Intellectual Property Policy

The International Journal of Care Scholars (IJCS) is committed in protecting the intellectual property (IP) rights of authors, readers, and other stakeholders, while ensuring the widest possible dissemination of knowledge. Authors retain copyright of their work and grant IJCS a license to publish under the terms outlined in the Copyright and Licensing Policy.

All published content is open access and may be shared or reused in line with the applicable license, provided proper attribution is given. Authors are responsible for securing permissions for third-party materials. IJCS follows international best practices (COPE and ICMJE) and takes action against any infringement, including plagiarism, misuse, or unauthorized use of intellectual property.

          1. Author Rights

Authors retain the copyright of their work published in IJCS. Upon acceptance, authors grant the journal a license to publish and disseminate the work under the terms outlined in the Copyright and Licensing Policy. Authors are free to reuse, distribute, and share their published articles in accordance with the applied license, Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

          2. Reader and User Rights

All content published in IJCS is accessible in line with the journal’s open-access policy. Readers may copy, distribute, adapt, and build upon published material provided proper attribution is given to the original work and authors, and use complies with the applied license.

          3. Third-Party Materials

Authors are responsible for obtaining the necessary permissions to reuse third-party material, including figures, tables, images, datasets included in their manuscripts. Proper acknowledgments and attributions must be provided for any reused material.

          4. Protection Against Infringement

IJCS does not tolerate plagiarism or unauthorized use of intellectual property. If infringement is identified, the editorial team will investigate and take appropriate action, which may include rejection, correction, retraction, or notifying relevant authorities.

          5. Journal Commitment

IJCS ensures that intellectual property rights are respected and upheld throughout the editorial and publishing process. The journal aligns its practices with international standards for copyright, licensing, and publishing ethics, including those set by COPE and ICMJE guidelines) to safeguard both author and reader rights.