OPEN ACCESS POLICY

1. INTRODUCTION
International Journal of Counseling and Psychotherapy (IJCP) is firmly committed to the principles of Open Access in order to promote the global exchange of knowledge, accelerate scientific progress, support educational advancement, and maximize the societal impact of research. This Open Access Policy outlines IJCP’s dedication to ensuring permanent, free, and unrestricted access to its published content, in accordance with its mission to advance and disseminate high-quality research in counseling and psychotherapy.

IJCP adheres to the guidelines and best practices outlined in the following policies:

• Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) - original OA definition
• Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) - OA criteria & best practice
• Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) license
• Creative Commons - all licenses overview
• SPARC - Author Rights & retention (model addendum)
• UNESCO - Recommendation on Open Science (2021)
• Principles of Transparency & Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing - COPE/DOAJ/OASPA/WAME

2. POLICY DETAIL

• Free and Immediate Access: All research articles, technical papers, conceptual papers, and case study reports published in IJCP are immediately available to access and download free of charge for all users worldwide upon publication. There is no embargo period.

• Author Copyright and Licensing:

  • Authors publishing in IJCPretain copyright to their work.
  • All articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) license. This license permits others to:
    • Share: copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
    • Adapt: remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, including commercial.
  • Under the terms:
    • Attribution: users must give appropriate credit to the author(s) and IJCP as the original venue of publication, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made;
    • ShareAlike: if users remix, transform, or build upon the material, they must distribute their contributions under the same license as the original.
  • The specific licensing terms are clearly indicated on each published article.

• Publication Fees (APCs):

  • IJCP currently does not charge Article Processing Charges (APCs), submission fees, page or color charges. Journal operations including editorial management, peer review, DOI registration, and platform hosting are supported by the journal’s managing institution and partnerships. If fee policies change in the future, IJCP will update this section transparently on the journal website.

• Author Copyright and Licensing:

  • Under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) license, users are granted significant reuse rights as long as the terms of the license (share, adapt, attribution and ShareAlike) are respected. This promotes the broad dissemination and utilization of research findings.

• Benefits of Open Access:

  • For Authors: Increased visibility, readership, and citation of their work; wider global impact; greater public engagement; and compliance with open access mandates from many funding agencies.
  • For the Research Community and Society: Accelerated pace of research and innovation; equitable access to knowledge regardless of geographic location or institutional affiliation; enhanced opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration; and greater return on public investment in research.

• User Rights and Permitted Reuse:

  • Under CC BY-SA 4.0, users may reuse, text- and data-mine, translate, and create derivatives of IJCP content, including for commercial purposes, provided attribution is given and any derivatives are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 as well.

• Compliance with Funder Mandates:

  • The IJCP Open Access model author-retained copyright with CC BY-SA 4.0 licensing and immediate availability is compatible with many funder and institutional Open Access requirements. Authors should verify any specific mandates and, if needed, include required statements or data availability notes within their submissions.

• Archiving for Long-Term Accessibility:

  • IJCP is committed to the durable preservation of its scholarly record. The journal’s content is preserved through LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) and CLOCKSS (Controlled LOCKSS) to ensure continuity of access in the event of system failures or trigger events, supporting perpetual availability. (See the IJCP Archiving Policy for details.)

3. STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLE
IJCP believes that open and unrestricted access to scholarly literature is essential for advancing knowledge, improving educational practice, and maximizing the public value of research. By adopting the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) license, retaining author copyright, and providing immediate fee-free access, IJCP ensures that published works can be shared, adapted, and further developed as long as proper attribution is given and the same license is applied, thereby expanding the reach and impact of the research it publishes.