1. Copyright Ownership

Authors retain the copyright to their articles published in Epistémè. The journal does not require authors to transfer copyright.
By submitting and publishing an article in Epistémè, the author(s) grant Epistémè and the Center for Applied Cultural Studies the right of first publication and a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide, and perpetual license to publish, reproduce, distribute, display, archive, preserve, index, and make available the article in print and electronic formats.
This license applies to the final published version of the article, including the title, abstract, keywords, main text, tables, figures, images, references, supplementary materials, and metadata.

2. Open Access Policy

Epistémè provides immediate open access to all published articles. All articles are made freely available online upon publication, without subscription fees or access charges to readers.
The journal supports the principle that making research freely available to the public promotes the global exchange of knowledge and contributes to the wider circulation of scholarly work.

3. Licensing Policy

All articles published in Epistémè are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, unless otherwise stated.
Under this license, users may read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, link to, share, and adapt the published work for non-commercial purposes, provided that appropriate credit is given to the author(s), the original publication in Epistémè is properly cited, a link to the license is provided, and any changes made to the work are indicated.
Commercial use of the published work is not permitted without prior permission from the copyright holder.

4. Copyright Use Consent Procedure

During the manuscript submission process, the corresponding author is required to confirm that all authors have read and agreed to this Copyright Notice and License Agreement.
The corresponding author confirms, on behalf of all co-authors, that they grant Epistémè and the Center for Applied Cultural Studies the rights necessary for publication, online dissemination, indexing, archiving, preservation, and scholarly distribution of the article.
For accepted manuscripts, the journal may request the author(s) to complete a copyright and license agreement form or to confirm consent through the online submission system. Publication of the accepted manuscript may not proceed until the required copyright use consent has been obtained.

5. Rights Granted to the Journal

By agreeing to this Copyright Notice and License Agreement, the author(s) grant Epistémè and the Center for Applied Cultural Studies the right to:

• a. publish the article in the journal’s print and/or electronic editions;
• b. reproduce, distribute, and make the article publicly available through the journal website and online submission/publication platforms;
• c. convert the article into different digital formats, including PDF, HTML, XML, or other formats necessary for publication, preservation, and indexing;
• d. deposit, register, or provide the article and its metadata to academic databases, indexing services, repositories, libraries, and archival systems;
• e. assign or register a DOI or other persistent identifier to the article;
• f. identify Epistémè as the original publisher of the article;
• g. use the title, abstract, keywords, author information, citation information, and excerpts from the article for academic promotion, indexing, cataloguing, and dissemination of the journal;
• h. preserve and archive the article for long-term scholarly access.
  The journal will not make substantive changes to the scholarly content of the article without the author’s approval, except for editorial corrections, formatting, copyediting, layout adjustments, and technical modifications necessary for publication.

6. Author Rights

Authors may reuse their published articles for non-commercial scholarly and educational purposes, including use in teaching, academic presentations, institutional repositories, personal websites, and future scholarly works, provided that the original publication in Epistémè is properly acknowledged and cited.
Authors may share, deposit, and distribute the published version of their article, provided that the original publication in Epistémè is properly cited and, where possible, a link to the journal’s official version of record is provided.

7. Third-Party Materials

Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to use any third-party copyrighted materials included in their manuscripts, including images, figures, tables, photographs, illustrations, or extensive textual excerpts.
Authors must ensure that such materials may be legally reproduced and published in Epistémè under the journal’s open access policy. If permission is required, the author(s) must obtain written permission from the copyright holder before publication and provide evidence of permission to the journal upon request.

8. Author Warranties

By submitting a manuscript, the author(s) warrant that:

• a. the manuscript is an original work created by the author(s);
• b. the manuscript does not infringe the copyright or other rights of any third party;
• c. all necessary permissions for third-party materials have been obtained;
• d. the manuscript has not been published elsewhere and is not under consideration by another publication, unless explicitly disclosed to the journal;
• e. all listed authors have approved the submission and agreed to this Copyright Notice and License Agreement;
• f. the corresponding author has the authority to confirm copyright and license consent on behalf of all co-authors.

9. Policy Implementation and Updates

This Copyright Notice and License Agreement applies to all manuscripts submitted to and published in Epistémè.
The journal reserves the right to update this policy to reflect changes in copyright law, open access standards, licensing practices, indexing requirements, and academic publishing guidelines. Any major revisions to this policy will be announced through the journal’s official website.