Intellectual Property

Introduction

Accesso Journal is an open access journal committed to disseminating scientific research. This policy outlines the principles and practices related to intellectual property (IP) for works published in Accesso Journal, including copyright, licensing, and the responsibilities of authors and the journal. We aim to ensure clarity for authors, readers, and the wider academic community, while fostering an ethical sharing environment and innovation. Accesso Journal adheres to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Core Practices regarding intellectual property.

Accesso Journal believes in empowering authors by granting them copyright over their work. Articles are published under a Creative Commons license to encourage open access while ensuring proper attribution and defining usage rights.

Description

  • Intellectual Property (IP): Refers to creations of the mind, such as inventions, literary and artistic works, designs, symbols, names, and images used in commerce. In scholarly publishing, IP primarily concerns copyright and the licensing of original works.

  • Copyright: The legal right granted to the creator (or owner) of an original work, including literary, artistic, and scientific works, to control its use and distribution.

  • Open Access: Accesso Journal is an open access journal, meaning its content is freely available on the public internet, permitting any user to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full text of articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself.

  • License: Permission granted by the copyright holder to others to use the copyrighted work under certain terms. Accesso Journal articles are published under a Creative Commons license.

    • CC BY-NC-SA (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike): This license allows others to remix, adapt, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as they credit the author and license their new creations under the identical terms. Others can download and redistribute the work, but they must also credit the author, and they cannot use it commercially. If they remix, transform, or build upon the material, they must distribute their contributions under the same license as the original.

  • Plagiarism: Presenting the work or ideas of others as one's own without proper acknowledgment of the source. It is a serious violation of intellectual property rights and academic integrity.

  • Redundant/Overlapping Publication: Publishing work that significantly overlaps with work already published by the same author without adequate cross-referencing or justification. This is also considered unacceptable practice.

  • Prepublication: Refers to the dissemination of research findings prior to formal journal publication, such as in theses, conference proceedings, working papers, or on preprint servers.

  • Peer Review Copyright: Intellectual property rights associated with the content of peer review reports.

Policy

  • Copyright Ownership by Authors:

    • Authors retain full copyright of their articles published in Accesso Journal.

    • Accesso Journal does not require authors to transfer their copyright to the journal or its publisher.

  • Publishing License:

    • Appropriate credit is given to the original authors and Accesso Journal (including a link to the formal publication via its DOI).

    • A link to the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license is provided.

    • Any changes made to the material are clearly indicated.

    • If the material is remixed, transformed, or built upon, the modified material must be distributed under the same CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

    • All articles published in Accesso Journal are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).

    • This license allows any user to share (copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format) and adapt (remix, transform, and build upon the material) the work for non-commercial purposes, provided that:

  • Author Rights and Responsibilities:

    • Authors grant Accesso Journal a license to publish the article as the original publisher and to identify itself as the original publisher.

    • Authors are free to share, archive, and reuse their published work (e.g., in institutional repositories, on personal websites, and in subsequent works) in accordance with the terms of the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license, ensuring proper attribution to the original publication in Accesso Journal.

    • Authors are fully responsible for obtaining all necessary permissions to reproduce or adapt any third-party copyrighted material (e.g., images, tables, extensive quotations) included in their manuscript prior to submission. Evidence of such permissions must be provided to Accesso Journal upon request.

  • Peer Review Report Copyright:

    • Peer reviewers providing reports to Accesso Journal hold the copyright to their reviews.

    • Accesso Journal's policy on the use or publication of peer review reports respects the reviewer's copyright and will be implemented with the explicit consent of the reviewer regarding the sharing or licensing of their report.

  • Plagiarism, Redundant Publication, and Research Integrity:

    • Accesso Journal has a zero-tolerance policy towards plagiarism and redundant/overlapping publication.

    • All submitted manuscripts will be screened for originality using plagiarism detection software. We will reject or, if published, retract manuscripts found to contain plagiarized or highly redundant material.

    • Authors must ensure the submitted work is original and all sources are properly cited.

  • Prepublication Policy:

    • Accesso Journal's policy on what constitutes prepublication that would preclude consideration of a manuscript (e.g., working papers, theses, conference proceedings, preprint server deposition) is clearly defined in the "Instructions for Authors".

    • Authors must fully disclose any prior dissemination or concurrent submission elsewhere of a work or closely related work at the time of manuscript submission.

  • Publication Fees:

  • Journal Intellectual Property:

    • The name "Accesso Journal", its logo, and other distinctive branding elements are the intellectual property of the journal and its publisher and should not be used without prior written permission.

Technical Measures to Archive and Implement the Policy

  • Copyright and License Information for Articles:

    • Each published article will include a clear statement indicating the author holds the copyright.

    • Each published article (HTML and PDF versions) will clearly display the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license under which it is distributed, along with a link to the full license text.

    • The journal website will provide comprehensive information on copyright and licensing terms.

  • Author Publishing Agreement:

    • Upon acceptance of their manuscript for publication, authors agree that they are the copyright holders (or have authority from all copyright holders) and that they agree to publish their article under the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license, which grants Accesso Journal a license for first publication.

  • Permissions for Third-Party Copyrighted Material:

    • Authors must obtain written permission from the copyright holder for any third-party material (e.g., images, tables, lengthy text quotations) they wish to include in their manuscript if its use is not covered by fair use/dealing or other exceptions to copyright.

    • Authors must provide copies of these permissions to Accesso Journal upon request and include appropriate credit lines in the manuscript as stipulated by the copyright holder.

  • Defining and Handling Prepublication:

    • Accesso Journal's "Instructions for Authors" will explain its stance on what constitutes prior publication. Generally, depositing a manuscript on a recognized preprint server (such as arXiv, RePEc, or an institutional preprint server), or presentation at an academic conference (as an abstract or poster), or inclusion in a thesis or dissertation does not preclude consideration for publication in Accesso Journal, provided this is fully disclosed upon submission. Authors should link to any preprint version.

  • Screening for Originality:

    • All submissions to Accesso Journal will be processed through Turnitin plagiarism detection software to assess originality.

    • If potential plagiarism or significant overlap is detected, the manuscript will be further investigated in accordance with the "Accesso Journal Policy on Suspected Violations" and COPE guidelines.

  • Author Self-Archiving:

    • Authors are permitted and encouraged to archive versions of their work (preprint, accepted manuscript/author's accepted manuscript, and/or the final published version/Version of Record) in their institutional repository or repository of choice, provided that the original publication in Accesso Journal is properly cited, with a full citation and link to the published article's DOI, in accordance with the CC BY-NC-SA license. Accesso Journal's specific policy on which versions can be archived and any embargo periods (if applicable, though generally none for CC BY licenses) will be detailed on its website.

  • Accessibility and Indexing:

    • As an open access journal, Accesso Journal ensures that all published articles are immediately and permanently free to read, download, and share by everyone under the terms of the CC BY-NC-SA license.

This Intellectual Property Policy is designed to protect authors' rights while ensuring the widest possible dissemination and use of research published in Accesso Journal, consistent with open access principles.