Open Access Policy

Open Access Policy Statement

The Journal of Government and Civil Society (JGCS) is a fully open-access journal. We believe that making scholarly research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge, advances evidence-based public policy, and strengthens civil society engagement across local and global contexts.

Immediate & Unrestricted Access

All articles published in JGCS are made immediately and permanently available free of charge for readers worldwide. Readers are granted immediate, barrier-free access to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of all published articles without subscription paywalls, registration, or financial barriers.

Core Open Access Principles

1. Permissive Reuse & Licensing

Re-use of published content is permitted under open-access license terms. Scholars, researchers, and practitioners are free to share, adapt, and build upon the work for any lawful purpose, provided appropriate credit is given to the original authors and the primary publication in JGCS is cited correctly.

2. Authorship & Copyright Retention

Authors retain full copyright of their work without restriction. By submitting to JGCS, authors grant the journal a non-exclusive license to publish and distribute the final version of record, while maintaining their full rights to re-use, archive, and share their contributions across independent academic platforms.

3. Self-Archiving & Repository Deposit

JGCS supports author self-archiving. Authors are permitted and encouraged to deposit all versions of their article (submitted, accepted, or published PDF) in institutional repositories, subject-based digital archives, or personal academic websites immediately upon publication to maximize visibility and citations.

4. Editorial Rigor & Peer Review Integrity

Our commitment to open access is coupled with strict peer-review standards. All open-access submissions undergo rigorous, objective double-blind peer review. Editorial decisions are driven strictly by scientific quality, methodological rigor, and thematic relevance, entirely independent of commercial interests or author status.