Open Access Policy

Section Menu

1. Open Access

Open Access (OA) makes peer-reviewed scholarly content freely and permanently available online without subscription, registration, or pay-per-view barriers. The Asian Journal of Information Science and Technology (AJIST) follows a Gold Open Access publishing model, under which the final published Version of Record is available immediately and permanently on the journal website.

Readers may access, read, download, copy, and share AJIST articles without charge, subject to the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

2. Centre for Research and Innovation (CRI) Open Access Guidelines

The Centre for Research and Innovation (CRI), publisher of AJIST, follows transparent scholarly-publishing practices for copyright, licensing, peer review, author charges, and access. AJIST’s Copyright & Licensing Policy explains the journal’s copyright-transfer and reuse terms, while the Peer Review Process describes editorial assessment and independent review.

Following completion of the journal’s Author Declaration and Copyright Transfer Agreement, copyright in the published Version of Record transfers to CRI upon publication. AJIST articles are then made immediately and permanently available under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

3. Benefits of Open Access Publishing

  • Improves the visibility and discoverability of published research.
  • Provides immediate worldwide access to published articles.
  • Creates wider opportunities for readership and citation.
  • Supports broad scholarly dissemination without subscription barriers.

Authors whose work is subject to specific institutional or funder licensing requirements, including CC BY 4.0 mandates, should confirm before submission that AJIST’s licensing terms satisfy those requirements.

AJIST articles are distributed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. The licence permits copying and redistribution of the unchanged article in any medium or format for non-commercial purposes, provided appropriate credit is given to the author(s), AJIST, and the original publication.

The licence does not permit commercial use or distribution of modified, adapted, translated, remixed, transformed, or derivative versions without additional permission from the copyright holder.

After copyright transfer, CRI holds the rights needed to publish, reproduce, distribute, archive, preserve, index, disseminate, license, and protect the published Version of Record in accordance with the Copyright & Licensing Policy.

For articles published in 2026, the article webpage and PDF should display the following statement:

© 2026 Centre for Research and Innovation (CRI). This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

For later articles, the copyright year should match the actual year of publication.

6. Repository Policy

Authors may deposit the following versions in institutional, subject, or other appropriate scholarly repositories without an embargo period:

  • Submitted manuscript.
  • Accepted manuscript.
  • Published Version of Record.

When depositing or sharing the published Version of Record, authors should retain:

  • The complete bibliographic citation.
  • The DOI or permanent link.
  • The original copyright notice.
  • The CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence information.
  • Acknowledgement of AJIST and CRI as the original journal and publisher.

The Version of Record must remain unchanged and may be shared for non-commercial purposes in accordance with the licence.

7. Digital Preservation

AJIST states that its content is preserved through the PKP Preservation Network (PKP PN) to support long-term digital preservation and continued access.

8. Gold Open Access and Article Processing Charge

AJIST supports its Gold Open Access publishing services through an Article Processing Charge (APC). The current APC is INR 3,000 for authors based in India and USD 50 for authors based outside India. No manuscript submission fee is charged.

The APC is payable only after a manuscript has been accepted following editorial assessment and peer review. Authors are not required to pay an APC for rejected manuscripts. Payment, waiver, discount, or refund status does not influence editorial assessment, peer review, acceptance, or publication decisions.

9. Fee Waivers and Discounts

AJIST provides a 50% APC discount for corresponding authors from Research4Life Group A countries, subject to the current Research4Life eligibility classification at the time of submission. Eligibility should be checked before payment.

10. Other Charges

AJIST does not charge additional editorial processing, language editing, colour, submission, page, membership, or other supplementary author-facing fees beyond the applicable APC stated in the policy.

11. Refund of Article Processing Charges

CRI grants an APC refund only when an error attributable to the publisher prevents publication of an accepted manuscript or when multiple APC payments are mistakenly made for the same manuscript.

Refunds are normally not issued when an author withdraws after APC payment and publication processing has commenced, or when an article is retracted because of plagiarism, copyright infringement, data fabrication, research misconduct, or another author-related breach of publication ethics. Approved refunds are normally processed within 14 days, subject to payment-provider and banking processing times.

12. Editorial Independence

Editorial decisions are based on scholarly merit and remain independent of APC payments and other financial considerations. AJIST’s Revenue Sources Statement and Publication Ethics & Publication Malpractice Statement provide related transparency on financial separation and editorial independence.