Publication Policies

PUBLICATION POLICIES FOR AXIS COMMUNITY RESEARCH JOURNAL (ACRJ)

 

1. Access, Licensing, and Preservation Policies

This section outlines the policies governing how ACRJ's content is accessed, shared, archived, and maintained, ensuring its long-term availability, integrity, and alignment with principles of open scholarship and ethical publishing.

OPEN ACCESS POLICY
The Axis Community Research Journal (ACRJ) is a fully Open Access journal. We are committed to the principle that publicly funded and community-engaged research should be freely accessible to the global public, practitioners, and policymakers. All articles published in ACRJ are immediately and permanently available online for anyone to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, link to, or reuse without charge, under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license. This license facilitates maximum dissemination and reuse, requiring only that appropriate credit be given to the original author(s) and source.

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSING

Authors retain copyright and grant the journal the right of first publication.
Articles are published under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), allowing unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

ARCHIVING STRATEGY
ACRJ is dedicated to the permanent preservation and future accessibility of its scholarly record. To ensure this, the journal utilizes the PKP Preservation Network (PKP PN), a decentralized, community-supported preservation service integrated with the Open Journal Systems (OJS) platform. This provides a robust, distributed archival system.

CROSSMARK POLICY STATEMENT
To maintain trust in the integrity and permanence of the scholarly record, ACRJ participates in the CrossMark service. The CrossMark logo on an article indicates that the publisher is committed to maintaining the published version and providing updates about its status. Readers can click the CrossMark logo to check for any crucial updates, corrections, or retractions, ensuring they access the most current and reliable version of the article.

REPOSITORY POLICY (SELF-ARCHIVING)
ACRJ supports the open dissemination of research by permitting and encouraging authors to self-archive their work. Authors may deposit the following versions of their article in institutional, disciplinary, or public repositories (such as SSRN, ResearchGate, or university archives) without embargo:

Preprint: The original submitted version, prior to peer review.

Author’s Accepted Manuscript (AAM): The post-peer-review, final accepted version, before copyediting and typesetting by the journal.

Version of Record (VoR): The final, published, copyedited, and formatted PDF as it appears on the ACRJ website.
When depositing, authors must provide a link to the final article on the ACRJ website and cite the article using its DOI.

ADVERTISEMENT POLICY
The Axis Community Research Journal (ACRJ) does not currently accept commercial advertisements or sponsored content on its website or within its publications. Our focus is exclusively on the dissemination of scholarly content. Any future consideration of advertising would be governed by a strict policy ensuring that advertisements are clearly distinguishable from editorial content, are relevant to our academic community, and comply with all ethical and legal standards. The journal's editorial independence and integrity are paramount and non-negotiable.

AUTHOR FEES AND WAIVERS
ACRJ charges no fees for submission or peer review. To support the sustainable operation of our open-access model, a publication fee (Article Processing Charge) is applied only upon formal acceptance of a manuscript. Detailed fee structure and our commitment to equity through a comprehensive waiver policy for authors facing financial barriers are specified in the dedicated "Author Fees and Waivers" document.

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION STATEMENT
The Axis Community Research Journal (ACRJ) actively promotes diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice in all aspects of its operations. We recognize that excellence in community-engaged research is strengthened by a multitude of perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences. We are committed to:

Ensuring equitable access to publishing for scholars from underrepresented groups, regions, and institutions.

Fostering an editorial and review process free from bias based on race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, nationality, disability, age, religion, or socioeconomic status.

Encouraging submissions that explicitly address issues of equity, social justice, and inclusive community practice.

Striving for diversity within our editorial board, reviewer pool, and published authorship.

ACCESSIBILITY STATEMENT
ACRJ is committed to making its online content accessible to all users, including those with disabilities. We strive to comply with best practices and standards for web accessibility (such as WCAG guidelines) to ensure our website and PDF articles are navigable and readable by screen readers and other assistive technologies. We welcome feedback on accessibility issues to continuously improve the user experience.

ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY
As a fully digital, online-only journal, ACRJ minimizes its environmental footprint by eliminating paper-based production and distribution. We promote virtual collaboration for editorial and peer-review work to reduce travel-related carbon emissions. Furthermore, we encourage research and discourse on the intersection of environmental sustainability, community resilience, and public health within our published scope.

ARTICLE TYPES AND SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS

Article Type	Abstract	Word Limit	Figures/Tables	References	Reporting Guidelines
Randomized Clinical Trials	Structured (200–300 words)	Up to 6000	Max 6	Up to 70	CONSORT (include trial registration)
Observational Studies	Structured (200–300 words)	Up to 5000	Max 5	Up to 50	STROBE or EQUATOR-compliant
Systematic Reviews/Meta-Analyses	Structured (200–300 words)	Up to 5000	Max 6	Up to 100	PRISMA/MOOSE, register with PROSPERO/INPLASY
Case Reports/Case Series	Unstructured (150–250 words)	Up to 4000	Max 3	Up to 30	CARE guidelines; novelty required
Preclinical Studies	Structured (200–300 words)	Up to 5000	Max 5	Up to 50	ARRIVE guidelines
Narrative Reviews	Unstructured (150–250 words)	Up to 5000	Max 3	Up to 50	Include rationale, aims, and search strategy in Introduction

Note: Vancouver citation & reference style is mandatory.

 

2. Editorial and Ethical Policies

PUBLICATION FREQUENCY
The Axis Community Research Journal (ACRJ) is published annually, compiling a volume of high-quality, interdisciplinary research each year. Our first issue was published in October 2023.

PUBLICATION ETHICS AND POLICY GUIDELINES
ACRJ adheres to the highest standards of publication ethics as defined by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Recommendations. Our policies apply to all involved parties: authors, reviewers, editors, and the publisher.

Authorship and Contributions: Authorship must be based on substantial intellectual contributions per ICMJE criteria. All contributors must approve the final manuscript and agree to be accountable for their work. Non-author contributions should be acknowledged.

Conflict of Interest: All authors, reviewers, and editors must disclose any financial, personal, or professional conflicts of interest that could influence the work. Disclosures are published with accepted articles.

Human and Animal Research Ethics: Research involving human participants or animals must have received formal ethical approval from an appropriate review board. The manuscript must include a statement confirming this approval and detailing the process of informed consent/assent.

INFORMED CONSENT POLICY
For any research involving human participants, written informed consent must be obtained and documented. For publication of case reports or studies containing identifiable personal information (including photographs), specific consent for publication in an open-access journal must be secured. Authors must state within the manuscript that such consent was obtained and that protocols followed the ethical standards of the responsible committee and the Declaration of Helsinki.

PLAGIARISM POLICY
ACRJ maintains a zero-tolerance policy towards plagiarism, including self-plagiarism (text recycling) and the unattributed use of others' ideas or data. All submissions are screened using similarity detection software. Manuscripts exceeding a 15% similarity index (excluding bibliographies and quoted methodology) or showing unethical textual overlap will be rejected or retracted. Serious cases may result in notification of authors' institutions.

APPEALS AND COMPLAINTS PROCESSES

Appeals: Authors may appeal an editorial decision by submitting a formal letter to the Editor-in-Chief at acrj.axisacademics@gmail.com, outlining the specific grounds for the appeal. The appeal will be reviewed by an independent editorial board member not involved in the original decision.

Complaints: Complaints regarding editorial processes, misconduct, or ethical concerns should be directed to the Editor-in-Chief. All complaints will be handled confidentially and investigated promptly in accordance with COPE guidelines.

AUTHORSHIP CRITERIA AND ETHICAL POLICIES
ACRJ follows the ICMJE authorship criteria. Each listed author must meet all four of the following conditions:

Substantial contributions to the conception, design, data acquisition, analysis, or interpretation.

Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content.

Final approval of the version to be published.

Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work.
The corresponding author is responsible for managing communication, ensuring all co-authors meet these criteria, and obtaining their consent for submission.

DOUBLE-BLIND PEER REVIEW & EDITORIAL PROCESS
ACRJ employs a rigorous double-blind peer-review process. The identities of both authors and reviewers are concealed from each other. The process involves: initial editorial screening, assignment to at least two independent expert reviewers, compilation of reviewer feedback, an editorial decision (Accept, Revise, Reject), and communication of this decision to the author with reviewer comments. The typical time from submission to first decision is 6-8 weeks.

WITHDRAWAL POLICY
Authors may request to withdraw a manuscript from consideration at any stage before formal acceptance. Post-acceptance withdrawals are strongly discouraged and will only be considered under exceptional, justified circumstances (e.g., ethical concerns or critical error discovery). Unethical withdrawal to submit to another journal may lead to sanctions.

DATA SHARING POLICY
ACRJ encourages data transparency to promote reproducibility and reuse. Authors of original research are strongly encouraged to deposit the de-identified data underpinning their findings in a suitable public, open-access repository (e.g., Zenodo, Harvard Dataverse, Dryad) and to provide the dataset DOI and access details within the article. Where ethical, legal, or privacy constraints exist, authors must state data availability and the conditions under which access can be granted.

PREPRINT POLICY
ACRJ supports the early sharing of research via preprint servers. The prior posting of a manuscript on a non-commercial preprint server (e.g., SSRN, arXiv, medRxiv) does not constitute prior publication and will not prejudice consideration. Authors must declare the preprint DOI during submission and, upon publication in ACRJ, are encouraged to update the preprint record with a link to the final published article.