Open Access Policy

This policy is written for fully open-access journals seeking transparent OA practice. It follows the Budapest Open Access Initiative definition of open access and the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (COPE/DOAJ/OASPA/WAME, 2022).

Open Access Statement

All scholarly articles are made freely and immediately available online upon publication, without subscription, registration, or embargo for reading access. Open access means that users may read, download, copy, distribute, print, search and link to the full text of articles, and use them for any other lawful purpose permitted by the article licence, without financial, legal or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself. The journals are fully open access: no content is published behind a paywall or under a hybrid model, no embargo applies to reading access, and all back content remains permanently and freely available. Articles are published in HTML and PDF with a Crossref-registered Digital Object Identifier (DOI).

Reuse Rights

Open-access articles are distributed under an open Creative Commons licence as stated in the journal’s Licensing Policy and on the individual article. The standard licence is Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), with Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) available where required by an author’s funder, unless another open licence is explicitly displayed on the article. The licence name and URL are displayed on every article in HTML and PDF and are deposited in the article metadata.

Copyright

Authors transfer copyright in each article to the publisher through the Copyright Transfer and Declaration Form, and the publisher holds the exclusive right to reproduce and distribute it. Readers may reuse the article under its CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence. Copyright terms are described separately in the Copyright Policy and must not contradict the applicable open licence. Each article carries a copyright statement in the form “© [Year] STM Journals” in HTML, PDF and metadata.

Author Fees

Open access does not mean that authors will necessarily be charged. Any APCs or other author fees, including waivers, discounts, taxes, and refund conditions, are described separately in the Article Processing Charge Policy. Payment does not influence peer review or editorial decisions. The journal website states clearly and prominently, before the point of submission, whether any Article Processing Charge (APC), submission fee, page or colour charge applies; if so, the amount, currency, applicable taxes, when it becomes payable and the waiver and discount criteria are stated. If a journal charges no fees of any kind, the website states “This journal charges no APCs, submission fees or other author charges.” Readers are never charged. Fee information is also reported to DOAJ and kept current.

Peer Review and Editorial Independence

Open access publication does not alter the journal’s peer review standards. Every research article is subject to the peer review process described in the Peer Review Policy, which states the type of review used (for example, double-anonymised), the number of reviewers, and typical timelines. Editorial decisions are made solely on scholarly merit and are independent of the publisher’s commercial interests and of any fee. The Editor-in-Chief has full authority over editorial content.

Third-Party Material

Third-party content may carry different rights or licence terms. Any such exception must be clearly indicated in the article, figure legend, table note, or other appropriate location.

Metadata and Discoverability

The publisher seeks to make article metadata broadly discoverable through indexing, persistent identifiers, repository deposit, and metadata services. Where required by an indexing service, article-level metadata may be supplied regularly. In particular, the publisher: (a) registers a DOI with Crossref for every article and deposits complete article-level metadata including title, abstract, author names and affiliations, ORCID iDs, funding information, licence URL and full reference lists; (b) requires an English-language title, abstract and keywords for every article and reference lists in Roman script, in addition to any other publication language; (c) collects and displays authors’ ORCID iDs and institutional affiliations; (d) exposes metadata through an OAI-PMH endpoint and Google Scholar-compatible meta tags; (e) supplies article metadata to DOAJ following listing; and (f) applies for and maintains inclusion in relevant abstracting and indexing services, and reports the journal’s indexing status accurately on its website.

Journal Information and Website Transparency

Each journal website displays, in a location accessible from the homepage: the journal title and ISSN (print and/or electronic); the name and postal address of the publisher and the legal entity responsible; aims and scope; the full editorial board with names, institutional affiliations and countries; contact details for the editorial office; the peer review process; publication frequency and publication model; author guidelines; all ethics, copyright, licensing, open access, fee, archiving and complaints policies; and any indexing or membership claims, which must be verifiable. Website content is kept accurate, is free of misleading metrics, and functions correctly on desktop and mobile devices.

Publication Frequency and Timeliness

Each journal states its publication frequency and adheres to it. Articles are published online as soon as they are ready (continuous publication) and assigned to issues or volumes as stated on the journal website. Delays of more than one issue, or a change in frequency, are announced on the website. The publisher monitors publication volume and timeliness because sustained, regular output is a prerequisite for evaluation and continued coverage by indexing services.

Compliance with Funder and Institutional Mandates

The open access model of the journals is designed to allow authors to comply with funder and institutional open access mandates, including cOAlition S (Plan S) requirements for immediate open access under a CC BY licence, and national open access policies. Authors may select CC BY 4.0 where required (see Licensing Policy) while posting or depositing any version of an article elsewhere needs the publisher’s prior written permission (see Repository and Self-Archiving Policy). Funding information is collected at submission and deposited in Crossref metadata using the Open Funder Registry. Where a funder requires deposit of the article in a designated repository, authors should contact the publisher before submission.

Preservation

Open access is complemented by long-term preservation. Journals shall maintain a documented archiving arrangement as described in the Archiving and Digital Preservation Policy. The arrangement uses a recognised third-party preservation service (for example CLOCKSS, Portico or the PKP Preservation Network), covers all published content including supplementary files, and is named on the journal website.

Integrity of the Published Record

Open access articles form a permanent part of the scholarly record. The Version of Record is never silently altered or removed. Corrections, expressions of concern and retractions are issued in line with COPE guidelines and the journal’s Corrections and Retractions Policy, are freely accessible, are linked to the original article and are registered with Crossref (including Crossmark where implemented) so that indexing services can update their records.

Accessibility

The publisher aims to make journal websites and article content accessible to readers with disabilities, working towards conformance with WCAG 2.1 Level AA, and welcomes accessibility feedback through the editorial office.

Policy Review

This Policy is reviewed at least annually and whenever open access, funder or indexing requirements change. The version number and date of last revision are displayed on the journal website.