Intellectual Property

1. Introduction

Andalasian Livestock (ALive) is committed to protecting intellectual property rights, promoting ethical scholarly communication, and facilitating the responsible dissemination and reuse of scientific research.

The journal recognizes that intellectual property rights are essential to ensuring appropriate recognition of authors, protecting original scholarly contributions, and supporting the lawful sharing of research findings.

As an open-access journal, Andalasian Livestock allows authors to retain copyright in their published articles while granting the journal the right of first publication. Published articles are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license.

This policy explains copyright ownership, publishing rights, licensing conditions, author responsibilities, permissions for third-party materials, originality requirements, self-archiving, and the management of intellectual property concerns.

The policy is informed by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Core Practices, particularly those concerning intellectual property and the transparency of publishing arrangements.

2. Description

2.1. Intellectual Property

Intellectual property refers to legally recognized rights associated with creations of the mind, including original literary and scientific works, inventions, designs, images, software, and other protected materials.

In scholarly publishing, intellectual property considerations commonly involve copyright, licensing, attribution, permissions, and the lawful use of research outputs.

2.2. Copyright

Copyright is a legal right that protects qualifying original works, including scholarly articles, figures, illustrations, photographs, and other forms of expression.

Copyright ownership may depend on authorship, employment arrangements, contractual agreements, and applicable law.

Andalasian Livestock recognizes the copyright retained by the authors of its published articles, subject to any rights legitimately held by third parties.

2.3. Open Access

Open access allows readers to access published scholarly articles online without subscription fees or paywalls.

Andalasian Livestock provides immediate free access to its published articles.

Reuse is governed by the applicable Creative Commons license and any separately identified rights associated with third-party material.

Free access does not mean that copyrighted material may be reused without observing its licensing conditions.

2.4. Creative Commons Licensing

Andalasian Livestock publishes articles under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license, commonly abbreviated as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

Under this license, users may share and adapt licensed material for noncommercial purposes, provided that they give appropriate attribution, provide a link to the license, indicate modifications, and distribute adaptations under the same license.

The license does not automatically authorize commercial reuse.

2.5. Third-Party Materials

Third-party materials are copyrighted or otherwise protected works that are not owned or controlled by the authors of the submitted manuscript.

Examples include previously published figures, photographs, diagrams, maps, tables, substantial text extracts, and proprietary illustrations.

Their inclusion in an article may require permission from the relevant rights holder unless the proposed use is already permitted by an applicable license or legal exception.

2.6. Preprints and Prior Dissemination

A preprint is a version of a scholarly manuscript made publicly available before formal peer review or journal publication.

Other forms of prior dissemination may include theses, dissertations, conference abstracts, working papers, and institutional reports.

Authors must disclose relevant prior dissemination so that the editorial team can assess originality, overlap, and compliance with the journal's submission requirements.

3. Policy

3.1. Copyright Ownership

Authors retain copyright in their articles published in Andalasian Livestock.

The journal does not require authors to transfer ownership of their article copyright to the journal or publisher.

By publishing in Andalasian Livestock, authors grant the journal the right of first publication and authorize publication and distribution of the article under the journal's applicable open-access license.

Authors retain the right to reuse, distribute, and share their work, subject to applicable licensing conditions and any legitimate third-party rights.

The journal's copyright policy does not override lawful ownership interests arising from employment agreements, institutional arrangements, or other valid contracts.

Authors are responsible for ensuring that they possess the rights and permissions necessary to authorize publication.

3.2. Publishing License

All articles published in Andalasian Livestock are distributed under the:

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).

Official license information:

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

This license permits users to:

Share

Copy and redistribute licensed material in any medium or format for noncommercial purposes.

Adapt

Remix, transform, and build upon licensed material for noncommercial purposes, subject to the license conditions.

Users must comply with the requirements described in the following sections.

3.3. Attribution Requirements

Anyone sharing or adapting an article under the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license must provide appropriate credit to the original authors.

Appropriate attribution should include, where reasonably practicable:

  • The names of the original authors.

  • The title of the article.

  • The journal name, Andalasian Livestock.

  • The original publication details.

  • A link to the article or its DOI.

  • A reference or link to the applicable Creative Commons license.

  • An indication of whether modifications were made.

Attribution must not suggest that the original authors or the journal endorse the reuse unless such endorsement has been explicitly authorized.

3.4. Noncommercial Use

The CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license permits reuse for noncommercial purposes.

The license defines noncommercial use by reference to whether the use is primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or monetary compensation.

The classification of a use depends on its circumstances and is not determined solely by whether the user is an academic institution, nonprofit organization, or commercial entity.

Uses outside the scope of the license may require separate authorization from the relevant copyright holder.

Requests for additional permissions should be directed to the appropriate rights holder, with the journal assisting in identifying the relevant contact where feasible.

3.5. ShareAlike Requirement

Users who remix, transform, or build upon material licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 must distribute their adapted material under the same license, subject to the applicable license terms.

The ShareAlike requirement applies to adaptations, not automatically to every separate work distributed alongside the licensed material.

Users must also respect the rights associated with any third-party material that is not covered by the article's Creative Commons license.

3.6. Authors' Publishing Rights

Authors retain the right to:

  1. Share their published articles through appropriate personal or institutional websites.

  2. Deposit permitted versions of their articles in institutional or disciplinary repositories.

  3. Use their published work for teaching, research, and other lawful purposes.

  4. Incorporate material from their articles into subsequent scholarly work, subject to appropriate acknowledgment and applicable rights.

  5. Distribute copies of their articles in accordance with the applicable license.

  6. Refer to and link to the final published version of their articles.

Authors are encouraged to acknowledge the original publication in Andalasian Livestock and include the DOI or permanent article link when sharing their work.

3.7. Right of First Publication

Authors grant Andalasian Livestock the right to publish the accepted article as the original journal publication.

The journal may identify itself as the first publisher of the article and maintain the official published version in its publication record.

The right of first publication does not constitute a transfer of article copyright ownership from the authors to the journal.

Any publication agreement used by the journal must be consistent with this principle.

3.8. Author Responsibilities Regarding Intellectual Property

By submitting a manuscript, authors are responsible for ensuring that:

  • The submitted work is original, except for material that is appropriately quoted, cited, licensed, or otherwise lawfully reused.

  • All sources of information, ideas, methods, and previously published findings are properly acknowledged.

  • The manuscript does not infringe the intellectual property rights of others.

  • All listed authors have approved submission and publication.

  • Relevant prior dissemination has been disclosed.

  • Permissions have been obtained for third-party materials where required.

  • Copyright ownership and institutional agreements permit publication under the journal's license.

  • The submitted manuscript does not contain unlawfully disclosed confidential or proprietary information.

Authors must cooperate with reasonable editorial requests for clarification or evidence of permissions.

3.9. Third-Party Copyrighted Materials

Authors who include third-party copyrighted materials in their manuscripts must determine whether permission is required.

Materials requiring particular attention include:

  • Previously published photographs or illustrations.

  • Figures and diagrams reproduced from books or articles.

  • Adapted graphics based on protected works.

  • Proprietary images supplied by commercial organizations.

  • Maps and other visual materials with licensing restrictions.

  • Substantial excerpts of copyrighted text.

  • Other materials not created or controlled by the submitting authors.

Authors must obtain appropriate permission before publication when the intended use is not permitted by an existing license or applicable legal exception.

Permission should cover the intended electronic publication, public accessibility, and relevant reuse conditions.

Where a third-party item cannot be redistributed under the article's Creative Commons license, its separate rights status must be clearly identified.

3.10. Attribution of Third-Party Materials

Third-party materials must be accompanied by appropriate acknowledgment.

The acknowledgment should identify the original source and any applicable permission or licensing conditions.

Examples include:

"Reproduced from [Source], with permission from [Rights Holder]."

"Adapted from [Source], under [Applicable License]."

The wording must accurately reflect the permission obtained or the license governing the material.

An acknowledgment alone does not replace permission when permission is legally required.

3.11. Intellectual Property in Livestock Research

Andalasian Livestock recognizes that research in animal science may involve intellectual property or confidential information associated with:

  • Livestock breeding programs and genetic resources.

  • Commercial feed formulations and feed additives.

  • Veterinary products and technologies.

  • Farm management systems and production records.

  • Laboratory protocols and analytical methods.

  • Proprietary software or computational models.

  • Patented technologies and commercially developed equipment.

  • Images, datasets, or technical materials supplied by research partners.

Authors must ensure that publication does not unlawfully disclose protected information or violate legitimate agreements.

Commercial sponsorship or institutional collaboration must not prevent authors from accurately reporting research methods, findings, limitations, and competing interests.

Relevant restrictions on underlying research data should be disclosed under the Data and Reproducibility Policy.

3.12. Research Data and Copyright

Copyright in an article does not necessarily determine ownership of all underlying research data, databases, software, inventions, or biological materials.

Rights in these materials may be governed by applicable law, institutional policies, funding agreements, contracts, or separate licenses.

Authors must distinguish between:

Article licensing: The Creative Commons license governing the published scholarly article.

Data licensing: The applicable terms governing the reuse of research datasets.

Software licensing: The license governing computer programs, scripts, or other software.

Patent and other intellectual property rights: Rights that may apply to inventions, processes, or technologies described in the research.

The publication of an article under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 does not automatically transfer ownership of patents, proprietary datasets, or other separately protected intellectual property.

3.13. Plagiarism and Intellectual Property Infringement

Andalasian Livestock does not permit plagiarism or deliberate misrepresentation of another person's intellectual contributions.

Unacceptable practices include:

Direct Plagiarism

Presenting another person's words or work as original without appropriate acknowledgment.

Paraphrasing Without Attribution

Rewriting another person's ideas or findings without identifying the original source.

Unauthorized Reproduction

Reproducing copyrighted material without the necessary permission or other lawful basis.

Misappropriation of Research Materials

Using confidential data, unpublished manuscripts, images, or research outputs without appropriate authorization.

Misleading Attribution

Misrepresenting the origin or authorship of text, figures, data, or other scholarly content.

Suspected violations will be assessed under the journal's Plagiarism Policy and Allegations of Misconduct Policy.

A similarity score alone does not establish plagiarism. Relevant evidence must be evaluated in context.

3.14. Redundant and Overlapping Publication

Authors must not submit or publish substantially the same scholarly work in multiple journals without appropriate disclosure and justification.

Relevant overlap with previously disseminated work must be acknowledged.

Authors should disclose related manuscripts, preprints, conference papers, theses, and other publications where the overlap could affect editorial assessment.

The editorial team will evaluate whether the submitted manuscript contains sufficient original scholarly contribution and whether any overlap is ethically acceptable.

3.15. Preprints and Prior Publication

Andalasian Livestock permits authors to archive preprint versions of their manuscripts in accordance with its published Repository Policy.

Authors must disclose relevant preprint dissemination when submitting a manuscript.

A preprint should be clearly identified as a version that has not undergone the journal's formal peer-review and publication process.

Where a manuscript has previously appeared in a thesis, dissertation, conference proceeding, or other format, authors should disclose that information and provide relevant details.

The journal will assess the relationship between the earlier version and the submitted manuscript according to its originality and publication ethics requirements.

Authors must not assume that all forms of prior publication are equivalent to preprint dissemination.

3.16. Author Self-Archiving

Andalasian Livestock encourages authors to increase the accessibility and visibility of their research through appropriate self-archiving.

The journal's Repository Policy describes the permitted deposit of:

  • Submitted manuscripts or preprints.

  • Accepted manuscripts.

  • Final published articles or Versions of Record.

Authors should identify the version deposited and comply with applicable copyright, licensing, and attribution requirements.

When sharing the published version, authors should provide a complete citation and a link to the original publication.

Any conditions applicable to third-party material must continue to be respected.

3.17. Copyright and Licensing of Peer-Review Reports

Peer-review reports may contain original scholarly commentary and other material subject to applicable intellectual property rights.

The journal will treat reviewer reports as confidential within its peer-review process.

Review reports must not be publicly released or separately licensed without an appropriate basis, including any necessary permission from the relevant rights holder.

Reviewers must not reproduce, distribute, or otherwise exploit confidential manuscript content without authorization.

Any future implementation of open peer review or publication of review reports must be supported by a clearly published policy addressing confidentiality, consent, and licensing.

3.18. Intellectual Property and Generative Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence tools do not qualify for authorship because they cannot accept scholarly accountability.

Authors remain responsible for the originality, accuracy, attribution, and lawful use of all material included in their manuscripts, including content developed with AI assistance.

Authors must not assume that AI-generated text, figures, images, code, or other material is automatically free from third-party intellectual property rights.

The use of generative AI must comply with the journal's Generative AI Policy.

Authors should disclose relevant AI assistance as required and verify that submitted content does not infringe applicable rights.

3.19. Copyright and License Information in Published Articles

Each published article should clearly identify:

  1. The copyright holder or holders.

  2. The applicable publication year.

  3. The Creative Commons license.

  4. A link to the license terms.

  5. The journal's identity as the publisher of the Version of Record.

The copyright and license information should be consistent across the article landing page, publication metadata, and final article files.

Where third-party material is excluded from the article's Creative Commons license, the relevant exception should be identified.

3.20. Intellectual Property Concerns After Publication

The journal will consider credible reports of copyright infringement, plagiarism, unauthorized reproduction, or other intellectual property concerns involving published articles.

The editorial team may request supporting evidence from the complainant, authors, rights holders, or relevant institutions.

Depending on the circumstances, possible actions include:

Clarification

Providing additional information concerning ownership, attribution, permissions, or licensing.

Correction

Correcting an attribution statement, replacing an improperly reproduced item where appropriate, or amending the publication record.

Expression of Concern

Alerting readers when serious unresolved concerns justify such a notice.

Retraction

Retracting an article when substantial plagiarism, unlawful use of protected material, or other serious circumstances justify retraction under applicable publication ethics guidance.

No Further Action

Closing a case when the concern is unsupported or satisfactorily resolved.

Editorial decisions must be proportionate to the evidence and the effect of the concern on the published scholarly record.

4. Implementation and Procedures

4.1. Copyright Declaration at Submission

As a proposed implementation procedure, the journal should require the corresponding author to confirm that:

  • The manuscript may lawfully be submitted for publication.

  • All authors have approved the submission.

  • Relevant third-party permissions have been obtained.

  • The authors understand the journal's copyright retention policy.

  • The authors agree to publication under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

  • Relevant prior dissemination has been disclosed.

These declarations may be incorporated into the OJS submission checklist or a separate publishing agreement.

4.2. Editorial Screening of Intellectual Property Issues

The editorial office should examine submissions for potential concerns involving originality, attribution, and third-party materials.

Where necessary, editors may request:

  • Information about previously published versions.

  • Copies of relevant permission letters.

  • Clarification of copyright ownership.

  • Details of prior dissemination.

  • Explanations of textual or visual overlap.

Similarity-checking tools may assist editorial assessment but must not replace informed editorial judgment.

4.3. Verification of Third-Party Permissions

Where a manuscript includes material requiring permission, authors should provide evidence that the intended use is authorized.

The editorial office should verify, where appropriate, that the permission covers the relevant publication format and distribution arrangements.

If adequate permission cannot be established, the journal may require the material to be removed, replaced, or appropriately modified before publication.

4.4. Author Publishing Agreement

The journal should ensure that its OJS copyright notice and any author publishing agreement are consistent with the following principles:

  1. Authors retain article copyright.

  2. Andalasian Livestock receives the right of first publication.

  3. The published article is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

  4. Authors confirm their authority to authorize publication.

  5. Third-party rights remain subject to their applicable terms.

The journal should not use a publishing agreement that contradicts its public copyright notice.

4.5. Publication Metadata and License Display

The editorial office should verify that the correct license appears in the OJS journal settings and published article metadata.

The article landing page and PDF should consistently display the copyright and licensing information.

Recommended copyright statement:

"Copyright © [Year] [Author Name(s)]. The authors retain copyright and grant Andalasian Livestock the right of first publication."

Recommended licensing statement:

"This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)."

License URL:

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

4.6. Repository and Self-Archiving Information

The journal should maintain a publicly accessible Repository Policy explaining the permitted versions of articles that authors may deposit.

Authors should be encouraged to include the DOI or permanent article link when depositing their published work.

Any repository metadata should accurately identify the article version and applicable licensing terms.

4.7. Handling Intellectual Property Complaints

When a credible intellectual property concern is received, the editorial team should:

  1. Record the allegation and identify the affected manuscript or article.

  2. Conduct an initial assessment of the concern.

  3. Request relevant evidence or clarification.

  4. Give affected parties an appropriate opportunity to respond.

  5. Seek independent or institutional advice where necessary.

  6. Determine whether corrective editorial action is justified.

  7. Communicate the outcome to relevant parties.

  8. Preserve an appropriate record of the case.

Serious allegations should be managed in conjunction with the journal's Allegations of Misconduct Policy.

COPE resources