Last updated: August 20, 2024

ivySCI is committed to maintaining you and your privacy. This privacy policy explains how we collect, use, and share your personal information to earn your trust.

About Our Privacy Policy

This privacy policy applies to our website, ivySCI APP (all desktop versions and iOS versions), and Word/WPS plugin ivyCite, including projects and activities that mention or link to this privacy policy (collectively, "Services"). This policy may be supplemented by other privacy statements, terms, or notices provided to you. QingTeng GeZhi Company (Nanjing QingTeng GeZhi Information Technology Co., Ltd.) owns and manages this privacy policy and assumes corresponding responsibilities.

Information We Collect

We collect your information in three ways: your input, third-party sources, and through technology.

When you create an ivySCI account, you have a personal library to save your personal research data, such as saved literature, bibliographic records, and notes you can make for your literature, as well as tags for literature and notes.

When logging in with WeChat, WeChat will authorize us to obtain your WeChat nickname and avatar information, as well as the personal identification ID (WeChat openid) provided by WeChat. We use the WeChat nickname and avatar to help you distinguish your account information so that you can correctly distinguish your account when switching accounts.

When logging in with a mobile phone, we will collect your phone number. The phone number will not be sold or shared with third parties unless required by the government or legal departments in the operating location of ivySCI.

With an ivySCI account, you have an ivySCI identity, which will publicly display your nickname and avatar (if any) to help others find and contact you on ivySCI.

Information You Provide to Us

The types of personal information we collect directly from you depend on the content and features of the services you use and how you interact with us, and may include:

Contact details, such as your name, email address, phone number.
Other account registration and profile information, including education, professional and other background information, such as your research field, current position, practice area and interest area, gender, ORCID ID, and photo.
Content you upload and share or store in your account, such as literature, bibliographic records, notes, tags, annotations (colors, etc.).
Payment information, such as credit card or debit card numbers, Alipay payment records, WeChat payment records, and Alipay payment records.
Information you communicate with us, such as questions or information you send to customer support.
Data you provide to us as part of interacting with the service, such as your favorites and search queries; and/or
Communication preferences, such as your preferred language and the frequency, type, and format of alerts you register to receive.

Data from Your Institution

We may obtain information about you from the institution you are employed by or affiliated with to activate and manage your access to and use of the services subscription of that institution, including:

Contact details, such as your name and institutional email address, postal address, and phone number.
Other account registration information, such as job title; and/or
Institutional user ID or employee ID

Data from Other Sources

We may also obtain contact information and other information about you from third-party entities, including:

Social networks (e.g., WeChat), when you allow the service to access your data on one or more networks
Partners with whom we provide co-branded services or engage in joint marketing activities
Public sources and data suppliers from whom we obtain data to validate or supplement the information we hold and support the service.

Device and Usage Data

The service may automatically collect information about how you and your device interact with the service, such as:

Computer, device, and connection information, such as IP address, browser type and version, operating system, and other software installed on your device, unique device identifiers, and other technical identifiers, error reports, and performance data.
Usage data, such as the features you use, the settings you choose, URL clickstream data, including date and time stamps and referring and exit pages, and pages you visit on the service.

We collect this data through our servers and using cookies and other technologies. You can control cookies through your browser settings and other tools. However, if you choose to block certain cookies, you may not be able to register, log in, or access certain parts, or fully utilize the service. If you use our software, you must agree to our use of cookies, otherwise, we cannot provide appropriate services. When accessing our website, you can block cookies, and your access to certain services may be hindered, but in most cases, you can use it normally.

How We Use Your Information

We are committed to providing you with a relevant and useful experience. Depending on how you interact with us and the service, we use your personal information to:

Provide, activate, and manage your access to and use of the service.
Process and fulfill requests, orders, downloads, subscriptions, or other transactions.
Provide you with customized content and other personalized services to make the service more efficient for you.
Enhance and improve the service, such as adding new content and features.
Notify you of changes, updates, and other announcements related to the service.
Provide targeted advertising, promotional information, and other information related to the service and your interests.
Provide technical, product, and other support, and help keep the service operating, secure, and protected; and/or
Determine usage trends and conduct data analysis, including for research, auditing, reporting, and other business operations purposes, such as paying royalties and license fees to third-party content providers, determining the effectiveness of our promotional campaigns, evaluating our business performance, or otherwise as required by customer agreements.

We may also use your personal information to:

Respond to your requests, inquiries, comments, or concerns.
Conduct and manage user testing and surveys, as well as sweepstakes, contests, and similar promotions.
Provide you with relevant promotional information and other information about our and third parties' (such as associations and sponsors) products, events, and services.
Enhance and improve our products, events, and services, and develop new products.
Comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements.

Sharing Your Information

We share your personal information in the following ways and circumstances.

Your Institution

If you access the service through a subscription managed by your institution, your personal information and certain usage data collected through the service, such as the number of items you download, any paid items you access, and test scores, may be accessed or shared with authorized administrators of your institution for usage analysis, subscription management, course management, and testing and remediation purposes. If your institution is a company or other commercial entity, additional usage data, such as the types of records you view and the number of searches you run, may also be shared for cost attribution and departmental budgeting purposes. We may also disclose non-personally identifiable information, such as anonymous usage data reports and aggregated information, to your institution or other third parties, subject to any applicable legal or contractual obligations.

Our Service Providers

Depending on the services provided, we may share your personal information with the following service providers:

Internal departments or affiliates of ivySCI that provide technical, customer service, and other shared services functions.
Vendors and service providers, including editors, reviewers, payment processors, customer support, email service providers, access and authentication service providers, event venue and service providers, mailing companies, shipping agents, and IT service providers. To provide services, complete transactions, or fulfill your requests, or process this information on our behalf in compliance with this privacy policy and any other appropriate confidentiality and security measures.

Legal Reasons

If we have a good faith belief that disclosing your personal information is necessary, we will also disclose your information to:

Comply with any applicable law, regulation, legal process, or other legal obligation.
Detect, investigate, and help prevent security, fraud, or technical issues.
Protect the rights, property, or safety of ivySCI, our users, employees, or others. And as part of a corporate transaction, such as transferring products or other assets to another company, or being acquired or merged with another company.

Administrator Data

If you are an administrator of an institution that subscribes to a service, we will use your details to communicate with you about your institution's subscription and related services. If you provide us with your colleagues' contact information, we may mention you when communicating with these individuals about the service.

Accessing and Updating Your Information

The service may allow registered users to directly access their account information and correct or update it at any time. It is the user's responsibility to keep this information up to date. Registered users can also close their accounts directly through the service or by contacting the service's customer support. Under European and other applicable privacy and data protection laws, you have the right to request the following actions free of charge:

Access, correct, and delete your personal information.
Restrict or object to our processing of your personal information;
Portability of your personal information

If you wish to exercise any of these rights, please contact us through ivySCI Feedback or our support email: help@ivySCI.com. We will respond to your request in accordance with applicable laws. To protect your privacy and security, we may require you to verify your identity. You may designate an authorized agent to make a request on your behalf, but proof of identity and authorization is required.

Account Closure

If you wish to close your account, after account closure, we will delete all the literature information you submitted, including bibliographic records, files, notes, etc. However, your account information, including phone number, account nickname, WeChat OpenID, and account avatar, will be retained due to regulatory requirements. Your account will be deleted immediately after you declare closure and cannot be recovered.

Data Retention

We retain your personal information for the time necessary to provide the service and complete the transactions you have requested, or for other necessary purposes, such as complying with our legal obligations, maintaining business and financial records, resolving disputes, maintaining security, detecting and preventing fraud and abuse, and enforcing our agreements.

Data Security

We take precautions to protect your personal information from loss, theft, and misuse, as well as unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction, by using appropriate technical and organizational measures.

Processing Locations

Your personal information may be stored and processed in your region or other countries where ivySCI companies and their service providers maintain servers and facilities, including China, Japan, Australia, France, Germany, India, Ireland, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States. We take steps, including through contracts, to ensure that information continues to be protected in any location in accordance with applicable legal standards.

Processing Reasons

When we collect any personal information from you within the scope of European data protection laws, we do so:

As necessary to provide the service, complete transactions, or otherwise perform our contract with you, or at your request before entering into a contract.
As necessary to comply with applicable laws or other legal obligations.
As necessary to perform tasks in the public interest.
Where applicable, with your consent;
As necessary to operate our business, protect our systems, customers, and users, detect or prevent fraud, or achieve other legitimate interests described in the above sections, unless our interests are overridden by your privacy rights.

If we rely on your consent to process personal information, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.

Contact Us

If you have any questions, comments, complaints, or requests regarding this privacy policy or our handling of your information, please contact us through ivySCI Feedback.

Changes

We will update this privacy policy from time to time. Any changes will be posted on this webpage and marked with the updated revision date. If we make any significant changes, we will provide notice through the service or other means.

2022-08-19: This privacy policy was created and published.
2024-08-20: Modified our brand to ivySCI to reflect our brand change.

ivySCI Privacy Policy