Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Privacy Policy:
Collection and Use of Personal Data

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) is committed to protecting the privacy of authors, preprint server Affiliates, and other users of the submission systems and websites of CSHL preprint servers. The limited personal data that are collected are never shared with advertisers and shared only as necessary with each preprint server’s technical support partners. All reasonable practices are followed to ensure the ongoing protection of the personal data of authors, Affiliates, and users that may be collected and used during manuscript ingestion, assessment, production processing, posting, and delivery of information related to various aspects of preprint server operations.

Your use of the CSHL preprint server and submission system indicates your acceptance of this Privacy Policy.

For the processing of papers submitted for posting on a preprint server, CSHL collects personal data such as author names, ORCID IDs, email addresses, affiliations, phone and fax numbers, and other details to accurately identify authors and the individual submitting a manuscript, should that person not be a coauthor on the paper.

The terms noted below provide an accounting of how personal data are collected and used for the express purposes of preparing and posting preprint content. By using a CSHL preprint server and the BenchPress manuscript submission system owned by HighWire Press Inc., authors, preprint server Affiliates, and site users agree to the privacy terms stated below as well as BenchPress’s own Acceptable Use Policy. As an author, preprint server Affiliate, or site user, if you have objections to any of the policies noted herein, you should not use a CSHL preprint server or any related services, including the BenchPress manuscript submission system.

Specifics related to the collection and use of personal data:

• Personally identifiable information: The collection of author and preprint Affiliate details is required for accurate identification in the manuscript submission system. Personal data collected at the time of submission are also used to register authors and Affiliates for accounts within the submission system. Visitors may decline to supply personally identifiable information but doing so may prevent their use of some or all of the features and functionality of the preprint site.
• Non-personally identifiable information: This is information that is neither used nor intended to be used to personally identify an individual and is neither associated with nor linked to personally identifiable information. These are data such as your Internet protocol (IP) address, browser type, browser language, and date and time of your visit.

• Cookies: “Cookies,” which are used on our sites, are small pieces of information that a website sends to your computer’s web browser while you are viewing a website. We may use both session cookies (which expire once you close your web browser) and persistent cookies (which stay on your computer until you delete them) to provide you with a more personalized and interactive experience. Persistent cookies can be removed or blocked by following the help file directions in your Internet browser. We also use login cookies that allow you to retain access for a specified period. When your cookie expires, you may need to log in again to regain access. There are also third-party cookies that may be set on the sites to deliver analytics data.
• Aggregated data: Data about the collective behavior of visitors to a preprint site may be collected and displayed. However, personally identifiable information is never disclosed other than as described herein.
• Accessing and removing personally identifiable data: Users can access the personally identifiable data we have collected about them at any time by signing into the BenchPress manuscript submission system for sites to which they have registered and clicking on their names in the header of the website. This will bring them to an Edit Personal Information page, where they can review and update their personal information. Users can request that any data they have provided to us be removed from our servers and computer networks by clicking the “contact us” link in the footer of the website.
• Third-party sharing: Author metadata are shared with third-party databases such as Crossref as part of routine indexing of posted content. Search engines index content directly from posted content on our preprint server websites.
• Personal data stored in manuscript submission systems: Author and Affiliate account profiles, with identifiable personal details, are preserved in the preprint server’s manuscript submission system after the processing of each article and are visible to authorized staff within BenchPress and HighWire Press Inc. (our online hosting service), as well as to CSHL preprint server staff. Email addresses and other personal information are never sold to third parties.
• Preprint server site hosting: Author and site user emails are collected by our online hosting service (HighWire Press Inc.) as part of the signup for receipt of new-content Alerts; email addresses collected for this purpose are not used for any purpose other than the delivery of Alerts.
• At times, information may be disclosed to CSHL consultants as required for internal business reviews.
• All other personal information collected at the manuscript submission stage, at any point during the preprint article editorial or production process, or on pages that offer to authors, Affiliates, or site users additional alerting or other services is used expressly for the stated purpose.