Privacy policy
This policy was last updated on 30/09/2024.
This is the privacy policy (“policy”) for springernature.com which is run and provided Springer-Verlag GmbH, Heidelberg, Zweigniederlassung der Springer-Verlag GmbH Berlin, Europaplatz 3, D-69115 Heidelberg, Germany (we, us and our).
We can also be contacted at customerservice@springernature.com.
We will only use the personal data gathered over this website as set out in this policy. Below you will find information on how we use your personal data, for which purposes your personal data is used, with whom it is shared and what control and information rights you may have
I. Summary of our processing activities
We publish scholarly journals, books, news and data. Some of this material is freely available; some of it is only available to subscribers. The following summary offers a quick overview of the data processing activities that are undertaken on our website. You will find more detailed information under the indicated sections below.
- When you visit our website for informational reasons without setting up an account, only limited personal data will be processed to provide you with the website itself (see III).
- If you are identified as belonging to a customer organisation then we collect information in order to be able to provide usage reporting to that customer.
- In case you register for one of our services, use the submission and peer review systems or subscribe to our newsletters, further personal data will be processed in the scope of such services (see IV and V).
- Furthermore, your personal data will be used to provide you with relevant advertising for our services and products (see VII) and for statistical analysis that helps us to improve our website (see VIII). Additionally, we improve your website experience with third party content (see IX).
- Your personal data may be disclosed to third parties (see X) that might be located outside your country of residence; potentially, different data protection standards may apply (see XII).
- We have implemented appropriate safeguards to secure your personal data (see XIII) and retain your personal data only as long as necessary (see XIII).
- Under the legislation applicable to you, you may be entitled to exercise certain rights with regard to the processing of your personal data (see XIV).
II. Definitions
Personal data: means any information relating to a natural person who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, or an online identifier.
Processing: means any operation which is performed on personal data, such as collection, recording, organisation, structuring, storage, adaptation or any kind of disclosure or other use.
III. Informational use of the website
When you visit our website for informational reasons, i.e. without registering for any of our provided services listed under IV and without providing us with personal data in any other form, we may automatically collect additional information about you which will contain personal data only in limited cases and which is automatically recognised by our server, such as:
Examples might include:
- your IP address;
- your device type, name and IDs;
- the date and time of your requests;
- the content of your requests;
- information on your browser version;
- your screen resolution;
- information on your operating system, including language settings.
We use such information only to assist us in providing an effective service (e.g. to adapt our website to the needs of your device or to allow you to log in to our website), and to collect broad demographic information for anonymised, aggregated use.
If you are identified by IP or equivalent method as belonging to a customer organisation such as university or a company then we will also collect the identity of that organisation and use it to create usage reports which show the organisation how much of the content we publish is being read by their students, members or employees. This information does not contain anything related to a personal login unless (a) you are a nominated administrator for that organisation or (b) your organisation specifically requires it as a part of a usage-based access contract.
The personal data automatically collected is necessary for us to provide the website, Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. b GDPR, and for our legitimate interest to guarantee the website’s stability and security, Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. f GDPR.
IV. Registration for our services
Access to subscription content is provided via a variety of mechanisms such as IP site licenses, login via third party federated identity providers or by a personal account with us. Using the federated authentication method institutional selection data may be stored locally in your browser and shared with third party websites that you visit to ease the process of institutional authentication. If your access to our content is provided by an organisation or an institution like a university or a company then they choose the access method on your behalf. A personal account is required to purchase content directly from us, or to receive personal services like newsletters and alerts.
If you need to create a personal login with us then we will store and process the following:
- Information (such as your name, user name and email address) that is provided by registration;
- Information in connection with an account sign-in facility (e.g. log-in and password details);
- Communications sent by you (e.g. via e-mail or website communication forms).
The information that is necessary for the performance of the service is labelled accordingly. All further information is provided voluntarily.
We will process the personal data you provide to:
- Identify you at sign-in;
- Provide you with the services and information offered through the website or which you request;
- Administer your account;
- Communicate with you;
- (behavioural) Advertising and profiling;
- Facilitate attendance of a conference;
- Manage manuscript submissions;
- Provide access (where appropriate) to other Springer Nature group content if you so request
- Facilitate and communicate with you about your request to recommend a Springer Nature journal to your library
- User Research: To undertake research by examining user behavior to inform product and design decisions. For more information please visit - https://uxresearch.springernature.com/
- To provide you with a transfer offer to a relevant Springer Nature journal in the event that your initial submission is not accepted.
For this, the legal basis is Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. b GDPR. The use of your personal data for behavioural advertising and profiling is done with consent, Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. a GDPR.
We use the personal data and contact data you provide by registration to inform you directly about our additional products and services. The use of your personal data for directly advertising related products and services is with consent, Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. a GDPR.
You can object to the use of your personal data for direct marketing at any time. We will then refrain from any processing to the extent it is related to such purposes. You may opt-out of direct marketing via opt-out links in any marketing communication or via user profile pages on the website (where available). You can also inform us about your objection by contacting our Data Protection Office at dataprotection@springernature.com.
Registration data is kept until such time as an account deletion request is made. If such a request is received we will erase your data within 30 days. Statutory storage obligations or the need for legal actions that may arise from misconduct within the services or payment problems can lead to a longer retention of your personal data. In this case, we will inform you accordingly
V. Information about the specific uses that require registration/identification
1. Blogs
You can publicly comment on our blog where we post a variety of articles to inform you about our activities. When posting a comment your name or user name will be made public. To be able to comment on our blog you will have to register as described in IV.
In addition to the extent of processing described under IV, when you post a comment we will retain some of your personal data such as your IP address and name and other metadata such as time of posting. This is necessary to defend ourselves from possible liability claims that may arise from unlawful comments posted by you and reflects our legitimate interest with regard to the legal justification of this processing activity in Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. f GDPR.
We reserve the right to delete comments that are off-topic, spam, abusive, use excessive foul language, include ad hominem attacks or offend against legal regulations.
2. Webshop
For the use of our web shop you have to set up an account as described under IV. Your customer account retains your personal data for future purchases. You can delete the personal data as well as the account in your account’s settings. This processing is based on Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. b.
By statutory law we are required to retain the provided financial data in relation to transactions (including address, payment and order information) for ten years. However, after 2 years we will restrict the processing of your personal data to comply with the statutory requirements and will not process the personal data any further. Regarding this, the retention of your personal data is based on Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. c GDPR.
When purchasing a product that requires shipping we may share the delivery data with a Contractor to provide shipment tracking to you. Such a transfer will be based on data processing agreements in accordance with Article 28 of the GDPR. Therefore, our Contractors will only use your personal data to the extent necessary to perform their functions and will be contractually bound to process your personal data only on our behalf and in compliance with our requests.
3. Article alerts and newsletters
With your email address you can subscribe to our newsletters that provide you with the latest news about our products and services if you consent to receiving such newsletters. The legal basis for this processing is Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. a GDPR. Your email address will be retained as long as you subscribe to our newsletters.
You can unsubscribe from this service by opting out via the link provided in each newsletter.
You can sign up for newsletters and request to be contacted about our products and services via Facebook. For this purpose, we are using Facebook Lead Ads, a service by Facebook Inc., 1601 South California Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94304 U.S. ("Facebook"). Lead Ads makes it even easier for you to sign up to newsletters and request to be contacted as the form will already be pre-populated via Facebook with your data and you only need to submit the form. Of course, you have the opportunity to amend and review the data before submission. For more information on how lead ads works see here - https://www.facebook.com/business/ads/lead-ads.
The legal basis for this processing is Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. a GDPR. Your email address will be retained as long as you subscribe to our newsletters or until you request the removal of your email address.
You can unsubscribe from newsletters by opting out via the link provided in each newsletter. If you inquired about a product or service and no longer wish to be contacted, you can email onlineservice@springernature.com, citing the name of the product or service, and request that your email address be removed.
4. Manuscript submission and Peer Review
Our Submission and Peer Review System offers the services of peer review, content preparation and proofing, publication and dissemination of research. In order to use the aforementioned services you have to set up an initial account. Where optional paid services may be engaged, you will be prompted to set up an additional, or enhance an existing account.
With regard to the registration of an account and its subsequent use, we process the following information.
- Information that is provided by registration such as your name, user name and email address.
- Information in connection with an account sign-in facility, e.g. log-in and password details;
- Communications sent by you, e.g. via e-mail or website communication forms.
- Content files and covering letters provided by you
- Grants, funding, membership, institution, society, committee registration
- Billing or invoicing information
- Information received from societies we work with, e.g. address, name, email address
The information that is necessary for the performance of the service is labelled accordingly.
We will process the personal data you provide in order to:
- Identify you at sign-in;
- Administer your account;
- Provide you with the services and information offered through the Submission and Peer Review System or which you additionally request;
- Communicate with you;
- Process payments
- Provide information to you as an Author about other publishing opportunities, with the Springer Nature group, you can stop these communications at any time by clicking the link in each email or contacting customer services;
- Communicate with you in your capacity as a current or potential Peer Reviewer, Editorial Board Member, or external Editor to provide information about the journal (s) and content you have worked on; you can stop these communications to you as a Peer Reviewer, Editorial Board Member, or external Editor at any time by clicking the link in each email or contacting Customer Service at customerservice@springernature.com . Stopping these communications will not affect your status as Peer Reviewer, Editorial Board Member or external Editor with respect to the journal.
- Create a profile of your publication record based on publicly available data, such as published books and articles, citations and grants awarded. This information will not be used to determine article acceptance, nor will it be used for automated decision making (see section VI for more information on automated decision making). This information will be used to personalise communications and provide you with the latest news about our products and services;
- To ensure the accuracy of content attribution and the quality and integrity of the peer review process
- Provide you with e-alerts
- Offer to transfer your submission to an alternative Springer Nature title if applicable
- Authorise and process Article Publication Charges (APCs)
For this, the legal basis is Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. b GDPR, and for our legitimate interest in optimizing our services and preventing fraud, Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. f GDPR.
Your personal account registration data is, in the absence of exceptions within the specific services mentioned, retained for as long as your account is used. Non-activity is defined at a minimum of three years, to facilitate ease-of-return for account holders. Content and communications, associated with submissions, reviews or decisions made by an account holder is held for a period of 12 months following final decision before being stored within long term limited-access archiving. Content may be engaged in relation to the services provided and in the interests of the integrity of published material. Such a decision will be made under the oversight of the Springer Nature Research Integrity Group. The need for legal actions within the services or payment problems can lead to a longer retention of your personal data.
In order to ensure the high quality of our journals and publications as well as the significance of the scientific research published, we have implemented a peer review procedure.
In order to find and contact suitable and qualified peer reviewers within the relevant research community, editorial team members may process some of your basic personal data (i.e. Email address, name and research interest) to register you for our Peer Review System. The legal basis for processing your personal data is our and the Publisher’s or the respective editor’s legitimate interest in finding and contacting suitable and qualified peer reviewers to ensure the high level of papers and articles published in our journals, Art. 6 (1) sent. 1 lit. f GDPR.
As a Peer Reviewer or external Editorial Board Member we will contact you from time to time about the journal(s) and content that you have worked on, Art. 6 (1) sent. 1 lit. f.
If you do not wish to be contacted any longer, you can contact us at customerservice@springernature.com. Please note that we may keep some of your personal data to recall your explicit wish to not be contacted for any peer review procedure in the future and thus, to prevent any future processing of your data in this regard. The legal basis for this is our and your legitimate interest in recalling your wish and preventing any future contacting, Article 6 (1) sent. 1 lit. f GDPR.
5. Author and instructor services
If you use the author and instructor services the required data are retained for the duration of the process plus a security period. Regarding this, the retention of your personal data is based on Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. b GDPR. Certain services are supplied by AJE – American Journal Experts. AJE is owned by Springer Nature and there is an inter group data sharing agreement in place to support the transfer of personal data.
If you have qualified for an author discount for purchasing books, the retention periods of the web shop are applicable (see above).
To request a free online review copy of a book we use the contact data in your account to process the request.
6. Participation in product pilots, beta services
You may participate in pilots or gain access to prototypes before launch of a new product. Participation is subject to specific terms and conditions, to be able to join you need to consent to those and the collection of the (personal) data categories listed in the prototype description.
We will store this consent and any information provided by you during the use of the prototype (including, but not limited to, login details and history, feedback provided by you, chat histories, recordings of calls you may have joined) for the period and purposes defined in the pilot description and create reports from your feedback to enable further development of the planned product. We will pseudonymize your input as soon as possible and will not publish or share any input in a form that is attributable to the contributing individual.
You may revoke your consent and quit the pilot at any time, a contact to do so is published in the pilot description.
7. Customer service
If you contact us by either
- e-mail or physical mail
- telephone or fax
- Chat/messaging support
- through a website communication or submission form
we will process the personal data you provide to process and fulfil your request. For this, the legal basis is Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. a and b GDPR.
To provide the requested service your data may be stored in a ticketing system and/or on a support platform to enable data access by the relevant customer support team member. Where appropriate the data will also be forwarded to a different team to fulfil the request (e.g. to update your data) or be used on physical data records, e.g. invoices. We may use generative AI to support us in providing the response or service requested; any output is subject to human oversight before being used.
We use Freshdesk (provided by Freshworks GmbH, Neue Grünstraße 17, 10179 Berlin, Germany) as a ticketing system to store and process your requests. Depending on the region you call from and team providing support we use different telephony solutions. For the most part, customers contacting customer service are directed to our level 1 teams at our Philippines-based data processor Straive (77 Robinson Road, # 13-00 Singapore 068896), if necessary, the service ticket is forwarded to a local level 2 Springer Nature Customer Service team or another relevant team at Springer Nature.
We do not process any sensitive data unless provided by you because you e.g. need support in coping with access issues due to a disability or reveal any protected characteristics during communication. For this, the legal basis is Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. a GDPR.
We share anonymous, aggregated data within the business. We forward emails internally, or provide access to tickets for other teams to e.g. share positive feedback with a stakeholder, or for review by internal teams seeking to improve the products and services. For this the legal basis is Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. f GDPR and represents our legitimate interest to improve our service quality and provide tailored solutions to the customers.
We store your data until completion of the request and, if applicable, as long as required by statutory retention requirements (e.g. for 3 years after completion to prove adequate handling of service requests or subject access requests made under the GDPR).
VI. Automated decision making
We do not use your personal data for automated decision making which produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you; however we do use your personal data to offer you content and services which we believe may be of interest.
VII. Online advertising, e-commerce and related tools
We use marketing services to provide you with interesting offers. For this purpose, we place advertisements via advertising service providers that use cookies and/or web beacons that are activated when you visit our website. Cookies are small text files that are stored locally in the internet browser and allow recognition of a user. Web beacons are small image files, which allow log file recording and log file analysis. To present online advertising we use the services of, inter alia, Google AdExchange, Google AdSens. Respective advertisement is labelled as “ADVERTISEMENT” or “AdChoices”.
The cookies and web beacons enable our service providers to collect information about you and your surfing behaviour, e.g. IP address, browser information, information on user activities and click data, and to recognize visitors to our website under a pseudonym and only display products that are likely to be of interest to our visitors. Most of the tools use pseudonymised or aggregated data, e.g. shortened IP addresses. The data is used to analyse the use of our website and, thereby, improve and optimize the website and to display advertising tailored to your needs. We collect this data (to improve your website experience and to promote our products and services). You can update your preferences via the “Your Privacy Choices / Manage Cookies” link in the page footer.
Personal data collected via first party cookies is based on consent, Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. a GDPR, to improve your website experience and promote our products and services. We collect this data via a cookie management tool; you can update your preferences via the “Your Privacy Choices / Manage Cookies” link in the page footer.
Personal data collected via third party targeting cookies is based on your consent, Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. a GDPR. You can update your preferences via the “Your Privacy Choices / Manage Cookies” link in the page footer.
Please note that we neither have the control of the extent of personal data that is collected by the respective plug-in provider nor do we know the processing’s purpose or the period your personal data will be retained. Your personal data will be transferred to and processed inside and outside of the EEA. For further information about the potential risks of a cross border data transfer refer to XI.
It is possible that the above providers may disclose your personal data to its business partners, third parties or authorities.
You can prevent the installation of such a cookie (i) by a respective setting of your browser that blocks the installation of third party cookies, (ii) by deactivating the interest-related advertising under https://www.google.co.uk/ads/preferences, (iii) generally blocking cookies under https://www.google.co.uk/settings/ads/plugin or (iv) by deselecting the option for tracking cookies via the Springer Nature cookie preference centre.
Google AdWords Remarketing and Facebook Custom Audience
In this Website, we use the remarketing or “Similar audiences” feature of AdWords offered by Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043 USA, hereinafter referred to as “Google”
Google uses Cookies/tracking technologies, i.e., text files that are stored on your computer and that allow us to analyze your use of our Website. Information generated by Cookies/tracking technology on your use of this Website (including your IP address) will be transferred to a Google server in the U.S. and stored on that server. After that, the last three digits of the IP address will be deleted by Google so that it is no longer possible to clearly match this IP address with personal data. Google will use this information to analyze your use of the Website, to create website activity reports for the website operators and to provide additional services in connection with the use of the Website and the Internet. Furthermore, Google may transfer this information to third parties, if it is required to do so in accordance with statutory provisions or if third parties process data on behalf of Google.
Third party providers, including Google, place advertisements on websites on the Internet. Third party providers, including Google, use stored Cookies/tracking information to place advertisements based on previous visits of a user on this Website.
For additional information on the anonymous analysis of your search behaviour please refer to:
- https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6004245?hl=de
- http://www.google.com/policies/technologies/ads/
You may object to data collection and storage for the purpose of remarketing at any time - this objection will be effective for the future, but not retroactively - by deactivating interest-based advertising in Google or by deactivating the services on the website of the Network Advertising Initiative. Note: in that case, you may not be able to use all features of this Website anymore. By using this Website, you grant your consent to the processing of data collected about you by Google in the manner and for the purpose described above.
Furthermore, this Website uses retargeting tags and Custom Audience of Facebook Inc., 1601 South California Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94304 U.S., hereinafter referred to as “Facebook”.
When you visit our web pages, remarketing tags will build a direct connection between your browser and the Facebook server. This way, Facebook learns that you have visited our web page with your IP address. This will enable Facebook to match your visit of our pages with your user account. The information obtained this way can be used to display Facebook ads. Please note that we as the provider of the webpages do not receive any information on the contents of data transferred and their use by Facebook.
With regard to the use of Custom Audience we would like to point out that Facebook and third parties use cookies, web beacons or similar technologies to collect or gather information on this Website. Based on the data gained we can make our Facebook activities more efficient and, e.g., arrange for contents or ads to be shown only to visitors of our Website. The data collected this way will be encrypted and transferred to Facebook and is anonymous for us, e.g., we cannot see personal data of individual users.
For further information on the privacy policy of Facebook and Custom Audience please refer to https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/ or https://www.facebook.com/business/a/online-sales/custom-audiences-website.
If you do not wish your data to be collected via Custom Audience, you can deactivate Custom Audience using this link.
Targeted online advertising using email address and third party advertising platforms
With your consent, we may occasionally run online advertising activities targeting you specifically by utilising personal information you have shared with us, namely your email address. This allows us to advertise in the most relevant way, promoting products, services and opportunities that we deem beneficial to you.
The legal basis for this processing is Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. a GDPR, consent to the use of your email address for this purpose, including its transfer to third party advertising platforms.
This targeting method may be used on the following third party advertising platforms:
Meta, Google, LinkedIn, Twitter, Microsoft ads and Criteo.
Your personal data may be transferred outside of the EU to countries with varying data protection regulations.
To enable this, your personal data is shared in an encrypted form (hashed data). This means that you can only be identified by these companies if you have previously registered with them, adhering to their data processing terms and conditions. If you haven’t, your personal data will remain encrypted, protecting you from any identification thus not allowing this type of targeting method. In the same way, only personal data already shared with these platforms will be matched.
Depending on the platform, ads can be served on social media feeds, on third party websites/mobile applications or as sponsored links on search engines results pages.
If you no longer wish your personal data to be used in this manner, you can email onlineservice@springernature.com, and request that your consent be removed. Equally, you can stop emails by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of any email you receive. Related digital advertising can also be stopped directly via the third party platform.
Freshdesk
We use Freshdesk to manage our communications with authors. Freshdesk is provided by Freshworks Inc., 2950 S. Delaware Street, Suite 201, San Mateo, CA 94403, USA. Privacy Policy.
When you receive a transfer offer from a relevant Springer Nature journal, Freshdesk receives your name, email address and country details. We will only use this data to communicate with you about transferring your paper, and neither we nor Freshworks will disclose your personal data to third parties.”
Hotjar
Hotjar is a behaviour and analytics software provided by Hotjar LTD, Dragonara Business Centre, 5th Floor, Dragonara Road, Paceville St Julian's STJ 3141 Malta.
We use Hotjar in order to better understand our users’ needs and to optimize our service and experience. Hotjar is a technology service that helps us better understand our users’ experience (e.g. how much time they spend on which pages, which links they choose to click, what users do and don’t like, etc.) and this enables us to build and maintain our service with user feedback. Hotjar uses cookies and other technologies to collect data on our users’ behaviour and their devices and may include recording of sample behaviours. This includes a device's IP address (processed during your session and stored in a de-identified form), device screen size, device type (unique device identifiers), browser information, geographic location (country only), and the preferred language used to display our website. Hotjar stores this information on our behalf in a pseudonymized user profile. Hotjar is contractually forbidden to sell any of the data collected on our behalf. The legal basis for this processing is Art. 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. a GDPR and reflects your consent to non-essential cookies.
HubSpot and SAP Marketing Cloud (SMC)
HubSpot and SMC use cookies, Google Analytics, and a pseudonymized user ID to aggregate user behaviour on the website and in emails in order to personalize the content that is provided to newsletter subscribers. Google Analytics does not receive individual email addresses or other personal data, only a number. That number can only be connected to a specific user on Springer Nature's systems. The legal basis for this process is your consent to the use of cookies on our website (Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. a GDPR.). You can always unsubscribe from this process by rejecting the cookies that measure website use.
Twilio Segment
Twilio Segment is a Customer Data Platform, which facilitates the aggregation of user data from different systems. We use Segment to better understand the touchpoints our customers have across the Springer Nature landscape and facilitate more personalized marketing. The personal data shared with Twilio is for the most part based on consent and in other cases legitimate interest, Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. a and f GDPR. For more information on how Twilio Segment processes personal data, see their privacy policy here.