Open Access Policy

AKSEN Journal of Islam and Humanities (AJIH) Published by AKSEN (Akademika Semesta Nusantara)

1. Statement of Commitment

AJIH is a fully open access journal. All content is made freely available to readers and institutions worldwide, immediately upon publication, without subscription, registration, or paywall barriers. AJIH believes that unrestricted access to scholarship on Islam and Muslim societies serves the global public interest and supports the broadest possible engagement with, and scrutiny of, this scholarship.

This policy is broadly consistent with the general principles of the open access movement (as articulated in widely referenced initiatives such as the Budapest Open Access Initiative), though the editorial board should consult such declarations directly if formal alignment or endorsement is to be claimed publicly.

2. What "Open Access" Means for AJIH

  • No subscription or paywall: Readers may read, download, and print any published article free of charge, immediately upon publication.
  • No reader registration required: Access does not require creating an account or providing personal information.
  • Immediate access: There is no embargo period; articles are available in full from the moment they are published (see the Publication Frequency and Article Publication Process documents).
  • Reuse rights: All articles are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (see the journal's Copyright Notice), permitting sharing and adaptation with attribution and share-alike conditions, for any purpose including commercial use.

3. Relationship to Publication Fees

AJIH's open access model is supported by its Article Publication Fee (see the Publication Fee document), charged to authors (or their institutions) only upon acceptance — never to readers. This is a common funding model for open access journals (often referred to as a "diamond" or "gold" open access model, depending on the specific fee structure), distinguishing the cost of production and dissemination from the cost of access. A waiver policy is available for authors unable to pay (see Publication Fee, Section 4).

4. Author Rights Under Open Access

Consistent with the journal's Copyright Notice, authors publishing in AJIH:

  • Retain copyright of their work
  • Grant readers worldwide the right to freely access, share, and build upon their work under CC BY-SA 4.0
  • May self-archive their published article (green open access) in institutional repositories, subject repositories, or personal websites, with attribution and license terms preserved

5. Machine Readability and Metadata

To support discoverability and reuse, AJIH:

  • Makes article metadata (title, abstract, author names, keywords, DOI) freely available in structured, machine-readable formats suitable for harvesting by indexing and abstracting services
  • Registers a DOI for each published article to ensure stable, citable, and permanently resolvable links
  • Aims to have its metadata harvestable via standard protocols (e.g., OAI-PMH, where supported by the journal's management system) to facilitate inclusion in open access repositories and aggregators

6. Indexing and Discoverability

AJIH intends to seek indexing and registration with recognized open access directories and indexing services appropriate to its scope, which may include (subject to each service's own eligibility criteria and application process, to be verified at the time of application):

  • Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
  • Sinta (Science and Technology Index, Indonesia)
  • Garuda (Garba Rujukan Digital, Indonesia)
  • Google Scholar
  • Other subject-specific or regional indexing services as appropriate

Inclusion in any of these services is not automatic and depends on meeting each service's current, independently published criteria; the editorial board should review these requirements directly with each service before or during application.

7. No Embargo Policy

AJIH does not impose any embargo period on the availability of published content. Articles are freely accessible in their final published form immediately upon release, whether through scheduled issue publication (January/July) or, if adopted, continuous/early-view publication (see the Publication Frequency document).

8. Long-Term Preservation

To ensure that open access is not undermined by loss of content over time, AJIH commits to depositing its published content with a recognized digital preservation service (e.g., LOCKSS, CLOCKSS, or a national repository), the specific choice of which should be confirmed and formally arranged by the editorial board and publisher, as service terms and eligibility vary and require direct verification.

9. Policy Review

This Open Access Policy will be reviewed periodically by the editorial board to ensure it remains consistent with the journal's Copyright Notice, Publication Fee policy, and evolving best practices in open access scholarly publishing. Material changes will be announced publicly on the journal's website.

Notes for the editorial board:

  • I have not claimed AJIH is currently indexed in DOAJ, Sinta, Garuda, or any other service — Section 6 describes an intention to apply, since actual indexing status would need to be verified and achieved, not assumed.
  • If the board wishes to publicly reference the Budapest Open Access Initiative or similar declarations as a formal alignment statement, review their current published text directly rather than relying on this summary.
  • Confirm this document stays consistent with the Copyright Notice (CC BY-SA 4.0) and Publication Fee documents already drafted, since all three interlock on the open-access model.