Open Access, Copyright and Licensing

1. Open Access Policy

Our journals are fully open access. All articles published in the journal are made freely and permanently available online immediately upon publication, with no subscription fees, access charges, or embargo periods.

Readers may access, read, download, copy, share, and reuse published articles in accordance with the applicable Creative Commons license.

The journal is committed to open access and to the widest possible dissemination and reuse of scholarly research.

Open access means that:

All published articles are freely and immediately accessible worldwide;

Readers are not required to pay subscription or pay-per-view fees;

There is no embargo period for published articles;

Authors retain copyright in their published work, which may be reused under the applicable Creative Commons license.

2. Open Access Publishing Model

Our journals follow the Gold Open Access publishing model, one of the most widely adopted models in open access publishing.

Under the Gold Open Access model, the final Version of Record of each accepted article is made freely and immediately available online upon publication, with no subscription fees or access barriers. The costs associated with peer-review administration, editorial processing, production, publication, and long-term preservation are supported through an Article Processing Charge (APC).

The APC may be paid by the author, the author's institution, research funder, or another supporting organization.

Payment of an APC has no influence on editorial decisions, and manuscripts are evaluated solely based on academic quality, scientific validity, originality, relevance, and compliance with editorial policies.

No APC is charged for manuscripts that are rejected.

For current APC amounts, exemptions, waivers, discounts, and payment arrangements, please refer to the journal's Article Processing Charges (APCs) Policy.

3. Copyright

Authors retain copyright in articles published in our journals.

Unless otherwise stated, copyright is held by the author(s), and authors are not required to transfer copyright ownership to the journal or publisher as a condition of publication.

Upon acceptance for publication, the author(s) grant POLYMAS a non-exclusive right to publish, reproduce, distribute, display, archive, identify itself as the original publisher of the article, and otherwise make the Version of Record available as part of the journal.

Because this publishing right is non-exclusive, authors retain the right to use, share, deposit, distribute, and reuse their work in accordance with the applicable Creative Commons license and any applicable journal policies.

A standard copyright notice may appear on published articles in the following form:

© 2026 The Author(s). Published by POLYMAS.

4. Creative Commons License

Unless otherwise stated, articles published in our journals are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).

Under the CC BY 4.0 license, users may:

Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format;

Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material;

Use the material for both non-commercial and commercial purposes.

These rights are granted provided that users:

Give appropriate credit to the original author(s);

Provide an appropriate citation to the original publication;

Provide a link to the CC BY 4.0 license where reasonably practicable;

Indicate whether changes have been made; and

Do not imply endorsement by the author(s), journal, or publisher.

No additional legal or technological restrictions may be imposed that would prevent others from exercising the rights granted under the license.

5. Author Rights

With authors retaining copyright, they may, subject to the applicable license:

Share their article with colleagues and students;

Deposit the article in institutional, subject-based, or other appropriate repositories;

Post the article on personal or institutional websites;

Use the article in teaching, lectures, presentations, dissertations, and theses;

Reuse figures, tables, data, and other original material from the article;

Incorporate the article or portions of it into future works, books, or collections;

Distribute copies of the article; and

Otherwise reuse their work without requesting additional permission from the publisher.

Where the published Version of Record is shared or reused, authors should provide an appropriate citation and, where available, a link to the article's DOI.

6. Reader and Reuse Rights

Articles published under CC BY 4.0 may generally be reused without requesting separate permission from the journal or publisher, provided that the conditions of the license are satisfied.

Permitted reuse may include, but is not limited to:

Downloading and storing articles;

Sharing articles with others;

Reproducing articles or portions of articles;

Reproducing figures and tables;

Including content in educational materials;

Translating published content;

Creating adaptations or derivative works;

Including content in collective works;

Text and data mining; and

Commercial reuse.

Users must appropriately acknowledge the original author(s) and publication and comply with the applicable Creative Commons license.

Reuse of an article does not imply endorsement by the author(s), editors, journal, or publisher.

7. Text and Data Mining

Content published under the CC BY 4.0 license may be used for text and data mining, computational analysis, machine-readable processing, and related research activities in accordance with the terms of the license.

Where published content incorporates third-party material that is excluded from the article's Creative Commons license, separate permission may be required from the relevant copyright holder.

8. Third-Party Material

The Creative Commons license applicable to an article applies only to material for which the author(s) or publisher have the legal authority to grant such a license.

Authors are responsible for obtaining appropriate permission for any copyrighted material reproduced from third-party sources, including, where applicable:

Figures;

Photographs;

Illustrations;

Tables;

Questionnaires or instruments;

Maps;

Substantial text extracts; and

Other copyrighted materials.

Third-party material that is not covered by the article's Creative Commons license should be clearly identified through an appropriate credit line or copyright notice.

Where a figure, table, image, or other item is identified as being subject to separate copyright or licensing terms, users must obtain permission directly from the relevant copyright holder unless the intended use is otherwise permitted by law.

9. Licensing Notice on Published Articles

Unless an alternative license has been expressly approved, published articles should carry a notice substantially in the following form:

© 2026 The Author(s). Published by POLYMAS. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, provided that appropriate credit is given to the original author(s) and source, a link to the license is provided, and any changes made are indicated.

Third-party material included in an article may be subject to different copyright or licensing terms, as indicated in the relevant credit line.

10. Article Processing Charges and Editorial Independence

The payment of an Article Processing Charge (APC) is associated only with publication services and does not guarantee acceptance or publication.

Editorial decisions are made independently of an author's ability to pay an APC.

Editors and peer reviewers involved in manuscript assessment do not make editorial recommendations based on whether an author, institution, or funder is able to pay publication charges.

Where waivers or discounts are available, requests for financial support will not affect the editorial assessment of a manuscript.

11. Permissions

For materials published under CC BY 4.0 and owned by the author(s), separate permission from the journal or POLYMAS is generally not required when the proposed reuse falls within the scope of the license.

Users must nevertheless provide appropriate attribution and comply with all applicable license terms.

For third-party materials, content published under a different license, or uses not covered by the applicable license, users should contact the relevant copyright holder or the Editorial Office for further information.