Copyright and Licensing

1. Copyright Ownership

Authors retain full copyright of their work published in ABSE. Upon acceptance, authors grant the publisher a non-exclusive right to publish, archive, and distribute the work worldwide in all formats, including electronic and print, while preserving their ownership rights.

“Retaining copyright ensures that authors remain the legal owners of their intellectual property while benefiting from professional publishing and global visibility.”

2. License Terms (CC BY 4.0)

All ABSE content is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). This license allows anyone to:

• Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format.
• Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.

Under the following conditions:

• Proper credit must be given to the original authors and source.
• A link to the license must be provided.
• Any modifications must be clearly indicated.

No additional restrictions may be applied that legally prevent others from exercising the rights granted under the license.

3. Author Responsibilities

By submitting a manuscript, authors confirm that:

• The work is original and does not infringe any copyright, trademark, or intellectual-property rights of others.
• All third-party content (figures, tables, images, datasets) used in the manuscript is properly cited and, where necessary, permission has been obtained.
• They agree to the distribution of their published article under the CC BY 4.0 license.

4. Third-Party Material

When including material owned by others (such as figures, charts, or photographs), authors must secure appropriate permissions. Any third-party content not covered by CC BY 4.0 will be clearly labeled in the article.

5. Publisher Rights

ABSE and its publisher, Heighten Science Publications Inc., reserve the right to:

• Distribute and promote published articles in repositories, databases, and archives.
• Translate metadata for indexing and citation tracking.
• Preserve and maintain the integrity of the scholarly record through digital archiving systems (Portico, LOCKSS).

6. Use of Published Material

Readers, institutions, and organizations are free to reuse, adapt, and redistribute content from ABSE provided attribution is given. Reuse examples include:

• Integrating figures or tables in educational materials.
• Translating or adapting research for policy briefs or presentations.
• Sharing and text-mining ABSE articles for non-commercial or commercial research.

7. Commercial and Educational Use

The CC BY 4.0 license explicitly allows commercial reuse, provided that attribution is maintained. Educators, libraries, and institutions are encouraged to include ABSE articles in open-course content, repositories, and curricula without prior permission.

8. License for Published Metadata

All metadata (titles, abstracts, author names, affiliations, keywords, and DOIs) are made available for indexing and reuse under CC0 Public Domain Dedication, enabling unrestricted dissemination for discovery services.

9. Exceptions and Limitations

In exceptional cases, if an author’s institution or funder mandates a different license (e.g., CC BY-NC or CC BY-ND), the journal may consider alternate licensing terms subject to editorial approval. Such exceptions are rare and must not conflict with open-access principles.

10. Copyright Notice in Publications

Each published article includes a standard copyright statement such as:

“© [Year] by the Author(s). This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.”

11. Archiving and Version Control

All versions of articles are preserved in the ABSE repository and third-party archives. Each record includes version identifiers and DOI metadata to maintain citation consistency.

12. Enforcement of Rights

Any suspected violation of this license or unauthorized use of ABSE content should be reported to [email protected]. ABSE may pursue corrective actions, including requests for attribution correction or license clarification.

13. Relationship to Open Access Policy

This policy functions in conjunction with ABSE’s Open Access Statement and Publication Ethics Policy, ensuring that copyright and licensing practices remain transparent and compliant with international open-science frameworks.

14. Policy Review and Updates

This policy is periodically reviewed to align with the latest Creative Commons updates and COPE recommendations. The most current version will always appear on the journal website.