Open Access Policy
Open Access Policy
Agricultural Science Horizons (ASH), published by the Gondars Institute of Research and Skill Development (GIRSD), is committed to advancing global scientific knowledge through a fully open, transparent, and accessible publishing model. The journal believes that unrestricted access to scholarly research accelerates scientific progress, fosters interdisciplinary collaboration, promotes innovation, and supports evidence-based decision-making worldwide.
Agricultural Science Horizons operates as a fully open access journal, ensuring that all published content is immediately and permanently available online without financial, legal, or technical barriers.
This policy is developed in accordance with internationally recognized principles of open scholarly communication and aligns with the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing, recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), and standards commonly expected by DOAJ, Scopus, and Web of Science indexed journals.
1. Immediate and Free Access to Published Content
All content published in Agricultural Science Horizons is freely accessible immediately upon publication. Readers may access, read, download, search, share, and use published materials without subscription fees, registration requirements, or paywalls.
The journal does not impose embargo periods that delay public access to scholarly content.
2. Commitment to Global Knowledge Dissemination
Agricultural Science Horizons supports the principle that publicly disseminated research should be widely accessible to researchers, educators, policymakers, students, practitioners, industry professionals, and the general public regardless of geographical location or institutional resources.
The journal seeks to reduce inequalities in scientific information access and encourages equitable participation in global research communities.
3. Open Access Model
Agricultural Science Horizons operates under a Gold Open Access publishing model, whereby all accepted articles are published online and made permanently available without access restrictions.
Published content remains freely available throughout its lifetime and may be disseminated globally through various academic platforms and repositories.
4. User Rights and Permitted Uses
Readers and users may access, read, download, store, print, distribute, share, and cite published content in accordance with the journal's licensing terms.
Educational institutions, libraries, repositories, research organizations, and indexing services are encouraged to disseminate and preserve journal content to maximize its visibility and scholarly impact.
All reuse must provide appropriate attribution to the original publication.
5. Accessibility and Inclusiveness
The journal is committed to maximizing accessibility for diverse communities of users. Agricultural Science Horizons strives to maintain digital availability across multiple devices, platforms, and information systems whenever technically feasible.
The journal supports inclusive scholarly communication that benefits researchers from both resource-rich and resource-limited environments.
6. Long-Term Digital Preservation
Agricultural Science Horizons recognizes the importance of preserving scholarly content for future generations.
The journal may preserve and archive published content through recognized digital preservation systems, institutional repositories, archiving services, and preservation networks to ensure long-term accessibility and protection against data loss.
7. Indexing and Discoverability
The journal actively promotes the discoverability of published research through indexing services, metadata dissemination, search engine optimization practices, repository integration, and scholarly databases whenever applicable.
Enhancing visibility and accessibility supports broader dissemination and citation of scientific work.
8. Repository Support and Scholarly Sharing
Agricultural Science Horizons encourages responsible scholarly sharing practices.
Authors, institutions, funding agencies, and research organizations may deposit and disseminate published works through institutional repositories, subject repositories, personal academic websites, laboratory websites, and other recognized scholarly platforms.
Users are encouraged to cite the official published version and include the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) whenever available.
9. Ethical Open Access Publishing
Open access in Agricultural Science Horizons does not compromise editorial quality, peer review rigor, ethical standards, or publication integrity.
All submissions undergo the journal's standard editorial screening, peer review, and ethical evaluation processes irrespective of their open access status.
Editorial decisions are based solely on scientific merit, originality, methodological rigor, ethical compliance, and relevance to the journal's scope.
10. Sustainability of Open Access Publishing
GIRSD is committed to maintaining a sustainable open access publishing environment that supports long-term scholarly communication while preserving editorial independence, transparency, and ethical publishing practices.
Any publication fees, waivers, or funding arrangements applicable to authors shall be transparently disclosed on the journal website.
11. Policy Review and International Alignment
This policy may be periodically reviewed and updated to reflect evolving international standards, technological developments, and best practices in open scholarly communication.
Agricultural Science Horizons and GIRSD remain dedicated to promoting unrestricted access to scientific knowledge while maintaining the highest standards of research quality, transparency, and academic integrity.
12. Official Open Access Statement
Agricultural Science Horizons is a fully open access journal. All content is freely available immediately upon publication without subscription or access charges, allowing the global scholarly community to access, use, and disseminate scientific knowledge without barriers.
