Privacy Policy

Last updated: 1 September 2026.

1. Scope

The Faculty of Technology Zvornik, University of East Sarajevo ("the Publisher", "we", "us" or "our") publishes the open access Journal of Engineering and Processing Management ("JEPM", "the Journal"). We are a publicly owned university faculty registered in the Republic of Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, retain and protect personal data when you use the Journal website and services, or communicate with us as an author, reviewer, editor, editorial board member, reader or other Journal user. For information about permitted and prohibited uses of our websites and services, please refer to our Terms of Use.

We have developed this Policy in accordance with the applicable data protection legislation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, including the Law on the Protection of Personal Data, and with reference to the principles of the European Union General Data Protection Regulation ("GDPR"). The GDPR is widely recognized as a leading international standard for data protection, and we are committed to applying high standards of privacy and data protection in our activities. Where terminology under the applicable legislation of Bosnia and Herzegovina differs from that used in the GDPR, this Policy uses GDPR terminology where appropriate and consistent with the applicable legal framework.

2. Information We Collect

We collect personal information in three principal ways: directly from you, from other sources, and through automated technologies. Registration on the Journal website is entirely optional and voluntary, and is intended for authors, prospective editors and reviewers, and other users who wish to contact us.

Information you provide to us

• Contact details, such as your first and last name, email address, and country of residence.
• Account login information, such as your username and information needed to maintain account security.
• Professional and academic profile information, such as your academic or job title, organization or institution, department, field of scientific interest, education and work experience, areas of expertise, previous publications and ORCID iD.
• Publishing and editorial information, such as manuscript submissions, authorship and affiliation information, reviewer reports, editorial decisions, declarations, correspondence and other material provided as part of the publishing process.
• Content and communications, such as questions, enquiries, requests and other correspondence you send us.
• Preferences relating to Journal notifications and communications, where such options are available.

Information from other sources

Where appropriate and lawful, we may obtain or verify professional and contact information from publicly available institutional or professional websites, scholarly and bibliographic databases, ORCID and similar professional identifier services, professional organizations, other authors, editors or reviewers, and service providers assisting us with the operation of the Journal. We use such information to maintain accurate professional profiles, identify appropriate reviewers or editors, and support the integrity of the publishing process.

Device and usage data

The website automatically collects certain information about your device and your interaction with it, including your IP address, browser type and version, operating system and device information, technical identifiers, date and time of access, pages visited, referring and exit pages, interactions with website features, and error and performance information. This information is collected through our servers, log files, cookies and similar technologies, and is used to operate, secure and improve the website.

3. How We Use Your Information

Depending on how you interact with the Journal, we use personal information to:

• provide, operate and manage the Journal website and services;
• create and administer user accounts and professional profiles;
• process manuscript submissions and administer peer review and editorial processes;
• invite and communicate with reviewers, editors and editorial board members;
• communicate editorial decisions, requests for revision and publication information;
• maintain accurate publication and scholarly records;
• respond to questions, requests and concerns, and provide technical and administrative support;
• notify you about changes, updates and announcements relating to the Journal;
• maintain the security, reliability and functionality of our services, and prevent unauthorized access, fraud and abuse;
• understand general patterns of website use and improve our services;
• comply with legal obligations, and establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

Where we use aggregated or anonymized information for statistical purposes, we take reasonable steps to ensure that individuals cannot be identified from it.

We do not sell or rent personal information. We do not display advertising on the Journal website, and we do not use your information for advertising purposes. We do not process payments, as JEPM charges no fees to authors or readers.

4. Publicly Available Information

JEPM is an open access journal, and openness carries consequences for personal data that you should understand before submitting.

When an article is published, information forming part of the scholarly record is published with it and becomes permanently and publicly available. This normally includes author names, institutional affiliations, ORCID iDs and, for the corresponding author, an email address. This is inherent to open access publishing and to the citation and indexing of scholarly work, and it cannot be reversed once an article is published and indexed.

The names and affiliations of editors and editorial board members are published on the Editorial Board page.

Peer review at JEPM is double-blind. Reviewer identities are not disclosed to authors, and author identities are not disclosed to reviewers.

Beyond the information described above, authors, co-authors, editors and reviewers may choose what further profile information to make available to other users.

5. Email Communications

Email is an essential part of Journal operations. We may use your email address to confirm account registration or changes, acknowledge manuscript submissions, invite you to review, send reviewer reminders, communicate editorial decisions, request revisions, communicate publication and production matters, respond to enquiries, and send other communications necessary to administer the Journal.

We do not use Journal contact information for unsolicited commercial communications. Where optional announcement or newsletter communications are offered, you may withdraw at any time by using the unsubscribe link in the message or by emailing us at jepm@tfzv.ues.rs.ba.

6. Sharing of Your Information

We share personal information only where reasonably necessary to operate the Journal and provide its services.

Service providers

We may provide information to trusted providers performing services on our behalf, including website and hosting providers, the journal management platform, email delivery providers, plagiarism detection services used to screen submitted manuscripts, cloud storage and backup providers, and IT, security and technical support providers. These providers may process personal information only as necessary to provide their services, and subject to applicable contractual and legal safeguards.

Scholarly and publishing services

Information necessary to maintain and disseminate the scholarly record may be provided to indexing and abstracting services, DOI and persistent identifier providers, scholarly databases, repositories and preservation archives, and libraries. The services that index JEPM are listed on the Indexing and Archiving page.

Legal reasons

We may disclose personal information where we have a good-faith belief that disclosure is necessary to comply with applicable law, regulation or legal process; to detect, investigate or prevent fraud, security incidents or technical problems; to protect the rights, property or safety of the Publisher, the Journal or our users; or to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

7. International Processing

Some of our service providers, and some of the indexing, identifier and preservation services described above, operate outside Bosnia and Herzegovina. Where personal data is transferred internationally, we take reasonable steps to ensure that appropriate safeguards are applied and that the information remains protected in accordance with applicable data protection law. Such safeguards may include contractual protections, data processing agreements and other lawful transfer mechanisms.

8. Cookies and Similar Technologies

The website uses cookies and similar technologies to maintain login sessions, support website security, remember technical preferences, understand website usage and monitor performance.

You can control cookies through your browser settings. Most browsers accept cookies automatically, but you can usually change this. Blocking certain cookies may prevent you from registering, logging in, or using some features of the website.

9. Data Retention

We retain personal information for as long as reasonably necessary to provide our services and fulfil the purposes described in this Policy.

Information associated with published articles is retained for a substantially longer period, and in some cases indefinitely, because it forms part of the permanent scholarly record. When personal information is no longer required, we delete, anonymize or securely dispose of it where reasonably practicable.

10. Data Security

We take reasonable technical and organizational measures to safeguard personal information against loss, theft, misuse and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration or destruction. Sensitive information is transmitted in encrypted form.

You will need a password to access certain parts of the website. Keeping that password confidential is your responsibility, and it should not be shared with anyone.

Although we take reasonable precautions, no internet transmission or electronic storage system can be guaranteed to be completely secure.

11. Legal Grounds for Processing

Depending on the circumstances and applicable law, we process personal information because:

• processing is necessary to provide a service or administer your relationship with the Journal;
• processing is necessary to comply with a legal obligation;
• processing is necessary for our legitimate interests, including operating the publishing process, maintaining scholarly records, communicating with professional contributors and protecting our systems; or
• you have given consent, where consent is required.

Where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw that consent subject to applicable law. Withdrawal does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before it.

12. Your Rights

Subject to applicable law, you may have the right to request access to your personal information; request correction of inaccurate or incomplete information; request deletion or restriction of processing where legally applicable; object to certain processing; withdraw consent where processing is based on it; and exercise other rights provided by applicable data protection legislation.

You can correct or update most of your own information at any time through your user account. Your email address serves as your login and cannot be changed directly; contact us if it needs to be updated. You may request closure of your account at any time.

These rights are subject to legal exceptions. In particular, information forming part of the published scholarly record may need to be retained even where deletion is requested, as described in section 4.

For questions about this Policy, or to make a request concerning your personal information, contact the Faculty of Technology Zvornik, University of East Sarajevo, at jepm@tfzv.ues.rs.ba. Please use the subject line Privacy Request where possible. We may ask for information necessary to verify your identity before responding. We will respond within a reasonable time.

You may also have the right to lodge a complaint with the competent data protection supervisory authority in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

13. Third-Party Websites and Services

Our website may contain links to external websites, databases, repositories, indexing services and other platforms. Once you follow such a link, we have no control over that website and cannot be responsible for the protection or privacy of any information you provide there. This Policy does not apply to third parties, and you should review the privacy policy of any third-party service before providing it with personal information.

Where the website embeds social media features or widgets, those features may collect your IP address and the page you are visiting, and may set a cookie in order to function. Your interactions with them are governed by the privacy policy of the company providing them.

14. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Policy to reflect changes in our services, publishing practices, technology, service providers or applicable law. The current version is published on the Journal website and shows the date of the latest revision. Where we make material changes, we will give notice on this page 30 calendar days before the change takes effect.