1. Open Access Model

The journal full open access model. The full texts of scientific articles published under this policy are made freely available to all users on the official website from the moment of publication and are retained for continued access.

The open model serves to disseminate theoretical, empirical, and comparative research on crime, its causes and consequences, crime prevention, victimology, criminal policy, and the criminal justice system. It facilitates the exchange of research results concerning Uzbekistan, Central Asia, and other regions among researchers, teachers, learners, practitioners, and readers in different countries.

2. Immediate and Free Access

From the moment of publication, the full text of the article may be accessed under the following conditions:

• without a subscription;
• without mandatory registration or account login;
• without payment for reading or downloading;
• without an embargo period.

No fee is charged for accessing the article link. A reader is not required to obtain permission from the editorial office to read or download the published text in the ordinary manner.

An account may be required for manuscript submission, peer review, or other editorial functions, but it is not a condition for accessing a published article. Access to the abstract alone does not replace open access to the full text.

3. Creative Commons License

Articles published under this policy are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International — CC BY 4.0 . Within the granted copyright and related rights, the license permits the following:

• copying and distributing the material, in whole or in part, in any medium and format;
• translating, adapting, modifying the material, and creating derivative works;
• using the material for scientific, educational, commercial, and other lawful purposes, subject to compliance with the license terms.

No additional permission from the journal or license fee is required for uses permitted by CC BY 4.0. Rights properly granted to users who comply with the license terms may not be revoked.

The license is indicated on the article page and in the published file. CC BY 4.0 summary and the full legal text of the license may be consulted. The full text is the legally controlling document; this policy does not modify its terms.

4. Reuse Conditions

When distributing material under CC BY 4.0, including in modified form, the following are required:

• retain the supplied information about the authors and other persons whose contributions should be acknowledged, in a reasonable manner permitted by the license;
• retain the supplied copyright, license, and disclaimer notices;
• retain a link to the original material where reasonably practicable;
• identify the CC BY 4.0 license and provide its text or a link to it;
• indicate changes made and retain notices of previous modifications;
• not create a false impression that the authors, the journal, or the institute endorse a particular use.

For scholarly citation, it is recommended to indicate the authors, article title, “Criminology (Uzbekistan)”, year, volume or issue, pages or article number, and DOI if available. A complete bibliographic description is a recommendation for scholarly citation and does not establish an additional restriction under CC BY 4.0 or a single mandatory format for attribution.

No additional legal terms or effective technological measures may be applied that restrict uses permitted by the license. Detailed rules on attribution, adaptation, and handling modified versions are set out in the Copyright and Licensing Policy.

5. Copyright

Authors retain the copyright belonging to them and grant the journal and the institute, as publisher, a non-exclusive right of first publication in the journal. Where economic rights are held by an employer or another rights holder, the necessary authority and permissions must be secured before publication.

Transfer of exclusive rights to the journal is not a condition of open access. Authors’ rights, permissions granted to the publisher, reuse conditions, and third-party materials are governed by the Copyright and Licensing Policy . Posting a preprint is considered separately from first publication in the journal in accordance with the editorial rules.

6. Scope of the License and Archival Materials

CC BY 4.0 applies to materials published under this policy and identified with this license on the official article page and in the full text. Notices must be consistent with one another; information about the actual rights holder and separately excluded materials is retained.

The new policy does not automatically or retroactively alter rights in previously published materials. Their use is governed by the licenses, permissions, and other applicable terms in force for the relevant publication. A new open license may be applied to an archived article only where the necessary rights and permissions exist and those terms are clearly indicated.

The absence of a license notice or a discrepancy between the page and the file should not be interpreted as unconditional permission for any reuse. The editorial office reviews such cases and clarifies the information. The fact that archival material can be read free of charge does not in itself mean that all reuse rights have been granted under CC BY 4.0.

7. Authors’ Rights to Deposit and Distribute

Without an embargo period, and within the scope of their rights and applicable licenses, authors may deposit the submitted manuscript, the manuscript accepted after peer review, and the officially published version — Version of Record— in the following locations:

• on a personal website or institutional website;
• in an institutional or subject repository;
• on scientific and academic platforms whose terms are compatible with the rights in the material.

The version must be clearly identified when deposited. After publication, it is recommended to add a link to the official article and, where available, to its DOI address. When distributing the published version, the required notices must be retained and the applicable license terms observed. No additional fee is charged by the journal for permitted deposit.

The right to deposit does not apply to third-party or confidential materials that the author is not authorized to control. Self-archiving by the author does not override rules on duplicate publication, simultaneous submission, participant consent, or protection of personal data.

8. Author Fees and Free Access for Readers

Regardless of whether publication costs are covered by the author, the institute, or another lawful funding source, access to published articles is free for readers. The standard article processing fee is — Article Processing Charge (APC) — USD 100.

Up to and including December 31, 2026, all publication costs are covered from the budget of the Institute for Criminology Research of the Republic of Uzbekistan; no APC is charged to authors. This funding does not restrict reader access and does not alter the terms of CC BY 4.0.

The procedure for applying the cost-coverage period, current payment terms, and possible waivers or discounts are specified in the separate Article Processing Charge Policy. The conditions applicable to manuscripts whose review continues beyond the cost-coverage period are communicated to authors in advance. Where an APC applies, it is requested only after the article has been formally accepted.

Payment, waiver status, and the funding source do not affect peer review or the acceptance or rejection of a manuscript. A reduction or cessation of the institute’s cost coverage does not make previously published open articles paid for readers and does not revoke licenses duly granted.

9. Metadata and Discoverability in Scholarly Search

The journal may transmit bibliographic metadata, abstracts, keywords, publicly available author information, DOI data, and links to scholarly search, indexing, library, and aggregation services. This helps publications to be found, identified, and cited correctly; the provision of metadata alone does not mean that the journal has been accepted into a particular indexing database.

The transmitted information must correspond to the published article and, where applicable, reflect corrections, retractions, or changes to links. Non-public manuscripts, confidential peer reviews, internal documents, and protected research data do not become open metadata. Personal data are processed in accordance with the Privacy Policy.

10. Digital Preservation and Long-Term Availability

The journal seeks to ensure the integrity of published materials, the creation of backup copies, and long-term digital preservation. The systems actually used, the scope of materials preserved, and the actions to be taken if the platform ceases operation are specified in the Digital Archiving and Preservation Policy. Participation in a specific archival network is announced only when actual connection to and use of that network have been confirmed.

Website storage, backup copies, and independent long-term archiving serve different purposes. Registering a DOI and metadata alone does not replace preservation of the full text. Depositing permitted copies in institutional and subject repositories provides additional support for continued access to scholarly content.

Corrections and retractions are documented while preserving the link to the original publication and explaining its status. If a specific legal or ethical basis requires certain material to be restricted or removed, that action is documented within the limits permitted under the relevant policies; it is not used as a basis for introducing paid access to the open archive.

11. Third-Party Materials and Other Rights

Third-party materials may have their own license or terms and may not be covered by the article’s general CC BY 4.0 license. Exceptions are clearly identified next to the relevant material. Additional permission from the rights holder is required only where the use is not permitted by the applicable license, an applicable exception, or another lawful basis.

CC BY 4.0 does not automatically grant patent, trademark, privacy, or personality rights and does not override confidentiality or personal data protection requirements. Moral rights are taken into account within the scope of applicable law and the license terms.

In criminological research, open access to an article does not mean open access to closed case files, identifiers of victims or other participants, signed consent forms, unpublished interviews, or re-identification keys. Data and Research Reproducibility Policy, Informed Consent Policy and Privacy Policy apply. Terms for data, software code, and supplementary materials are specified separately.

12. Policy Administration

Once approved, the policy enters into force from the date it is published on the official website of “Criminology (Uzbekistan)” . The actual dates of publication and amendments are indicated. Reviews take into account legislation, technology, and publishing practice, and rights previously and duly granted to users are not revoked.

The editorial office is responsible for implementing the policy; the founder and publisher of the journal is — Institute for Criminology Research of the Republic of Uzbekistan. Consistency is maintained among information on article pages, files, license notices, and related policies.

Questions about open access, inaccessible full texts, or unclear license notices should be sent to the institute’s contact address: info@uzkti.uz. Please provide the article title, DOI or link, the nature of the question, and contact information for the response. No additional permission from the editorial office is required for uses directly permitted by the license.