Access

Open Access Policy

Journal EPiC provides immediate open access to its published articles. The journal supports the principle that making research freely available promotes the dissemination of knowledge, scholarly collaboration, and public access to research findings.

1. Free and Immediate Access

The full text of published articles is freely available on the journal’s website immediately upon publication, without an embargo period. Readers are not required to pay subscription fees, purchase individual articles, or register an account to access published articles.

This access policy applies to published articles. It does not make confidential submissions, peer review reports, editorial correspondence, or unpublished research data publicly available.

2. Use and Redistribution

Published articles are available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0) , unless a different license or exclusion is explicitly stated in the article or accompanying material.

Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license

Subject to the license terms, users may:

  • Read, download, copy, and share published articles.
  • Redistribute the licensed material in any medium or format.
  • Remix, transform, and build upon the licensed material, including for commercial purposes.
  • Use the licensed material in teaching, research, and other scholarly or public activities.

3. Conditions of Reuse

Users must give appropriate credit to the authors, retain supplied attribution and rights notices, provide a link to the license, and indicate whether changes have been made. Attribution must not suggest endorsement by the authors or the journal.

When users distribute adaptations of licensed material, their contributions must be licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 or a compatible license recognized by Creative Commons. Users must not impose additional legal restrictions or technological measures that prevent others from exercising the rights granted by the license.

4. Copyright and Author Sharing

Authors retain copyright in their articles and grant the journal a non-exclusive right to publish and disseminate their work. Authors may share the published version through institutional repositories, subject repositories, personal websites, and other platforms in accordance with the article’s license.

Shared copies should acknowledge the original publication in EPiC, retain the copyright and license information, and include the article’s DOI or URL where available.

5. Third-Party Material

Figures, photographs, datasets, or other materials credited to third parties may be subject to separate terms. Material excluded from the article’s license will be identified through an appropriate credit line or rights notice.

Users are responsible for checking such notices and obtaining additional permission when their intended use is not covered by the applicable license or a legal exception.

6. Reader Access and Publication Fees

Free access for readers is separate from any fees associated with manuscript submission or publication. Any applicable author fees, exemptions, or waivers must be disclosed in the journal’s Article Processing Charges or Author Fees policy.

This Open Access Policy does not, by itself, indicate that manuscript submission or publication is free of charge.

7. Access Assistance

Readers who encounter broken article links, inaccessible files, or other access problems may notify the editorial office through the journal . Reports should include the article title or URL and a brief description of the problem.