Open Access Policy

The Clinical Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology (CJOG) follows a comprehensive Open Access (OA) policy designed to advance the global accessibility, integrity, and long-term preservation of scientific knowledge in women’s health. This policy outlines the journal’s commitments, licensing framework, author rights, funding requirements, preprint handling, metadata integration, and compliance obligations with international OA standards. It serves as the authoritative reference for authors, reviewers, funders, librarians, and the global scholarly community.

Purpose and Scope of the Policy

This Open Access Policy governs all research articles, reviews, case reports, editorials, commentaries, and supplementary materials published in CJOG. The policy applies to:

• Authors and co-authors.
• Editors, editorial board members, and peer reviewers.
• Indexing services and repository managers.
• Funding organizations and institutional compliance officers.

Commitment to Open Access

CJOG is a Gold Open Access journal. All articles are freely accessible online immediately upon publication without any subscription or login requirements. Our OA commitment is centered on:

• Free accessibility: Articles are available worldwide without financial or technical barriers.
• Permanent availability: Articles are preserved through multiple archiving systems.
• Equitable participation: Authors from all economic regions can publish under transparent APC and waiver procedures.
• Unrestricted reuse: Content may be reused under the broad permissions of the CC BY 4.0 license.

Licensing Framework (CC BY 4.0)

All CJOG content is published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).

This license grants users the right to:

• Share, copy, and redistribute the material in any medium or format.
• Remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, including commercial use.

Conditions:

• Attribution must be provided to the authors and CJOG.
• No legal or technological restrictions may be applied beyond the license terms.
• Proper indication must be made if modifications are introduced.

License link: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Author Rights Under Open Access

Authors retain full copyright of their published work. Under this policy, authors may:

• Deposit any version (preprint, accepted manuscript, or final PDF) in repositories immediately.
• Post the published PDF on personal or institutional websites.
• Reuse figures, tables, and textual content in future publications.
• Create derivative works or translations with proper citation.
• Share the article on academic networks (ResearchGate, Academia.edu, ORCID, etc.).

Publisher Rights

By submitting to CJOG, authors grant the publisher:

• A non-exclusive right to publish and disseminate the work.
• Permission to archive and index the content globally.
• The right to produce and maintain metadata formats for repositories and aggregators.

Funder Mandates and Compliance

CJOG ensures full compliance with international funder open access policies, including:

• NIH Public Access Policy
• Horizon Europe OA requirements
• cOAlition S / Plan S guidelines
• UKRI and Research England standards
• Wellcome Trust OA mandates
• Gates Foundation OA policy

Key Compliance Features

• Immediate OA with no embargo period.
• DOI registration through Crossref.
• Use of machine-readable licensing metadata.
• Deposit rights for authors into PubMed Central and Europe PMC.

Self-Archiving and Repository Policy

CJOG supports and encourages deposit into institutional, national, and subject repositories. No embargo is applied to any version.

Article Processing Charges (APCs)

CJOG operates under a transparent APC-based OA model. APCs support:

• Editorial workflow and staff.
• Internal and external peer review processes.
• Archiving and digital preservation.
• Metadata generation and indexing fees.
• Web hosting and platform maintenance.
• Security, redundancy, and long-term preservation.

Waiver and Discount Policy

To promote global scientific equity, CJOG offers APC waivers/discounts for:

• Authors from low-income countries (as per World Bank classification).
• Early-career researchers with financial constraints.
• Researchers without external funding support.
• Special cases such as student-led work or invited articles.

Waiver requests must be submitted before acceptance decisions.

Preprint Policy

CJOG fully supports preprint dissemination. Authors may share preprints:

• On preprint servers such as medRxiv, bioRxiv, OSF Preprints.
• On institutional repositories.
• On personal academic websites or GitHub.

Upon publication, authors should update the preprint with DOI and a link to the final article.

Open Data and Research Transparency

CJOG encourages open data practices including:

• Depositing datasets in open repositories (Zenodo, Dryad, Figshare).
• Providing data availability statements.
• Sharing statistical code when appropriate.

Machine-Readable OA Compliance

To ensure wide discoverability and global interoperability, CJOG follows machine-readable OA standards:

• Schema.org JSON-LD
• Dublin Core metadata
• Crossref XML schema
• OAI-PMH support
• OpenURL resolver metadata
• JATS XML compatibility

Preservation Policy

CJOG implements redundant preservation systems including:

• LOCKSS/CLOCKSS compatible preservation.
• Distributed server archives.
• Third-party scientific archives.
• Permanent DOI resolution and metadata preservation.

Accessibility (WCAG Compliance)

CJOG aims to meet WCAG 2.1 accessibility guidelines:

• Screen-reader friendly HTML.
• Accessible table structures.
• Descriptive alt-text for images.
• High-contrast and color-accessible design.

Ethical Use of OA Content

While the CC BY license permits extensive reuse, unethical practices such as misrepresentation, plagiarism, or predatory rehosting of CJOG content are prohibited.

Policy Governance and Updates

This Open Access Policy is reviewed annually by the editorial board to ensure alignment with:

• Evolving OA standards.
• Funder requirements.
• Ethical publishing developments.
• Technological infrastructure changes.

Contact Information

For questions on open access:

Email: [email protected]
Publisher: Heighten Science Publications Inc.
Address: 138 Regina Dr, East Windsor, CT 06088, USA