Ethiopian Journal of Business and Social Sciences (EJBSS) is an open access journal affiliated in Arba Minch University, Ethiopia. All articles published in this journal are free to access immediately from the date of publication. The journal does not charge authors any fees for publication or processing, nor does it charge readers (users) to download articles.

1. Open Access Commitment

EJBSS is committed to the unrestricted dissemination of scholarly knowledge in the fields of business, economics, education, finance, governance, sociology, anthropology, history environment, law, indigenous knowledge, management, public administration, development studies, and related social sciences, with particular emphasis on research relevant to Africa and the broader global context.

2. Licensing

All articles published in EJBSS are distributed under the:

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0)

Under this license, users are free to:

• Read, download, copy, and redistribute the material in any medium or format
• Adapt, remix, transform, and build upon the material
• Use the material for commercial and non-commercial purposes

Provided that:

• Appropriate credit is given to the author(s)
• A link to the license is included
• Any changes made are clearly indicated

The full license terms are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

3. Copyright Policy

Authors retain full copyright of their published work.

Upon acceptance, authors grant EJBSS a non-exclusive license to publish, reproduce, and distribute the article as the Version of Record. Authors may reuse their work without restriction, provided proper citation of the original publication in EJBSS is included.

4. Article Processing Charges (APCs)

EJBSS operates under an open access publishing model.

• There are no article submission fees, editorial processing, and colour printing charges.

5. Peer Review and Editorial Independence

All manuscripts submitted to EJBSS undergo a rigorous double blinded peer-review process conducted by qualified experts in the relevant field.

The Open Access model does not influence editorial decision-making. Manuscripts are evaluated solely on:

• Academic quality
• Originality
• Relevance to the journal’s scope
• Methodological rigor
• Contribution to knowledge

EJBSS upholds high standards of publication ethics and academic integrity.

6. Self-Archiving Policy (Green Open Access)

Authors are permitted to:

• Deposit the published Version of Record in institutional repositories
• Share their article on personal or institutional websites
• Archive the article in academic networks and repositories

No embargo period applies.

All archived versions must include proper citation to the original publication in EJBSS.

7. Digital Archiving and Preservation

EJBSS ensures long-term digital preservation and accessibility of published content through:

• DOI assignment via CrossRef
• Archiving in institutional and/or recognized digital repositories
• Continuous online hosting on the journal’s official platform

This guarantees permanent accessibility and citability of scholarly work.

8. Compliance with Open Access Mandates

The journal’s open access policy is aligned with international open access standards and supports compliance with institutional and research funder requirements.

9. Policy Review

This Open Access Policy is reviewed periodically by the Editorial Board to ensure alignment with evolving international standards in scholarly publishing and open science practices.