Copyright & License

1. Copyright

Copyright of articles published in COMMUNIA – Journal of Community Engagement and Development remains with the author(s).

Authors retain the copyright and other intellectual property rights to their published work, while granting COMMUNIA the right to publish, reproduce, distribute, archive, and make the article publicly available as part of the journal's scholarly publishing activities.

By submitting a manuscript to COMMUNIA, authors confirm that they have the necessary rights to the submitted work and that the manuscript does not infringe upon the copyright, intellectual property rights, privacy rights, or other rights of any third party.

Authors are responsible for obtaining permission for any copyrighted material, including figures, photographs, tables, instruments, or other materials owned by third parties, where such permission is required.

2. Publication Rights

Upon acceptance and publication, authors grant COMMUNIA – Journal of Community Engagement and Development a non-exclusive right to publish and disseminate the article in electronic and other appropriate formats.

This publishing right includes the right to:

  • publish the article on the journal's website;

  • distribute the article electronically;

  • preserve and archive the article;

  • include the article in journal issues and digital archives;

  • assign metadata and persistent identifiers to the article;

  • index and disseminate the article through scholarly databases and repositories; and

  • make the article openly accessible to the public.

The granting of these publication rights does not transfer ownership of copyright from the author(s) to the journal.

3. Creative Commons License

All articles published by COMMUNIA are licensed under the:

Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Under this license, readers and other users are permitted to:

  • Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format; and

  • Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, including commercial purposes.

These permissions are granted provided that the terms of the CC BY-SA 4.0 license are followed.

4. Attribution Requirement

When using or redistributing an article published by COMMUNIA, users must provide appropriate attribution.

Attribution should, where reasonably practicable, include:

  • the name(s) of the author(s);

  • the title of the article;

  • the journal name;

  • the original publication source;

  • a link to the original article;

  • a link to the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; and

  • an indication of whether changes were made to the original work.

Attribution must not imply that the original author(s), COMMUNIA, or the publisher endorses the subsequent use unless such endorsement has been expressly granted.

These requirements are consistent with the conditions of the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.

5. ShareAlike Requirement

If a user remixes, transforms, translates, or builds upon an article published by COMMUNIA and distributes the resulting adapted material, the adapted material must be distributed under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 license or a Creative Commons license permitted as compatible under the applicable license terms.

This requirement ensures that derivative works remain available for further sharing and reuse under open licensing conditions.

6. No Additional Restrictions

Users may not apply legal terms or technological measures that restrict others from exercising the rights granted under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.

The license therefore supports the free sharing and adaptation of published scholarly works while preserving the requirements for attribution and ShareAlike.

7. Author Rights

Authors may reuse their own published work in accordance with the terms of the CC BY-SA 4.0 license and applicable copyright law.

Authors may, for example, share their published article through:

  • institutional repositories;

  • personal or institutional websites;

  • academic profiles;

  • research repositories;

  • scholarly communication platforms;

  • academic and professional social media; and

  • other appropriate channels.

Any reuse or redistribution must comply with the applicable license terms.

8. Third-Party Material

Unless otherwise indicated, the contents of articles published by COMMUNIA are covered by the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.

Materials belonging to third parties, including photographs, illustrations, datasets, instruments, or other copyrighted materials, may be subject to separate copyright or licensing conditions.

Users are responsible for determining whether separate permission is required before reusing third-party material.

9. Copyright and Open Access

COMMUNIA operates as a full open access journal. Copyright ownership by the author(s) does not prevent the public from accessing and reusing published articles under the terms of the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.

All published articles are made freely and immediately available through the journal's online platform without subscription fees or access charges.

10. License Statement

The following statement applies to articles published by COMMUNIA:

Copyright © [Year] The Author(s). This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) License.

The license permits copying, redistribution, and adaptation of the work, including for commercial purposes, provided that appropriate attribution is given and adapted material is distributed under the same license.

11. Copyright and Licensing Information in Published Articles

COMMUNIA will clearly display copyright and licensing information on published articles.

Each published article should identify:

  • the copyright holder;

  • the year of publication;

  • the applicable Creative Commons license;

  • the license name and abbreviation; and

  • a link to the official license.

The standard license identification is:

Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Official license information is available from Creative Commons.

12. Final Statement

COMMUNIA is committed to protecting authors' copyright while promoting the broad dissemination, accessibility, and responsible reuse of scholarly knowledge.

The journal's copyright and licensing policy is designed to ensure that authors retain ownership of their scholarly works while allowing the academic community and the public to access, share, and build upon published research under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) license.