Open Access Policy

Open Access Icon

The orange open-lock symbol identifies the open-access nature of the journal's published scholarly content.

Open Access to Published Content

Scholarly articles published in The GMS are freely accessible online immediately upon publication. Readers may access, read, download and share published articles without paying subscription or pay-per-view fees and without an embargo period.

The journal does not require readers to register or create an account to access its published scholarly articles.

Creative Commons Licensing

The scholarly articles published in The GMS are made available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license, unless a different license is explicitly identified for particular material.

Under CC BY 4.0, users may copy, redistribute, adapt and build upon licensed material, including for commercial purposes, provided they give appropriate credit, link to the license and indicate whether changes were made. Users must not imply that the original authors or journal endorse their use.

Material credited to third parties may be subject to separate rights and permissions. The applicable license and any exceptions should be identified in the published article.

Copyright and Author Rights

Open access and copyright ownership are distinct matters. The GMS describes the permissions granted to readers through its open-access license; the ownership of copyright and any rights granted to the journal are governed by the journal's Licensing and Copyright Policy and the applicable publication agreement.

Authors should ensure that they hold the necessary rights to publish their submissions and have obtained permission for any third-party material not covered by the article's open license.

Sharing and Reuse

Readers and authors may share the published version of an article on personal websites, institutional repositories, scholarly networks and other platforms in accordance with its stated license. Appropriate attribution should include the article title, author names, journal name, publication details and DOI where available.

Reusers must preserve relevant notices concerning attribution, licensing and any third-party content excluded from the article's Creative Commons license.

Open Access and Editorial Evaluation

Open access refers to the availability and reuse of published content. It does not remove the journal's requirements for originality, scholarly quality, research integrity or editorial and peer-review assessment.

Decisions on manuscript acceptance are made under the journal's editorial policies and are independent of publication charges or optional author services.

Publication Charges and Transparency

Access to published articles is free for readers. The journal may charge authors for publication or optional services, as described on its Costs and Waivers page.

Manuscript submission and initial editorial consideration are free. Publication charges, where applicable, arise only following acceptance. Optional manuscript development or promotional services are separate from editorial decisions and do not guarantee acceptance.

Access, Discoverability and Preservation

The GMS aims to make its published content discoverable through article webpages, bibliographic information and persistent identifiers where assigned. The journal recognizes the importance of preserving access to the scholarly record over time.

Specific long-term digital preservation arrangements will be described separately in the journal's Digital Preservation and Archiving Policy once those arrangements have been verified.

References and Related Policies

This policy is informed by recognized principles of open-access scholarly publishing, including the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) Guide to Applying, the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing, and the Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license.

Related GMS policies and guidance: Licensing and Copyright, Peer Review Policy, Costs and Waivers, and Editorial Policies.