Open Access Policy

Open Access & Licensing — Education Specialist (ES)

Immediate open access • CC BY-SA 4.0 • Author rights • Repository-friendly • PKP PN (LOCKSS) active • DOAJ-aligned

1) Policy Statement

Education Specialist (ES) is committed to open access in education research. All articles are published with immediate, free access—no embargoes or registration.

2) License (CC BY-SA 4.0)

ES publishes each article under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) license, which allows anyone to:

  • Share — copy and redistribute in any medium or format.
  • Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon for any purpose, including commercial.

Conditions: provide attribution, link to the license, indicate changes, and distribute adaptations under the same license. Full text: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/.

  • Authors retain copyright of their work and grant ES a non-exclusive right to publish and disseminate.
  • Authors may reuse, share, and deposit the article (submitted, accepted, or published version) in repositories and personal/departmental sites with citation and CC BY-SA notice.
  • Authors must secure permissions and credit lines for any third-party content.

4) Self-Archiving & Repository Policy

  • Preprint (submitted version): Allowed; add DOI link after publication.
  • Accepted Manuscript (postprint): Immediate deposit allowed with citation to Version of Record and CC BY-SA notice.
  • Version of Record (publisher PDF): Immediate deposit allowed with full citation and CC BY-SA notice.

5) Open Access Principles (BOAI)

ES supports the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) and encourages repository deposits to maximize visibility and impact.

6) Article-Level License & Metadata

  • Each article page and PDF displays the exact license (CC BY-SA 4.0) with a link.
  • Article metadata (including license) is openly reusable; ES releases metadata under CC0 or similarly open terms to support indexing and discovery.
  • All items receive DOIs and are registered with recognized services to enhance discoverability and open citations where applicable.

7) Text & Data Mining (TDM)

TDM is permitted under CC BY-SA 4.0, with attribution and ShareAlike for adaptive outputs where applicable.

8) Fees & Waivers

ES applies transparent fees and waivers as stated on the APC & Waiver page. Editorial decisions are independent of fee status.

9) Quality, Integrity, and Transparency

  • All submissions undergo double-blind peer review, aligned with our Reviewers’ Guideline.
  • Corrections, retractions, and editor’s notes follow ethical best practice.
  • Policies are public and applied consistently at article level.

10) Digital Preservation & Indexing

ES participates in the PKP Preservation Network (PKP PN), which preserves published content using LOCKSS technology to ensure long-term availability, integrity, and authenticity of all articles. DOIs are assigned to every item and registered with recognized services for indexing and discovery.

Preservation status is monitored continuously via PKP PN and is reflected in the article record once deposited and validated.

11) Third-Party Content

Content not covered by CC BY-SA (e.g., certain images/datasets) remains under its own license. Authors must obtain permissions and include clear credit lines.

12) Contact

Questions on licensing, repository deposits, or preservation may be directed to the Editorial Office via the journal website.

DOAJ alignment: The exact license is displayed on article pages and PDFs; fees/waivers are publicly documented; self-archiving is allowed for all versions; preservation service (PKP PN/LOCKSS) is clearly stated; metadata is openly reusable.
Open Access & Preservation
Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Authors retain copyright. Reuse permitted with attribution and ShareAlike.
Preserved via PKP PN (LOCKSS) for long-term archiving.