Privacy Policy

The International Center for Promoting Knowledge (ICPK) respects the privacy of readers, authors, correspondents, and other people who use the ICPK publisher website and journal websites it operates. This privacy policy explains what personal information ICPK collects, why it is processed, with whom it may be shared, how long it is retained, and individuals' choices.

ICPK is a registered legal entity in Bangladesh and is the data controller for the processing described in this policy. Bangladesh law governs this policy and its jurisdiction, regardless of where ICPK's editorial boards, journals, or operational activities are otherwise based. Where journal content describes ICPK as operating from the USA and Bangladesh, that describes editorial and operational presence, not a change to the governing legal entity or jurisdiction stated here. Questions and requests concerning privacy or personal data academic publishing practices may be sent to info@theicpk.org.

ICPK does not sell, rent, or trade personal information. It does not use personal information for advertising, sponsored content, or paid placement.

1. Scope of this privacy policy

This policy applies to theicpk.org, ICPK's publisher services, and the journal sites ICPK operates. It covers information supplied by users, manuscript and publication information, and limited technical information generated through site use.

ICPK provides publishing infrastructure, policy, and administrative support. Editorial authority over manuscripts belongs to each journal's Editor-in-Chief and editorial board. Personal information may therefore be handled by both ICPK's administrative systems and the editors or reviewers responsible for a submission, as described below.

2. Personal information ICPK collects

Account registration

When a person creates an account, ICPK collects their name, email address, and password. A user may also provide optional affiliation and profile details. Passwords authenticate access and should not be shared.

Manuscript submission

When a manuscript is submitted through an available journal workflow, ICPK processes the manuscript and accompanying files. Submission information includes the names, affiliations, and contact details of every listed author. The submitting author must ensure that co-author information is accurate and that co-authors understand it will be processed for editorial assessment, publication administration, and, if published, the scholarly record.

Manuscripts and supporting files may contain additional personal information supplied by authors. Authors should avoid including unnecessary personal or sensitive information. Questions about participant information, research records, consent, or ethical approval should be considered alongside the Research Data & Ethics Approval Policy.

Contact form and correspondence

When someone uses a contact form or writes to ICPK, ICPK receives the contact details and message content provided. It uses them to understand and answer the enquiry, maintain an appropriate record, and handle follow-up.

Email alert subscriptions

A person may sign up for email alerts about new publications. This collects the name, email address, and — where voluntarily provided — phone number entered in the signup form. This information is used only to send the alerts requested and to administer the subscription. A subscriber may unsubscribe at any time using the link provided in each alert or the unsubscribe page linked from the site footer; unsubscribing stops future alerts and records the date and any reason given.

Server logs

ICPK's hosting systems generate standard server logs. These may record an IP address, browser type, requested pages, request time, and related technical information. Logs help operate and secure the sites, diagnose errors, investigate suspected misuse, and maintain reliability.

3. How personal information is used

ICPK uses personal information only where it is reasonably connected to its publishing and website operations. Uses include:

creating and administering user accounts;
receiving and managing manuscript submissions;
enabling editors and reviewers to assess submissions;
corresponding with authors and other users;
preparing accepted work for publication;
registering and maintaining article metadata and DOI records;
preserving the accuracy and integrity of the scholarly record;
responding to questions, complaints, rights requests, and credible research-integrity concerns;
protecting accounts, systems, manuscripts, and sites from abuse or unauthorized access;
understanding site use and improving the reading and submission experience, ICPK's technical systems, and its internal infrastructure; and
sending marketing and promotional communications about ICPK and its journals to account holders.

By creating an account or otherwise interacting with ICPK's sites, a user permits ICPK to use their personal information for the purposes above, including marketing and promotional communications and ongoing technical and infrastructure improvement, for as long as ICPK operates. ICPK does not sell personal information, does not serve personalised or targeted third-party advertising, and does not build advertising profiles of identified individuals for external ad networks.

4. Editorial handling and sharing

Personal information is shared only as needed for the purposes described in this policy.

Editors handling a submission may receive manuscript files and author details necessary to conduct editorial assessment. Reviewers receive the material needed to evaluate the submission. Where a journal operates double-blind peer review, author identities are withheld from reviewers as part of that journal's review process. Authors should nevertheless remove identifying information from files where the applicable journal instructions require them to do so.

If an article is accepted and published, ICPK deposits article metadata with Crossref when registering the DOI. This metadata includes author names and affiliations and may include the title, abstract, publication details, and other bibliographic information. Depositing this information is a necessary part of publication and enables the article to be identified, linked, discovered, and cited.

Information may also be shared with the analytics processor described below, subject to the stated limits. ICPK may disclose relevant information where required by law or reasonably necessary to investigate a credible allegation of research misconduct. This may require contact with an author's institution.

5. Published author information and the permanent record

Prospective authors should understand an important limit on author data protection before submitting. Once an article is published, its author names, affiliations, citation information, article files, and associated metadata become part of the permanent scholarly record. They are retained indefinitely and cannot be withdrawn merely because an author later asks for their name or affiliation to be removed.

This is a consequence of scholarly publication, not a case-by-case privacy choice. Stable authorship and bibliographic metadata preserve attribution, citation, accountability, DOI integrity, and record reliability. Substantive errors are addressed through the applicable correction or retraction process rather than silent alteration or deletion.

6. Service providers and analytics

ICPK relies on a small number of third-party providers to deliver and measure its sites. Each is named below, together with what it receives and why.

Cloudflare sits in front of ICPK's sites as a content delivery and security layer. Requests to theicpk.org and the journal sites pass through Cloudflare before reaching ICPK's servers, so Cloudflare processes technical request data including IP addresses, browser and device information, and request metadata. This supports page delivery, availability, and protection against attacks and abusive traffic.

Google Analytics measures how the sites are used — which pages are visited, how visitors arrive, and how they move through the site. Google acts as ICPK's analytics provider for this purpose and processes the data on its own infrastructure. Google Analytics sets cookies in the visitor's browser, as described in the next section.

ICPK uses this information solely to understand how its sites are used and to improve the reading and submission experience. Analytics data is never sold, never shared with advertisers, never used to build profiles of identified individuals, and never used to track visitors across unrelated websites. ICPK does not run advertising on its sites.

ICPK may adopt an additional or replacement analytics tool in future. Where it does, this policy will be updated to name that provider before the change takes effect.

Because these providers operate internationally, technical and usage data described in this section may be processed outside Bangladesh, including in the United States. Personal information submitted to ICPK directly — account details and manuscript material — is not sent to analytics providers.

ICPK's main safeguard for this cross-border processing is consent, not a data-transfer contract with each provider. Google Analytics is the part of this cross-border processing a visitor controls directly: as described in the Cookies section below, it does not run, and sends no data anywhere, until a visitor affirmatively accepts it through the cookie banner; declining or ignoring the banner means Google Analytics collects and transfers nothing for that visitor, with no other consequence for using the sites. Cloudflare's processing is different in kind — it is the technical layer requests pass through to reach ICPK's servers at all, so it cannot be consent-gated the way an optional analytics tool can; it is limited to what is necessary for delivering and securing the sites.

7. Cookies

ICPK uses session cookies and cross-site request forgery (CSRF) cookies that are necessary for site functions such as account sessions, form handling, and security. Blocking these can prevent account, form, or submission functions from working correctly.

Where in use, analytics cookies such as those set by Google Analytics are not loaded until a visitor allows them through the cookie banner shown on first visit; declining keeps these optional cookies switched off for that visitor. Cloudflare may set cookies necessary for security and traffic management regardless of this choice, as these are part of delivering the site itself. ICPK does not use advertising cookies or cross-site tracking cookies.

A visitor's choice can be changed at any time by clearing site data in the browser, which will show the cookie banner again. Browser controls may also be used to delete or block cookies directly.

8. Retention

Personal information associated with an account — including a closed account — and personal information associated with a submission — including an unsuccessful, rejected, or withdrawn submission — is retained by ICPK for as long as ICPK operates. It is not deleted on a fixed schedule. ICPK retains this information for the purposes described in Section 3, including technical operation, system and infrastructure improvement, and marketing and promotional communications.

Email alert subscription details are retained for as long as the subscription is active. If a person unsubscribes, ICPK keeps a record of the email address and unsubscribe date to honor that opt-out and avoid re-contacting them with alerts; it does not send further alerts to that address.

Published articles and their metadata are retained indefinitely as part of the permanent scholarly record. This includes the author and affiliation information published with the article and deposited as bibliographic metadata.

9. Security

ICPK uses reasonable administrative and technical measures intended to protect personal information against unauthorized access, loss, misuse, alteration, or disclosure. Access is limited according to operational and editorial need. No internet transmission or storage system can be guaranteed completely secure, and users should protect their passwords and notify ICPK if they suspect unauthorized account activity.

10. Your data subject rights

As a voluntary matter of practice — and not as a claim that any specific data protection law applies to ICPK or a representation that ICPK meets the requirements of such a law — ICPK is generally willing to consider requests of the kind described below from any user, regardless of location. Whether and how a particular request is fulfilled depends on the limitations described below and on what is reasonable and practicable in the circumstances. Personal information is retained as described in Section 8 and is not deleted on request. A person may ask ICPK to consider:

providing access to personal information ICPK holds about them;
correcting inaccurate or incomplete personal information;
restricting how personal information is used while a concern is reviewed;
an objection to a particular use of personal information, such as marketing communications; or
providing personal information supplied by that person in a reasonably usable, portable format where practicable.

These are not guaranteed or absolute rights, and this section does not create a legal entitlement beyond what applicable law separately requires. ICPK may need to retain, decline, or limit a request to comply with law, protect security, resolve a dispute, investigate a credible integrity concern, or where a request is unverifiable, disproportionate, or made in bad faith. ICPK will explain any material limitation that applies to a request.

To make a request, email info@theicpk.org and describe it. ICPK may request information reasonably necessary to verify identity and prevent unauthorized disclosure.

11. Changes, contact, and governing law

ICPK may update this privacy policy when its services, processors, or practices change. The current version will be published on this page with its effective date.

For privacy questions, concerns, or rights requests, email info@theicpk.org or use the Contact page. Use of ICPK's sites is also governed by the Terms of Use.

This policy and the processing it describes are governed by the laws of Bangladesh. Disputes are subject to the courts of Bangladesh.