Policies

The Journal is Open Access. No fee is charged to view, download, or print articles. There is no print edition. The online edition has ISSN 2575-8527, and is available at the website https://journalprivacyconfidentiality.org/. Readers may subscribe to the Journal via a notification system.

Publishing schedule

The Journal strives for three publications per year, dependent on submissions of sufficient quality. In addition, the Journal publishes special issues on certain topics, such as the Theory and Practice of Differential Privacy (TPDP) workshops.

Peer review process

All submissions are peer-reviewed; editorials and sundry materials are the exceptions, and are clearly marked. We rely on the volunteer effort by our peers for input.

Section policies

Editorial

Section Open Submissions Indexed Peer Reviewed Explanation
Articles Checked Checked Checked  
Perspectives Unchecked Checked Checked Shorter articles, limited peer review, provide context. Generally solicited, inquire before submitting.
Editorial Unchecked Checked Unchecked  
Conference issues Unchecked Checked Checked Submission is restricted to attendees.
Sundry Unchecked Unchecked Unchecked Used for informational items
Reminiscences Unchecked Checked Unchecked Special article used in reminiscences and commemorative issues (see Vol 8 No 1)

Reviewing Process

Every editor will seek at least two timely expert opinions for submissions. Peer review is single-blind: The authors' names are not blinded, the reviewers' names are kept confidential. The reviewer guidelines are posted on our website.

Timeliness of Peer-Review Process

While we strive for quick turnaround, we do not control the time reviewers take to complete their tasks. The current turnaround goals are listed as part of the reviewer guidelines.

Ownership

The Journal is owned by the Society for Privacy and Confidentiality Research (SPCR), a 501(c)(3) organization incorporated in the state of Pennsylvania. Further information, including how to become a member of SPCR can be found on the [Society's website] (https://socprivconfresearch.org/).

Management and Governance

SPCR appoints the JPC's Editor-in-Chief, Managing Editor, and Editorial Board. It recognizes JPC's editorial independence in selecting material to be reviewed and published in accordance with the policies outlined on this website, which the SPCR has approved.

Editorial Board

The Editor-in-Chief chairs the Editorial Board, supervises the assignment of a member of the board to handle the review of a submission, ensures the compliance of all board members with the Journal's conflict of interest policies, and makes all final decisions regarding publication.

The Managing Editor handles the day-to-day operations of the Journal, including convening the Editorial Board and ensuring the timely progress of manuscripts through the review and publication process. The Managing Editor is a member of the Editorial Board.

The Editorial Board handles the regular business of the Journal. Appointments are normally 3 years, renewable. The size of the Editorial Board is determined by SPCR. Current membership is available on our website.

Members of the Editorial Board solicit and encourage submissions to the Journal. They are jointly responsible for the content of the Journal, unless an issue specifically designates a subset of the Editorial Board. Co-chairs of the Organizing and Program Committee of the TPDP workshop are ex-officio members of the Editorial Board. The main organizing co-chair of TPDP is the editor of the current year's TPDP special issue. The Editorial Board has control over the selection of referees for all manuscripts subject to the conflict of interest policies.

Author fees

Effective with submissions from April 1, 2025, the JPC charges a publication fee of $500 for accepted manuscripts. This is clearly noted on the Submission page. There are no fees for submission.

Revenue sources

SPCR is the publisher of JPC since July 1, 2024 (see editorial). Information about the Society's finances can be found on the SPCR's website. Revenue sources include membership fees, donations, and publication fees.

Advertising

The Journal does not accept advertisements.

Direct Marketing

The Journal does not engage in marketing activities.

The Journal's copyright policy is stated on our Submission page. Each article also identifies the specific license under which it was published. By submitting to this Journal, the author(s) license the article under the ]Creative Commons License – Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), unless choosing a more lenient license (for instance, public domain).

Process for identification of and dealing with allegations of research misconduct

The Journal and its editors strongly discourage any attempt at plagiarism, citation manipulation, and data falsification/fabrication, among others. If we detect such behavior, or are made aware of any allegation of research misconduct relating to a published article in their Journal, we shall follow COPE’s guidelines in dealing with allegations.

Publication Ethics

The Journal adheres to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing. In particular:

Journal policies on authorship and contributorship

The Journal requires that each author be aware of the contents of the entire article and its submission status, and that each author materially contribute to the creation of the paper (see Submission page). The submitting author explicitly confirms this, on behalf of all authors, upon submission.

Journal financial and conflict-of-interest policies

These policies apply to members of the Editorial Board and reviewers.

The JPC depends strongly on the actual and perceived fairness of its review process. To that end, those involved in that process must declare potential conflicts of interest, and these must be adjudicated by either the Editor-in-Chief or the Board of Directors of the Society for Privacy and Confidentiality Research (SPCR). Furthermore, the SPCR is committed to the principle that there be no personal gain from Editorial Board service other than modest stipends to the Editor-in-Chief and Managing Editor.

Conflicts of Interest

A conflict of interest (COI) is a set of conditions under which the primary interest of JPC in publishing high-quality, high-impact papers may be, or may be perceived to be, influenced by secondary professional or personal interests.

In general, COIs involving JPC editors and authors fall into the following classes:

    1. Individual relationships
    • a. Current or past (within five years) professional relationships, for example, as collaborators, co-authors, Ph.D. students, and Ph.D. or postdoc advisors.
    • b. Current or past (within five years) personal relationships, for example, as family members, or conflict/rivalry.
    1. Institutional relationships, principally from having the same current or past (within five years) employer.
    1. Financial relationships, for example, as business partners, or financial interests, the latter excluding vicarious ownership through pooled investment products.

Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest

All conflicts involving Editorial Board members must be fully and promptly disclosed:

  • In the case of Editorial Board members, to the Editor-in-Chief;
  • In the case of the Editor-in-Chief, to the President of SPCR.

Response to Disclosed Conflicts of Interest

If the COI is disclosed by an Editorial Board member, the Editor-in-Chief will determine the response, which in general will be either:

  • That the COI is not substantive, in which case the review process may proceed; or
  • That the COI is substantive, and the paper in question will be re-assigned to another member of the Editorial Board who has no COI. In this case, the conflicted Editorial Board member may make no attempt, formal or informal, to influence the review process.

If the COI is disclosed by the Editor-in-Chief, the President of the SPCR Board of Directors will instruct the Managing Editor to make all final decisions for the paper in question.

Failure to Disclosure

An Editor-in-Chief or Editorial Board member who fails to disclose a substantive COI will be removed immediately. The SPCR Board of Directors will determine whether further action, such as retraction of the paper, is warranted.

COIs Involving Referees

Requests to referees will include the following language: "If you feel there is any potential conflict of interest in your refereeing this paper because of your relationship with the author (s), whether professional, personal or financial, or for any other reason, please declare it. For additional guidance see [link to the JPC conflict of interest policy]. By accepting this invitation, you are asserting there is no potential conflict of interest."

For the policies that apply to the authors of submitted manuscripts see JPC Disclosure Policy.

Complaints and appeals

Should authors have complaints about the behavior of any Journal editor, reviewer, or staff member, they should first attempt to contact the Managing Editor (see Contact page). Should that not resolve the issue, the complainant may contact COPE or the Managing Editor's employer.

Journal policies on data sharing and reproducibility

The Journal strongly encourages transparency. The Journal’s Code and Data Availability Policy is part of the Submission Guidelines.

Other policies

The Journal does not have explicit policies on ethical oversight or on intellectual property.

Options for post-publication discussions and corrections

The Journal does not host any forum for post-publication discussions. We may, subject to our Submission Guidelines, publish comments or discussions of articles published in the Journal. Authors may request corrections to their articles, which will be posted in addition to the original manuscript. Articles may be retracted, in which case a notice will replace the manuscript.

Archiving

The Journal subscribes to CLOCKSS, the community governed and supported digital preservation archive for scholarly content. The Journal is also archived on the WayBack Machine. Most of the Journal's manuscripts are also available on non-public Github repositories at https://github.com/journalprivacyconfidentiality in LaTeX source code.