Repository Policy

The journal supports the responsible dissemination, discoverability, and preservation of scholarly research through recognised repositories. This Repository Policy sets out the conditions under which journal content and metadata may be deposited, hosted, harvested, and made accessible by third-party repositories in a manner consistent with open access principles and scholarly publishing standards.

1. Scope of the Policy
This policy applies to institutional, subject-based, national, and public repositories, as well as other non-commercial scholarly platforms operated by academic, research, or governmental institutions. It governs repository-based access to journal content and metadata and is intended to facilitate lawful reuse, indexing, and long-term accessibility of published research.

2. Content Eligible for Repository Deposit
Repositories may include and provide access to journal content without prior permission from the journal. Eligible content includes article metadata such as titles, author names, abstracts, keywords, and affiliations, as well as preprints, accepted manuscripts, and the final published version of articles. Supplementary materials associated with published articles may also be deposited, provided they form part of the scholarly record.

3. Permitted Versions and Timing
The journal permits the deposit of all manuscript versions without embargo. Preprints may be deposited at any time, including prior to submission, during peer review, or after publication. Accepted manuscripts may be deposited immediately upon acceptance for publication and should include a clear reference to the final published version. The Version of Record may be deposited immediately after publication and must be clearly identified as the final, authoritative version of the article, with full bibliographic details and a persistent identifier such as a DOI.

4. Licensing and Reuse Conditions
All repository-hosted content must retain the Creative Commons licence under which the article was originally published, as specified in the journal’s Licensing Policy. Repositories may not impose additional legal, technical, or access restrictions that are inconsistent with the terms of the original licence. Any reuse of deposited content must comply fully with the applicable Creative Commons licence, including attribution requirements.

5. Attribution and Citation Requirements
Repositories are required to ensure that deposited content clearly displays appropriate attribution and citation information. This includes the author name(s), article title, journal title as the original place of publication, the DOI or other persistent identifier, and the applicable licence. Proper attribution ensures academic integrity, accurate version control, and traceability of the scholarly record.

6. Metadata Harvesting and Indexing
The journal permits repositories, aggregators, and indexing services to harvest, store, and reuse article metadata for purposes of discovery, indexing, archiving, and bibliometric analysis. Metadata may be redistributed freely, provided that it remains accurate, complete, and properly attributed to the journal and the original authors.

7. Integrity of the Scholarly Record
Repositories are expected to preserve the integrity of deposited materials and must not alter the intellectual content of articles or associated materials. In cases where corrections, expressions of concern, or retractions are issued by the journal, repositories are strongly encouraged to link clearly to the official notice published on the journal’s website to ensure transparency and accuracy of the scholarly record.

8. Relationship to Other Journal Policies
This Repository Policy should be read in conjunction with the journal’s Open Access Policy, Licensing Policy, and Archiving Policy. In the event of any inconsistency between policies, the terms set out in the Licensing Policy shall take precedence.

9. Contact Information
For enquiries relating to repository deposits, metadata coordination, or policy interpretation, repositories and librarians may contact the journal’s editorial office using the details provided on the journal website.