Open access policy and licensing terms

  1. Open Access and Publishing Policy

    Open Access Statement

    The African Journal of Science, Technology and Social Sciences (AJSTSS) is a Diamond Open Access journal. All published content is freely and immediately accessible to readers worldwide. The journal does not charge any subscription fees, and no Article Processing Charges (APCs) are levied on authors.

    This model is in line with the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) and supports the equitable dissemination of knowledge. Readers are free to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to full texts of articles or use them for any other lawful purpose, without requesting prior permission from the publisher or authors.

    Licensing Terms

    All articles published in AJSTSS are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0). This license permits:

    • Sharing – Copying and redistributing the material in any medium or format.

    • Adapting – Remixing, transforming, and building upon the material for any purpose, including commercial use.

    Users must:

    • Provide appropriate credit, a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made.

    • Distribute contributions under the same license (ShareAlike) if the material is modified or adapted.

    This licensing ensures broad dissemination while preserving author attribution and encouraging scholarly collaboration.

    Copyright Statement

    Authors retain full copyright ownership of their published work. By submitting to AJSTSS, authors agree to allow their work to be published under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license. The work must be original, unpublished, and not under review elsewhere at the time of submission.

    Article Processing Charges (APCs)

    AJSTSS is committed to removing financial barriers to scholarly publishing.
    There are no Article Processing Charges (APCs), submission fees, page charges, or other costs levied on authors. The journal operates under a non-commercial, community-driven Diamond Open Access model, supported by institutional funding, research partnerships, and volunteer contributions.

    Plagiarism Policy

    AJSTSS maintains strict ethical standards. All submitted manuscripts undergo plagiarism screening using professional tools.

    • The similarity index should not exceed 15% overall, and no single source should exceed 30%.

    • Proper citation of all sources is mandatory.

    • Self-plagiarism and duplicate publication are strictly prohibited.

    Privacy Statement

    The personal information (names, email addresses, affiliations) collected through the journal's platform is used exclusively for editorial correspondence and publication-related communication. This data will not be shared with third parties or used for other purposes.

    Summary of Compliance with Diamond Open Access Standards

    Requirement AJSTSS Status
    No APCs or submission fees ✅ Fully compliant
    Free access to all articles ✅ Fully compliant
    Retention of author rights ✅ Fully compliant
    Use of open license (CC BY-SA 4.0) ✅ Fully compliant
    Ethical publishing practices ✅ Fully compliant