About the Journal

Focus and Scope

Peer Review Process

All contributions will be anonymously refereed which is also for the authors in order to getting positive feedback and constructive suggestions from other qualified people. Cited literature which is hardly available, should accompany the submitted manuscript. It should also be considered to place used and analyzed data at disposal for the referees (if there are no legal or technical arguments against). Editor and referees must trust that the contribution has not been submitted for publication at the same time at another place. It is fair that the submitting author notifies if an earlier version has already been submitted somewhere before. Submitting authors will obtain immediately an acknowledgment of receipt. Manuscripts stay with the publisher and referees. The refereeing and publishing in the Austrian Journal of Statistics is free of charge. The publisher, the Austrian Statistical Society requires a grant of copyright from authors in order to effectively publish and distribute this journal worldwide.

Publication Frequency

This journal is published 4 times per year.

Open Access Policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

Publication ethics and malpractice statement

The Austrian Journal of Statistics is committed to meeting and upholding standards of ethical behaviour at all stages of the publication process. Below is a summary of our key expectations of editors, peer-reviewers, authors and authorship/publication.

1. ETHICAL EXPECTATIONS

The Austrian Journal of Statistics is committed to ensuring ethics in publication and quality of articles.
Conformance to standards of ethical behavior is therefore expected of all parties involved: Authors, Editors, Reviewers, and the Publisher.

In particular, 

Publication and Authorship / Authors Responsibility:

• To maintain accurate records of data in readable (non-binary, non-prohibet format) form associated with their submitted manuscript, and to supply or provide access to these data, on reasonable request. Where appropriate and where allowed by employer, funding body and others who might have an interest, to deposit data in a suitable repository or storage location, for sharing and further use by others.

• To confirm/assert that the manuscript as submitted is not under consideration or accepted for publication elsewhere. Where portions of the content overlap with published or submitted content, to acknowledge and cite those sources. Additionally, to provide the editor with a copy of any submitted manuscript that might contain overlapping or closely related content.

• Authors should ensure that any studies involving human or animal subjects conform to national, local and institutional laws and requirements (e.g. WMA Declaration of Helsinki, NIH Policy on Use of laboratory Animals, EU Directive on Use of Animals) and confirm that approval has been sought and obtained where appropriate. Authors should obtain express permission from human subjects and respect their privacy.

• To declare any potential conflicts of interest (e.g. where the author has a competing interest (real or apparent) that could be considered or viewed as exerting an undue influence on his or her duties at any stage during the publication process).

• To notify promptly the journal editor or publisher if a significant error in their publication is identified. To cooperate with the editor and publisher to publish an erratum, addendum, corrigendum notice, or to retract the paper, where this is deemed necessary.  
    
• To confirm that all the work in the submitted manuscript is original and to acknowledge and cite content reproduced from other sources. To obtain permission to reproduce any content from other sources. Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable. Authors should not submit articles describing essentially the same research to more than one journal. The corresponding author should ensure that there is a full consensus of all co-authors in approving the final version of the paper and its submission for publication.
   
• The Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY) allows users to copy, distribute and transmit an article, adapt the article and make commercial use of the article. The Austrian Journal of Statistics use this licence. See the COPYRIGHT section for more details on it.

Editors:

• To act in a balanced, objective and fair way while carrying out their expected duties, without discrimination on grounds of gender, sexual orientation, religious or political beliefs, ethnic or geographical origin of the authors. Editors should take reasonable responsive measures when ethical complaints have been presented concerning a submitted manuscript or published paper.
   
•  editors have complete responsibility and authority to reject/accept an article; 
   
•  Editors should evaluate manuscripts exclusively on the basis of their academic merit. An editor must not use unpublished information in the editor's own research without the express written consent of the author. 
   
• To handle submissions for sponsored supplements or special issues in the same way as other submissions, so that articles are considered and accepted solely on their academic merit and without commercial influence.
    
• To adopt and follow reasonable procedures in the event of complaints of an ethical or conflict nature, in accordance with the policies and procedures of the Society where appropriate. To give authors a reasonable opportunity to respond to any complaints. All complaints should be investigated no matter when the original publication was approved. Documentation associated with any such complaints should be retained. 
• the editor preserve anonymity of reviewers

Reviewers:

• To contribute to the decision-making process, and to assist in improving the quality of the published paper by reviewing the manuscript objectively, in a timely manner. 
• Judgments should be objectiveJudgments should be objective

• To maintain the confidentiality of any information supplied by the editor or author. To not retain or copy the manuscript 
• reviewers should point out relevant published work which is not yet cited

• To alert the editor to any published or submitted content that is substantially similar to that under review. 

• To be aware of any potential conflicts of interest (financial, institutional, collaborative or other relationships between the reviewer and author) and to alert the editor to these, if necessary withdrawing their services for that manuscript.

• The Austrian Statistical Society on behalf of which it publishes shall ensure that good practice is maintained to the standards outlined above. 
• The editorial board monitores/safeguardes publishing ethics. 
• The AJS will publish corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies when needed.

• An initial decision should be taken by the editor.

• Evidence should be gathered, while avoiding spreading any allegations beyond those who need to know.

• Minor misconduct might be dealt with without the need to consult more widely. In any event, the author should be given the opportunity to respond to any allegations.

• Serious misconduct might require that the employers of the accused be notified. The editor, in consultation with the publisher or Society as appropriate, should make the decision whether or not to involve the employers, either by examining the available evidence themselves or by further consultation with a limited number of experts.  

• Informing or educating the author or reviewer where there appears to be a misunderstanding or misapplication of acceptable standards.

• A more strongly worded letter to the author or reviewer covering the misconduct and as a warning to future behaviour.

• Publication of a formal notice detailing the misconduct.

• Publication of an editorial detailing the misconduct.

• A formal letter to the head of the author’s or reviewer’s department or funding agency.

• Formal retraction or withdrawal of a publication from the journal, in conjunction with informing the head of the author or reviewer’s department, Abstracting & Indexing services and the readership of the publication.

• Imposition of a formal embargo on contributions from an individual for a defined period.

• Reporting the case and outcome to a professional organisation or higher authority for further investigation and action.

Privacy Statement:

Privacy policy

This is the privacy policy (“policy”) for the website www.ajs.or.at which is run and provided by the Austrian Statistical Society (we, us and our).

We will only use the personal data gathered over this website as set out in this policy. Below you will find information on how we use your personal data, for which purposes your personal data is used, with whom it is shared and what control and information rights you may have.

1. Summary of our processing activities

The following summary provides you with a quick overview of the processing activities that are undertaken on our website. You will find more detailed information under the indicated sections below.

• When you visit our website for informational reasons without setting up an account, only limited personal data will be processed to provide you with the website itself (see section III).
• In case you register for one our services further personal data will be processed in the scope of such services (see sections IV, V and VI).
• Furthermore, your personal data will be used to provide you with interesting advertising for our services and products (see section VIII) and for statistical analysis that helps us to improve our website (see section IX). Additionally, we improve your website experience with third party content (see section X).
• Your personal data may be disclosed to third parties (see section XI) that might be located outside your country of residence; potentially, different data protection standards may apply (see section XII).
• We have implemented appropriate safeguards to secure your personal data (see section XIII) and retain your personal data only as long as necessary (see section XIV).
• Under the legislation applicable to you, you may be entitled to exercise certain rights with regard to the processing of your personal data (see section XV).

1. Definitions

• Personal data: means any information relating to a natural person who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, or an online identifier.
• Processing: means any operation which is performed on personal data, such as collection, recording, organisation, structuring, storage, adaptation or any kind of disclosure or other use.

III. Informational use of the website

When you visit our website for informational reasons, i.e. without registering for any of our provided services listed under IV and without providing us with personal data in any other form, we may automatically collect additional information about you which will contain personal data only in limited cases and which is automatically recognised by our server, such as:

• the website from which you have been directed to our offer
• the date and time of your requests
• your device type, screen resolution and browser version
• your internet service provider
• information on your operating system, including language settings

We use such information only to assist us in providing an effective service (e.g. to adapt our website to the needs of your device or to allow you to log in to our website), and to collect broad demographic information for anonymised, aggregated use.

The personal data automatically collected is necessary for us to provide the website, Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. b GDPR, and for our legitimate interest to guarantee the website’s stability and security, Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. f GDPR.

Personal data that is collected automatically is anonymized immediately and any personally identifiable information is properly erased.

1. Registration for our services

With regard to the registration of an account and its subsequent use, we process:

• Information (such as your name and email address) that is provided by registration
• Information in connection with an account sign-in facility (e.g. log-in and password details)
• Communications sent by you (e.g. via e-mail or website communication forms)

Further data processing processes may take place, of which you will of course be separately informed.

We will process the personal data you provide to:

• Provide you with the services and information offered through the website or which you request
• Administer your account
• Communicate with you

For this, the legal basis is Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. b GDPR

The use of your personal data for behavioural advertising and profiling is done for the legitimate interest to improve your experience while using the website, Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. f GDPR.]

Your personal data is, in the absence of exceptions within the specific services mentioned below, retained for as long as your user account is used. After deletion of your account, your personal data will be blocked and erased with the next database clean up. Statutory storage obligations or the need for legal actions that may arise from misconduct within the services or payment problems can lead to a longer retention of your personal data. In this case, we will inform you accordingly.

1. Information about the specific uses that require registration

For the use of the following services you have to set up an account as described under IV. Your customer account retains your personal data for future purchases and other activity. You can delete the personal data as well as the account in your account’s settings. This processing is based on Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. b.]

1. Other services

To provide the save search functionality we need your log-in data to identify you and to provide the stored results.

Other personal data are not collected or stored.

1. Newsletter

With your email address you can subscribe to “readers” (=receiving newsletters) that provides you with the latest news about our publications and services. The legal basis for this processing is Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. a GDPR. Your email address will be retained as long as you subscribe to our newsletter.

This service is provided for registered users only (see section IV), you can also complete registration during ordering of a newsletter if you did not hold an account before.

You can unsubscribe from this service by log-in to the editorial system using your account.

VII. Automated decision making

We do not use your personal data for automated decision making which produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you.

VIII. Online advertising

Generally, we are not doing any commercial online advertising.

1. Cookies, Web-beacons

Providers will be automatically informed about your visit on our website. For such purpose, a web beacon may be used to place a cookie on your computer.

Please note that we neither have the control of the extent of personal data that is collected by the respective plug-in provider nor do we know the processing’s purpose or the period your personal data will be retained. Depending on the provider your personal data may be transferred to and processed in third countries, e.g. the United States. For further information about the potential risks of a cross border data transfer please refer to section XII.

It is possible that a provider discloses your personal data to its business partners, third parties or authorities.

You can prevent the installation of such a cookie

1. by a respective setting of your browser that blocks the installation of third party cookies,
2. by deactivating the provider’s interest-related advertising under the link mentioned in the provider details below,
3. or generally blocking cookies under e.g http://www.google.com/settings/ads/plugin.

Further information about the processing of your personal data in the provider’s course of operation is provided by its privacy policy. Moreover, you will be provided with further information with regard to your rights and settings concerning privacy. You can access the provider’s privacy policy by following the link in the provider details below.

1. Analysis

For statistical analyses we use web analytics services to collect information about the use of this site.

1. General tracking information

The tools collect information such as

• Device and browser information (operating system information, Mobile device identifier, mobile operating system, etc.)
• IP address
• Page accessed, URL click stream (the chronological order of our internet sites you visited)
• Geographic location
• Time of visit
• Referring site, application, or service

We use the information we get from the providers only to determine the most useful information you are looking for, and to improve and optimise this website. We do not combine the information collected through the use of the tools with personal data.

Depending on the provider the information generated about your use of the website may be transferred to and processed in third countries, e.g. the United States. For further information about the potential risks of a cross border data transfer please refer to section XII. The tools collect only the IP address assigned to you on the date you visit this site, rather than your name or any other identifying information. The provider will use this information in order to evaluate your use of the website, to compile reports on website activities and to provide other services relating to website and internet use to us.

The legal basis for this processing is Art. 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. f GDPR and represents our legitimate interest to analyse our website’s traffic to improve the user’s experience and to optimise the website in general.

2. Google Analytics / Google Tag Manager

We use Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA (“Google”). On our behalf Google will use the information generated by a cookie for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity and providing other services relating to website activity and internet activity in connection with the use of the website.

We have activated the IP-anonymisation within the Google Analytics service, and your IP address will be truncated within the area of member states of the European Union or other parties to the Agreement on the European Economic Area. Only in exceptional cases the whole IP address will be first transferred to a Google server in the USA and truncated there. The IP-address your browser conveys within the scope of Google Analytics will not be associated with any other data held by Google.

You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser; however please note that if you do this you may not be able to use the full functionality of this website. In addition to that you may prevent the collection of the information generated by the cookie about your use of the website (including you IP address) and the processing of this data by Google if you download and install the browser plug-in available at the following link: http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout

1. Third party content and social media plug-ins
2. Social media plug-ins

Currently, we do not use social media plug-ins such as Facebook, Google+ or Twitter.

1. Information sharing

Your personal data will only be disclosed to a third party to the extent necessary to fulfill our contractual relationship (if at all). Legal basis for the transfer of your personal data is Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. b and f GDPR and represents our legitimate interest to implement our general terms and conditions of business or any other agreements concluded with you.

We may disclose anonymous aggregate statistics about users of the website in order to describe our services to prospective partners, advertisers and other reputable third parties and for other lawful purposes, but these statistics will include no personal data.

We may disclose your personal data if legally entitled or required to do so (for example if required by law or by a court order).

XII. Cross border data transfers

Within the scope of our information sharing activities set out above, your personal data may be transferred to other countries (including countries outside the EEA) which may have different data protection standards from your country of residence. Please note that data processed in a foreign country may be subject to foreign laws and accessible to foreign governments, courts, law enforcement, and regulatory agencies.

XIII. Security

We have reasonable state of the art security measures in place to protect against the loss, misuse and alteration of personal data under our control. For example, our security and privacy policies are periodically reviewed and enhanced as necessary and only authorised personnel have access to personal data. Whilst we cannot ensure or guarantee that loss, misuse or alteration of information will never occur, we use all reasonable efforts to prevent it.

You should bear in mind that submission of information over the internet is never entirely secure. We cannot guarantee the security of information you submit via our website whilst it is in transit over the internet and any such submission is at your own risk.

XIV. Data retention

We strive to keep our processing activities with respect to your personal data as limited as possible. In the absence of specific retention periods set out in this policy, your personal data will be retained only for as long as we need it to fulfil the purpose for which we have collected it and, if applicable, as long as required by statutory retention requirements.

1. Your rights

Under the legislation applicable to you, you may be entitled to exercise some or all of the following rights:

1. require (i) information as to whether your personal data is retained and (ii) access to and/or duplicates of your personal data retained, including the purposes of the processing, the categories of personal data concerned, and the data recipients as well as potential retention periods;
2. request rectification, removal or restriction of your personal data, e.g. because (i) it is incomplete or inaccurate, (ii) it is no longer needed for the purposes for which it was collected, or (iii) the consent on which the processing was based has been withdrawn;
3. refuse to provide and – without impact to data processing activities that have taken place before such withdrawal – withdraw your consent to processing of your personal data at any time;
4. object, on grounds relating to your particular situation, that your personal data shall be subject to a processing. In this case, please provide us with information about your particular situation. After the assessment of the facts presented by you we will either stop processing your personal data or present you our compelling legitimate grounds for an ongoing processing;
5. take legal actions in relation to any potential breach of your rights regarding the processing of your personal data, as well as to lodge complaints before the competent data protection regulators;
6. require (i) to receive the personal data concerning you, which you have provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and (ii) to transmit those data to another controller without hindrance from our side; where technically feasible you shall have the right to have the personal data transmitted directly from us to another controller; and/or
7. not to be subject to any automated decision making, including profiling (automatic decisions based on data processing by automatic means, for the purpose of assessing several personal aspects) which produce legal effects on you or affects you with similar significance.

You may (i) exercise the rights referred to above or (ii) pose any questions or (iii) make any complaints regarding our data processing by contacting us using the contact details set out below.

XVI. Contacting us

Please submit any questions, concerns or comments you have about this privacy policy or any requests concerning your personal data by email to the editor of the journal, [email protected]

XVII. Amendments to this policy

We reserve the right to change this policy from time to time by updating our website respectively. Please visit the website regularly and check our respective current privacy policy. This policy was last updated on May 25th 2018.

Sponsors

The journal is sponsored by the Austrian Society for Statistics