Open Access Policy
AKSEN Journal of Contemporary Islamic Law (AJCIL)
1. Statement of Commitment
AKSEN Journal of Contemporary Islamic Law (AJCIL) is a fully open access journal. All content is made freely available to readers immediately upon publication, without subscription, registration, or payment barriers, in the belief that unrestricted access to scholarship on Islamic law serves the global public interest — supporting researchers, practitioners, students, policymakers, and the broader Muslim and academic community, particularly in regions with limited access to costly subscription journals.
This policy applies to all research articles, comparative/critical legal analyses, case notes, and review essays published in AJCIL.
2. What "Open Access" Means for AJCIL
- No subscription fees. Readers anywhere in the world may access, read, and download the full text of every published article free of charge, in perpetuity.
- No embargo period. Articles are made openly available immediately upon publication — there is no delay period before content becomes free to access.
- No registration barriers. Readers are not required to create an account, register, or provide personal information to read or download published articles.
3. Licensing
All published articles are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0), as detailed in the journal's separate Copyright Notice. This license permits readers to share and adapt published content, including for commercial purposes, provided appropriate attribution is given and derivative works are shared under an equivalent license.
Authors retain copyright of their work (see Copyright Notice, Section 4).
4. Author Self-Archiving Rights (Green OA)
In addition to the journal's own open access publication (Gold OA), authors are permitted — and encouraged — to self-archive their work as follows:
| Version | May be self-archived? | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Submitted manuscript (pre-review) | Yes, at any time | Personal website, institutional repository, preprint server (e.g., SSRN) |
| Accepted manuscript (post-review, pre-copyediting) | Yes, at any time | Institutional or subject repository |
| Final published version (Version of Record) | Yes, at any time, given CC BY-SA 4.0 | Institutional repository, personal website, academic networking sites |
Because AJCIL publishes under CC BY-SA 4.0 with no embargo, authors do not need special permission to self-archive any version, provided proper attribution to the original AJCIL publication (including a link/DOI to the version of record where possible) is included.
5. Article Processing Charges (APC)
AJCIL's open access model is supported in part by an Article Publication Charge, applied only upon acceptance (see the journal's Publication Fees document) — never as a condition of submission or peer review. A fee waiver policy is available for eligible authors (see Publication Fees, Section 4). Access for readers remains free regardless of an author's fee or waiver status.
6. Indexing and Discoverability
To maximize the visibility and discoverability of published research, AJCIL intends to pursue indexing and metadata distribution through relevant scholarly indexing services and directories. [Placeholder: list specific target indexing bodies once pursued/confirmed — e.g., DOAJ, Google Scholar, Garuda, Sinta, Crossref for DOI registration — rather than stating indexing status that has not yet been achieved. Claiming indexation before formal acceptance by an indexing service would be inaccurate and should be avoided in any public-facing version of this policy.]
- Each published article will be assigned a persistent identifier (DOI) [placeholder: confirm DOI registration agency, e.g., Crossref] to support stable citation and discoverability.
- Article metadata (title, abstract, author, keywords, references) will be made available in machine-readable formats to support indexing and harvesting by aggregators, consistent with standard open access repository practice.
7. Long-Term Preservation and Digital Archiving
To ensure the long-term availability of published content even if the journal itself ceases operation or changes platforms, AJCIL intends to establish a digital preservation arrangement. [Placeholder: this is a genuine operational decision the editorial board and publisher must make and should not be asserted as already in place — options commonly used by open access journals include LOCKSS, CLOCKSS, Portico, or deposit with a national library/institutional repository. Specify the chosen arrangement here once established, rather than listing services AJCIL has not yet confirmed enrollment with.]
8. Compliance with Funder and Institutional Open Access Mandates
Because AJCIL publishes immediately under CC BY-SA 4.0 with no embargo, publication in AJCIL is generally compatible with open access mandates imposed by research funders and institutions requiring immediate open access with a liberal reuse license. Authors subject to a specific funder mandate should confirm compatibility with their funder's specific policy, as requirements vary.
9. No Discrimination Based on Geography or Institutional Affiliation
Open access to AJCIL's content is provided equally regardless of a reader's country, institutional affiliation, or ability to pay. The journal's waiver policy similarly ensures that authors' ability to publish is not solely determined by ability to pay the Article Publication Charge.
10. Policy Review
This Open Access Policy will be reviewed periodically by the editorial board to ensure continued alignment with evolving open access norms and best practices in scholarly publishing (e.g., DOAJ's Best Practice principles, Plan S-aligned requirements where relevant to internationally funded contributors). [Placeholder: any such external framework referenced here should be checked directly against its current published criteria before AJCIL states formal compliance.]
