By publishing with IJSPE, authors grant the journal and its publisher, the International Center for Promoting Knowledge (ICPK), the right of first publication. IJSPE therefore becomes the original publisher of record for the accepted article, while ownership of the copyright remains with the author or authors.

The IJSPE copyright policy is intended to protect author ownership while allowing published work to remain openly available. Authors do not transfer full ownership of their manuscript to the journal. Instead, they authorize IJSPE and ICPK to publish the work first, include it in the journal's official scholarly record, and distribute it through the journal's online and print channels.

Author Retention of Copyright

Authors retain copyright after publication. The journal publishes and preserves the article as the original version of record rather than taking permanent ownership away from the author.

Retaining copyright means that authors may continue to refer to, reuse, and build upon their own work in later academic and professional contexts, subject to the first publication rights granted to IJSPE and the license applied to the article.

Authors may use their published work in teaching materials, lectures, conference presentations, further research, institutional reports, or later scholarly projects. They may also place an appropriate version in an institutional repository, personal academic website, or other scholarly archive — a practice commonly known as self-archiving.

Any later reuse should acknowledge the original IJSPE publication. Authors should not present a later copy as a new or previously unpublished article. Where a revised, adapted, translated, or expanded version is created, its relationship to the original publication should be explained clearly. This self-archiving policy supports continued access while preserving IJSPE's role as the original publisher of record.

First Publication Rights

Granting first publication rights means that IJSPE and ICPK are authorized to publish the article as its original formal publication. The journal may place it within a volume and issue, assign publication metadata, make it available through the website, preserve it in the archive, and publish it in print.

The first publication right also allows IJSPE to identify itself as the original journal publisher. Authors should preserve that attribution whenever they reuse or redistribute their work. First publication rights do not prevent authors from using their own article later — they mean that IJSPE has the right to publish the work first and maintain the authoritative journal version. Authors should not authorize another journal or publisher to present the same article as an original first publication after it has appeared in IJSPE.

Open Access License

IJSPE is fully open access. Published articles are available without subscription fees, paywalls, or reader-side charges. Readers may access, read, download, and cite articles directly from the journal's online platform, including earlier issues in the archive.

Published articles are made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license. Under this license, readers may read, download, and share an article in any medium or format, and adapt it for non-commercial purposes, provided that appropriate credit is given to the original author(s) and to IJSPE as the journal of first publication, a link to the license is provided, and any changes made are indicated. The license does not permit use of the article for commercial purposes without separate written permission from the author.

Citation and Attribution

Readers who use or discuss an IJSPE article should cite it accurately. A proper citation should identify the author or authors, article title, journal title, volume and issue where available, publication information, and DOI where assigned.

Attribution protects both the author and the scholarly record. It enables readers to locate the original source and distinguishes legitimate reuse from plagiarism or unattributed copying. Authors who reuse their own published work should also acknowledge the IJSPE version — copyright ownership does not remove the need for citation.

Third-Party Material

Authors are responsible for ensuring that third-party material included in a manuscript can be lawfully published, including images, tables, figures, extensive quotations, datasets, instruments, scales, or other protected content.

Where permission is required, authors should obtain it before publication and retain appropriate records. Citation alone may not be sufficient where copyrighted material is reproduced or adapted beyond what is legally permitted. The open-access status of an IJSPE article does not remove separate rights held by third parties over material included within that article.

Misuse and Enforcement

IJSPE and ICPK make published work openly available in accordance with the journal's access and licensing framework. However, they cannot control every later use of an article by external parties, and are not responsible for unauthorized copying, misrepresentation, plagiarism, commercial exploitation, or other third-party misuse of published work.

Because authors retain copyright, they are responsible for deciding whether to pursue suspected infringement or misuse, under applicable law or through the institution, platform, publisher, or service involved. The journal may assist by preserving the original publication record and making the authoritative article identifiable, but it does not guarantee enforcement of an author's rights against third parties.

Policy Summary

Authors retain copyright. IJSPE and ICPK receive first publication rights and act as the original publisher of record. Published articles remain freely readable, downloadable, and citable without a paywall under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license. Authors may continue using their work in teaching, research, presentations, repositories, and related scholarly contexts while acknowledging the original publication.