer to Journals, we include both Frontiers Journals and Hosted Journals.
In these terms, Websites (with a capitalised W) refer to all Frontiers websites, including those of Hosted Journals. An Owner means Frontiers as owner of all Frontiers Journals, or the respective owner of a Hosted Journal.
These Conditions will continue to apply to all Journals except, for a specific Hosted Journal, to the extent of any clear inconsistency or contradiction with the conditions published for that Journal, which will prevail to the extent of that inconsistency or contradiction, and only in connection with that Hosted Journal.
Hosted Journals may have additional conditions, which, if applicable, will appear on the Website of the Hosted Journal concerned. Hosted Journal Conditions apply only to the Hosted Journal on whose Website they appear.
These terms create a contract between you and Frontiers whenever you interact with us, whether or not you are registered. If you interact with a Hosted Journal, your contract is also with the owner of that Hosted Journal.
Interactions can include visits to any Website; the submission, review, acceptance (or rejection) and publication of articles; and use of the Loop network for researchers. Other rules and procedures of Frontiers, including the Author Guidelines, Privacy Policy and Copyright Statement, also apply in respect of all Frontiers Journals, and also in respect of Hosted Journals, except, in the case of a Hosted Journal, to the extent inconsistent with or contradicted by guidelines, rules, procedures or conditions appearing on the Website of that Hosted Journal.
Other specific terms, such as the applicable conditions for editors, will also apply if you are or become an editor with any Journal.
Our contract with you is personal to you and may not be assigned or transferred by you to any other person.
Your right to use any Website and any related functionality is conditional on your complying with these conditions and all other applicable rules and conditions specified by Frontiers. Frontiers will also comply with its rules and conditions.
One registration suffices for both Frontiers Journals and Hosted Journals. You may register by clicking here. To register you must provide at least the minimum information required. You can manage your privacy settings. You can find information on how to do this in our Help Centre. If you already have a Loop profile, you are already a registered user.
You should check to ensure that you have only one profile with Frontiers and Loop, to avoid confusion.
Who may register? Natural persons aged 18 or over may register, and you must register in your own name. You may not create more than one profile. By registering with us you promise Frontiers, and all other relevant Owners, that the information you provide is accurate and not misleading.
Frontiers may refuse or cancel a registration, at its discretion, with or without notice.
By successfully registering with us, you have the following immediate benefits:
you become a registered user of Frontiers. One registration allows any user to interact with any Journal. By registering you automatically become a member of the Loop network.
you may submit articles for peer review to any Journal. You may also submit other content, and you can apply to become an editor or reviewer of a Journal.
Registering with Frontiers also means accepting the following:
you have read, understood and agree with these Conditions, Frontiers’ Privacy Policy and the Copyright Statement
you must comply with these terms and all other rules and conditions of Frontiers. This obligation applies to all users, whether or not registered;
you must comply with all generally-accepted academic and scientific norms and Frontiers’ own principles, as well as any additional principles of Hosted Journals;
you understand that Frontiers is not obliged to publish any content contributed by you, and that Frontiers may at its discretion remove any content of any kind contributed by you, including retracting peer-reviewed articles.
Communications and emails: By registering with Frontiers, you consent to receiving email and other communications from Frontiers and from the Owners of relevant Hosted Journals.
You may opt out of certain types of messages, such as marketing messages, in your settings, but you may not opt out of messages on matters such as administrative and legal issues, changes in terms and conditions and other necessary communications. If you do not agree to receive such emails and communications, you may not register with Frontiers and Frontiers may cancel any existing registration.
You must keep your email and other contact details up to date in your registration information.
If you wish to close your account with Frontiers, please contact support@frontiersin.org. Hosted Journals may provide a dedicated support address on their respective websites, but an email can also be addressed to Frontiers for support on any Journal.
Frontiers strives to comply, as a minimum, with Swiss and EU laws on privacy and data protection and to apply the principles of recognised cross-border data protection procedures. Our privacy policy provides detailed information on what personal data we collect, how we use it and your rights concerning our processing of your data.
You are responsible for maintaining the security of your password. Do not share your password with any other person. If there is any reason to believe your password security may have been breached, change it immediately. Choose strong passwords and avoid obvious passwords. You must notify Frontiers immediately if you believe that unauthorised access has been gained to your account. Frontiers is not responsible for any damage suffered by you due to insufficient attention to security on your part.
It is important to keep your personal information up to date. Please check it regularly.
Be aware that your public profile may be viewed by anyone visiting your profile on the Frontiers website, in any country.
To change your Loop privacy settings, please log in to your account.
Frontiers is the owner of the frontiersin.org website, the software constituting that website and of all copyright and other intellectual property rights in those assets.
The owner of each Hosted Journal is the owner of the combination of content of the Website for any Hosted Journal(s) owned by it. Frontiers is the owner of the combination of all content on Frontiers Websites, and of the look and feel of its Websites.
Neither Frontiers nor, unless otherwise specifically stated for a Journal, the owner of Hosted Journals owns, or claims ownership of, the copyright in articles you submit to any Journal – you (or your employer or funder) continue(s) to own the copyright in your articles. See below and the copyright statement for more information.
“Frontiers In” and “Loop” are registered trademarks of Frontiers Media SA. The names of Hosted Journals may constitute trade marks belonging to the owners of those Hosted Journals.
When you submit an article (which includes the article abstract, but excludes article metadata, as defined below) to any Journal, you grant to Frontiers and/or to the Hosted Journal owner and to the world at large a permanent, non-cancellable, free-of-charge, worldwide licence (permission) to publish, display, store, copy, adapt and re-use that article – including any third-party materials – and to create derivative works from it. You can not terminate that licence. You must ensure that you have all necessary permissions from the owner of the copyright in your article, which may be your employer or funder, and from all other third parties who own the copyright in any aspect of your article. Ownership by the third party of the copyright can still be notified on the relevant materials, and attribution must be made in accordance with usual scholarly practices.
The licence (permission) you grant over your article (including the abstract any third-party materials included in your article) is, unless otherwise stated for an article or for the relevant Journal, a Creative Commons attribution licence (known as a “CC-BY” licence). You can not terminate that licence. For some governmental or international governmental organisations, the licence may be another, similar, licence.
In summary, the CC-BY licence means that anyone may copy, re-publish, adapt and/or re-use your content, and create derivative works from it, for commercial or non-commercial purposes, without charge, but must clearly attribute the work to you and any co-authors, and they must cite Frontiers as the original publisher of that content. Complete information can be found at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
You agree that as the Creative Commons organisation updates the CC-BY licence, the licence terms granted by you are automatically updated to the new version.
Reproduction of all or part of an article is also subject to compliance with usual academic attribution practices, which must be scrupulously complied with in addition to the CC-BY requirements.
Licence over certain article and journal metadata. Article and journal metadata, as defined in this paragraph, are the property of Frontiers or of the Owner of the relevant Hosted Journal, and are subject to a Creative Commons CC0 licence. “Article and journal metadata” means the following elements, to the extent applicable, in relation to the journal or each article, as applicable: Publisher, journal name, journal abbreviation, ISSN, DOI, article ID, subject, article type, article title, article URL, author names, contributor group, author note, author affiliation, Orcid and Loop Profile URLs, corresponding author's email address, publication date, acceptance date, submission date, volume number, volume ID, issue number, issue ID, permissions, copyright statement, copyright year, copyright holder, license information, creative commons URL, conflict of interest statement, keyword group, figure count, table count, equation count, reference count, page count, word count, supplementary material count, funding statement, funder / contract / sponsor / grant and number, citation, product information, conference information. No elements other than those listed in this paragraph are included in article or journal metadata, and nor are they licensed under CC0 terms, unless confirmed by Frontiers or Hosted Journal Owner.
You may not reproduce or publish any content in any forum (online or not) which advocates any political, religious, anti-religious, racist, extremist, violent or disrespectful viewpoints. If you post any Website content in such a forum, you must remove it immediately on request by Frontiers.
You may also not reproduce any content from any Website in order to denigrate Frontiers, any client of Frontiers or any Journal.
The same CC-BY licence also applies to any other content, such as reviews, opinions, conference abstracts and blog posts, which you may submit to Frontiers.
You irrevocably grant us permission to use, and to permit others to use, any non-patented ideas set out in your content or in any message sent or submitted to Frontiers, without any charge and without restriction, for any purpose in any part of the world.
It is your responsibility to comply with the conditions of any third-party website on which you may post content originally published on any Website. Frontiers and the owners of Hosted Journals are not bound by the conditions of any third-party website.
Submission of the article
If published, your article will in principle remain published permanently, with your personal details and those of your co-authors, as well as those of the reviewers and handling editors, on the Journal’s Website, and will be stored and made public in archives, in repositories and potentially in other places. By submitting, reviewing or accepting editorial responsibilities for an article you consent to a limited amount of your personal data being thus published.
When you submit an article to any Journal, you promise that
The article is not under consideration by any other journal; if it has been submitted for consideration elsewhere, it has been definitively rejected and is no longer being considered for publication;
The article will not be submitted for publication elsewhere unless either published or rejected by Frontiers;
If rejected by one Journal, your article may be automatically submitted to another Journal by Frontiers;
You have the explicit consent of all co-authors to submit the article and to accept these conditions, including the granting of the CC-BY or other applicable licence, on behalf of all co-authors.
You have the authorisation of all copyright owners (which may include your employer or funder, and any owners of third-party graphics) to submit the article and to grant the CC-BY or other applicable licence over the article;
an article submitted to report original research is an original contribution, meaning it contains content that has not been previously published in its current form (except for manuscripts deposited as pre-prints in established community-validated pre-print services).
the article does not contain any non-attributed content from any existing source, including the authors’ own existing material;
all contributors have been adequately acknowledged;
the article and all authors meet the authorship criteria as outlined in the author guidelines
the article complies with all the rules on content set out below;
all findings have been verified in accordance with the highest scientific standards in the relevant field;
all research involving regulated animals (i.e. all live vertebrates and higher invertebrates) has been conducted in accordance with relevant institutional and national guidelines, all applicable legislation and guidelines and accepted best practices, and the approval body has been identified in the article;
research involving human subjects has been conducted in accordance with the World Medical Association’s Declaration of Helsinki, you have identified the approval body in the article and the article states clearly that informed written consent was obtained from all participants;
the article clearly declares any financial, commercial or other relationships which may be considered to represent a potential conflict of interest; and
you have disclosed all relevant facts to Frontiers concerning the author(s), the article, the underlying research, any relevant third-party rights and any actual or potential conflicts of interest.
Acceptance and Rejection
Acceptance is at Frontiers’ (or the Hosted Journal owner’s) discretion in accordance with its rules and processes. Once accepted, an article will in principle be published; on rare occasions an issue causing rejection may arise or be discovered, in which case the article may be rejected prior to publication despite having been previously accepted.
Publication
There is no prior right to publication. Articles submitted will be subjected to ethical and technical checks and then to our rigorous and interactive peer-review process, which will require your cooperation.
If the article is published, you will become liable to pay the applicable article publication charge (APC), or to ensure that it is paid. Current APCs can be seen here for Frontiers Journals, and on each relevant Website for Hosted Journals.
Peer-review processes are designed to ensure scientific rigour. They do not include checks for the satisfaction of the other requirements (such as copyright permissions on images and graphics, for example).
Disclosure of inventions
You must ensure that all patent applications have been filed prior to submission of your article. Publication of an article is likely to reduce or cancel the patentability of any unpatented ideas in that article.
Time for publication
If Frontiers unjustifiably, for reasons caused entirely by its own negligence, fails to publish an article in a Journal within a reasonable period of its final acceptance and payment by the author, Frontiers shall refund the publication fee, to the exclusion of any other liability of Frontiers for such failure.
The Published Article
Once published, an article can not be removed except by decision of the Owner of the Journal, in accordance with accepted retraction processes. The article is likely to be archived and referenced in a number of archives and repositories.
Articles published in Frontiers Journals will be published with the name(s) and affiliation(s) of the author(s) and the names of the reviewers who endorsed publication during the peer review, as well as that of the handling editor.
Frontiers and Hosted Journals reserve the right to remove any content, and to retract peer-reviewed articles, which in its view breach any applicable conditions and/or which they or we consider to be inappropriate in any way. Such removal does not entitle the author to reimbursement of APCs.
Frontiers and owners of Hosted Journals are not liable for the acts or statements of others.
Disputes
We have mediation processes for settling disputes related to articles, and we mutually promise to exhaust those possibilities prior to commencing any judicial dispute resolution mechanisms.
As a user, registered or not, you may use all open functionalities of the Websites if you comply with all applicable conditions and rules. Some functionality may be restricted to registered users or to certain types of users (such as editors).
You may benefit from the CC-BY licence (or other licences as may be indicated for specific Journals or articles) over articles and other content, and from a CC0 licence for certain article metadata, all as described elsewhere in these Conditions.
If you are a registered user, you may create links to Frontiers Websites from other respectable websites, but not from any website which does not comply with the requirements of these conditions. Frontiers, and/or any Journal owner, may remove any links and/or to require their removal, and you must comply with such a request. Frontiers and Journal owners are not responsible for the content of third-party websites.
Uploading of videos and similar materials is subject to all related rules, including third-party and intellectual property rules. Be aware of the warranties you give concerning your right to upload any content.
All content submitted to any Website, whether or not peer-reviewed, must comply with these rules. This is your responsibility when you submit any article or content.
All content must:
be accurate or be genuinely believed to be accurate after duly rigorous investigation
only state opinions which are genuinely held
comply with all generally accepted scientific and academic norms and with all accepted citation rules and norms, and must give appropriate credit for contributions
comply with all accepted ethical rules and norms, including any ethical guidelines of Frontiers or of the Journal in question
not infringe any intellectual property rights (including copyright, moral rights and database rights) of any person
be the subject of any necessary consents and authorisations
not breach any conditions of any website or other forum from which that content was copied or derived, or to which you provide a link, or from which you have provided a link to our website
not be defamatory
not be malicious, offensive, discriminatory, threatening, racist, extremist; not promote hatred or violence or denigrate any person, group of people or set of beliefs, or provide any link to any such material
only be for the purpose of furthering scientific and academic discourse in good faith, and in particular not be for the purpose, or have the effect, of promoting any commercial offering, service, product or interest, without the prior explicit agreement of Frontiers or the owner of the relevant Journal
not give a false impression that it emanates from Frontiers or any Journal or is approved by Frontiers or the relevant Journal owner, or otherwise be misleading in any way
not be pornographic or indecent
remain polite and respectful, especially when disagreeing
not ascribe any negative psychological or other labels or descriptions to any named or identifiable person or group of people, without the specific, informed consent of the person or people concerned to such label or description being ascribed to him/her/them
not be for the purpose, or have the primary effect, of promoting any political, societal, religious or anti-religious views
not disclose confidential information, including personal data of others, without the consent of the owner of that information or data
comply with all applicable laws
not advocate, refer to or provide a link to any website or content which would itself infringe any of these principles.
Frontiers and/or another relevant Journal Owner may remove any content, or retract peer-reviewed articles, at their respective discretion. You may also request deletion of content, such requests will be considered in their context. A place-holder may be inserted to indicate that a comment has been deleted. Deleted comments may be retained for the record.
Frontiers and other Journal Owners are not responsible for content posted by their users, including the content of peer-reviewed articles.
Content you post will by default be visible to others. You may alter your settings to reduce access to your content (but not to peer-reviewed articles) by editing the default settings for each post you make.
Any content posted by you may be commented on, copied, quoted and linked to by others.
If you believe any content on a Frontiers Website breaches any of these requirements, please contact us at editorial.office@frontiersin.org. Where the suspected breach occurs on a Hosted Journal Website, please refer to that Journal’s Website for the relevant contact address.
Sponsorship programmes: Frontiers has sponsorship programmes for Frontiers Research Topics and other areas. Sponsorships must comply with strict ethical rules. If you are interested in becoming a sponsor, please contact us at topics@frontiersin.org.
Promotional Messages: Messages and other content promoting a commercial offering are not permitted without the explicit written agreement of the relevant Journal Owner.
Advertising: Frontiers does not currently accept advertisements. Some Hosted Journals may accept advertisements; please go to the relevant Journal Website for information.
Frontiers endeavours, through active maintenance, to ensure that Websites remain available, bug-free and error-free, but the need for planned and emergency maintenance and the nature of software development mean that no absolute guarantee can be given. We will do what we can to give adequate warning of any planned downtime and to minimise unplanned downtime.
We may from time to time withdraw services. Withdrawn services may or may not be replaced with others.
You are strongly advised to keep back-ups of any content which you do not wish to lose.
Frontiers adopts industry-standard measures to minimise the risk of attacks, viruses, other harmful code and hackers. Given that our platform exists to permit the contribution of content, and given the constant efforts of those with ill intent, we can not guarantee that any Website, or links posted by users, will be free from third-party viruses and other malicious third-party software or that we will always be successful in preventing attacks from succeeding. We will continue in our efforts both to prevent such occurrences and to minimise their impact on us and on our users.
The following activities are prohibited on all Websites, and can result in your registration being suspended or terminated, which Frontiers expressly reserves the right to do, and in your being liable for damages to Frontiers, other Journal Owners and/or to other third parties.
Gaining or attempting to gain access to another user’s account without that user’s explicit and informed permission
Disguising your identity when interacting in any way on any Websites
Any activity which is designed to, or is likely to, cause any harm or damage to Frontiers, to other Journal Owners, to any of Frontiers’ suppliers or to any users of Frontiers’ facilities
Any attempt to copy, hack or reverse-engineer the code forming any Website or any functionality offered by any Website
Any act intended or likely to cause any damage to any Website, its availability on the internet, its underlying software or the reputation of Frontiers or any other Journal Owner, including (but not limited to) denial of service attacks
Uploading or placing on any Website, or on any website to which you provide links, of any virus or other harmful or undesirable code
Any fraudulent, harmful or illegal activity
Any attempt to gain unauthorised access to databases or other resources of Frontiers or its suppliers
Posting or linking to any content which does not comply in all respects with the content requirements set out in these conditions
Posting of any personal information of any other person without that person’s explicit informed consent
The posting of any commercial or promotional content, or any content which includes promotion of any commercial or business offering, without a specific agreement with Frontiers in that respect
The mounting or promotion of any pyramid scheme or other multi-level marketing scheme
Reproduction, duplication, copying or re-selling any part of any Frontiers website except for good-faith reliance on explicit licences or as otherwise specifically permitted by these Conditions or following the specific and explicit agreement of Frontiers.
Text and data mining of public content are permitted for the legitimate purpose of enrichment of external collections of scientific literature. However, we may need to restrict this activity if it hinders the performance of one or more Websites. If you encounter problems, please feel free to contact our technical support: support@frontiersin.org.
Text and data mined, and content downloaded in bulk or individually from any Website, remain subject to the relevant licence (CC-BY, CC0 or other relevant licence), and all attribution and other conditions of such licences must be complied with. To the extent that any such text or data constitutes or includes Personal Data, all applicable data protection laws must also be complied with. Further information on text and data mining and bulk content downloads for research purposes and for repositories and databases can be found here.
We believe in respecting the rights of all, including rights granted by law and those generally accepted in academia. If you believe your rights have been infringed, please contact us at this address: claims@frontiersin.org.
Breach of any of these conditions by Frontiers, another Journal Owner or you would be a breach of our contract.
We expressly reserve the right to refuse applications to register and/or to suspend or cancel the accounts of users, at our discretion.
These Conditions, and other conditions and rules of Frontiers and/or of any Journal or collection of Journals, will be amended from time to time. Amendments will be communicated in the manner appearing most appropriate to Frontiers. This may include email and/or notification at login. For this reason you should log out and log back in frequently from and to your Frontiers account to ensure you are aware of changes to Conditions. Amendments take effect upon that communication being made available to you, whether or not you actually log in to receive the information.
YOUR USE OF FRONTIERS AND/OR HOSTED JOURNAL WEBSITES OR ANY WEBSITE TO WHICH THEY ARE LINKED IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK. ALL WEBSITES AND THEIR CONTENT ARE PROVIDED FOR USE ON AN "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" BASIS. FRONTIERS AND JOURNAL OWNERS MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO ANY WEBSITES, THEIR AVAILABILITY OR THEIR CONTENTS AND HEREBY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT, RELATING TO THE FRONTIERS WEBSITES, HOSTED JOURNAL WEBSITES OR THEIR RESPECTIVE CONTENT, OR ANY WEBSITE TO WHICH THEY ARE LINKED. NO ADVICE OR INFORMATION, WHETHER ORAL OR WRITTEN, OBTAINED BY YOU FROM FRONTIERS OR THROUGH OR FROM ANY WEBSITE SHALL CREATE ANY WARRANTY NOT EXPRESSLY STATED IN THESE CONDITIONS FOR WEBSITE USE. WITHOUT LIMITING THE GENERALITY OF THE FOREGOING, FRONTIERS STRONGLY RECOMMENDS THAT YOU INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY ANY INFORMATION UPON WHICH YOU CHOOSE TO RELY.
IN NO EVENT SHALL FRONTIERS, JOURNAL OWNERS, OR THEIR RESPECTIVE LICENSEES, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, SUPPLIERS OR CONTRACTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES OF ANY NATURE, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION ANY CONSEQUENTIAL LOSS, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF INCOME OR PROFIT, LOSS OF OR DAMAGE TO PROPERTY, LOSS OF GOODWILL, USE, DATA OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES, CLAIMS OF THIRD PARTIES, OR ANY OTHER LOSS, COST, CLAIM OR EXPENSE OF ANY KIND OR CHARACTER ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OF ANY WEBSITE, ITS CONTENT OR ANY WEBSITE TO OR FROM WHICH ANY LINKS MAY BE ESTABLISHED.
Nothing in these Conditions for Website Use shall limit or exclude, or be interpreted as intending to limit or exclude, liability for gross negligence (as defined under Swiss law) or for deliberate wrongdoing, or for any other matter for which, under any applicable law, liability can not be limited or excluded.
Any claim against Frontiers or any Journal Owner must be brought within one year of your becoming aware of the existence of that claim.
Forbearance from enforcement of rights in the event of a breach of these Conditions does not prevent future enforcement of that right.
Owners of Hosted Journals are third-party beneficiaries of your obligations under these Conditions. Except as stated in the preceding sentence, no third party (except your co-authors on submission of an article) obtains any rights from your contract with Frontiers, which is personal to you.
Neither you nor Frontiers, nor any owner of a Hosted Journal, are / is liable for failure to fulfil obligations due to circumstances beyond the reasonable control of the affected party, but both you and Frontiers undertake to take all reasonable measures to limit the duration and effect of those circumstances and to find other ways of fulfilling your or its obligations.
Your agreement with Frontiers, including these conditions and all other matters referred to above, is governed exclusively by the laws of Switzerland. You and Frontiers agree to seek in good faith to resolve any disputes through good-faith discussion, negotiation and mediation before resorting to litigation. Any dispute not so resolved shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of the Canton of Vaud, Switzerland. Frontiers does not accept any other jurisdiction unless otherwise explicitly agreed by it in writing. You will consent to any action by us taken to stop or prevent you from bringing an action in breach of this clause, and to indemnify us for our costs in bringing such an action.
These General Conditions for Use of Frontiers websites come into effect on 16th December, 2020.
Frontiers is the 3rd most-cited and 6th largest research publisher. We publish groundbreaking discoveries by the world's top experts. Our mission is to make science open – so that scientists can collaborate better and innovate faster to deliver the solutions that enable healthy lives on a healthy planet.
Our headquarters are based in Lausanne, Switzerland, with 17 other country locations across Europe, North America, and Asia.
Our community-led journals span more than 1,500 academic fields and are driven and peer-reviewed by active researchers. As a gold open access publisher, all articles published by Frontiers are immediately and permanently accessible online free of charge.
We also help our publishing partners - operate and distribute their journals on websites we build for them. When you interact with the websites or journals of our publishing partners, the owner of the relevant journal is responsible for any personal data processed in that context.
We keep an eye on the latest research and on the activities of both established and up-and-coming experts in their fields. We compile publicly available information about the worldwide scientific publishing communities. If we see an opportunity to cooperate with you in your areas of expertise, we may invite you to publish with us, or to act as a reviewer or editor for one of our journals.
We place researchers at the center of everything we do, and our platforms are designed with you in mind. Through our website, you can access all the articles we have published, submit your manuscripts for review and publication, or work with us as a reviewer or as an editor. You can also join Loop, our open science research network or subscribe to our newsletters and other services.
what personal data we collect and when we collect it
In a few words: we collect personal data about you when you use our services, in particular when you:
browse our websites
register with us and create a Loop account
submit a manuscript for publication in our journals
work with us as a reviewer or editor
communicate with us
register for our events
subscribe to our newsletters
answer our surveys or participate in our user research programs
Our privacy policy also applies to the personal data of co-authors of articles submitted to us for publication, as well as to the personal data we collect from publicly available sources (such as subscription services, websites, social media, or conferences) regarding your publications and your other academic activities.
how we use this data and on what basis
In a few words: we use personal data to:
deliver and promote our journals and publishing services
operate and secure our websites
identify potential authors, reviewers, and editors, to manage our publishing processes
ensure the quality and integrity of the articles we publish (in particular by identifying and preventing publication manipulations or other misconducts)
organize our events
communicate with you and answer your queries
exercise our rights and protect our interests
develop our knowledge of the latest science published and the activities of the global scientific publishing community
The legal grounds we rely on to process your personal data are mostly:
the necessity to process your personal data to deliver the contract we have with you under our terms and conditions (and other terms you may agree to if you cooperate with us)
our legitimate interests to provide, improve and secure our website and publishing services and to carry out and develop our business as a professional scientific publisher
In certain situations, we will process your personal data based on your consent (that you can revoke at any time), or because we have a legal obligation to do so.
when we share your personal data
In a few words: we make certain personal data public when we publish articles online, especially the names and affiliation of the relevant authors, reviewers, and editors. To conduct our activities, we also share personal data with:
Frontiers affiliates
our vendors and service providers
our reviewers and editors
our publishing partners when the personal data we process relates to their journal
other organizations who partner with us to archive scientific articles, promote open science, or facilitate the payment of article processing fees
We may also share personal data when we are required to do so by law, or upon the request of an authority, as well as in case of dispute or corporate reorganization.
how we protect your personal data
In a few words: we apply technical and organizational measures to protect your personal data in accordance with legal requirements. When we share your personal data with recipients located outside Switzerland, the UK, or EEA/EU, we use mechanisms to exercise any of these rights recognized by competent authorities (including the Standard Contractual Clauses) to ensure your data always benefits from an adequate level of protection. We only keep your personal data for the duration needed to provide our services, to protect ourselves against legal claims or to comply with our legal obligations.
how you can exercise your rights regarding your personal data
In a few words: you can contact us to ask us questions regarding the processing of your personal data or to exercise your rights under applicable laws:
to request access to your personal data
to ask us to rectify your data in case it is inaccurate or incomplete
to ask us to erase your personal data
to port your data
to object to or to restrict the processing of personal data
how to contact us
In a few words: you can contact Frontiers’ data protection officer at data.protection@frontiersin.org for any question or query regarding the processing of your personal data pursuant to this policy. You also have the right to lodge a concern with a supervisory authority.
We have prepared this summary of our privacy policy to give you an overview of our practices with all important information regarding how we handle and protect your personal data and how to contact us. For more detailed information, we recommend that you read the full policy
Frontiers attaches great importance to the protection of your personal data. This privacy policy describes when we collect your personal data, how we process it and protect it and how you can contact us and exercise your rights under data protection laws.
“Frontiers” (or “we”, “us”, “our”) refers to Frontiers Media SA, Avenue du Tribunal-Fédéral 34, 1005 Lausanne, Switzerland. “You” (or “your”) refers to you as user of the Frontiers’ services listed below (especially as user of our websites or as author/co-author, reviewer or editor of articles published by Frontiers) and more generally as a data subject whose personal data is processed by Frontiers in accordance with this policy.
To fulfil our mission to make science open, we publish our journals ( “Frontiers’ Journals”) and provide certain editorial, promotional and publishing services (see THE SERVICES COVERED BY THIS PRIVACY POLICY) for your benefit and for the benefit of the wider research community and general public, as further described in our terms and conditions.
In addition to publishing our journals and operating our website, we also cooperate with publishing partners (“Publishing Partners”) as part of Frontiers’ publishing partnership program to develop their journals (“Hosted Journals”), and publish them on dedicated websites that we operate on behalf of our publishing partners. Each Publishing Partner has entrusted Frontiers with the overall operation of its Hosted Journal and website and related services listed below that we provide on their behalf (see THE SERVICES COVERED BY THIS PRIVACY POLICY, OUR RESPONSIBILITIES). Please refer to our website and to the table in Annex 1 to this policy for more information about the Publishing Partners currently involved in our publishing partnership program and their Hosted Journals.
Each of Frontiers and our Publishing Partners are referred to as an “Owner” under our Terms and Conditions and when you interact with a Hosted Journals, these Terms and Conditions also apply between you and the relevant Publishing Partners. Likewise, this privacy policy applies to Frontiers’ processing of personal data including in the context of Frontiers’ publishing partnerships program, which means the following:
when this policy refers to “Journals”, it means both the Frontiers Journals and the Hosted Journals
when this policy refers to “Websites” it means Frontiers’ website (www.frontiersin.org and all its subdomains), and the websites of the Hosted Journals that we operate on behalf of each Publishing Partner (as mentioned in the above table)
when this policy refers to “Services”, it means the services we provide to you in our own name and the services we provide to you on behalf of Publishing Partners in connection with a Hosted Journal.
This policy applies when we process your personal data in connection with the following services (the “Services”):
We launch, publish and manage Journals, on our behalf and where applicable on behalf of our Publishing Partners (including the transfer of Hosted Journals operations to Frontiers)
We review submitted manuscripts to make sure they meet our editorial standards and respect our terms and conditions, author guidelines, copyright statement and other policies and industry guidelines such as the COPE guidelines and we conduct broader research integrity and quality procedures and investigations, before and sometimes after publication of the relevant articles
We operate the Websites from which you can access our manuscript submission and peer-review platforms and where you can
find information about Frontiers, the Journals, our Publishing Partners, our events, and other activities
access and download articles
submit your manuscripts in view of their publication in Journals
cooperate with Frontiers as a reviewer or editor for Journals
access and manage your subscriptions, invoices, and other interactions with Frontiers
create an account on Loop, our open science network
subscribe to our newsletters
contact and interact with Frontiers
We promote our Journals, events and other activities on our Websites and on third-party services
We manage our social media channels, newsletters, email alerts, surveys, user research, and other communications as well as our recognition and loyalty initiatives
We organize the Frontiers Forum and our other events
We compile publicly available information that allow us staying up to date about scientific publishing, offering the best services to scientists and conducting our manuscripts review and research integrity activities
We cooperate with other organizations active in the academic and scientific publishing fields, or otherwise promoting open science and innovation and sometimes we share personal data with them
We invite researchers to cooperate with us and, if you have published articles in Journals or in other scientific publications, or if you are an active researcher in one of our fields of publications, we will look for opportunities to cooperate with you and we may invite you to cooperate with us as an author, reviewer or editor in a Journal.
If you apply for an open position at Frontiers via our career portal, please refer to our specific privacy policy.
Frontiers acts as a data controller when it processes your personal data in connection with the Services, except when the Services relate to the promotion, publishing, and operation of a Hosted Journal. In this case, Frontiers processes your personal as a data processor acting on behalf and upon instruction of the relevant Publishing Partner who act(s) as the data controller. See above “OUR PUBLISHING PARTNERS” for additional information about our Publishing Partners and their Hosted Journals.
We collect and further process your personal data in the following situations:
When you visit our Websites: we collect the following types of personal data through our servers and the use of cookies and other tracking technologies:
Log data when you visit the Websites, we record your IP address, the date and time of your visit, the region from which you are accessing the Websites and data on how you used the Websites
Device information. We collect information about the type of device you are using, its operating system, browser type, settings and version
If you are a registered user and are logged-in to your account, we will collect the pages that you have visited
Information collected via cookies and other tracking technologies: We use first-party and third-party cookies on the Services. To know more about our use of cookies and similar technologies and how to manage or reject cookies, please consult our cookie policy
When you create or manage your Loop account: on the Websites, you can register with us by creating a Loop account. All Journals content is available without registration, but a Loop account is necessary to use certain features of our Websites, to submit a manuscript for review and publication or to function as reviewer or editor for Journals. To create a Loop account, you will be asked to provide your full name, email address, affiliation, your email preferences and a password. If you do not provide this data, we will not be able to create and manage your Loop account. Please make sure that your Loop profile information is always accurate and up to date as this information is used to identify you as a contributor to our Journals and communicate publicly about your activities with Frontiers, for instance if you publish an article with us or join one of our editorial boards. If we notice that information contained in your Loop profile is not accurate or up to date, we will ask you to correct or update it and, in accordance with our obligations under data protection laws, we reserve the right to rectify or complete this information ourselves where necessary to perform our reporting obligations as a professional publisher. We may also ask you for additional information where we consider it necessary to verify and confirm your affiliation or other information you provided.
If you wish, you can add further information about you, such as a brief biography, publications, secondary email address and a profile picture.
Please also note the following about the information linked to your Loop account:
If you submit a manuscript, co-author or review an article, or become an editor for a Journal, your contributions will be linked to your Loop account
If you link your ORCiD profile with your Loop account, your ORCiD and your ORCiD-listed publications may appear in your Loop account
If you connect with other registered users via your Loop account, your connections will be visible to Frontiers and (unless you have opted not to make this information public), to other Frontiers registered users
If you register with Frontiers using your Facebook or LinkedIn account, we will store the name, social handle, profile picture and email address from that external profile and use such information in accordance with this policy. If you hold an account with the European Society for Organ Transplantation (ESOT), you can also use your ESOT credentials to register with Frontiers. In this case, we will store your ESOT username and password.
When you submit a manuscript or otherwise cooperate with us as author, co-author, peer-reviewer or editor of a Journal: we will collect information in relation to your submitted manuscripts, your Loop account, your use of our Websites, your IP address, device and location, your interactions with us and with other authors, reviewers and editors and your acceptance of Terms and Conditions and other terms applicable to you. If you are co-author of a manuscript submitted to us and you are not corresponding directly with us in this context (especially if you have not created a Loop account), we will rely on your co-author(s) who are corresponding authors to provide us your personal data as necessary for the review and publication of the article you have co-authored. When your article is accepted for publication and you pay an article processing charge (or “APC”) via our Website, we keep billing information and invoices but do not store any payment information such as credit card numbers. We need to store banking details if you are entitled to honoraria payments or if we have to make any other payment to you. We use a third-party payment services provider to facilitate payments on our Websites. If you do not provide this data, we may not be able to cooperate with you as author, reviewer or editor.
When you subscribe to our newsletters or other communications or answer our surveys or participate in the evaluation of any new feature or our Services: We will collect your first name, last name and email address, and other data you may be requested to disclose if you agree to join the evaluation process. If you do not provide this data, we may not be able to send you the requested communications or to allow you to participate in a survey or evaluation process.
When you send us an inquiry, request our support (including fee support application) or otherwise communicate with us: to process your request and answer you, we will use your Loop account information if you have an account, and any other information you may provide (such as email address, phone number, and the content of your communication or request), including any further information we may reasonably request to confirm your eligibility for fee support. If you do not provide this data, we may not be able to answer your inquiry, grant the requested support or communicate with you.
When you make (or authorize others to make) publicly available certain information about you: We collect publicly available information from subscription services, publications, conferences, and from online sources and datasets. If you use public-facing social media platforms, we may also identify you and engage with you on the social media platforms in accordance with their respective terms. We also receive suggestions for potential contributors from our editors who are thought leaders in their areas of academic expertise. We only collect information relevant to academic and scientific publishing activities, such as first name, last name, institutional affiliation, contact details, publications, retractions, academic activities and specialization(s), editorships and awards. You have the right to object to our use of this data. If you do so, we may not be able to offer you opportunities to cooperate with Frontiers.
We use your personal data in the following ways and for the following purposes:
To provide the Services to you and to the research community (on our own behalf and, in the context of Hosted Journals on behalf of our Publishing Partners), including by allowing you to create and manage your Loop account, to enable your authentication and allow you to use the Websites, access and download articles and contact us and take part in any loyalty programs or similar initiatives and provide you the associated benefits in accordance with the terms applicable to such programs. Our processing of personal data is based on the necessity to perform our contracts under our terms and conditions and other terms that may apply between you and Frontiers and our legitimate interest to provide you the Services.
To launch, operate, and promote Journals and conduct our publishing and review processes, including allowing you to submit manuscripts for publication in Journals and take part in our peer-review and editorial processes. Additionally, we display articles you have authored, reviewed, or edited on our Websites. Our processing of personal data is based on the necessity to perform our contracts under our terms and conditions and other applicable terms between you and Frontiers. It is also based on our legitimate interest to operate Journals.
To ensure the quality and integrity of articles published in Journals by detecting, investigating and addressing conflicts of interest, plagiarism, fraud, peer-review manipulation, and other types of abuse or research integrity issues. Our processing of personal data is based on our legitimate interest to operate our Journals in accordance with established quality and integrity standards and to prevent fraud and other integrity issues.
To measure the audience of our Websites and understand the geographical locations, institutional affiliations and scientific background of our users; Our processing of personal data is based on our legitimate interest to operate Journals and where the data is collected via cookies, based on your consent that you can revoke at any time.
To personalize our Services based on your disclosed interests and preferences, your use of the Services and your scientific publishing activities with Frontiers and with other publishers. In that way, we make sure that our communications, promotions and the content that we suggest to you enhance your experience and are relevant for you. Our processing of personal data is based on our legitimate interest to perform our Services and deliver content that is relevant to you and where the data is collected via cookies, based on your consent that you can revoke at any time.
To show, promote and measure advertisements and collaboration opportunities on the Services and on third-party services. Our processing of personal data is based on our legitimate interest.
To communicate with you via email and other means in relation to
your submitted manuscripts, publications in our Journals, cooperation with Frontiers as an editor or reviewer, your Loop account or our terms and conditions.
invitations to participate in Frontiers’ activities and events and those of Hosted Journals (by reviewing articles, contributing to research topics, joining an editorial board or attending one of our events)
newsletters, alerts and promotional communications about the Services, our activities and the activities of Hosted Journals
Our processing of personal data is based on our legitimate interest and, where legally required, based on your express consent in which case you can revoke that consent at any time (unsubscribe).
To comply with your privacy and email preferences. Our processing of personal data is based on the necessity to perform our contracts under our terms and conditions, on our legitimate interest to provide you the Services and, where applicable, on your consent that you can revoke at any time.
To issue invoices and collect APC payments. Our processing of personal data is based on the necessity to perform our contracts under our terms and conditions.
To answer your queries and provide you with the support, services, information, or content that you have requested. Our processing of personal data is based on the necessity to perform our contracts under our terms and conditions and our legitimate interest to answer your queries.
To secure the Services and ensure compliance with our terms and conditions and the other terms, guidelines and policies applicable to authors/co-authors, reviewers and editors. Our processing of personal data is based on the necessity to perform our contracts under our Terms and Conditions and our legitimate interest to operate our Journals in accordance with established quality and integrity standards and prevent fraud.
To organize the Frontiers Forum events and other events, and to allow you to register for these events, attend them in person or remotely and to receive information or give us your feedback about them Our processing of personal data is based on our legitimate interest to organize events.
To cooperate with the Frontiers Research Foundation and other academic, scientific, or public policy institutions Our processing of personal data is based on our legitimate interest to fulfil our mission to advance science and where expressly specified based on your express consent that you can revoke at any time.
To train our teams and to enhance our Services Our processing of personal data is based on our legitimate interest to improve the quality of our Services.
To comply with our legal obligations, maintain business and financial records, handle disputes and enforce our legal and contractual rights. Our processing of personal data is based on legal obligations and our legitimate interest.
Any other purpose to which you may expressly agree. Our processing would then be based on your express consent that you can revoke at any time.
We combine information you have provided us and information coming from different sources (see THE PERSONAL DATA WE COLLECT) to have a better understanding of your publishing activities, academic and scientific background and areas of expertise and of your use of the Services. These sources of information include your activity as user of the Services, as well as publicly available sources, including your publications on public-facing social media platforms. We create a profile of your publishing activities, including citations, impact, affiliation and awards. We use this information to assess manuscripts submitted for publication in Journals, or to select and bring to your attention the right cooperation opportunities which are relevant to you and match your interests and expertise.
Part of this process is automated and relies on our artificial intelligence review assistant (AIRA). We use AIRA to support reviewers and editors in their tasks by drawing their attention to potential issues in manuscripts, as well as to suggest a list of potential contributors for a given authoring, reviewing or editorial opportunity. However, the decisions to accept or reject a manuscript, or to invite new researchers to cooperate with us are always made by humans. More generally, we do not use automated decisions which produce legal effects on you or that would significantly affect you.
We will share your personal data with others in the following circumstances:
When you make available information about your use of the Services : We will make information publicly available on the Services when you create a Loop account (unless you decide to make your account private) or when you publish an article in a Journal, or act as reviewer or editor for a Journal.
When we share information with our affiliates: We will share your personal data with our affiliated companies. We work as an integrated company from our headquarters in Switzerland and other offices located in the United Kingdom, European Union, United States of America and China.
When we manage our publishing and review process: we work collaboratively with our editors and reviewers for the review of articles submitted to us. If you collaborate with us as an author, review or editor, a limited set of personal data (typically your first name, last name and affiliation) will be shared among the concerned, reviewers and editors as necessary for the successful management of our publishing and review processes.
When we share information with our service providers we rely on external service providers working on our behalf and helping us deliver the Services to you. These organizations will process your personal data under our instructions and only as necessary to perform the tasks we delegated to them. These service providers are contractually bound to maintain the confidentiality and security of your personal data. We use providers for different types of services that require sharing your personal data, including:
website development and maintenance
data infrastructure, platform development and general IT services
data hosting
customer identity and access management services
IT security services
customer support services
marketing research
data curation, visualization and analysis
consumer relationship management (CRM) and other email communication and marketing services
video-conferencing services
analytics, audience and advertising measurement services
IP geo location and fraud detection services
privacy and consent management services.
event registration, planning and organization services
typesetting and translation services
staff training services
third party web and social media services through which we serve our advertisements. In particular, we utilize custom audience services provided by third-party social media platforms, including but not limited to Meta (Facebook and Instagram) and LinkedIn. These services enable us to deliver targeted advertising to you based on your interactions with our website and Services. We may share a hashed version of your email address or other information with these platforms, which allows them to match your data with their user profiles. Please note that the data shared is encrypted and cannot be used to directly identify you. Furthermore, these social media platforms are also subject to strict obligations under data protection laws and have their own privacy policies detailing how they process your personal data. You have the right to object to this processing at any time by adjusting your privacy settings on the respective platform or by contacting us at data.protection@frontiersin.org.
When we cooperate with the Frontiers Research Foundation: We support the activities of the Frontiers Research Foundation, such as the Frontiers Planet Prize. We will share your personal data with the Foundation in case we identify that, based on your background and activities as a researcher, you could be a potential contributor to the Foundation’s activities or could advance its public interest mission to accelerate scientific discovery, disseminate science to younger generations and mobilize the scientific communities. Where mentioned in the relevant privacy policy and terms and conditions issued by Frontiers Research Foundation, we may act as co-controller with the Frontiers Research Foundation.
When we cooperate with Publishing Partners: Publishing Partners will access your personal data, as data controller, if you use Services related to their respective Hosted Journal(s). In addition, Frontiers acts as a data controller when it shares with Publishing Partners publicly available information it holds about members of the worldwide scientific publishing community to help Publishing Partners identify suitable expert reviewers for articles and build their editorial boards.
When we cooperate with public research repository bodies and other organizations: We cooperate with numerous public research repositories, scholarly databases and other organizations, in particular those listed here. If you published with us, we may share your personal data with these institutions that archive research articles and/or their metadata, as well as databases created to enable plagiarism checks and help scientific publishers identify other research integrity issues. We will also display articles published in Journals (including the names and affiliations of their authors, reviewers, and editors) on third-party platforms including Research Gate to increase their public exposure and the visibility of their authors. We also collaborate with other organizations active in the academic, scientific, and public policy fields and share publicly available information about latest developments in scientific publishing with them to help them advance their mission and identify opportunities to cooperate with talented researchers.
When we cooperate with research institutions and consortia: We cooperate with research institutions and national consortia to make publishing and payment processes easier for them and their researchers. We share information concerning article titles, authors and fees. As a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), Frontiers abides by their guidelines and recommendations which can lead us to share personal data with universities and other research institutions or publishers in the context of research integrity investigations and fight against publication manipulation and other misconducts, in line with the relevant guidelines issued by COPE.
When we are required to disclose information to governmental authorities: we may provide your information to regulators, enforcement agents, courts and/or other government entities we believe that it is reasonably necessary to comply with a law, regulation, legal process, or governmental request.
In the context of disputes and court proceedings: If we are involved in disputes or court proceedings, we may provide your information if we need to do so in connection with legal proceedings. We may also use and share your information to enforce our Terms and Conditions (including investigation of potential violations).
In the context of corporate reorganization: If we are involved in a merger, acquisition, joint venture, dissolution, merger or other corporate restructuring, we will give you notice (by posting on the Frontiers Website and those of Hosted Journals), and the option to opt-out of the transfer, before your data is transferred or becomes subject to a different privacy policy.
Data security: We maintain technical, physical, and administrative security measures designed to provide reasonable protection for your personal data against loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, and alteration. These measures include technical measures such as encryption at rest and in transit, secure server software (SSL) and regular reviews and audits to detect possible vulnerabilities and attacks, as well as organizational measures including access controls (following need-to-know principle), training and incident prevention, detection and response procedures. We also contractually require our service providers to maintain similar security measures. Despite these efforts, please note that no method of transmission over the internet or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. While we strive to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee its absolute security and, in the event of a security breach, we will take all measures that are required by applicable law, including in certain cases notifying you. You contribute to the protection of the personal data available via your Loop account by keeping your username(s) and password(s) strictly confidential, not having the same password for different services, and not disclosing them to anyone.
Data retention: We keep your personal data to enable your continued use of our Services, and for as long as it is required in order to fulfill the relevant purposes described in this Privacy Policy, to fulfil our mission as a scholarly publisher or as may be required by law taking into account relevant statute of limitations. Please note in particular that:
personal data related to your Loop account is kept until such time as your account is deleted
personal data related to articles of Journals on which you contributed as author/co-author, reviewer or editor and your interactions with Frontiers during the editorial and peer-review processes may be kept for as long as the related articles are available on the Website or even indefinitely where necessary for archival purposes or to fulfil our obligations (irrespective of the deletion of your Loop account).
if you request not to be contacted for any future cooperation opportunities, we may keep some of your personal data in order to prevent any future processing of your data in this regard.
Age limits and children: Frontiers is for professional researchers and those interested in science, and Services are generally available only to people aged 18 and over. As an exception, some of our Services especially Frontiers for Young Minds and Frontiers Young Planet Fixers, address a younger audience. Personal data collected in these contexts will not be used in connection with other Frontiers journals or initiatives, unless we have your (or your parents or guardians’) express authorization.
If you are below 18 years old and are involved in Frontiers for Young Minds, we will only communicate with you via your parents, or other adults who support you in this project (such as your guardians, teachers or science mentors). If your parents or guardians agree, we will collect your first name, age and an avatar of your choice (but no actual picture of you). This data will be used only to highlight your contributions as young reviewer when the article that you reviewed is published on the Frontiers for Young Minds website.
You can also subscribe to the Frontiers Young Planet Fixers newsletter, if you meet the age requirement applicable in your country of residence. If you are below such age limit and in any case if you are below 13 years old, you should ask your parents or guardian to sign-up for you using their email address.
International data transfers: Frontiers operates globally, and we will transfer your personal data to the persons and entities who help us conduct our business and deliver the Services including our affiliates, our reviewers and editors and our service providers where necessary for the purposes described in this policy. These persons and entities may be located outside your home country and when sharing your personal data with them, we will take the measures that are required by law to ensure that your personal data continue to benefit from an adequate level of protection.
When we transfer information outside the European Economic Area (EEA) or Switzerland we take additional measures, where required pursuant to data protection laws. These measures include relying on the European Commission and Swiss government’s adequacy decisions issued for certain countries, as applicable, for data transfers to countries outside the EEA. Additionally, in the absence of an adequacy decision we include the Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the European Commission and the Swiss data protection authority in our contracts with non-EEA third parties that receive information from us.
As a global online scientific publisher, we work with authors, reviewers and editors coming from all parts of the world. The affiliates, services providers (and their respective subcontractors) and other recipients that Frontiers relies upon to provide the Services, or with whom Frontiers may otherwise share your personal in accordance with this privacy policy, are located in different countries, including the following territories/countries
Argentina
Australia
Brazil
Canada
China
Dubai/UAE
Egypt
European Union/EEA
Hong-Kong
India
Israel
Japan
Malaysia
New Zealand
Philippines
Singapore
South Africa
South Korea
Switzerland
Thailand
United Kingdom
United States of America
You can manage your privacy and email preferences via the settings in your Loop account.
You have certain rights under data protection laws that may vary depending on your location or the nature of the processing involved. These rights will typically include the following:
Right to access: You have the right to request a copy of the personal data we hold about you. We will provide this information free of charge, within one month of receiving your request. If the request is complex, we may extend this period by an additional two months in accordance with applicable legislation.
Right to rectification: If the personal data we hold about you is inaccurate or incomplete, you have the right to request that we correct or update it. We will make the necessary changes within one month of receiving your request.
Right to erasure ('right to be forgotten'): You can request the deletion of your personal data under certain circumstances, such as when the data is no longer necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, or you have withdrawn your consent.
Right to restrict processing: You may ask us to restrict the processing of your personal data in certain situations, such as when you contest the accuracy of your data, or when the processing is unlawful.
Right to data portability : You have the right to receive your personal data that you have provided to us and that we process based on your consent or for the performance of a contract in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format, and to transmit this data to another controller.
Right to object: You can object to the processing of your personal data for direct marketing purposes at any time. You may also object to the processing of your data for purposes based on legitimate interests.
Right to withdraw your consent in situations where our processing of your personal data is based on your express consent.
Right to not be subject to automated decision-making, including profiling: You have the right not to be subject to decisions based solely on automated processing, including profiling, that produce legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affect you.
Please note that the exercise of some of these rights may be subject to exceptions or limitations, as permitted by applicable laws, in particular when we can demonstrate compelling reasons for the processing that override your interests, rights, and freedoms, or where such processing is necessary to comply with our legal obligations, for reasons of public interest, or for the establishment, exercise, or defense of legal claims.
To exercise any of these rights, please contact us following the indications below (see HOW YOU CAN CONTACT US).
This policy applies to California residents whose personal data is protected under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and who can exercise their rights under the CCPA by contacting Frontiers in the manner indicated below.
Insofar as our sharing of personal data as described in this policy constitutes a “sale” of personal data pursuant to the CCPA, California residents can opt-out of such sale by contacting us at the address indicated below (see HOW YOU CAN CONTACT US). Frontiers will not discriminate against consumers for exercising their CCPA rights.
For all questions related to this Privacy Policy and to exercise your rights (see above YOUR RIGHTS UNDER DATA PROTECTION LAWS), you can contact Frontiers as described below. If your question relates to a Hosted Journal, Frontiers will receive and process your request on behalf of the relevant data controller.
Support and account deletion: Explanations on how to manage your Loop account can be found here. If you are facing any technical difficulties, cannot make changes to your Frontiers account and data, or wish to delete your Frontiers account, please contact Frontiers’ Support team at the following address . We aim to respond to your request within a reasonable timeframe, not to exceed one month.
Questions about this privacy policy: You can contact Frontiers (including Frontiers Media SA and all its affiliates) for any questions related to this privacy policy at data.protection@frontiersin.org.
Contact our Data Protection Officer: You can contact Frontiers Media SA’s Data Protection Officer at data.protection@frontiersin.org or the following address:
Frontiers Media SA (attention: Data Protection Officer)
Avenue du Tribunal-Fédéral 34
1005 Lausanne
Switzerland
Frontiers Media SA is based in Switzerland and its activities are primarily governed by Swiss laws. To report any breach of Swiss legal requirements, you can contact the Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner’s office at
Office of the Federal Data Protection and
Information Commissioner (FDPIC)
Feldeggweg 1
CH - 3003 Berne
Switzerland
https://www.edoeb.admin.ch/;
In cases where the EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) applies, you have the right to lodge a complaint with a European Union supervisory authority. Our main establishment for the purposes of GDPR application is in Spain
Frontiers Software SLU
Calle de Goya, 36.
4th floor
28001 Madrid
Spain
data.protection@frontiersin.org
It is subject to the supervision of the Agencia Española de Protección de Datos AEPD.
Agencia Española de Protección de Datos
C/ Jorge Juan, 6
28001-Madrid
https://www.aepd.es/es;
Where the UK General Data Protection Regulation applies, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office.
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
United Kingdom
https://ico.org.uk/;
Where other laws apply, you can contact us according to the paragraph above to lodge a complaint.
If your complaint relates to the processing of personal data in the context of a Hosted Journal, you can contact Frontiers at the address indicated above and we will receive your complaint on behalf of the relevant Publishing Partner who is acting as controller. You can also contact the relevant Publishing Partner directly at the address indicated on their website (see above “OUR PUBLISHING PARTNERS”).
If we make changes to this Privacy Policy, those changes will come into effect upon their posting on the Websites. If changes involve any substantive change to your rights or possibilities, we will inform you through appropriate means, such as by contacting you via your registered email address or with a pop-up announcement the next time you log in.
Frontiers Media SA
This revised Privacy Policy comes into effect on 3rd of August 2023
Publishing Partner (controller) |
Hosted Journal |
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Registered address: 1126 Budapest, |
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Biomedical Research Center of the Slovak Academy of Sciences Registered address: Biomedicínske centrum SAV |
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Canadian Society for Pharmaceutical Sciences Registered address: 275 Bay Street, Suite 200 |
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Dystonia Medical Research Foundation Registered address: One East Wacker Drive, Suite 1730 |
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The Geological Society of London Registered address: Burlington House |
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Registered address: CAP Partner |
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European Network on Cultural Management and Policy Registered address: 1 Avenue Maurice |
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European Society for Organ Transplantation Registered address: Riviera dei Mugnai, 8/24 |
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Institute of Biomedical Science Registered address: 12 Coldbath Square |
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International Drug Abuse Research Society Registered address: C/O Syed F. Ali International Narcotics Research Conference Registered address: 492 South Feathering Lane, Media, PA United States of America |
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Registered address: Institute of Experimental Biology, |
Acta Biochimica Polonica (ABP) |
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Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine Registered address: 3220 N Street NW #179 |
Experimental Biology and Medicine |
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Spanish Society of Soil Science Registered address: c/Serrano, 115-dpdo |
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Registered address: Hirschengraben 82 |
Public Health Reviews (PHR) and the International Journal of Public Health (IJPH) |
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Registered address: No. 148, Tianmushan Road, |
This table will be updated from time to time as needed, especially in case of any new publishing partnership concluded between Frontiers and the relevant Publishing Partner.
Frontiers publishes its own journals (referred to here as Frontiers Journals) and journals owned by third parties (referred to here as Hosted Journals). When we refer to Journals, we include both Frontiers Journals and Hosted Journals.
In this Copyright Statement, Websites (with a capitalised W) refers to all Frontiers websites, including those of Hosted Journals. An Owner means Frontiers as owner of all Frontiers Journals, or the respective owner of a Hosted Journal.
All content included on these Websites (including Loop), such as text, graphics, logos, button icons, images, video/audio clips, downloads, data compilations and software, is the property of the person or entity who or which owned it prior to submission to Frontiers or to a Hosted Journal. If not owned by Frontiers or an Owner of a Hosted Journal, it is licensed to Frontiers Media SA (“Frontiers”), such Owner or its or their licensees and/or subcontractors.
The ownership of copyright in the text of individual articles (including research articles, opinion articles, book reviews, conference proceedings and abstracts) is not affected by its submission to or publication by Frontiers, whether for itself or for a Hosted Journal. Frontiers benefits from a general licence over all content submitted. Hosted Journal Owners benefit from a general licence over all content submitted to their respective Hosted Journals. Frontiers, Hosted Journal Owners and all their users benefit from a Creative Commons CC-BY licence over all content, as specified below.
Images and graphics not forming part of user-contributed materials are the property of or are licensed to Frontiers and may not be downloaded or copied without Frontiers’ explicit and specific permission or in accordance with any specific copyright notice attached to that material.
The combination of all content on Frontiers websites, and the look and feel of the Frontiers websites, is the property of Frontiers Media SA.
As an author or contributor you grant permission to others to reproduce your articles, including any graphics and third-party materials supplied by you, in accordance with the Frontiers Terms and Conditions. The licence granted to third parties over all contents of each article, including third-party elements, is a Creative Commons Attribution ("CC BY") licence. The current version is CC-BY, version 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), and the licence will automatically be updated as and when updated by the Creative Commons organisation.
You may include a requirement to reproduce copyright notices but you may not restrict the right to reproduce the entire article, including third-party graphics. This means that you must obtain any necessary third-party consents and permissions to reproduce third-party materials in your articles submitted to Frontiers.
E-books are subject to the same licensing conditions as the articles within them.
Articles published prior to 25th May 2018: Please note that reproduction of third-party graphics and other third-party materials contained in articles published prior to 25th May 2018 may be subject to third-party notices prohibiting their reproduction without permission. You must comply with those notices.
Articles published prior to July 2012: The licence granted for these articles may be different and you should check the pdf version of any article to establish what licence was granted. If an article carries only a non-commercial licence and you wish to obtain a commercial licence, please contact Frontiers at editorial.office@frontiersin.org.
Article metadata, as defined in Frontiers’ terms and conditions, are the property of Frontiers or the Owner of the respective Hosted Journal, and are licensed under Creative Commons CC0 terms.
All software used on this site, and the copyright in the code constituting such software, and all intellectual property in all such elements, is the property of or is licensed to Frontiers and its use is restricted in accordance with the Frontiers Terms and Conditions. All copyright, and all rights therein, are protected by national and international copyright laws.
Please also see the Frontiers Terms and Conditions.
Copyright Statement updated with effect from 16th December 2020.
;In this cookie policy, we explain what cookies and similar tracking technologies we use, what this means for you and how you can manage your preferences. For more information on how we use your personal data, including in cases where we handle such data on behalf of our publishing partners, and how to exercise your rights under data protection laws, please read our privacy policy.
“Frontiers” (or “we”, “us”, “our”) refers to Frontiers Media SA and “you” (or “your”) refers to you as user of our website www.frontiersin.org or other services.
Cookies are small text files containing unique identifiers, which are transferred to your computer or mobile device when you visit a website or an app. Cookies allow us to recognize and remember you by retrieving and storing on your device information about you, your preferences, or your settings. When you visit our website Frontiersin.org, the websites of our publishing partners and our other publicly available services, we collect information about you through cookies or similar tracking technologies, such as device fingerprinting, script/tags, pixel/web beacon or local storage.
We use cookies and similar tracking technologies for the following purposes:
To keep you logged in
To remember your preferences, login details, or other information you provided so you do not have to provide this information to us again
To deliver content to you, including content coming through third parties like social media platforms
To operate our websites at maximum efficiency and improve their performance
To help us understand how you are using our services, for instance, how long you stay on a page
To build an understanding of your interests and provide you relevant content and opportunities to cooperate with us
To know if you opened and read the emails we sent you and more generally to measure the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns
To generate an aggregated report on how many people visit our website and the regions where these people are located
To secure our website and services and prevent fraud and ensure compliance with our editorial policies and terms and conditions
To deliver advertising to you on our services and on third-party services like social media
We use both first-party cookies (Frontiers-owned cookies that are generated by our websites) and third-party cookies (cookies that are set by third-party services that we use on our website). You can find the list of our partners and vendors that we allow to place third-party cookies below on our sites via our cookies consent banner. These cookies can be split in the following categories depending on their functioning and purpose:
Strictly necessary/essential cookies - These cookies are necessary for our websites to function as they enable you to navigate around the sites and use our features. They cannot be switched off in our systems. They are activated set in response to your actions such as setting your privacy preferences, logging-in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
Performance/analytics cookies - These cookies allow us to collect information about how visitors use our website, including the number of visitors, the websites that referred them to our website, and the pages that they visited. We use them to compile reports, to measure and improve the performance of our website, analyze which pages are the most viewed, see how visitors move around the site and fix bugs. If you do not allow these cookies, your experience will not be altered but we will not be able to improve the performance and content of our website.
Functional cookies - These cookies enable our website to supply enhanced functionality and personalization and remember your preferences. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages, including social media platforms. If you do not allow these cookies, some of these services may not function properly, or you may not be able to view certain social media content available on our websites.
Targeting/advertising cookies - These cookies may be set by us to offer your personalized content and opportunities to cooperate. They may also be used by social media companies we work with to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on their services. They do not store directly personal information but are based on unique identifiers related to your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
We also use the following technologies to gather information from your device, in particular:
Device fingerprinting: this uses details such as your IP address, browser, and operating system to make a unique serial number that helps us recognize your device.
Pixels/beacons: these are small codes in our websites and emails that track your activity, like if you visited a certain webpage or opened an email. They help us understand if our online marketing is working and are used for analytics or advertising.
Scripts/tags: these are codes on our website that collect data about how you interact with our site, like clicks or page views. They're used for tracking, analytics, or to add third-party content to our website.
Local storage: we may store data locally in your device’s cache, for example to load content quicker, to remember your preferences and save data from your previous sessions, to follow your activities across different sessions and visits to our website and deliver more personalized content and advertising.
Please refer to the information displayed in the cookie consent mechanism to know about the third parties whose cookies are used on the website you are visiting. Below is a list of all third-party cookies providers used on the websites covered by this cookie policy:
AddThis (Oracle America, Inc.) - Website, Privacy Policy
Bizzabo Ltd. - Website, Privacy Policy
Cloud Foundry Foundation, Inc. - Website, Privacy Policy
Facebook, Inc. (Meta Platforms Inc.) - Website, Privacy Policy
Google LLC - Website, Privacy Policy
Hotjar Ltd. - Website, Privacy Policy
LinkedIn Corporation - Website, Privacy Policy
Microsoft Corporation - Website, Privacy Policy
New Relic, Inc. - Website, Privacy Policy
Qualtrics, LLC - Website, Privacy Policy
Salesforce.com, Inc. - Website, Privacy Policy
Simply Business, Inc. - Website, Privacy Policy
Squarespace, Inc. - Website, Privacy Policy
TikTok Inc. (ByteDance Ltd.) - Website, Privacy Policy
Twitter, Inc. - Website, Privacy Policy
Vimeo, Inc. - Website, Privacy Policy
YouTube, LLC - Website, Privacy Policy
Zendesk, Inc. - Website, Privacy Policy
Some of these companies may transfer your personal data to service providers located outside your home country. Please consult the privacy policy of these providers for more information on the measures taken by these companies to ensure that your personal data continues to benefit from an adequate level of protection under law.
Except the strictly necessary/essential cookies, our use of cookies and other trackers is based on your consent. Through our consent management system (cookie banner), you can confirm your consent to all (non-essential) cookies being used, manage the categories of cookies that you accept, or reject all (non-essential) cookies. Where legally required, your consent will be requested in the form of an opt-in to the use of non-essential cookies and trackers. Our consent mechanism will record your choice and your consent is valid for 6 months. After 6 months we will ask you to reconfirm your preferences by showing you our cookie banner again. You can revoke your consent at any time either via our cookies banner, or by configuring your internet browser settings to disable cookies. The exact steps to follow will depend on the specific browser you are using, and these may change as new versions of the software are released. Typically, you can find the cookie settings under the 'Options', 'Settings', or 'Preferences' menu of your browser.
We may update this cookie policy from time to time to reflect changes in technology, legal requirements, or our business practices. We encourage you to review this page periodically for the latest information on our use of cookies.
If you have any questions about this cookie policy, please contact us on data.protection@frontiersin.org
Last updated: 3rd of August 2023
We want to make you aware of updates to our privacy policy, terms and copyright statement. Below we say a few words about each of them, and we encourage you to read them.
Changes in the December 2020 versions compared with the May 2018 versions.
Both the Ts&Cs and the Copyright Statement have been updated to reflect that we now also host journals owned by others.
The Ts&Cs now also provide that, in addition to the CC-BY licence applying to most published articles, including abstracts, other article metadata is now subject to a Creative Commons CC0 licence.
Main changes in the 3 August 2023 version:
Creation of a reader-friendly summary of the privacy policy completed with the full version
Additional details provided on
contact details of Publishing Partners responsible for Hosted Journals
processing personal data in the context of our publishing and review process, including research integrity
organization of Frontiers events
sharing of information with third parties
international data transfers and countries/territories where recipients are located
Consolidation of all cookie-related information in a separate cookie policy
Designation of Spain as Frontiers main establishment of Frontiers in the European Union for the purposes of GDPR application
Contact details of Frontiers Media SA Data Protection Officer
Frontiers In and Loop are registered trade marks of Frontiers Media SA.
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