Privacy Policy

DATED 2026-06-26 · VERSION 20260811_rev02 · COMPARED WITH 20260811_rev01

Full text changes — 20260811_rev01 to 20260811_rev02

COLOUR MARKS THE SEVERITY OF A FLAGGED CLAUSE · + AND − MARK ADDED AND REMOVED

2929- When you register on a PLOS Site for updates or to receive other types of notifications from us, we will ask for your email address to enable us to send you the information you have requested.
3030- If you want to submit a manuscript or other content to PLOS for consideration or for posting on our sites or as a preprint, we will ask for the following information so that we may consider, process, and possibly publish your manuscript, in conformance with accepted publishing standards: your name, title, telephone number, email address, institution, department, address, and credit card or other payment information. You may voluntarily provide us with additional information to help us identify and contact you, such as your middle name, degree, preferred name, secondary phone number, fax number, position, ORCID iD (Open Researcher and Contributor Identifier), state or province, and areas of interest or expertise. Except for credit card or other payment information, we will ask for the same information if you want to be considered as an editor or reviewer. If you are a corresponding author, we require your ORCID iD to help identify you and connect your work to your ORCID record when an article is published.
3131- If you want to submit a public comment on our website, we will ask for the following information: email, first name, and last name. Your display name, which is auto-generated to include your first initial, last name and randomly selected number(s), will be made public along with your comment. If you request that your account be deleted, your comment will remain on our website but your display name will no longer be associated with your comment.
3232- If you register on a PLOS Site, we will gather and store your username and password to identify you at sign-in and to administer your account.
3333- If we send you email with links then we will gather and store the information about the links that you click on in order to track the effectiveness of our communications.
3434
35Additionally, PLOS may process some basic personal information about you (email address, name and research interest) that is publicly available to register you as a potential reviewer and expert or to contact you about publishing with PLOS on a particular topic. If you do not wish to be contacted as a potential reviewer or for possible publication with PLOS, you can email us at [\[email protected\]](https://plos.org/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#7303011a0512100a33031f1c005d1c0114). We will keep some of your personal information to recall your request not to be contacted in the future.
35Additionally, PLOS may process some basic personal information about you (email address, name and research interest) that is publicly available to register you as a potential reviewer and expert or to contact you about publishing with PLOS on a particular topic. If you do not wish to be contacted as a potential reviewer or for possible publication with PLOS, you can email us at [\[email protected\]](https://plos.org/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#93e3e1fae5f2f0ead3e3fffce0bdfce1f4). We will keep some of your personal information to recall your request not to be contacted in the future.
3636
3737Finally, we may collect demographic information about you, such as geographic location, age, gender, race and ethnic origin for diversity, equity and inclusion purposes and for analytic purposes. If you provide demographic information to PLOS, you do so voluntarily and PLOS will collect, store and use your demographic information in accordance with this privacy policy.
3838
3939### Technical information
4040
4141By corresponding with PLOS, submitting to PLOS journals, or generally visiting or otherwise interacting with the PLOS Sites, we collect, have access to, store and may use data including your computer's IP address, the URL/domain name of any referring website, the time and date of your visit to the PLOS Sites, metadata and certain information known as "clickstream data" to enable us to understand how people interact with the PLOS Sites, to analyze data for trends and statistics, to help diagnose and solve issues with the PLOS Sites and our technologies, products, and services, to optimize the performance of the PLOS Sites, or to investigate integrity issues. We use click view data to provide statistics on articles such as number of views and downloads. We also use session cookies, as described below. From time to time, we use software tools to play back user sessions for our internal use in assessing our customers' interactions with our software, and these sessions may be linked to your user account. When we send you an email which contains personalized links then we will gather and store your name, email, and any link you click on, in order to track the effectiveness of our communications.
137137Except in countries or jurisdictions where it is not permitted by law, we may from time to time send you email communications regarding our business, products or services in response to your use of the PLOS Sites.
138138
139139For UK and EEA recipients, PLOS' legal basis for using your information to send email communications is our legitimate interests to run, grow and develop our organization in order to expand the impact of science and medicine and spread knowledge in this field. We describe our legitimate interests in more detail under the "Legal Basis for your information" section below. Email communications will be sent on an opt out basis to any recipient who has registered or signed up for PLOS services and did not opt out.
140140
141141Where required by law, we may process your personal information for marketing purposes on the basis of your consent.
142142
143You can opt out of receiving such communications at any time by using the unsubscribe link(s) in emails we send you or by emailing us at [**\[email protected\]**](https://plos.org/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#3c190e0c4c4e554a5d5f457c4c50534f12534e5b).
143You can opt out of receiving such communications at any time by using the unsubscribe link(s) in emails we send you or by emailing us at [**\[email protected\]**](https://plos.org/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#7e5b4c4e0e0c17081f1d073e0e12110d50110c19).
144144
145145## Changes to this privacy policy
146146
147147PLOS may make changes to this privacy policy from time to time. Changes to this privacy policy will be made by updating this page. Please visit this privacy policy regularly to read the current version. If there are material changes to how we use your personal information, we will endeavor to provide you with reasonable notice of such changes, either by prominent notice on [www.plos.org](http://www.plos.org/) or to your email address of record.
148148
149149### Cross border transfers
162162
163163- Access to the personal information we maintain about you
164164- Deletion of certain personal information, subject to our legal, archival, research integrity, and publication obligations
165165- Correction of inaccurate personal information
166166- Information about our data practices and disclosures
167167
168Requests may be submitted by emailing [\[email protected\]](https://plos.org/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#2555574c5344465c6555494a560b4a5742). We may take reasonable steps to verify your identity before responding, and certain requests may be limited or declined as permitted by law.
168Requests may be submitted by emailing [\[email protected\]](https://plos.org/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#4d3d3f243b2c2e340d3d21223e63223f2a). We may take reasonable steps to verify your identity before responding, and certain requests may be limited or declined as permitted by law.
169169
170170## Additional terms for European Economic Area and UK residents
171171
172172If you reside within the European Economic Area or United Kingdom, the following additional terms apply.
173173
174174### Legal basis for use of your information
194194_Consent_. Where required by law, we may process your personal information in some cases for marketing purposes on the basis of your consent (which you may withdraw at any time after giving it, as described in this privacy policy). Otherwise, email communication will be sent on an opt out basis to any recipient who has registered or signed up to PLOS services and did not opt out.
195195
196196### Your rights
197197
198198#### Deletion of personal information
199199
200You may be entitled to request that we delete your personal information in certain specific circumstances. If you wish to exercise this right, please submit your request at [\[email protected\]](https://plos.org/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#ff8f8d96899e9c86bf8f93908cd1908d98).
200You may be entitled to request that we delete your personal information in certain specific circumstances. If you wish to exercise this right, please submit your request at [\[email protected\]](https://plos.org/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#91e1e3f8e7f0f2e8d1e1fdfee2bffee3f6).
201201
202202If you are an author and have submitted a manuscript or other content to PLOS, or you are an editor or reviewer that has reviewed manuscripts or other content submitted to PLOS, some of your personal data will be retained as necessary for PLOS to establish, exercise or defend a legal claim; for archiving scientific research; for exercising the right of freedom of expression and information; and for historical purposes. We may retain your personal data for the purposes of preserving PLOS publishing standards and ethical guidelines, which authors are made aware of before submission of any manuscript or other content. Such personal data includes your name, institutional affiliation, title and email address.
203203
204204If your article has been published or posted as a preprint, the following additional personal data will be retained for purposes of archiving scientific research: author's role, ORCID iD, and any competing interests.
205205
206206We will consider all such requests and provide our response within a reasonable period (but no longer than one calendar month from our receipt of your request unless an extension of that time period is permitted under applicable law). We may require you to verify your identity before we respond to your request. Certain personal information may be exempt from such requests in certain circumstances, including as provided for in this privacy policy.
207207
208208#### Access, update, data portability and other rights
209209
210You may also be entitled to access your information, update your personal information which is out of date or incorrect, restrict use of your personal information in certain specific circumstances, place a data portability request (applicable only when we use your personal information on the basis of your consent or performance of a contract, and where our use of your information is carried out by automated means), and ask us to consider any valid objections which you have to our use of your personal information where we process it on the basis of our or another person's legitimate interest. Requests should be directed to [\[email protected\]](https://plos.org/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#ccbcbea5baadafb58cbca0a3bfe2a3beab).
210You may also be entitled to access your information, update your personal information which is out of date or incorrect, restrict use of your personal information in certain specific circumstances, place a data portability request (applicable only when we use your personal information on the basis of your consent or performance of a contract, and where our use of your information is carried out by automated means), and ask us to consider any valid objections which you have to our use of your personal information where we process it on the basis of our or another person's legitimate interest. Requests should be directed to [\[email protected\]](https://plos.org/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#ddadafb4abbcbea49dadb1b2aef3b2afba).
211211
212212We will consider all such requests and provide our response within a reasonable period (but no longer than one calendar month from our receipt of your request unless an extension of that time period is permitted under applicable law). We may require you to verify your identity before we respond to any of your requests. Certain personal information may be exempt from such requests in certain circumstances, including as provided for in this privacy policy.
213213
214214#### Complaints
215215
216You have the right to lodge a complaint to PLOS by emailing [\[email protected\]](https://plos.org/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#ef9f9d86998e8c96af9f83809cc1809d88) or to the [PLOS Speak Up Helpline](https://plos.integrityline.com/) ([https://plos.integrityline.com](https://plos.integrityline.com/)/). Complaints to the Helpline can be submitted online or by telephone.
216You have the right to lodge a complaint to PLOS by emailing [\[email protected\]](https://plos.org/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#7505071c0314160c3505191a065b1a0712) or to the [PLOS Speak Up Helpline](https://plos.integrityline.com/) ([https://plos.integrityline.com](https://plos.integrityline.com/)/). Complaints to the Helpline can be submitted online or by telephone.
217217
218218You also have a right to lodge a complaint before a supervisory data protection authority regarding our data processing. If you are in Europe, an up to date list of data protection authorities is available at [**https://edpb.europa.eu/about-edpb/board/members\_en**](https://edpb.europa.eu/about-edpb/board/members_en). If you are in the UK, the data protection authority is the UK Information Commissioner's Office available at [**https://ico.org.uk/**](https://ico.org.uk/).
219219
220220## Additional terms for China residents
221221
222222If you reside in China, the following additional terms apply. The terms "personal information" and "sensitive personal information" referred to in this privacy policy have the same meanings respectively defined under the Personal Information Protection Law of the People's Republic of China (PIPL). For personal information of residents in China, the data controller (i.e., the personal information processor as defined under the PIPL) is PLOS.
250250- Right to transfer: You have the right to request that we transfer your personal information that we hold about you to another controller to the extent the conditions stipulated by the applicable law are fulfilled.
251251
252252- Right to withdraw your consent: If you have given your consent regarding certain types of processing activities, you can withdraw this consent at any time with future effect. Such a withdrawal will not affect the lawfulness of the processing prior to the consent withdrawal or processing based on the applicable legal bases.
253253
254254- Other rights permitted by the applicable law.
255255
256If you wish to exercise the above rights, please submit your request at [\[email protected\]](https://plos.org/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#5424263d2235372d1424383b277a3b2633). We will consider all such requests and provide our response within a reasonable period (but no longer than one calendar month from our receipt of your request unless we tell you that we are entitled to a longer period under applicable law). We may require you to verify your identity before we respond to your request. Certain personal information may be exempt from such requests in certain circumstances, including as provided for in this privacy policy.
256If you wish to exercise the above rights, please submit your request at [\[email protected\]](https://plos.org/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#e494968d9285879da494888b97ca8b9683). We will consider all such requests and provide our response within a reasonable period (but no longer than one calendar month from our receipt of your request unless we tell you that we are entitled to a longer period under applicable law). We may require you to verify your identity before we respond to your request. Certain personal information may be exempt from such requests in certain circumstances, including as provided for in this privacy policy.