Archiving, Indexing, and Licensing

Editorial Policies

Archiving, Indexing, and Licensing

The Review of Studies on Criminology, Sociology, and Law (RSCSL) is committed to ensuring the long-term preservation, accessibility, discoverability, and responsible dissemination of the scholarly works it publishes. The journal implements recognized digital preservation strategies and supports broad indexing and abstracting to maximize the visibility, citation, and impact of research while safeguarding the integrity of the scholarly record.

As a fully open-access journal, RSCSL adopts internationally recognized archiving practices, transparent licensing policies, and indexing standards to ensure that published articles remain permanently accessible to researchers, educators, policymakers, legal practitioners, and the global scholarly community.

 

Digital Archiving and Preservation

RSCSL is committed to the long-term preservation of all published content through trusted digital archiving systems designed to protect scholarly works against technological obsolescence, accidental loss, and service interruption.

To support permanent preservation and continuous accessibility, the journal seeks participation in recognized digital preservation initiatives, including:

  • PKP Preservation Network (PKP PN)
  • LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe)
  • CLOCKSS (Controlled LOCKSS)

These preservation services maintain secure, distributed copies of published content across multiple geographically dispersed locations, helping ensure that articles remain permanently accessible even in the event of website failure, publisher changes, or journal discontinuation.

 

Repository Deposit and Self-Archiving

RSCSL encourages the broad dissemination of published scholarship.

Authors may deposit the published Version of Record in:

  • Institutional repositories;
  • University repositories;
  • Subject-specific repositories;
  • Government or public repositories;
  • Personal academic websites;
  • Academic networking platforms;
  • Other trusted scholarly archives.

Authors are encouraged to include:

  • The complete bibliographic citation;
  • The article DOI, where applicable;
  • A link to the journal website.
No embargo period applies to self-archiving.
 

Indexing and Abstracting

RSCSL actively pursues inclusion in reputable national and international indexing and abstracting services to enhance the discoverability, accessibility, visibility, and scholarly impact of published research.

RSCSL will pursue inclusion in services that may include:

  • Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
  • Crossref (DOI Registration)
  • Google Scholar
  • Dimensions
  • OpenAlex
  • Scilit
  • Semantic Scholar
  • BASE (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine)
  • WorldCat
  • ROAD: Directory of Open Access Scholarly Resources
  • CORE
  • Lens.org
  • Other recognized indexing and abstracting services relevant to criminology, sociology, law, criminal justice, forensic science, public administration, governance, and interdisciplinary social sciences.

TThe journal website will accurately identify all databases in which RSCSL is currently indexed. No indexing service will be claimed until official acceptance has been confirmed.

 

Metadata Quality

RSCSL is committed to maintaining accurate, complete, and machine-readable metadata to improve article discoverability and interoperability across scholarly information systems.

Published metadata may include:

  • Article title;
  • Author names;
  • ORCID iDs (where available);
  • Institutional affiliations;
  • Abstract;
  • Keywords;
  • Publication dates;
  • Digital Object Identifier (DOI), where applicable;
  • Licensing information;
  • Funding information, where provided.

The journal supports the use of standardized metadata to facilitate indexing, citation tracking, preservation, and scholarly communication.

 

Persistent Identifiers

To promote reliable citation and long-term accessibility, RSCSL supports the use of persistent identifiers.

Where applicable, the journal will assign:

  • Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) through Crossref;
  • ORCID iDs for authors;
  • Other persistent identifiers that support scholarly communication and digital preservation.

Persistent identifiers enhance citation accuracy, interoperability, and long-term accessibility.

 

Licensing

All articles published in RSCSL are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License.

License information is available at:
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

The CC BY 4.0 License permits users to:

  • Read, download, and share published articles;
  • Copy and redistribute material in any medium or format;
  • Translate, adapt, remix, and build upon published work;
  • Reuse content for educational, research, commercial, governmental, and other lawful purposes.

Users must:

  • Provide appropriate attribution to the original authors;
  • Cite the journal as the original source of publication;
  • Include a link to the CC BY 4.0 License;
  • Clearly indicate whether changes have been made.
No additional legal or technological restrictions may be imposed that limit the rights granted under the license.

Commitment to Long-Term Preservation

The Review of Studies on Criminology, Sociology, and Law (RSCSL) is dedicated to preserving the scholarly record for future generations. Through trusted digital preservation services, responsible metadata management, ongoing efforts toward inclusion in recognized indexing services, and open licensing under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License, the journal promotes the long-term accessibility, discoverability, citation, preservation, and responsible dissemination of high-quality research in criminology, sociology, law, criminal justice, forensic science, governance, public policy, and related interdisciplinary disciplines.

 

Alignment with International Standards

This Archiving, Indexing, and Licensing Policy has been developed in accordance with internationally recognized principles of digital preservation, open-access publishing, metadata quality, and responsible scholarly communication and is aligned with:

  • Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) – Guidance on preserving the scholarly record, publication ethics, editorial transparency, and responsible scholarly publishing:
    https://publicationethics.org/
  • Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) – Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing, including requirements for digital preservation, archiving, licensing transparency, and indexing readiness:
    https://doaj.org/apply/guide/

RSCSL periodically reviews and updates this policy to ensure continued alignment with evolving international standards for digital preservation, open-access publishing, metadata management, research visibility, and responsible scholarly communication.