Privacy Notice
Last Updated: June 2021
Privacy is something that we, The Wellcome Trust Limited (as trustee of the Wellcome Trust) (“Wellcome”) and our service provider F1000 Research Limited (“the Service Provider”) take very seriously. This statement explains how, and on what legal basis, we collect, store, and use personal information relating to Wellcome Open Research.
What this Privacy Notice covers
This is the privacy notice for Wellcomeopenresearch.org, related mobile applications, tools and comment and discussion facilities (the “Privacy Notice”).
Who is the data controller?
Wellcome Open Research is controlled by Wellcome and is operated by the Service Provider. For the purpose of handling and publishing submissions and peer reviews from authors and reviewers, Wellcome and the Service Provider will be joint controllers of the personal information that you provide to Wellcome Open Research.
In addition to the above, Wellcome provides the Service Provider with personal information relating to its grantees so that the Service Provider can confirm if an author making a submission to Wellcome Open Research is funded by Wellcome. For this activity, Wellcome is the data controller and the Service Provider is acting on its behalf as a data processor. Information on how Wellcome collects, stores and uses personal information in connection with grant-making is set out in the Wellcome Grants Privacy Statement.
It is important that you read this Privacy Notice, together with any other privacy notice we provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or using personal information about you, so that you are aware of how and why we are using your information. We will make changes to this Privacy Notice where required, so please check from time to time for any updates.
What is the legal basis for processing personal information?
Wellcome Open Research relies on a number of legal bases to collect, use, and share your information, including:
- as needed to provide its services, such as when it uses your information to fulfill the services you require, to settle disputes, or to provide customer support;
- when you have provided your affirmative consent, which you may revoke at any time, such as by signing up for our mailing list or providing demographic information;
- if necessary to comply with a legal obligation or court order or in connection with a legal claim, such as retaining information about your purchases if required by tax law; and
- as necessary for the purpose of our legitimate interests provided those legitimate interests (or those of a third-party) are not overridden by your interests or fundamental rights.
What personal information does Wellcome Open Research ask users to supply, and why?
We will ask you to provide your name and contact information when you register on Wellcome Open Research in order to set up and manage your user account securely. However, registration is optional and you may view material on Wellcome Open Research without registering or submitting any personal information to us.
Some aspects of the service available on Wellcome Open Research require the use of cookies, and the supply of information such as name, email, speciality, funder, institution, qualification and phone number. This is necessary for security reasons and to be able to provide our services. Users may submit further personal information (e.g., details of research and areas of interest) in order to take advantage of present and future personalization facilities on this site. For more information on how we monitor your use of our websites, please see our cookies information below.
We may ask you for demographic information to support monitoring of diversity. The provision of such demographic information to support monitoring of diversity is entirely voluntary and failing to provide such information will not affect your use of any of the services available on Wellcome Open Research.
When you visit Wellcome Open Research we collect information about your online browsing behaviour and any equipment or software you have used to access our site including your IP address, device identifiers and the type of browser you use.
In accordance with Data Protection Laws, registrants may decline to provide the information requested. They should be advised, however, that Wellcome Open Research will be unable to deliver its services unless at least the information necessary to enable fulfilment of the service, security and identification purposes is provided.
What further information does Wellcome Open Research track, and why?
When you visit the Wellcome Open Research site we use third party services to collect certain technical information from your device including standard internet log information i.e. Internet Protocol (IP) address, browser type and version, and page interaction information. This information is used for site administration and internal operations (i.e. troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, statistical and survey purposes). This enables us to improve the site to ensure that content is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your device, to allow you to participate in interactive features of its services when you choose to do so, and as part of our efforts to keep the site safe and secure.
In order to offer the best possible service to users, Wellcome Open Research tracks the patterns of usage of pages on the site. This enables us to identify the most popular material and services. Where users have provided details of their research areas of interest, this information can be correlated, helping Wellcome Open Research to provide a useful service for scientists and clinicians, offering them the most relevant information based on their areas of interest.
Wellcome Open Research uses demographic information supplied voluntarily by users to support monitoring of diversity.
How does Wellcome Open Research collect and use your personal information?
Wellcome Open Research collects your email address when you register to receive email alerts. We use this to send you the relevant email alert that you have requested with the described frequency.
Wellcome Open Research collects the following information when you register on the site: name, address, organization, country and email address. We use this to enable you to post comments on the site, contact you to confirm registration, to identify you and provide our services, administration, to resolve issues through our help desk and investigatory purposes should the need arise.
Wellcome Open Research also uses your personal information to personalize the experience you have of the site.
Wellcome Open Research collects demographic information you voluntarily provide to support monitoring of diversity.
Our cookies information (below) explains how we use cookies to automatically collect information about how you use the site.
Does Wellcome Open Research collect or use children’s personal information?
Wellcome Open Research does not seek to collect or knowingly store any personal information about persons under the age of 16 by any registration or other request for personal information on Wellcome Open Research. Anyone aged under 16 who wishes to provide personal information to us must first obtain their parent or guardian’s consent.
What is Wellcome Open Research's policy on sharing email addresses with third parties?
Your information will only be shared with third parties as necessary to complete a contract or to provide services you have requested or authorized or with your consent.
What is Wellcome Open Research's policy on sharing demographic information?
Your demographic information will never be shared individually or so as to enable you to be identified. Wellcome Open Research will only report demographic data anonymously in the aggregate. No demographic data will be reported at an individual level.
What is Wellcome Open Research's policy on emailing its registered users?
We will contact you from time to time to draw your attention to information that may be of interest. If you are a registered user, you may opt out from receiving such emails when registering, or at any time thereafter by responding to such an email or contacting customer services at [email protected].
How long will Wellcome Open Research keep my personal information?
Unless we are required or permitted by law to keep information for a longer period, we will only keep your personal information for the period necessary to fulfil the purposes for which we collected it. When determining the appropriate period of time to retain your personal information, we consider several factors, including the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the information, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your information, the purposes for which we handle and use your information and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements. We securely erase your information once it is no longer needed. However, even if we delete your personal data it may remain on back-up systems or in our archive for security and to enable us to fulfil our legal, regulatory and tax obligations Details of retention periods for different aspects of your personal information are set out in our retention policy. Contact [email protected] for further information.
How does Wellcome Open Research keep my personal information secure?
Wellcome Open Research takes the security of your personal information very seriously and stores and processes your personal information in accordance with applicable law. We transfer personal information we collect about you outside of the UK and the EEA where we use service providers that store information on servers based outside of the UK and the EEA (including without limitation in the USA). To ensure that your personal information is protected, since the data protection regimes in these locations might be less exacting than within the UK and the EEA, we ensure that one of the following safeguards is already in place, or will be put in place prior to transfer:
- the recipient is in a country that has been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data by the European Commission or by adequacy regulations under the Data Protection Act 2018;
- the recipient has entered into Binding Corporate Rules;
- the recipient has entered into appropriate contractual arrangements with us; or
- a derogation applies under data protection law for the specific situation.
In addition, when we appoint anyone to provide a service to us we take care to ensure they comply with applicable law and this Privacy Notice and have appropriate security procedures in place and are aware of the obligations that come with holding personal information.
Please contact [email protected] for further details on how we look after your information.
How can I change the permissions given to Wellcome Open Research?
All communications from Wellcome Open Research will include clear instructions on how to tell us that you wish to cease receiving further communications (unsubscribe).
What rights do I have over my personal information?
If you have an online account with us, or in any other instances where we process your personal data as set out in this Privacy Notice, we hope that you find your information is easy to access and update as it is important that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and current.
At any time, you have the right to, amongst other things, access the information we hold on you or notify us that you no longer wish to be included on our database for marketing purposes. If you wish to contact us regarding your information, please contact [email protected].
Under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to:
- Request access to your personal information (commonly known as a "data subject access request"). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
- Request correction of the personal information that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate information we hold about you corrected.
- Request erasure of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal information where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal information where you have exercised your right to object to processing (see below).
- Object to processing of your personal information where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third-party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal information for direct marketing purposes.
- Request the restriction of processing of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of personal information about you, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it.
- Request the transfer of your personal information to another party.
- Withdraw your consent for us to use your personal information at any time, where we are handling your information on the basis of your consent.
To exercise any of these rights, make enquiries or make a complaint about our use of your personal data please contact Wellcome Open Research by email at [email protected] or write to the Service Provider at F1000 Research Limited, 240 Blackfriars Rd, London, SE1 8BU, UK.
In almost all circumstances, you can exercise any of these rights free of charge. However, in circumstances where your request for access is unfounded or excessive, we reserve the right to charge you a reasonable administrative fee or simply refuse to respond.
The UK Data Protection Regulator
Although we hope that you would never feel that you had to, you do have the right to lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority, the Information Commissioner’s Office: ico.org.uk.
How does Wellcome Open Research use cookies?
Wellcome Open Research uses cookies to capture information about the site’s users. A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that we put on your computer if you agree. WellcomeOpenResearch.org uses cookies for four main functions:
- To remember you and your preferences
- Track user movements
- Measure page usage
- Target content or advertising
This helps us to provide you with a good experience while you browse and to improve the way our site works, for example by making sure you can find what you need.
In some cases, you will be sent cookies by other websites that you interact with when you use WellcomeOpenResearch.org, such as social media sites. Wellcome Open Research also uses third party products that set cookies, for example: Google Analytics, which helps us monitor site usage and therefore improve user experience, and Google Adwords which uses cookies to enable our ads to be shown across the Internet to those who have previously visited our site.
Persistent cookies remain on your device until a set expiry date or until you delete them, for example: information about you and your preferences; session cookies expire when you close the web browser, for example: information about pages you visited on the site.
For a list of the cookies we use on Wellcome Open Research click here.
By continuing to use Wellcome Open Research you consent to the relevant cookies being set on your device.
Control of cookies
Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser settings to notify you when a cookie is sent, and then you can then choose to accept or decline the cookie.
Your browser need not be set to accept cookies if you just wish to browse and view material on Wellcome Open Research.
If you register to use Wellcome Open Research and opt to receive information that is more tailored to your interest areas, this aspect of the Wellcome Open Research service does require the use of cookies to remember you and your preferences.
You may decline to set your browser to accept cookies when requested but you should be aware that we may be unable to deliver some of our services without this information. This may also mean that any preferences you set on the site will be lost or you will not be able to use the auto login or remember me facility at login.
Wellcome Open Research uses the Google AdWords remarketing service to advertise on third party websites (including Google) to those who have previously visited our site. This service uses cookies to enable third party vendors, including Google, to show our ads on sites across the internet. You can opt out of Google's use of cookies by visiting Google's Ads Settings.
For general information about cookies, and how to control and disable them, please visit www.allaboutcookies.org.
Legal responsibilities
We reserve the right to disclose your personal information if required to do so by law, or in the good faith and belief that such action is reasonably necessary to comply with legal process, respond to claims, or protect the rights, property or safety of Wellcome Open Research and its contractors their employees or members.
Who should I contact if I have any questions or concerns about my privacy?
If you have any questions, concerns or wish to make a complaint about your privacy and Wellcome Open Research please contact our customer service team at [email protected] or write to the Service Provider at F1000 Research Limited, 240 Blackfriars Rd, London, SE1 8BU, UK.
Changes to this Privacy Notice
This Privacy Notice was last updated on June 2021. Wellcome Open Research will from time to time make changes to this Privacy Notice to reflect changes in how we treat your personal information, to comply with legislation, improve the site or to institute good practice. Wellcome Open Research will inform you of these changes by posting them to this page. Therefore, we ask that you come back every now and then to check for any updates.