ARCC Journals are committed to protecting the intellectual-property rights of authors while supporting the broad, lawful and responsible dissemination of scholarly research. 
This policy should be read together with the ARCC Open Access Policy, Author Guidelines, Publication Ethics Policy and the copyright and licence notice displayed with each published article. 

Authors retain copyright in articles published by ARCC Journals. 

Where copyright is legally owned by an employer, institution, government or another authorised rights holder, that ownership must be identified accurately in the publication agreement and in the copyright notice displayed with the article. 

Each author is responsible for confirming that they have the authority to submit the work and grant the publishing rights required under this policy.

Following editorial acceptance and before publication, the authorised copyright holder must complete the applicable ARCC publication agreement. 

Through that agreement, the copyright holder grants ARCC Journals a non-exclusive licence to: 

• Publish, reproduce and distribute the article as the Version of Record. 

• Host and make the article openly available through ARCC platforms and authorised services. 

• Assign, register and maintain the article's DOI, citation and publication metadata. 

• Index, archive, preserve and transmit the article to appropriate discovery, repository and preservation services. 

• Promote and communicate the article through scholarly and public channels. 

• Publish corrections, expressions of concern, retractions or other notices where required to maintain the scholarly record. 

The licence granted to ARCC does not transfer ownership of copyright to ARCC. Because it is non-exclusive, the copyright holder may exercise and authorise the rights that remain available under the applicable Open Access licence. 

Articles published by ARCC Journals are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY 4.0), unless a different licence is expressly identified with a specific article. 

Official licence: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International 

CC BY 4.0 permits users to: 

• Copy and redistribute the article in any medium or format. 

• Share the article through repositories, websites, scholarly networks and other platforms. 

• Adapt, translate, remix or build upon the content. 

• Use the content for commercial or non-commercial purposes. 

Users must: 

• Give appropriate credit to the original author or authors and source. 

• Provide a link to the CC BY 4.0 licence. 

• Indicate whether changes were made. 

• Avoid implying endorsement by the authors, journal or ARCC. 

• Avoid imposing additional legal or technological restrictions that prevent others from exercising the rights granted by the licence. 

Subject to the rights of co-authors, third parties and any applicable law, authors may: 

• Share and deposit the published Version of Record in institutional or subject repositories. 

• Post the published article on personal or institutional websites and scholarly collaboration networks. 

• Use the work in teaching, presentations, theses, dissertations and future scholarly works. 

• Reuse figures, tables and extracts from their article under the terms of CC BY 4.0. 

• Translate, adapt or build upon the work, provided the original publication is credited and changes are identified. 

The shared or reused version should include the formal citation, DOI or permanent article link, copyright notice and CC BY 4.0 licence link. 

Readers and other users may reuse ARCC articles in accordance with CC BY 4.0. No separate permission from ARCC is required for a use that is fully covered by the licence. 

Attribution alone does not authorise a use that falls outside the licence or involves material that is not covered by it. Users remain responsible for complying with applicable privacy, publicity, moral, database, trademark and other rights. 

Authors are responsible for identifying material in their manuscripts that they do not own and for obtaining all permissions required for publication and Open Access reuse before the article is published. 

Third-party material may include: 

• Figures, tables, photographs and illustrations. 

• Maps, diagrams and graphical material. 

• Questionnaires, scales, instruments and software screenshots. 

• Datasets, database extracts and substantial text excerpts. 

• Material previously published under a licence that is not compatible with CC BY 4.0. 

Authors must provide complete source information, any required acknowledgement and a clear credit line stating the permission or separate licence. Evidence of permission must be supplied to the Editorial Office when requested. 

Unless a credit line states otherwise, material created by the article authors and included in the article is covered by CC BY 4.0. Separately credited third-party material may be excluded from the article's Creative Commons licence. 

Authors must ensure that the submitted manuscript: 

• Is original and does not unlawfully reproduce or adapt protected material. 

• Properly cites and acknowledges all sources. 

• Does not infringe the copyright or other rights of an individual, organisation or rights holder. 

• Includes all permissions, licences and credit lines required for third-party content. 

• Accurately identifies any earlier publication, preprint or related version of the work. 

Detailed requirements concerning plagiarism, duplicate publication, text recycling and research misconduct are governed by the ARCC Publication Ethics Policy. 

Permission from ARCC is not required where the intended use is authorised by CC BY 4.0. 

A permission request may be required where: 

• The material is separately credited and excluded from CC BY 4.0. 

• The intended use exceeds the rights granted by the applicable article licence. 

• ARCC controls a logo, trademark, website design, unpublished file or other material that is not part of the licensed article. 

• A third party requests confirmation of rights or a formal permission letter for material controlled by ARCC. 

Where ARCC does not control the relevant rights, the requester must contact the appropriate copyright holder.

ARCC takes credible allegations of copyright infringement, unauthorised use and rights misrepresentation seriously. 

A complaint should include, where available: 

• The complainant's name, contact details and relationship to the rights concerned. 

• Identification of the original protected work. 

• Identification of the ARCC article, page, DOI, file or material in question. 

• A clear explanation of the alleged infringement. 

• Evidence of ownership, authorisation or representation of the rights holder. 

• The action requested and any relevant legal or licence information. 

ARCC may acknowledge the complaint, request additional evidence, contact the relevant authors or rights holders, temporarily restrict access where a serious legal or safety risk requires it, and determine the appropriate publication action under the Copyright, Open Access and Publication Ethics policies. 

Possible outcomes may include no action, clarification of the credit line or licence, correction, replacement of material, restriction of specific content, retraction or exceptional removal. Any substantive action affecting the scholarly record should be transparently documented.

Each published article should display, in HTML and PDF where applicable: 

• The name of the copyright holder. 

• The CC BY 4.0 licence name and official licence link. 

• The formal citation and DOI. 

• Any third-party material excluded from the article licence. 

• Any correction, expression of concern, retraction or other notice affecting the article. 

Copyright and licensing statements must be consistent across the article, journal page, Open Access Policy, Author Guidelines and publication agreement. 

Copyright ownership and licensing are not determined by the author's ability to pay an Article Processing Charge. 

APC payment, waiver, discount, funding status or institutional support does not influence peer review, editorial acceptance, copyright ownership or the application of the article licence.