Terms of use of TIB Open Publishing

§ 1 Scope of application

§ 2 Registration and admission

1. Authors, reviewers, editors, and assistants must register with TIB Open Publishing, providing the necessary personal data, in order to perform their duties. Readers can register with TIB Open Publishing in order to be informed about current publications of a journal or a conference. Editorial roles (e.g. Journal Editor, Section Editor, Copyeditor, Layout Editor, Proofreader, or Journal Manager) can only be assigned by the Journal Manager/Journal Editor or the Site Administrator (TIB). Users who are designated for these roles must register as an author with the respective journal/conference publication in order to be assigned this role.
2. Users are obliged to fill in the mandatory fields truthfully and completely when registering, to keep their data up to date, to keep their access data secret, and to protect it from access by third parties. Joint use of a user account is excluded. In the event of a violation, § 8 No. 3 of the terms of use shall apply. In the course of the registration process, users acknowledge the terms of use of the TIB and the terms of use of TIB Open Publishing declare their consent to the processing of their personal data by TIB Open Publishing, and take note of TIB Open Publishing's privacy statement.
3. The registration is completed with the transmission of the password (admission). Admission establishes a user relationship between the TIB and the registered users.
4. There is no entitlement to admission. The TIB is entitled to revoke the admission and to delete the account if a violation of these terms of use has occurred or is to be expected. The right to disable access remains unaffected.
5. In the event of updates to these terms of use, registered users will be notified of the changes two weeks in advance via email. If users do not agree to the changes, they must object to the changes within a period of two weeks. Upon expiry of the two-week period, the registered users are deemed to have given their consent. In the event of an objection, the user relationship shall end.
6. The user relationship may be terminated at any time and without notice by submitting a declaration in writing to TIB. In the event of termination, the user account on TIB Open Publishing will be deactivated and personal data of the user profile deleted in accordance with § 7 within one month of receipt of the declaration.

§ 3 Information for authors, assistants, and readers

1. Authors can log in and submit manuscripts directly via the journal/conference publication website on TIB Open Publishing. They must agree to the publication contract and will be asked to upload the manuscript and accompanying material and provide metadata and indexing information. Authors can follow the review and editing process and participate in editing and proofreading of submissions accepted for publication.
2. Assistants (Copyeditor, Layout Editor, Proofreader) register as authors and are given access to the corresponding stage in the editorial process after the role has been assigned by the journal manager. Their task is to proofread, format, and produce the accepted publications.
3. Readers can register with TIB Open Publishing to be informed about current publications of a journal or conference. However, the publications can be used without registration within the framework of the stated open-access licenses.

§ 4 Rights and obligations of Journal Managers

1. Journal Managers register with TIB Open Publishing as authors for a specific journal. The role in the editorial process is assigned by the Site Administrator (TIB) or Journal Manager.
2. The Journal Manager is responsible for setting up and maintaining the website for the journal or conference publication, configuring the system options, and managing the user accounts of the respective journal or conference publication. The creation of user accounts without the explicit consent of the users concerned is not permitted.
3. Journal managers agree to the journal policies of the respective conference publication or journal. This comprises that they
1. Consider all manuscripts submitted without bias and review each manuscript without regard to gender, religious affiliation, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors.
2. Avoid any actual or perceived conflict of interest, e.g., e.g. they should not edit manuscripts to which they have contributed themselves or through collaborators.
3. Respect the intellectual independence of the authors.
4. Treat as confidential all confidential and non-public information of which they become aware during peer review.
5. Handle complaints based on COPE guidelines.

§ 5 Rights and obligations of Journal Editors and Section Editors

1. Editors register with TIB Open Publishing as authors for a specific journal or conference publication. The role in the editorial process is assigned by the Journal Manager.
2. Editors are responsible for managing submitted manuscripts throughout the editorial process. This includes:
• Rejecting unsuitable manuscripts
• Screening the manuscript using Crossref's plagiarism assessment software (Similarity Check).
• The initiation and monitoring of the review process
• The search for reviewers
• Reviewing the reviewer reports
• Possibly requesting changes from the authors
• Notification of rejection or acceptance of a publication to authors
3. Editors agree to the journal policies, § 4 No. 3 applies.

§ 6 Rights and obligations of Reviewers

1. Reviewers are selected by the Journal Editor or Section Editor and register with TIB Open Publishing as reviewers or authors for a specific journal. The role in the editorial process is assigned to them by the Journal Editor or Section Editor, as appropriate. Reviewers then have access to the corresponding level in the editorial process. Manuscripts are assigned to reviewers for review by the Journal Editor or Section Editor.
2. Reviewers assess the scientific quality of the manuscripts. Reviews can be submitted to TIB Open Publishing with attachments after registration via the journal's website.
3. Reviewers agree to the journal policies, § 4 No. 3 applies.

§ 7 Deletion of user accounts and personal data

1. Authors: Personal data of authors are mandatory for review and publication and must be traceable in the long term. By agreeing to the publication contract when submitting a manuscript, authors agree to the storage of their data. The personal data of authors will be stored for the duration of the publication contract.
2. Reviewers: Personal data of reviewers are mandatory for the review process in the context of good scientific practice and must be traceable in the long term. By agreeing to the terms of use, reviewers agree to the storage of their data. The personal data of reviewers will be stored for the duration of the publication contracts of publications reviewed by them.
3. Editors: Personal data of editors are required for the review process and must be traceable in the long term with regard to good scientific practice. By agreeing to the terms of use, the editor agrees to the storage of his/her data. The personal data of editors will be stored for the duration of the publication contracts of the publications edited by the editors.
4. Journal Manager: Personal data of journal managers are mandatory for the operation of the journal and the peer review and must be traceable in the long term with regard to good scientific practice. By agreeing to the terms of use, Journal Managers consent to the storage of their data. The personal data of Journal Managers will remain stored for the duration of the publication contracts of the publications edited by the Journal Managers.
5. Personal data of assistants (Copyeditors, Layout Editors, Proofreaders) will be deleted within one month upon request.
6. Readers: Personal data of readers will be deleted within one month upon request.

§ 8 Rights and obligations of the TIB

1. The TIB reserves the right to change the scope of functions, the appearance of the platform, and these terms of use at any time. Users will be informed of any changes two weeks in advance.
2. The TIB is entitled to terminate its service at any time. If the service is discontinued, the TIB is obliged to ensure the provision of publications and long-term archiving by other TIB services or services of other organizations.
3. If there are concrete indications of a violation of these terms of use, the publication contract or the violation of third party rights by the publications (e.g. copyright, personality or publicity rights, data protection), TIB is entitled to disable access of or delete content, to restrict the use of the services or to block the registered users concerned. When choosing a measure, the legitimate interests of the registered users shall be taken into account, in particular whether there are indications that the registered users are not responsible for the violation.

§ 9 Data protection

1. a transfer of personal data to third parties (persons or institutions outside the editorial process or not directly involved) is not permitted,
2. personal data that can be viewed in TIB Open Publishing may only be processed within the scope of the author's own tasks, and
3. third parties may only be commissioned with the provision of services in which personal data of users is processed upon conclusion of a contract for the processing of such data which meets the statutory requirements.

§ 10 Limitations of liability