The American Scientific Publishing Group (ASPG) is committed to the principles of open access scholarly publishing and to the broad, immediate, and permanent dissemination of research.
ASPG journals operate under an open-access publishing model in which published scholarly articles are freely available online to readers worldwide without subscription barriers. This policy defines the accessibility, licensing, reuse, self-archiving, publication fee, and preservation framework applicable to ASPG publications.
1. Open Access Statement
All scholarly articles published in ASPG journals are made immediately and freely accessible online upon publication.
Readers are not required to pay a subscription, purchase an article, or register for an account in order to access published scholarly content.
There is no embargo period between publication and open access. The Version of Record is made openly available through the journal website upon publication.
Open access applies regardless of whether an Article Processing Charge (APC) is applicable to a particular journal or article.
2. Access and Reuse
ASPG supports unrestricted access to published scholarly research.
Subject to the terms of the applicable open license, users may:
Read and download published articles;
Copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format;
Print, search, and link to published content;
Share articles through repositories, websites, and scholarly platforms;
Crawl and index content for scholarly discovery and indexing purposes; and
Adapt, transform, or build upon published material for lawful purposes.
Reuse must comply with the applicable license and provide appropriate attribution to the original author(s) and publication.
Open access does not mean that published material is in the public domain. Copyright and reuse remain governed by the applicable license.
3. Creative Commons Licensing
All ASPG scholarly articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
Under CC BY 4.0, users may share and adapt published material for any lawful purpose, including commercial and non-commercial use, provided that appropriate credit is given to the original author(s) and source, a reference to the license is provided, and changes are indicated where applicable.
Licensing information is displayed with published articles on the ASPG journal platform.
Detailed licensing and reuse provisions are provided in the Copyright and Licensing Policy.
4. Copyright and Author Rights
Authors retain copyright in their published work.
By publishing with ASPG, authors grant the publisher a non-exclusive license to publish, distribute, archive, and identify itself as the original publisher of the article.
Because authors retain copyright and articles are distributed under CC BY 4.0, authors may reuse, share, distribute, archive, and otherwise use their published work in accordance with the terms of the license.
No general restriction to academic or non-commercial reuse applies.
Full information concerning copyright, licensing, reuse, and permissions is available in the Copyright and Licensing Policy.
5. Third-Party Material
The CC BY 4.0 license applies to ASPG-published article content unless otherwise indicated.
Figures, images, tables, datasets, or other material reproduced from third-party sources may be subject to separate copyright or licensing conditions. Where third-party material is not covered by the article's Creative Commons license, the applicable copyright status or restrictions should be identified through an appropriate credit line.
Authors are responsible for obtaining any permissions required for the inclusion of third-party copyrighted material in their manuscripts.
Further information is provided in the Copyright and Licensing Policy.
6. Author Self-Archiving
ASPG permits immediate self-archiving of published articles.
Authors may deposit and distribute the published Version of Record through:
Institutional repositories;
Subject or disciplinary repositories;
Personal or institutional websites;
Academic and scholarly networking platforms; and
Other appropriate repositories or research-sharing services.
No embargo period applies.
When sharing or depositing the Version of Record, authors should retain the applicable copyright and licensing information and provide a citation and DOI or link to the original ASPG publication.
7. Article Processing Charges and Fee Transparency
ASPG is committed to transparency concerning publication charges.
Article Processing Charges (APCs) vary among ASPG journals. Some journals may apply an APC, while others may publish articles without a publication fee.
For each journal:
Any applicable APC is stated on the journal website;
Journals operating without publication charges clearly indicate this status;
No publication fee is charged at the initial submission stage;
Where an APC applies, payment is requested only following final acceptance and before publication; and
Any waiver or discount arrangement, where offered, is communicated according to the applicable journal policy.
Authors should consult the homepage of the journal to which they intend to submit for the current publication-fee information.
Publication charges, the ability to pay an APC, or eligibility for any waiver or discount have no influence on editorial assessment, peer review, or decisions concerning acceptance or rejection.
Editorial decisions are based on scholarly merit and the journal's editorial criteria.
8. Immediate Availability and No Embargo
ASPG does not impose an embargo on access to published scholarly articles.
Once an article is published:
The full text is immediately accessible through the journal website;
Reader registration is not required for access;
No subscription or pay-per-view payment is required;
Authors may immediately self-archive the published article; and
Reuse may take place according to the applicable CC BY 4.0 license.
This immediate-access model applies to the Version of Record published by ASPG.
9. Digital Preservation and Long-Term Accessibility
ASPG is committed to the long-term preservation, accessibility, and integrity of its published scholarly content.
Published articles and associated bibliographic metadata are maintained through publisher-managed digital systems and backup procedures designed to support continued availability, recovery, and protection of the scholarly record.
Persistent identifiers, including Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs), are maintained where assigned to support durable identification, linking, citation, and discovery of published content.
ASPG is working toward participation in a recognized independent long-term digital preservation service. The publisher has initiated communication with CLOCKSS regarding preservation of ASPG journal content and has been advised to proceed with the preservation arrangement following the relevant journal's inclusion in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ).
Until external preservation arrangements are activated, ASPG maintains publisher-managed backups of its published content and metadata. Following eligibility, ASPG intends to establish independent long-term preservation through CLOCKSS or another appropriate recognized preservation service.
In the event that an ASPG journal ceases publication or the primary publishing platform becomes unavailable, ASPG is committed to maintaining access to previously published scholarly content and to transferring or depositing archived content and associated metadata with an appropriate preservation or archival service where necessary.
Changes in the publication status of a journal do not alter the publisher's commitment to preserving the scholarly record.
10. Discoverability and Indexing
Open access is intended to support broad dissemination and discoverability of published research.
ASPG makes published scholarly content and relevant bibliographic metadata available through its journal platform and supports discovery through search engines, scholarly databases, library discovery systems, persistent identifiers, and other appropriate indexing and research-information services.
ASPG permits legitimate scholarly indexing services and discovery systems to crawl and index publicly available article information in accordance with applicable technical and licensing conditions.
Inclusion of a journal or article in any external indexing or abstracting database remains subject to the independent policies and evaluation procedures of the respective service.
11. Open Access and Editorial Independence
The open-access publishing model does not alter ASPG's standards for editorial evaluation, peer review, or publication ethics.
Manuscripts are evaluated according to scholarly and editorial criteria independently of publication charges or the open-access status of the journal.
Information concerning manuscript evaluation is provided in the Peer Review Process.
Standards concerning research integrity, authorship, conflicts of interest, misconduct, artificial intelligence, and other ethical matters are provided in the Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement.
12. Permanent Scholarly Record
Open access to published content is maintained in conjunction with ASPG's responsibility to preserve the integrity of the scholarly record.
Corrections, retractions, Expressions of Concern, and other post-publication actions do not normally remove public access to the scholarly record. Where changes to published content are required, they are handled transparently according to the publisher's established procedures.
Detailed information is available in the Corrections and Retractions Policy.
13. Policy Transparency and Scope
This Open Access Policy applies to scholarly articles published across ASPG journals.
Journal-specific information concerning publication charges, scope, publication schedules, and other operational matters is provided on the respective journal websites.
This policy should be read together with the following ASPG policies:
Where a detailed matter is governed by a dedicated ASPG policy, the corresponding policy provides the applicable procedural framework.