Open Access Policy

The Journal of Integrated Social Sciences and Wellbeing (JISSAW) is a strong advocate for the democratization of knowledge. We are committed to ensuring that high-quality research is accessible to everyone from policymakers and practitioners to the general public without financial or legal barriers.

1. License and Copyright

All articles published in JISSAW are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).

  • Authors Retain Copyright: Authors retain full ownership of their work while granting the journal the right of first publication.
  • Unrestricted Access: All articles are available online immediately upon publication. There are no embargo periods and no subscription fees.

2. User Rights (Under CC BY 4.0)

This license ensures maximum dissemination. Users are free to:

  • Share: Copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format (e.g., sharing a study on community resilience on social media or institutional repositories).
  • Adapt: Remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially (e.g., translating a policy paper into a local language or using findings in a commercial wellbeing app).
  • Condition: The user must give appropriate credit (Attribution) to the original authors and the journal.

3. Repository and Self-Archiving Policy

JISSAW supports "Green Open Access."

  • Preprints: Authors are encouraged to share early drafts on preprint servers (e.g., OSF Preprints, SSRN, or SportRxiv) prior to submission.
  • Post-Publication: Authors should deposit the Version of Record (the final published PDF) into their institutional repositories or personal websites immediately after publication.
    • Requirement: The deposit must include the DOI link to the article on the JISSAW website.

4. Benefits for Authors

  • Global Visibility: Your research reaches a wider audience, including NGOs, government agencies, and educators who may not have access to expensive subscription journals.
  • Higher Citation Potential: Open access articles are viewed and cited more frequently than paywalled content.
  • Grant Compliance: Publishing with CC BY 4.0 fulfills the open access mandates of major funders like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, UNESCO, and national research councils.

5. Compliance with Standards

This policy is fully aligned with the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) definition of Open Access and meets the transparency requirements of the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ).