Terms of Use
Using PenScholar’s websites and publishing services means agreeing to use them lawfully, respect intellectual property, provide accurate information, follow each journal’s editorial and publishing processes, and avoid misusing the platform.
1. About These Terms
These Terms of Use apply to PenScholar Journals’ websites, journal pages, publishing services, submission systems, and related resources. They work alongside PenScholar’s Privacy Policy and its other publishing policies, including Copyright & Licensing.
By accessing PenScholar’s websites, submitting a manuscript, or otherwise using its publishing services, you agree to these Terms of Use.
The legal entity operating PenScholar Journals and its registered address are being finalized and will be published here once confirmed.
2. Use of PenScholar Services
You must not use PenScholar’s services to:
- Commit unlawful activity
- Distribute malicious software
- Attempt unauthorized access to any account, system, or data
- Abuse manuscript submission or review systems
- Interfere with the normal operation of the services
- Automate access in ways that violate published technical restrictions (this does not restrict legitimate scholarly indexing or search engine crawling)
- Impersonate another person or misrepresent your affiliation
- Submit fraudulent information
- Circumvent security controls
3. User Responsibilities
- Provide accurate information
- Respect applicable laws
- Respect intellectual property, including copyright and licensing terms
- Follow the relevant journal’s submission requirements
- Avoid misuse of the publishing platform
4. Manuscript Submissions
Authors are responsible for ensuring their submission complies with the relevant journal’s requirements, including the accuracy of submitted information, authorship, originality, any required ethical approvals, conflicts of interest, funding disclosures, permissions, and referencing. Requirements can vary by journal.
Authors must also follow the applicable journal’s rules on original work, duplicate publication, simultaneous submission, and plagiarism.
Author Guidelines Publication Ethics
5. Intellectual Property
PenScholar’s website design, logo, brand identity, interface elements, and original editorial content may be protected by intellectual property rights. This is distinct from author-created research and third-party material, which remain governed by their own ownership and licensing terms. PenScholar does not claim ownership of every published article.
Author rights depend on the applicable publication agreement, copyright policy, and article license for that journal — see Copyright & Licensing. Authors do not automatically transfer copyright to PenScholar.
6. Published Content & Copyright
Published articles are made available according to the applicable journal’s access and licensing model — not every article is necessarily Open Access, and access models can differ by journal. Where an article is published, its metadata may form part of the permanent scholarly record.
Reuse of published material is governed by the license attached to that specific content. Users must respect copyright, license terms, attribution requirements, and third-party rights.
Copyright & Licensing Open Access
7. Editorial Independence & Peer Review
Editorial decisions are governed by the relevant journal’s editorial process and policies, not by commercial relationships. Peer review is managed according to each journal’s established process, and the review model may differ by journal.
Editorial Independence Peer Review
8. Prohibited Activities
In addition to the restrictions above, you must not:
- Gain or attempt to gain unauthorized access to any system
- Bypass or attempt to bypass security controls
- Distribute malware or engage in fraud
- Infringe copyright or other intellectual property rights
- Deliberately disrupt or degrade the services
9. External Services and Links
PenScholar’s websites may link to third-party services, such as ORCID, DOI registration services, external repositories, indexing and abstracting services, and institutional websites. These services have their own terms and privacy policies, and PenScholar does not control them.
Manuscript submissions and editorial workflows may also operate through a journal’s configured publishing system, accessible from that journal’s own page and from Submit Manuscript.
10. Service Availability & Disclaimers
PenScholar aims to provide reliable services, but websites and systems may occasionally be affected by maintenance, updates, technical failures, security incidents, or third-party outages. Uninterrupted availability is not guaranteed.
Reasonable care is taken with published information, but this does not guarantee that all content — including third-party information, external links, or dynamic journal information — is free of error. Users should verify information where it matters to them.
11. Suspension or Termination
Access to PenScholar’s services may be suspended or restricted in circumstances such as a violation of these Terms, a security risk, suspected fraud or abuse, or where required by law.
Suspending or terminating access does not necessarily mean that previously published scholarly records are removed. Published articles may remain part of the scholarly record according to PenScholar’s applicable publishing policies.
12. Changes to These Terms
These Terms of Use may be updated as PenScholar’s services, policies, or applicable legal requirements change. A revision date and, where useful, a summary of changes will be shown here once these Terms are formally issued.
13. Contact
Questions about these Terms of Use can be directed through the Contact page. A dedicated legal contact will be published here once confirmed.