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1. Purpose

This policy sets out the copyright ownership arrangements and Creative Commons licensing terms that govern all articles published in the University of Malawi (UNIMA) journals. Its purpose is to ensure that authors' rights are protected, that published work is made available for the widest possible use consistent with the principles of Open Access (OA), and that all parties understand the permissions and restrictions that apply to UNIMA publications.

2. Scope

This policy applies to all articles published in, or submitted for publication to, any journal published by or under the authority of UNIMA.

3. Copyright Ownership

Authors retain the copyright of their work for all articles published in any UNIMA journal. By submitting an article, authors grant UNIMA a non-exclusive licence to publish, reproduce, and distribute the work under the terms of the applicable Creative Commons licence. While authors keep their copyright, they permit UNIMA to publish the work openly under conditions appropriate to the journal in question.

4. Applicable Creative Commons Licences

UNIMA journals publish under OA and distribute articles under one of three Creative Commons licences, depending on the journal. The table below shows the licence assigned to each journal:

The terms of these licences are summarised below. Full licence texts are available at https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/cclicenses/

4.1 CC BY 4.0 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International)

Under this licence, others may freely share and adapt the work for any purpose, including commercially, provided that the original author(s) and source are credited, and a link to the licence is provided. No additional restrictions may be applied. These journals are published under Diamond Open Access.

4.2 CC BY-SA 4.0 (Creative Commons Attribution–ShareAlike 4.0 International)

Under this licence, others may share and adapt the work for non-commercial purposes, provided that the original author(s) and source are credited, and that any adapted versions are distributed under the same licence terms.

4.3 CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial–NoDerivatives 4.0 International)

Under this licence, others may freely share the work for non-commercial purposes only, provided that the original author(s) and source are credited and the work is not modified. No derivative works may be distributed.

5. Attribution Requirements

Whenever a published article is shared, distributed, or reproduced under any of the licences above, the person sharing the work must provide proper attribution, including:

1. The name(s) of the author(s);
2. The title of the article;
3. The name of the journal and the University of Malawi as publisher;
4. The year of publication, volume, issue, and page numbers (where applicable);
5. A copyright notice (© [Year] [Author(s)]);
6. A statement that the work is licensed under the applicable Creative Commons licence; and
7. A URI or hyperlink to the article and to the applicable licence. Where attribution is placed in a printed document, the licence's full URL should be written out.

6. Originality and Integrity of Manuscripts

All work submitted to a UNIMA journal must represent original, unpublished research. By submitting a manuscript, authors confirm that the work:

• Has not been previously published in any print or electronic medium;
• Has not been accepted for publication elsewhere;
• Is not currently under review or consideration by any other publisher; and
• Does not infringe the intellectual property rights of any third party.

Detailed provisions on plagiarism and duplicate submission are set out in the Publication Ethics and Malpractice Policy, and the Anti-Plagiarism Policy.

7. Author Agreement Form

The Corresponding Author, acting on behalf of all co-authors, is required to sign and submit a completed UNIMA Author Agreement Form at the time of submission.

8. Permission to Reproduce Previously Published Material

It is the responsibility of the author(s) to obtain written permission from the copyright holder before reproducing any text, illustrations, tables, figures, or other material previously published in other journals, books, or any print or electronic media. A copy of the signed permission letter must be submitted together with the Author Agreement Form. This requirement applies regardless of whether the previously published material is protected by copyright or carries a Creative Commons licence, authors must verify the specific terms of any licence and comply accordingly.

9. Conflict of Interest and Financial Disclosure

The Corresponding Author must disclose, through the Author Agreement Form, any actual or potential conflict of interest, including commercial associations, financial interests, or other relationships held by any of the authors or their immediate family members that could influence the research. Authors must also disclose any sponsorship or funding received from external institutions, government bodies, or commercial entities.

Conflict of interest statements will be published at the end of the article. Where no conflict of interest exists, the following statement will appear: "The authors declare no conflict of interest."

General provisions governing conflicts of interest for all parties are set out in the: Publication Ethics and Malpractice Policy.

10. Policy Review

The policy will be reviewed from time to time or as developments in publication ethics require. Any revisions will be communicated to all journal editors and made publicly available on the UNIMA website.