Editors, reviewers, and authorised staff may use confidential material only for assessment, administration, production, or legitimate integrity-related purposes associated with their assignment. Unpublished ideas or information must not be used for personal or professional advantage.

Editors may share relevant reports with other assigned reviewers where this assists assessment, while maintaining identity masking. Authors receive the comments needed to understand and respond to the decision.

Authors must not publicly disclose confidential reviewer identities, reports, or private editorial correspondence without appropriate permission. This does not prevent confidential reporting of concerns through authorised complaint, institutional, or legal channels.

Reviewers must obtain prior editorial approval before involving another person. Approved contributors must be identified to the editor, meet relevant independence requirements, and accept confidentiality obligations. Reviewers remain responsible for their reports.

Confidential manuscripts, reports, or identifying information must not be uploaded to external generative AI services to generate substantive reviews or editorial assessments. Other external services must not receive confidential material without journal authorisation and appropriate safeguards.

Journal-approved screening tools require appropriate access controls and human oversight. Broader rules on automated assistance are provided in the AI Usage Policy.

A public preprint does not make the journal’s private correspondence, reviewer identities, review reports, or non-public versions public. Authors’ permitted preprint sharing remains governed by the Preprint Policy.

Athena’s CC BY 4.0 license applies to published articles as stated in the Licensing policy. Confidentiality obligations do not restrict lawful reuse of that openly licensed content. Conversely, the article license does not automatically license private review records.

Use designated journal systems, protect account access, and avoid uncontrolled copies. Reviewers should securely delete local confidential files after their assignment unless authorised retention is necessary. Journal record retention follows its applicable administrative and privacy arrangements.

Necessary disclosure to a competent institution, authorised independent assessor, or legal authority may occur for a legitimate investigation or obligation. Disclosure should be limited to what is necessary, with appropriate safeguards and notification where feasible.

Suspected unauthorised access or disclosure must be reported promptly. Confidentiality continues after rejection, withdrawal, publication, or completion of the review assignment.