Open Access Policy

The Journal of Climate and Community Development (JOCCD) operates under a Gold Open Access model to promote the wide dissemination of research in the field of climate and community development. This policy aligns with the journal's commitment to ensuring the free flow of knowledge without barriers, allowing readers worldwide to access, read, and benefit from its scholarly content.

Free Access

JOCCD offers free and immediate access to all its published content. Upon publication, articles are made freely available to everyone without any subscription, registration, or payment required. This ensures that the latest research in the social sciences can reach a global audience, including students, academics, researchers, and the general public.

To meet quality standards of publication, JOCCD charges minimal APC from the authors, for details, see our Publication Fees and Funding page. 

Licensing Terms

All content published in the Journal of Climate and Community Development (JOCCD) is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). This license allows users to share, Copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format. However, the following restrictions apply:

  1. NonCommercial: The material may not be used for commercial purposes.
  2. NoDerivatives: If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified content.
  3. Attribution: Users must give appropriate credit to the original authors, provide a link to the license, and indicate if any changes were made. However, the material cannot be altered or used commercially.

This license ensures that the work can be freely accessed and shared for educational and non-commercial purposes while protecting the integrity of the original research.

Author Retention of Copyright

Unlike traditional publishing models where authors may have to transfer copyright to the publisher, JOCCD allows authors to retain the copyright to their work. This empowers authors with full ownership and control over their intellectual property while still granting the journal the right to distribute the content.

Gold Open Access Model

The Journal of Climate and Community Development (JOCCD) is a Gold Open Access journal. This means there are fees for authors to publish their manuscripts however all content is made immediately available to the public at no cost to the readers. The mission of the IEERG is to support the global exchange of knowledge by removing all financial barriers to high-quality research.

Benefits for Authors

Publishing in an open-access journal like JOCCD offers several benefits for authors, including:

  1. Increased Visibility and Citation: Open-access articles are often cited more frequently than articles behind paywalls, due to their wide accessibility.
  2. Global Reach: JOCCD’s diamond open access policy ensures that articles are accessible to a worldwide audience, including scholars from developing countries who might not have access to subscription-based journals.
  3. No Subscription Fees for Readers: Readers can access the journal’s content freely, which increases readership and engagement with the published research.

Long-Term Preservation

JOCCD ensures long-term digital preservation through depositing content to LOCKSS and CLOCKSS. This guarantees that articles remain accessible to future generations of researchers even if the journal ceases publication.