Open Access Statement

Why an Open Access Journal?

A core aim of the Journal of Practice Theory is to champion the free dissemination of research by maintaining an open-access model with no author processing charges. We aim to remain autonomous and independent and in doing so contribute to an emerging transformation in scholarship and academic publishing.

To achieve this goal, we make use of open-access journal hosting software (Open Journal Systems) supported by Lancaster University Library; publish under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC 4.0 license (see Copyright and Licensing), and work collectively with the community of practice theoretically inspired scholars to develop content for publication (see implications of this model for readers and authors below).

Philosophers’ Imprint sets out some of the reasons for adopting such an approach, here:

“The growing trend toward licensing access to electronic versions of journals is counterproductive, since it reproduces the unnecessary economy of subscriptions and permissions, in which intellectual property produced at universities, often with public funds, is transferred to private publishers who can collect fees for its dissemination. Now that academic institutions have access to the Internet, they have no reason to pay subscription or subvention fees to anyone for disseminating the results of academic research.”

For more on the definitions, principles, and aspiration of Open Access publishing, see the Budapest Open Access Initiative.

What Does This Model Mean for Readers?

All content published in the Journal of Practice Theory is freely available without charge to readers or their institutions.

Users are free to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, link to the full texts of articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without needing prior permission from the publisher or the author.

What Does this Model Mean for Authors?

All research articles published in the Journal of Practice Theory are fully open access, and the journal never charges authors for submissions.

This means that following publication, articles are immediately and freely available for reading, downloading, and sharing.

However, as a fully open-access, autonomous journal, we rely on in-house copyediting. This requires authors to adhere closely to our style and referencing guidelines and work collaboratively with us to produce a publishable version of the manuscript.