Open Access Policy

Engaging Science, Technology, and Society (ESTS) provides open access (OA) to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

There are no article processing charges (APC) or submission fees to contribute to and/or read ESTS. By default, authors of all content published in ESTS retain the copyright to their work, and agree to license them under one of the following Creative Commons licenses: CC BY 4.0, CC BY-SA 4.0, or CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Once their article is accepted, authors will be required to specify their preferred licensing option. We encourage authors to reflect on the implications of licensing their intellectual work and offer support in selecting a license that aligns with the requirements of their funders and institutions.

All papers in ESTS become available immediately upon publication, and readers are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of its articles, and use them for any other lawful purpose, in accordance with the selected Creative Commons license.
 
 
OA is crucial for furthering ESTS’s commitment to transnationalize STS, removing price barriers to participation in the journal community, and enabling other open access journals to republish articles in other languages thereby supporting the ecosystem of open access journals in STS and beyond. ESTS is committed to enabling its publications to move beyond the limitations of the English language.
 
 
For further information, please refer to Peter Suber’s helpful overview of OA.
 
 
As a way to further its OA policy, ESTS invites prospective authors early in the process of submitting their manuscript to consider publishing the source data from which it draws on the experimental platform STS Infrastructures (STS-I). Examples of source data include interview transcripts and recordings, photographs, field notes, or numerical data sets. ESTS editors will work with authors interested in publishing their source data to ensure that it is properly stored and appropriate metadata is created. Authors can find more information to download in Resources.

PrePrints

ESTS encourages authors to post preprints of their primary research manuscripts in a variety of ways. For example, an author can choose from preprint servers, authors’ or institutional websites to publicly publish a preprint.

Preprints are distinguished from the author’s final publication on account that a preprint is an earlier version of that same research manuscript that has yet to go through the peer review process. Preprints can be posted at any time during the peer review process. Posting of preprints is not considered prior publication and will not jeopardize consideration at ESTS. Our policy on posting, licensing, citation of preprints, and communications with the media about preprints of primary research manuscripts is summarized below:

  • Authors should highlight preprints by utilising the metadata of a preprint posting, like the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) and licensing terms. If preprints are posted prior to submission to ESTS, identifying information should be provided during the submissions process. If authors post preprints of the manuscript after submitting to ESTS but prior to its publication, authors should inform the managing editor by email. If the manuscript is eventually published in ESTS, it is always the author’s responsibility to ensure that the preprint record is updated. To record correctly, the preprint should be dated with a publication reference, the DOI, and a URL link to the published version of the article on the journal website.

  • Authors may choose any license for the preprint including Creative Commons Licenses.

  • Any media coverage that preprint may garner, will not change or hinder the editorial process. If this arises, the researcher may wish to provide clarity of the stage and timing of the work in relation to it being published and peer-reviewed.

Version Policy (Submitted, Accepted, and Published)
ESTS encourages the dissemination of research at all stages of the publication process. Authors are permitted to post preprints of their manuscripts prior to publication. Once a manuscript is accepted (prior to copyediting and production), authors are welcome to share the accepted version in institutional repositories, personal, and commercial websites with no embargo period. We only require that the published paper is acknowledged with proper citation and that the DOI is linked. Finally, the published version (i.e. version of record) can be shared according to the Creative Commons (CC) license chosen by the author.

Digital Preservation Policy

ESTS utilizes the LOCKSS system to create a distributed archiving system among participating libraries and permits those libraries to create permanent archives of the journal for purposes of digital preservation and restoration. ESTS backs up all communications which are kept for one year. This includes everything in our database from articles through to peer review correspondence.

Post-Publication Corrections
ESTS’s managing editor will make a post-publication correction, clarification, retraction and apology if a researcher or reader discovers there is a mistake in a published paper. The online version of record (VoR) cannot be altered, but a correction (as an errata/corrigendum) can be published alongside the paper. Please send your request to the managing editor by email. If a post-publication change is necessary the editor-in-chief and the managing editor will ensure the changes are made in accordance with COPE guidance for retractions, and post-publication discussions and corrections.

ESTS also enables post-publication debate by encouraging dialogues through our Twitter account (@eSTSjournal), Mastodon account (@estsjournal@Mastodon.world) as well as our Engagements section.