Data Retention Policy

EXPRESS DECLARATION

Data Retention, Confidentiality and Disclosure Policy

All journals & books published by Magnus Publishing

This Express Declaration (“Policy”) governs the retention, confidentiality, and disclosure of records generated in the course of manuscript submission, peer review, and publication with Magnus Publishing (the “Publisher”). By submitting a manuscript, every author, co-author, and corresponding author (jointly, the “Author”) is deemed to have read, understood, and accepted the terms set out below in full.

1. Scope of Covered Data

“Submission Data” means all records generated or exchanged in connection with a manuscript's submission and processing, including but not limited to:

(a)  correspondence between the Author and the editorial office, including cover letters, queries, and email threads;

(b)  acknowledgement-of-receipt notices and submission-tracking records;

(c)  reviewer reports, review scorecards, and reviewer–editor correspondence;

(d)  copyright transfer forms, licence agreements, and related signing records;

(e)  any other administrative, financial, or procedural record connected with the manuscript.

Submission Data expressly excludes the final published article, its metadata, and its permanent record of publication, which shall be retained and archived indefinitely in the ordinary course of the Publisher's operations.

2. Retention Period

All Submission Data relating to a manuscript shall be retained for a period of three (3) months from the date of publication of that manuscript (or, for rejected or withdrawn manuscripts, from the date of the final editorial decision). On expiry of this period, the Submission Data will be permanently deleted, overwritten, or otherwise rendered inaccessible, without further notice to the Author, and the Publisher shall thereafter have no copy, backup, or record of it in any form.

3. Rationale for the Retention Period

This retention period has been framed in view of (i) the substantial and continually rising cost of secure online data storage borne by a not-for-profit scholarly publisher, and (ii) the inherent risk of technical failure, corruption, or loss inherent in any storage system over time. The Publisher considers three months a reasonable and proportionate window within which any query, correction, or dispute concerning the review process is ordinarily expected to surface, balanced against the operational burden and risk of indefinite retention.

4. No Obligation to Disclose

Save as expressly provided in Clauses 5 and 6, the Publisher is under no obligation — to the Author, to any co-author, to any third party, or to any institution, funding body, or requesting authority — to retain, produce, or disclose any Submission Data at any time, whether before or after the expiry of the retention period described in Clause 2. The Publisher's inability to produce Submission Data after its deletion shall not, of itself, be treated as an admission, concession, or evidence of any impropriety in the review or publication process.

5. Exception — Plagiarism and Academic Misconduct

Notwithstanding Clause 4, the Publisher may retain, access, or disclose Submission Data — including outside the three-month window, where it has been preserved for this specific purpose — where necessary to investigate, substantiate, or respond to a credible allegation of plagiarism, data fabrication, authorship dispute, undisclosed conflict of interest, or other academic or research misconduct concerning the manuscript in question.

6. Exception — Binding Legal Process

This Policy is not, and is not intended to be, a mechanism for evading a lawful and binding order of a court, tribunal, or regulator of competent jurisdiction. Where such a binding order is served on the Publisher before the underlying Submission Data has been deleted in the ordinary course under Clause 2, the Publisher will comply with it. Deletion carried out in the ordinary course under Clause 2, prior to receipt of any such order, is not reversed or reconstructed on the Publisher's part, and the Publisher accepts no liability for its consequent inability to produce data that no longer exists.

7. No Liability for Deleted Data

The Publisher shall bear no liability of any kind — civil, contractual, or otherwise — to the Author or any third party arising from the deletion or inaccessibility of Submission Data in accordance with this Policy, including in connection with tenure, promotion, funding, grant, immigration, or institutional evaluations that may rely on such records.

8. Author's Acknowledgement and Election

Submission of a manuscript to the Publisher constitutes the Author's express, informed acceptance of this Policy in its entirety. An Author who does not agree to any term of this Policy is advised not to submit a manuscript to this journal or to any publication of Magnus Publishing, and should instead seek a publisher whose data-retention terms are acceptable to them.

9. Amendment

The Publisher reserves the right to revise this Policy at any time by posting an updated version on its website, with the effective date noted below. The version in force on the date of a given manuscript's submission shall govern that manuscript.

10. Contact

Questions concerning this Policy may be directed to the editorial office of Magnus Publishing through the contact details published on the journal's website, and to magnuspublishing@outlook.com