eISSN: 2978-3747 editor@irjernet.com
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Open Access Policy

Open Access Policy

Frontiers in Medical and Clinical Sciences (FMCS)

eISSN: 2978-3747

1. Introduction & Core Vision

Frontiers in Medical and Clinical Sciences (FMCS) is an international, peer-reviewed, Open Access journal committed to the unrestricted, permanent, and global dissemination of high-quality scholarly research across basic medical sciences, clinical medicine, translational research, and healthcare practices.

FMCS operates on the foundational principle that medical, clinical, and scientific knowledge should be freely accessible to researchers, healthcare professionals, clinicians, and the general public without financial, legal, or technical barriers. By promoting open scholarship, the journal seeks to accelerate global medical collaboration, elevate research visibility, bridge theoretical medicine with clinical practice, and foster evidence-based healthcare worldwide.

2. Open Access Statement

FMCS provides immediate, permanent, and barrier-free access to all published articles under the Gold Open Access model:

  • Immediate Availability: All research articles are published open access and made freely available online instantly upon publication.

  • Zero Embargo Period: The journal enforces no paywalls, subscription requirements, or delayed access periods (embargoes).

  • Universal Reach: Readers worldwide can view, download, print, copy, distribute, and share full-text PDFs without subscription fees, user registrations, or prior administrative approvals.

3. Copyright Retention & Author Rights

In accordance with modern scholarly publishing standards, DOAJ guidelines, and international open science frameworks, authors retain full, unrestricted copyright of their work published in FMCS.

  • Non-Exclusive License: Authors grant FMCS a non-exclusive license to publish, reproduce, distribute, display, archive, and preserve the final Version of Record as part of the permanent scientific record.

  • Re-use Rights: Authors retain the absolute right to reuse, distribute, translate, and reproduce their published work in future academic endeavors, medical books, clinical course materials, lectures, or institutional repositories without seeking formal permission or paying fees to the publisher.

4. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0)

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

Under the terms of this license, researchers, students, clinicians, healthcare institutions, and the general public are free to:

  • Share: Copy, distribute, and redistribute the published material in any medium or format.

  • Adapt: Remix, transform, build upon, and adapt the material for any lawful purpose, including clinical toolkits, medical educational resources, and commercial applications.

Mandatory Attribution Requirement: Credit must be properly attributed to the original author(s) and FMCS as the original place of publication, a link to the CC BY 4.0 license must be provided, and any modifications or adaptations made must be clearly indicated.

5. Rights of Readers & Reuse Guidelines

Consistent with the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) and the CC BY 4.0 license, readers, researchers, and medical practitioners are permitted to:

  • Search, read, download, print, link, or crawl full-text articles for indexing, text mining, and data mining purposes.

  • Pass published content as data to computational tools, biomedical AI models, and diagnostic software without seeking extra authorization or paying royalties.

  • Cite and incorporate published findings into medical research, systematic reviews, clinical practice guidelines, and public health policy documents.

Proper Citation Standard

Any reuse or distribution of published work must explicitly include:

  1. Complete author attribution.

  2. Full journal citation (Frontiers in Medical and Clinical Sciences).

  3. The official Digital Object Identifier (DOI) assigned to the article.

  4. A clear indication if any adaptations, translations, or modifications were made.

6. Self-Archiving & Repository Policy

FMCS actively supports self-archiving and open repository practices (Green Open Access). Authors are encouraged to deposit and share the final Publisher's PDF (Version of Record) immediately upon publication across various platforms without any embargo period:

  • Institutional & Subject Repositories: University repositories, medical library databases, PubMed Central/Europe PMC (where eligible), and digital archives.

  • Academic & Professional Profiles: ORCID, ResearchGate, Academia.edu, Google Scholar, LinkedIn, and personal/faculty web pages.

  • Funding Agency Archives: Open access repositories required by national or international medical research funders (e.g., NIH, Wellcome Trust, ERC).

Requirement: All self-archived versions must contain complete bibliographic citation details, a direct link to the official article DOI, and explicit recognition of FMCS as the original publisher.

7. Digital Archiving & Long-Term Preservation

To ensure permanent access to published clinical and medical literature, FMCS's digital content is archived and preserved across permanent repository systems, institutional servers, and Crossref DOI metadata records. This guarantees that all published articles remain permanently discoverable, readable, and accessible to the global scientific community even in the event that the journal ceases operation.

8. Alignment with Global Open Science Standards

FMCS aligns its publishing operations, licensing, and Open Access policies with established international frameworks and medical indexing databases:

  • DOAJ: Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing.

  • COPE: Committee on Publication Ethics guidelines for transparent licensing and archiving.

  • BOAI: Budapest Open Access Initiative definition and standards for open access publishing.

  • ICMJE & Scopus: International medical standards for immediate accessibility, permanent preservation, and open metadata.

9. Policy Review & Governance

This policy is reviewed annually by the Editorial Board to maintain alignment with evolving open science directives, international copyright standards, and academic publishing best practices in medical sciences. The latest version will always remain publicly available on the journal portal.

10. Contact Information

For inquiries regarding Open Access licensing, copyright retention, or self-archiving rights, please contact the Editorial Office:

  • Editorial Email: editor@irjernet.com