Journal of Diseases - Copyright and Licensing
Understanding your rights as an author and reader.
Open Access Licensing Framework
Diseases operates under open access principles ensuring published research is freely available to readers worldwide while protecting author rights and enabling appropriate reuse. Our licensing model balances open science objectives with proper attribution requirements, supporting both broad research dissemination and appropriate recognition for creative contributions.
Understanding copyright and licensing empowers authors to make informed decisions about sharing their work and leveraging publications for maximum impact. This page explains your rights, reader rights, and the legal framework governing article distribution and reuse.
Creative Commons Licensing
All articles published in Diseases are distributed under Creative Commons Attribution licenses preserving author rights while enabling broad access and appropriate reuse. This licensing approach represents the international standard for open access publishing, recognized by major funding agencies, academic institutions, and research organizations worldwide. Authors retain full copyright ownership while granting publication and distribution rights enabling open dissemination.
CC BY 4.0 License
Our default license permitting sharing, adaptation, and commercial use provided proper attribution is given. Readers may copy, redistribute, remix, and build upon your articles in any medium or format as long as original authors and source are credited appropriately.
CC BY-NC 4.0 Option
Available upon author request for those preferring to restrict commercial reuse of their work. This license permits sharing and adaptation for non-commercial purposes including educational use and research applications while requiring attribution to original creators.
Attribution Requirements
Users must provide appropriate credit including author names, article title, journal name, DOI link, and license indication. Attribution should be reasonable for the medium used without implying author endorsement of derivative uses.
No Additional Restrictions
Licensors cannot apply legal terms or technological measures restricting others from exercising licensed rights. The open license ensures articles remain freely accessible without gatekeeping by any party.
Author Rights Retained
Authors publishing in Diseases retain full copyright ownership of their work unlike traditional publishing models requiring copyright transfer to publishers. By submitting manuscripts, authors grant the journal a non-exclusive license to publish, distribute, and archive articles in all formats globally without limiting author rights for any other use. This author-friendly approach recognizes that researchers create valuable intellectual property and should maintain control over its application.
Self-Archiving Freedom
Authors may deposit published articles in institutional repositories, personal academic websites, preprint servers, and subject-specific archives without embargo periods or waiting requirements. We actively encourage immediate open archiving to maximize research accessibility and reach.
Reuse in Future Works
Authors may freely incorporate their published work into future journal articles, book chapters, theses, dissertations, conference presentations, and teaching materials. Citation of the original Diseases publication is expected but represents professional courtesy rather than legal requirement.
Commercial Exploitation
Authors may commercially exploit their own work through books, consulting activities, educational materials, presentations, or any other revenue-generating application without seeking publisher permission or paying additional licensing fees.
Reader and User Rights
Open access licensing grants readers extensive rights beyond simple reading access that subscription journals typically deny. These expanded rights support research replication, educational applications, and knowledge translation activities accelerating scientific progress and maximizing public benefit from disease research investment.
Text and Data Mining
Automated computational analysis of article content is fully permitted under Creative Commons licenses. Researchers may extract, process, analyze, and synthesize information from published articles using any computational methods supporting their research objectives.
Educational Applications
Articles may be incorporated freely into course syllabi, training programs, educational presentations, and learning management systems. Instructors may distribute articles to students and include content in educational resources supporting disease research training.
Translation Rights
Articles may be translated into any language to reach non-English-speaking audiences globally. Translations should clearly indicate original source and specify that translation accuracy and quality are the translator's responsibility.
Third-Party Content: Published articles may incorporate figures, tables, images, or text excerpts from external sources requiring separate permissions. Authors are responsible for obtaining and documenting necessary rights for all third-party content prior to publication. Such materials should be clearly identified with appropriate original source attribution.
Copyright Ownership: Unlike journals requiring copyright transfer, Diseases allows authors to retain full ownership. We request only non-exclusive publication rights enabling open access distribution while authors maintain control over all other uses.
Practical Implications
Our licensing framework provides practical benefits for authors, readers, institutions, and the broader research community. Authors gain maximum flexibility in using their own work while readers gain maximum access to research findings. Institutions benefit from simplified permissions management and funders benefit from assured compliance with open access mandates.
Employers and funding agencies should note that institutional intellectual property policies are not superseded by publication in Diseases. Authors should ensure compliance with their institutional requirements while benefiting from our author-friendly licensing terms. Questions about specific licensing situations should be directed to the editorial office for clarification.
