Data Security & Retention
Last updated: September 2026
This page describes the controls ScholarBook actually has in place today, and how long we keep your Institution's data. If your Institution's security or procurement team needs more detail (for a HECVAT assessment, a security questionnaire, or a Data Processing Agreement), write to us at the address at the bottom of this page.
Encryption in transit
All traffic is served over HTTPS/TLS (Let's Encrypt certificate, auto-renewing). Plain HTTP requests are redirected to HTTPS.
Password hashing
Passwords are never stored in plain text — Django's PBKDF2 password hasher, salted per user.
Per-institution isolation
Every institution-scoped query is filtered by institution at the application layer, and role/department scoping is enforced server-side, not just hidden in the interface.
Role-based access control
Institution admin, department admin, and individual faculty roles each see only what their role and department grant — a fixed, closed set of permissions, not ad hoc flags.
Daily backups
An automated daily backup of the database and uploaded files runs every night and is retained for 14 days.
Firewalled server
The server only accepts traffic on the ports the service actually needs (SSH, HTTP, HTTPS) — everything else is blocked at the network level.
What we don't do
- We never scrape institution or publisher websites — every verification check goes to an open, authorized registry (ORCID, CrossRef, PubMed, ROR) using the identifier already in the submission.
- We do not sell personal data, and we do not use your data to train AI models.
- We do not auto-approve a faculty submission — a person at your Institution always reviews it first.
Data retention
| Data | Retention |
|---|---|
| Active account & submission data | For as long as your Institution has an active account with us |
| Data after account closure | Kept for a reasonable transition period to allow export or renewal, then deleted, unless you ask us to delete it sooner or the law requires us to keep it longer |
| Backups | Rolling 14-day retention; older backups are automatically deleted |
| Evidence/verification history | Kept alongside the record it supports, for the same period, since it exists to justify that record |
Deletion
An Institution's own admin can remove a roster entry, deactivate a designation, or reject a submission directly in the portal at any time. To request deletion of an entire account, or data we hold that isn't reachable through the portal, write to us and we will confirm once it's done.
Incident response
If we become aware of a security incident affecting your Institution's data, we will notify your Institution's admin without undue delay, describe what happened and what data was involved, and what we're doing about it.
Sub-processors
We use a hosting provider to run the servers ScholarBook runs on, and an email provider to send account and verification emails (such as password-reset codes). Neither receives your roster or submission data beyond what's needed to deliver an email to you. We do not use any other third-party processor with access to your Institution's data.
Contact us
For a security questionnaire, HECVAT, or Data Processing Agreement request, write to info@researchedgeandpublication.com.