Open Access Policy
1. Statement of Open Access
The Journal of Project Science is a fully open access journal. All articles published in the journal are made freely available to the public immediately upon publication, without subscription, registration, embargo, or fee of any kind. Readers may read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, link to, crawl, or build upon the full text of published articles for any lawful purpose, provided the original author and source are appropriately credited under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.
This policy fulfills the definition of open access established by the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI, 2002), which calls for free availability on the public internet of peer-reviewed journal literature. The journal's open access status meets the requirements for inclusion in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and complies with the principles of Plan S for full and immediate open access publishing.
2. The Diamond Open Access Model
The Journal of Project Science operates on the diamond open access model, sometimes called platinum open access. Under this model, the journal charges no fees to either authors or readers. There are no article processing charges, no submission fees, no page charges, no color figure charges, no subscription fees, and no other charges associated with publishing or accessing articles in the journal. The journal's operating costs are absorbed by the Project Science Institute as a contribution to scholarly communication in project management research.
The diamond model is the most equitable form of open access publishing because it removes financial barriers from both ends of the publication process (Bosman et al., 2021). It allows researchers from any institution, including those in lower-income countries and independent scholars without grant funding, to both publish in and read from the journal without cost. The model also aligns with the journal's editorial mission: authors of null and negative findings, who already face disincentives in writing up such work, would be additionally deterred by author-side fees.
3. Copyright and Licensing
Authors retain full copyright to their published work. The journal does not require copyright transfer or exclusive licensing. By publishing in the journal, authors grant the Project Science Institute a non-exclusive license to publish, archive, and distribute the work, and they license the work to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.
The CC BY 4.0 license permits any user 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, provided appropriate credit is given to the original author and source, a link to the license is provided, and any changes are indicated. Authors may reproduce, distribute, or build upon their own work without restriction. The license notice is displayed prominently on every published article.
4. No Embargo
The journal imposes no embargo of any kind. All articles are made publicly available immediately upon publication, in both HTML and PDF formats. There is no delayed-access period, no subscriber-only window, and no requirement for institutional or individual subscription to access current content. Accepted manuscripts may also be made available as preprints before formal publication at the author's discretion.
5. Self-Archiving and Repository Deposit
Authors are permitted and encouraged to deposit their work in institutional repositories, subject repositories (such as SSRN, arXiv, or SocArXiv), or personal websites at any stage of the publication process. The journal permits deposit of the pre-print version (the manuscript as initially submitted), the post-print version (the accepted manuscript after peer review and revisions, before copyediting and formatting), and the published version (the final formatted article as it appears in the journal). No embargo applies to any version.
When depositing the published version, authors should retain the article's Digital Object Identifier (DOI) and the CC BY 4.0 license notice. Repository deposit ensures long-term accessibility and discoverability of the work even in venues that researchers commonly search. The journal will work with authors who need assistance complying with their institutional or funder repository requirements.
6. Digital Preservation
The journal preserves published content through the Public Knowledge Project Preservation Network (PKP PN), a distributed digital preservation service based on the LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) protocol. This ensures that the journal's content remains accessible to readers in perpetuity, even if the journal itself should at some point cease publication. Authors and institutions are also welcome to deposit articles in additional repositories for redundancy.
7. Funding Model and Sustainability
The journal's open access status is sustained through funding from the Project Science Institute, which absorbs the operational costs of journal hosting, DOI registration, and infrastructure. The journal does not accept advertising, content marketing, or commercial sponsorships that could create conflicts of interest with editorial decisions. Future funding may be sought from library partnerships, scholarly publishing grants, or institutional sponsorships, all of which will be transparently disclosed if obtained.
The Project Science Institute publishes the journal as part of its mission to advance open scholarly communication in project management research. The diamond model is a deliberate ethical and editorial choice rather than a financial constraint. The Institute views removing barriers to both publication and readership as central to building a complete and trustworthy evidence base for the field.
8. Plan S and Funder Compliance
The journal is fully compliant with the principles of Plan S, the open access initiative led by cOAlition S, a group of national research funders. Specifically: all articles are immediately open access without embargo; articles are published under the CC BY 4.0 license; authors retain copyright; the journal will be applying to the Directory of Open Access Journals as soon as it meets the eligibility threshold of ten published articles or twelve months of publication; and authors are permitted to deposit any version of their work in any repository without restriction.
Authors funded by Plan S signatories, the Wellcome Trust, the National Institutes of Health, the European Commission, or any other funder mandating open access publication may publish in this journal in full compliance with their funder's policies. Authors who require evidence of compliance for their funder may request a compliance statement from the editorial office at editor@journalofprojectscience.org.
9. Authors' Rights
Authors publishing in the Journal of Project Science have the following rights:
• The right to retain copyright to their work.
• The right to be credited as the authors on all uses of the work.
• The right to reproduce, distribute, or build upon their own work without restriction.
• The right to deposit the work in any repository, institutional or subject-based, in any version, without embargo.
• The right to use the work in teaching, in subsequent publications, and for any other lawful purpose.
• The right to share the work freely with colleagues and the public.
10. Readers' Rights
Readers of the Journal of Project Science have the following rights under the CC BY 4.0 license:
• The right to access all content freely and immediately, without registration or fee.
• The right to read, download, print, and store articles for personal or institutional use.
• The right to copy and redistribute articles in any medium or format.
• The right to adapt, remix, and build upon the work for any purpose, including commercial use.
• The right to crawl, mine, and analyze articles using automated tools.
These rights are granted provided appropriate credit is given to the original author and source, a link to the license is provided, and any changes are indicated.
11. Contact and Policy Review
Questions about this Open Access Policy may be directed to the editorial office at journal@projectsci.com,. This policy is reviewed annually by the editorial board and updated as needed to reflect evolving best practices in scholarly publishing and changes in funder mandates. The policy in effect at the time of submission applies to that submission. Last reviewed: 2026.
References
Bosman, J., Frantsvåg, J. E., Kramer, B., Langlais, P.-C., & Proudman, V. (2021). OA diamond journals study (Part 1: Findings). Science Europe; cOAlition S. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4558704
Budapest Open Access Initiative. (2002). Budapest Open Access Initiative. https://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read
cOAlition S. (2021). Plan S: Making full and immediate Open Access a reality. https://www.coalition-s.org/
Creative Commons. (2024). Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
