Section Policies

Creative Commons Licence and Author Publishing Agreement

Licence Applicable to the Article:
This article will be published under the Creative Commons Licence CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
This licence permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, provided that appropriate credit is given to the original author(s) and source, a link to the Creative Commons licence is included, and any modification to the material is clearly indicated.
Under this licence, the sharing of adapted or derivative material based on this Article, or parts of it, is not allowed.
For full licence details, please visit: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Subject to editorial acceptance, the Article will be published under the above licence.

1. Grant of Rights

(a) Rights Granted

For good and valuable consideration, the Author hereby grants to the Licensee the perpetual, worldwide, assignable, sublicensable, and unlimited right to publish, reproduce, copy, distribute, publicly communicate, display, sell, rent, and/or otherwise make available the Article (including any supplementary materials and graphic elements such as illustrations, charts, or videos) in any language, version, edition, or medium—whether existing now or developed in the future.

This grant includes, without limitation:

  1. The right to edit, alter, adapt, or create derivative works;

  2. Commercial, advertising, and marketing rights, including use of graphic elements on the journal cover or in social media;

  3. Rights for training, educational, and instructional purposes;

  4. The right to add or remove links or to combine the Article with other works or media;

  5. The right to create, use, and license metadata or content data (including abstracts and summaries) without restriction.

These rights apply to the Article as a whole or any part thereof and in combination with other works.
The rights granted are non-exclusive, except for the following, which are exclusive:

  • The right to commercially exploit the Article; and

  • The right to share derivative works or adapted material (e.g., audio adaptations or translations).

For clarity, the terms “share” and “adapted material” have the meanings defined in the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence.

(b) Additional Rights

The Licensee is also granted rights to use the Article for analysis, testing, and development of publishing or research-related workflows, systems, products, projects, and services; to confidentially share the Article with selected third parties for the same purposes; and to store the Article and related correspondence to maintain historical records and support research integrity investigations.
This grant of rights is irrevocable.

(c) Publication Discretion

The Licensee has the right, but not the obligation, to exercise any or all rights granted herein. If the Licensee decides not to publish the Article, all publishing rights granted under Clause 1(a) will revert to the Author.

 

2. Copyright

Copyright in the Article shall remain vested in the Author’s name.
When reproducing the Article or any portion thereof, the Author shall acknowledge the first publication in the journal.

 

3. Use of Article Versions

(a) Definitions

  • “Article” refers to all versions of the work.

  • “Submitted Manuscript”: version first submitted by the Author.

  • “Accepted Manuscript”: version accepted for publication, before copy-editing and typesetting.

  • “Version of Record”: final version published by the Licensee after editing and typesetting.

Rights to the Submitted Manuscript are granted on a non-exclusive basis, while other versions are covered under the terms specified above.

(b) Submitted Manuscript

The Author may make the Submitted Manuscript available at any time and under any terms (including under a CC BY licence) at their discretion.
After publication, the Author must include the following acknowledgment and DOI link:

“This preprint has not undergone peer review (where applicable) or any post-submission improvements or corrections.
The Version of Record of this article is published in [journal title] and is available online at https://doi.org/[DOI].”

(c) Accepted Manuscript

After acceptance, the Author may deposit the Accepted Manuscript in any non-commercial repository, platform, or website under the same CC licence as the published Article, provided it is not made publicly available until after publication.
The following acknowledgment must be included:

“This version of the article has been accepted for publication after peer review (where applicable), but is not the Version of Record and does not reflect post-acceptance improvements or corrections.
The Version of Record is available online at http://dx.doi.org/[DOI].”

(d) Author Reuse

In addition to rights granted under CC BY-NC-ND, the Author retains the right to reproduce or allow reproduction of the Article, in whole or in part, within any other work written by the Author for distribution by a publisher.

4. Warranties and Representations

The Author warrants and represents that:

  1. The Author is the sole copyright owner or has authorization from other rights holders to grant these rights.

  2. The Article does not infringe any intellectual property rights, and no third-party licences or payments are required.

  3. The Article has not been previously published or licensed under conflicting terms.

  4. If third-party materials are included (e.g., illustrations, tables, text), the Author has obtained written permissionand correctly cited the sources.

  5. All factual content is true and accurate to the best of the Author’s knowledge.

  6. The Article is not defamatory, obscene, or unlawful, and necessary informed consent has been obtained.

  7. No confidentiality agreements are breached, and all institutional or governmental approvals have been secured.

  8. All statements made by the Author in connection with the Article are true and correct.

  9. The signatory has full authority to enter into this Agreement on behalf of all Authors.

 

5. Cooperation

(a) The Author agrees to fully cooperate with the Licensee in any legal matters related to the publication, granting access to relevant documents and records as needed. Any Licensee affiliate exercising rights under this Agreement will have the right to enforce its terms.
(b) The Author authorizes the Licensee, at its own expense, to take necessary legal action in the Author’s name to protect the copyright in the Article.

 

6. Author List

Changes to authorship—including sequence or corresponding author designation—are not permitted after the manuscript is accepted.

 

7. Post-Publication Actions

The Author agrees that the Licensee may remove, retract, or correct the Article if deemed necessary for editorial, research integrity, or legal reasons.

 

8. Controlling Terms

This Agreement supersedes any inconsistent terms proposed by the Author or any third party with respect to any version of the Article.

 

9. Governing Law

This Agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Switzerland.
The courts of Zug, Switzerland shall have exclusive jurisdiction.