Copyright & Licensing

Copyright and Licensing Policy

The Journal of Malay Constitutional Studies (JMCS) is committed to open scholarly communication while respecting the intellectual property rights of authors and third parties.

This policy explains the copyright ownership, publication rights, licensing, and reuse conditions applicable to works published by JMCS.

1. Copyright Ownership

Authors retain copyright in their articles published by JMCS.

Publication in JMCS does not require authors to transfer ownership of copyright in their scholarly work to the journal or publisher, except for the rights necessary to publish, disseminate, preserve, and identify the article as a work first published by JMCS.

2. Right of First Publication

By submitting an article for publication and accepting publication by JMCS, authors grant the journal the right of first publication of the accepted work.

JMCS may publish, distribute, display, preserve, and make the article available through its official publishing platform and other appropriate scholarly dissemination and preservation services.

3. Creative Commons Licence

Articles published by JMCS are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY 4.0), unless otherwise indicated.

The CC BY 4.0 licence permits others to share and adapt the licensed material for any purpose, including commercial purposes, provided that the terms of the licence are satisfied.

4. Attribution Requirements

Users who reuse material published under CC BY 4.0 must provide appropriate credit to the original author or authors, provide a reference or link to the applicable licence where reasonably possible, and indicate whether changes were made.

Appropriate scholarly attribution should identify the original work and its publication in the Journal of Malay Constitutional Studies (JMCS).

5. Author Rights

Authors may, subject to the applicable licence and publication agreement:

retain copyright in their published work;
share and distribute their published article;
use the article in teaching and academic activities;
include the article in institutional or scholarly repositories;
reuse the work in future scholarly publications with appropriate acknowledgement of its original publication; and
otherwise exercise their rights consistently with the applicable Creative Commons licence.

When redistributing or reusing the published version, authors are encouraged to identify JMCS as the venue of first publication and provide the article's publication details.

6. Reader and User Rights

Readers and other users may access and reuse articles published by JMCS in accordance with the CC BY 4.0 licence.

Subject to the terms of that licence, users may copy, redistribute, adapt, transform, translate, and build upon published material, including for commercial purposes.

Users must not imply that the original author, JMCS, or the publisher endorses an adaptation, reuse, product, organization, or other activity unless such endorsement has been expressly provided.

7. Third-Party Material

Authors are responsible for ensuring that material owned by third parties is used lawfully and appropriately acknowledged.

Where necessary, authors must obtain permission to reproduce copyrighted images, tables, figures, substantial textual extracts, archival materials, or other third-party content before publication.

Third-party material included in a JMCS article may be subject to different copyright or licensing conditions. Where a separate rights statement is provided, users must comply with the terms applicable to that material.

8. Author Responsibility

Authors are responsible for ensuring that their submitted work does not unlawfully infringe the copyright, intellectual property rights, privacy rights, or other legal rights of third parties.

Authors must appropriately acknowledge sources and obtain any permissions necessary for materials included in their manuscripts.

9. Repository and Scholarly Sharing

JMCS supports the scholarly dissemination of published research. Authors may deposit and share their published articles through institutional repositories, personal academic websites, scholarly networks, and other lawful channels, subject to the applicable licence.

Where possible, deposited or shared copies should include complete citation information and a link or reference to the version published by JMCS.

10. No Additional Restrictions

Users may exercise the permissions granted by the CC BY 4.0 licence without seeking additional permission from JMCS, provided that the licence conditions are satisfied.

No additional legal or technological restrictions should be imposed in a manner that prevents others from exercising rights granted under the applicable Creative Commons licence.

11. Relationship with Open Access

This Copyright and Licensing Policy forms part of the journal's commitment to open-access scholarly publishing and should be read together with the JMCS Open Access Policy.

Open access enables readers to access published scholarship without subscription barriers, while the CC BY 4.0 licence establishes the conditions under which published material may be reused.

12. Publication Ethics and Intellectual Property

Authors and users must comply with the JMCS Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement and Plagiarism Policy, including requirements concerning attribution, originality, responsible reuse, and acknowledgement of the intellectual contributions of others.