Putting science
at the heart of development
Cookies
- What are cookies and why do we use them?
- How cookies are used on the website
- First-party cookies (set by the SciDev.Net website)
- Third-party cookies
What are cookies and why do we use them?
SciDev.Net, like most websites, use cookies to improve our services and your user experience.
A cookie is a small file that is stored on your device, for example, computer or mobile phone, and the information is used to support different functions, like storing your preferences to enable us to 'remember' you, either for the duration of your visit (using a 'session cookie') or for repeat visits (using a 'persistent cookie').
These help us in a few different ways, for example, to recognise your device so we can optimise delivery of content or by recognising that you have already provided a username and password so you don't need enter it again to use features where sign-in is required.
We also use cookies to measure and understand usage of the website, this allows us to improve service delivery and develop website features in response to your needs. By monitoring the use of the website we are also able to demonstrate the website's effectiveness and impacts to our funders, who play a key role supporting our mission.
Cookies cannot be used to identify you personally, and information gathered is not shared with third parties.
How cookies are used on the website
If you choose to tick this 'Remember Me' box — located on the sign-in page and article comment function — a file will be stored on your computer and you will find that the next time you return to this website your email address will be pre-populated in the sign in box. This is simply to reduce typing and enable you to sign-in quickly. Please note by using the 'Remember Me' option, your password is not stored.
It is recommended that you do not tick the 'Remember Me' box if the computer you are using is shared with other people you do not know (e.g. in an internet cafe or on a publicly accessible computer).
Please note, the function to email you when someone responds to a comment is not a cookie function and does not place any information on your computer, it is information stored on our secure databases only.
Cookies may be set by the website you are visiting (first-party cookies) or they may be set by other websites which analyses visitor traffic on the page you are viewing (third-party cookies).
The section below shows all of the cookies that are set by this website and the third-party services we use.
First-party cookies (set by the SciDev.Net website)
We use a number of cookies to remember your selections or preferences that you've made when looking at the information on this site and to ensure fast and efficient delivery of content to your device. See below for a list of cookies we use to manage your current visit.
Name | Purpose | Expire | Content | Classification |
CFID | Strictly necessary, used to provide transaction support across multiple page requests commonly called a session | Persistent (Until user deletes it) | A random generated number | Strictly necessary, minimal intrusion. (CFID and CFTOKEN) provide session functionality this is used to: Store language option preference 2) Store member details 3) Store redirect details 4) Store data source name |
CFTOKEN | Strictly necessary, used to provide transaction support across multiple page requests commonly called a session | Persistent (Until user deletes it) | A random generated alphanumeric piece of text | Strictly necessary, minimal intrusion. (CFID and CFTOKEN) provide session functionality this is used to: Store language option preference 2) Store member details 3) Store redirect details 4) Store data source name |
sid | Stores member id of logged in member | Session cookie | Encrypted value of member id | Moderately intrusive |
forcefullsite | Used for improved user experience to force full site viewing for mobile devices instead of default web mobile version | Session cookie | Numeric text | Improves user experience |
server id | Strictly necessary. Used by load balancers to share traffic across our server infrastructure and improve website delivery | Session cookie | Text value | Strictly necessary |
Third-party cookies
We use cookies set by Google Analytics — a free website analytics service provided by Google — for improving our website service, these allow us to accurately estimate the number of visitors to the website, volumes of usage, and ensure efficient delivery and availability of the website. This data also enables us to understand how you use the website so that we can ensure future developments meet your needs.
We also use this data to report impacts to our funders in our role communicating science for development. While we are keen to track user data as a way of evaluating usage and communicating impacts to our funders, you are able to opt-out of this usage here.
See below for a full list of these third party cookies. For further details on the cookies set by Google Analytics, please refer to the Google Code website.
Name | Purpose | Expire | Content | Classification |
_utma | Google analytics | 2 years | A random generated number (Non personal data) | Necessary to provide website service, minimal intrusion |
_ utmb | Google analytics | 30 minutes | A random generated number (Non personal data) | Necessary to provide website service, minimal intrusion |
_utmc | Google analytics | When you close your browser | A random generated number (Non personal data) | Necessary to provide website service, minimal intrusion |
_utmz | Google analytics | 6 months | randomly generated number and information on how the site was reached (e.g. direct or via a link, organic search or paid search) | Necessary to provide website service, minimal intrusion
|
If you have any queries about our use of cookies or would like more information about them, please contact us.
If you want to know more about cookies generally please visit Wikipedia or the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) website, which provides independent advice and guidance about data protection and freedom of information.