Open Access Policy

Polar Research provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public is the most effective way to support the growth of knowledge. When publishing their articles in the journal, authors choose between a Creative Commons CC BY-NC 4.0 license and a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 license. These licenses make articles free for anybody to read and download. Under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license, an article can be copied and disseminated by third parties for non-commercial purposes as long as appropriate credit is given, a link is provided to the license, and any changes made are clearly indicated. The  CC-BY 4.0 license permits these uses by third parties for commercial purposes. Some funding agencies require the CC-BY 4.0 license.  Authors retain full copyright with both types of licences.

Authors contributing to Polar Research agree, by default, to publish their articles under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC 4.0 license, allowing third parties to read and download, and to copy and disseminate for non-commercial purposes. Authors preferring a CC-BY 4.0 license (instead of a CC-BY-NC license) are asked to state this choice at submission, following instructions on the online submission form. Polar Research thus provides ‘Gold (by exception) Compliance’ with the open access requirements of funding agencies.

Articles will be published shortly after the final proof corrections have been made. When posted online, each article is assigned a DOI number (Digital Object Identifier) whereby it becomes possible to search and cite it without delay.

Authors retain copyright of their work, with first publication rights granted to the Norwegian Polar Institute.

Polar Research is accessible via the journal’s website at www.polarresearch.net as well as via international search engines such as Google and Google Scholar. Polar Research is also widely indexed in various databases, such as the Web of Science.

Polar Research has been awarded the DOAJ Seal, a mark of certification for open access journals, awarded by the Directory of Open Access Journals to journals that achieve a high level of openness and adhere to Best Practice and high publishing standards.