1. General Information and Data Controller

In accordance with the Turkish Personal Data Protection Law No. 6698 ("KVKK") and international data protection standards (GDPR), personal data processed within the editorial, peer-review, and publishing operations of Tourist Destination ("Journal") is handled by Bekir Bora Dedeoğlu as the Data Controller in accordance with the purposes and legal grounds set forth below.

Our journal exercises the utmost care to protect the privacy and confidentiality of personal data while ensuring the integrity and transparency of scholarly communication.

2. Categories of Personal Data and Purposes of Processing

The following categories of data are processed according to user roles:

• Authors: Full name, academic title, institutional affiliation (and ROR ID), email, phone, ORCID iD, manuscript files, conflict-of-interest and copyright statements; processed for manuscript evaluation, peer-review, plagiarism checking, and publication.
• Reviewers: Full name, academic title, areas of expertise, affiliation, ORCID iD, email, evaluation reports, and editorial notes; processed for conducting independent and double-blind peer reviews.
• Editors and Board Members: Full name, title, academic profile, photograph, institutional email, ORCID iD, and editorial handling history; processed for journal governance and transparency.
• Visitors & Readers: IP addresses, essential session cookies, and access timestamps; processed under legal logging obligations and cybersecurity requirements.

3. Double-Blind Peer Review & Strict Anonymity Safeguards

Our journal adheres to the COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) Core Practices and operates a strict Double-Blind Peer Review process.

Reviewer identities and personal contact details are never disclosed to authors. Review reports are communicated to authors only in fully anonymized form.

Unpublished and rejected manuscripts remain strictly confidential and are not shared publicly or with unauthorized third parties.

4. Transfer of Personal Data (Open Access, DOI & Indexing)

Manuscripts accepted and published in the journal are made freely accessible worldwide under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) Open Access License.

Published article metadata (author names, affiliations, ORCID iDs, abstracts, keywords, references) is automatically transferred to international DOI registration agencies (Crossref, Zenodo, Aperta), indexing databases (DOAJ, Google Scholar), and digital library harvesting protocols (OAI-PMH 2.0).

User personal data is never sold, traded, or transferred to commercial entities for advertising or marketing purposes under any circumstances.

5. Integrity of the Scholarly Record & Data Retention

Integrity of Scholarly Record: Published articles and author attribution become permanent components of the global scientific record (Version of Record). Therefore, metadata of published articles cannot be erased or removed retrospectively.

Records related to unpublished or rejected submissions are archived securely for audit, research integrity, and dispute resolution purposes in compliance with applicable retention guidelines.

6. Data Security and Cookie Policy

Our platform employs industry-standard security measures including robust password hashing (bcrypt), SSL/TLS encrypted transport, CSRF protection, and role-based access control.

Cookies: Only essential technical session cookies required for authentication and platform functionality are utilized. No commercial or tracking third-party cookies are used.

7. Rights of the Data Subject (KVKK Art. 11 / GDPR)

Under KVKK Article 11 and GDPR, data subjects have the right to learn whether their personal data is being processed, request information, request correction of inaccurate data, and exercise applicable rights within the framework of scientific record preservation standards.

You may submit your requests regarding your personal data directly to the journal management at editor@tourdes.org.