Copyright and Licensing Policy

International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education (IEJEE) is an open access journal committed to the broad dissemination, accessibility, and responsible reuse of scholarly research. This Copyright and Licensing Policy explains the rights retained by authors, the rights granted to the Journal, and the conditions under which published articles may be accessed, shared, and reused.

1. Copyright Ownership

Authors retain the copyright to their articles published in IEJEE.

By submitting a manuscript and accepting publication, authors grant IEJEE the right of first publication and the non-exclusive rights necessary to publish, distribute, archive, preserve, index, and make the article publicly available in electronic and other formats.

Copyright is not transferred to the Journal unless a separate written agreement explicitly provides otherwise.

2. Open Access Policy

IEJEE provides immediate open access to its published content. Readers may access published articles freely through the Journal's website without subscription or registration fees.

The Journal supports the principle that making research freely available contributes to the global exchange of knowledge and increases the visibility, accessibility, and potential impact of scholarly work.

3. Creative Commons Licence

Unless otherwise indicated on an individual article, articles published in IEJEE are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).

Under the CC BY 4.0 licence, users are permitted to:

  • Copy and redistribute published material in any medium or format.

  • Share and distribute the work.

  • Adapt, remix, transform, and build upon the material.

  • Use the material for academic, educational, research, and commercial purposes.

These uses are permitted provided that appropriate credit is given to the original author(s), a reference or link to the applicable licence is provided, and any changes made to the original material are clearly indicated.

The licence is available from Creative Commons at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

4. Author Rights

Authors retain significant rights over their published work. Subject to the applicable Creative Commons licence, authors may:

  • Share and distribute their published article.

  • Deposit the article in an institutional or subject repository.

  • Upload the permitted version to a personal or institutional academic website.

  • Use the article in teaching and educational activities.

  • Include the article in a thesis or dissertation.

  • Reuse portions of the article in subsequent scholarly work with appropriate citation.

  • Present or distribute the work at conferences and academic meetings.

  • Share the article with colleagues, students, and research communities.

  • Permit others to reuse the work in accordance with the applicable licence.

Authors do not need to request additional permission from IEJEE for uses already permitted under the applicable Creative Commons licence.

5. Author Self-Archiving

IEJEE supports author self-archiving and encourages authors to increase the accessibility and preservation of their research.

Authors may deposit the published article in:

  • Institutional repositories

  • Subject repositories

  • University repositories

  • Research organization repositories

  • Personal academic websites

  • Other appropriate scholarly repositories

Where the Version of Record is deposited, authors should include the complete citation and DOI or permanent link to the article on the Journal's website.

Under a CC BY 4.0 open access model, the Journal does not impose an embargo period on the sharing of the published article.

6. Attribution Requirements

Any person reusing an IEJEE article under the CC BY 4.0 licence must provide appropriate attribution.

Appropriate attribution should, where reasonably possible, include:

  • Name(s) of the author(s)

  • Title of the article

  • Name of the Journal

  • Publication information

  • DOI or permanent link to the original article

  • Reference to the CC BY 4.0 licence

  • An indication of whether modifications or adaptations have been made

Attribution must not imply that the original authors, editors, Journal, or publisher endorse a particular adaptation, product, organization, or reuse unless such endorsement has been explicitly provided.

7. Third-Party Material

The Creative Commons licence applied to an article may not automatically apply to all third-party material included within it.

Authors are responsible for obtaining appropriate permission to reproduce copyrighted materials such as:

  • Figures

  • Photographs

  • Illustrations

  • Tables

  • Maps

  • Instruments or questionnaires

  • Extended quotations

  • Previously published materials

  • Other copyrighted content

Third-party material that is not covered by the article's Creative Commons licence should be clearly identified through an appropriate credit line or copyright notice.

Users wishing to reuse such excluded material must obtain permission directly from the relevant copyright holder when required by law.

8. Author Responsibility

Authors are responsible for ensuring that their submitted manuscript does not unlawfully infringe the copyright, intellectual property, privacy, or other rights of third parties.

By submitting a manuscript, authors confirm that:

  • The work is original or that appropriate permissions have been obtained for reused material.

  • All sources have been properly acknowledged.

  • Necessary permissions for copyrighted third-party content have been secured.

  • Publication of the manuscript does not violate any existing copyright agreement.

  • All co-authors have agreed to the submission and publication of the manuscript.

The Journal may request evidence of permission for copyrighted materials where necessary.

9. Publication Rights Granted to IEJEE

By agreeing to publication, authors authorize IEJEE and its publisher to:

  • Publish the article as the Version of Record.

  • Make the article freely available online.

  • Distribute and disseminate the article.

  • Register and maintain DOI and bibliographic metadata.

  • Submit article metadata and content to indexing and abstracting databases.

  • Archive and digitally preserve the article.

  • Include the article in repositories and preservation systems.

  • Make technical or format changes required for accessibility, indexing, preservation, and migration between publishing platforms.

These rights are granted for the purpose of scholarly publication, dissemination, discoverability, and long-term preservation.

10. Article Processing Charges and Copyright

Payment of an Article Processing Charge (APC) does not constitute the purchase or transfer of copyright.

Where an APC applies, it supports the costs associated with open access publication and related publishing services. Authors continue to retain copyright under the terms stated in this policy.

The Journal's editorial and peer-review decisions are independent of APC payment.

11. Moral Rights

Authors retain their applicable moral rights, including the right to be appropriately identified as the creators of their work and to object to uses that unlawfully misrepresent their authorship.

Reuse of published content must not falsely attribute statements, conclusions, modifications, or interpretations to the original authors.

12. Copyright Infringement

IEJEE takes allegations of copyright infringement seriously.

If copyrighted material has been published without appropriate authorization, the Journal may investigate the matter and, where necessary, take appropriate action in accordance with its Publishing Ethics Policy.

Such action may include correction, removal or replacement of infringing material, publication of an editorial notice, or other measures required to protect the integrity of the scholarly record and comply with applicable law.

13. Licensing Information on Published Articles

The copyright holder and applicable open access licence should be clearly displayed on each published article or its associated webpage.

A recommended copyright statement is:

© [Year] The Author(s). Published by the International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education (IEJEE). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, adaptation, and reproduction in any medium, provided that appropriate credit is given to the original author(s) and source, a link to the Creative Commons licence is provided, and any changes made are indicated.

14. Licensing of Metadata

To promote discoverability, interoperability, indexing, and dissemination, bibliographic metadata associated with IEJEE publications may be distributed to indexing services, repositories, libraries, DOI registration agencies, search engines, and other scholarly information services.

15. Policy Transparency

IEJEE is committed to clearly communicating its copyright and licensing conditions to authors and readers. The applicable copyright holder and licence should be identifiable on the Journal website and individual published articles.

Through this policy, IEJEE seeks to balance author ownership, open access, appropriate attribution, responsible reuse, and the widest possible dissemination of scholarly knowledge.