Access, Rights & Commercial Integrity

Immediate, free, online availability of published content to readers without subscription, registration, payment or embargo.

The model in which the published version is made openly available by the journal itself at the moment of publication, with costs met other than by reader payment.

The legal rights subsisting in an original work, retained by the authors (or their employer or funder where law or agreement so provides) and not transferred to LMI by publication.

The non-exclusive, limited licence authors grant to LMI and the publishing journal to publish, distribute, index, register, migrate, preserve and archive the work and to make it available under the applicable open licence; it confers no ownership.

A standardised public copyright licence whose authoritative terms are those published by Creative Commons and which LMI applies without modification.

The Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence, the standard licence for LMI research content, permitting copying, redistribution, adaptation and commercial use subject to appropriate credit, a link to the licence and indication of changes.

Content within an article owned by someone other than the authors, for which permission is required and which may fall outside the article's Creative Commons licence, as indicated in its credit line or rights notice.

A statement attaching to specific content within an article that records its ownership or any restriction on its reuse — including consent-based restrictions on identifiable participant material — and which prevails over the general article licence for that content.

Deposit by authors of their work, including the published version, in repositories or on personal, institutional or professional platforms, permitted without embargo under the article licence with attribution and a link to the Version of Record.

A charge levied for publication services after acceptance, disclosed in full before submission, whose payment has no influence on any editorial decision.

A full or partial dispensation from a publication charge, granted under a published scheme by persons other than those taking editorial decisions on the manuscript.

A partial decrease in a publication charge granted on published criteria.

Return of a charge already paid, in accordance with the journal's published refund position.

Paid promotional content displayed by a journal or LMI, required to be clearly distinguishable from scholarly content and subject to publisher acceptance standards.

Financial or in-kind support of a journal, collection, event or activity, requiring disclosure and conferring no editorial authority.

The separation of all commercial arrangements from scholarly decisions, such that no commercial party acquires influence over selection, review, publication or record action, or access to confidential editorial information.

The documented agreement through which the lawful rights holder grants LMI and the journal the non-exclusive rights necessary to publish, license, index, preserve and maintain the Version of Record without transferring copyright ownership.

Public or targeted communication intended to promote a journal, invite submissions, publicise content or develop professional relationships, required to be accurate, proportionate and distinguishable from personal or editorial correspondence.

A quantitative indicator of journal, article, author, citation, readership or usage activity. A metric describes a measured dimension and is not by itself a measure of research quality or integrity.

Assessment of research and researchers on the substance, quality, context and diverse contributions of their work rather than automatic reliance on journal-level or other proxy metrics.