About ICPK
The International Center for Promoting Knowledge (ICPK) is an academic publisher open access readers, authors, reviewers, and institutions can evaluate through publicly stated practices. Founded in 2019, ICPK is a registered legal entity in Bangladesh and operates from the USA and Bangladesh. It publishes scholarly journals and maintains the infrastructure, policies, identifiers, and administrative support required to make their work available.
ICPK’s role is to support the circulation of reviewed scholarship across institutions and countries. Research should be available to a reader because it is relevant, not because that reader belongs to an institution able to purchase access. Every article published through ICPK is freely accessible from publication, without an embargo or reader-side charge. Published archives remain openly available so that students, researchers, practitioners, and the wider public can consult the scholarly record directly.
Open access is only useful when the publication behind it can be identified, understood, and assessed. ICPK therefore combines unrestricted reading with registered identifiers, journal-level editorial governance, documented review processes, and public editorial, ethical, and legal policies. These elements allow readers to examine how a journal works rather than relying on a general claim of quality.
Purpose and Publishing Approach
ICPK exists to help reviewed scholarship move beyond the boundaries created by subscription costs and unequal institutional access. The publishing programme is intended to connect research communities across disciplines and locations, including researchers whose work or readership may extend beyond the institutions traditionally best served by commercial publishing systems.
This purpose shapes the access model. ICPK does not charge readers, sell institutional subscriptions, offer membership access, or place published research behind access packages. Articles are available from the date of publication. Authors retain copyright and grant the licence needed to publish; ICPK does not require copyright transfer. Authors may archive the published version in any repository at any time without seeking permission and are asked only to link to the version of record through its DOI.
There is no fee to submit a manuscript. If a journal levies an article processing charge, that charge becomes payable only after acceptance, and the amount is published in advance on the journal’s own charges page. Charges and licence terms are established at journal level rather than imposed as a single publisher-wide arrangement. Editors are not informed of an author’s payment, waiver, or funding status while a manuscript is being assessed.
The broader model is described in Open Access & Licensing. Journal-specific terms belong on the relevant journal pages, where authors can assess them alongside the journal’s scope, author instructions, review process, and submission requirements.
Four Journals, Distinct Editorial Remits
ICPK’s portfolio comprises four academic journals:
- International Journal of Social Policy and Education (IJSPE) — an interdisciplinary journal covering social policy and education. IJSPE is identified by ISSN 2689-4998 (print) and ISSN 2689-5013 (online), uses DOI prefix 10.61494/ijspe, and is accepting submissions.
- International Journal of Business and Economics Development (IJBED) — covering business, economics, and development.
- International Journal of Social Science and Humanities (IJSSH) — covering social science and humanities.
- International Journal of Language, Linguistics and Literature (IJLLL) — covering language, linguistics, and literature.
The portfolio is organized by disciplinary remit, with each title responsible for defining and maintaining its own scholarly scope. The journals share publisher-level infrastructure and policies, but they are not treated as interchangeable outlets. A manuscript’s relevance, review, and editorial decision belong to the journal to which it is submitted.
At present, IJSPE is the only title with a live submission workflow. IJBED, IJSSH, and IJLLL are listed in the publisher’s journal directory and do not currently accept submissions through the ICPK platform. Current information for every title is available under Our Journals.
Publisher Responsibility and Editorial Authority
The distinction between publisher and journal is central to how ICPK operates. ICPK provides publishing infrastructure, policy, administrative support, DOI and metadata services, public access to published content, and maintenance of the online record. It establishes the common framework within which its journals publish.
ICPK does not review manuscripts and does not participate in decisions to accept or reject them. Editorial authority rests with each journal’s Editor-in-Chief and editorial board. Those journal-level bodies assess whether a submission fits the journal, oversee peer review, consider reviewer reports, and make editorial decisions.
This separation protects editorial judgement from publisher administration. It also means that journal-specific information is stated where it belongs. Aims and scope, editorial board membership, peer review procedures, author guidelines, submission checklists, charges, copyright and licence terms, and indexing status are maintained by each journal. Publisher-level pages set out the shared model for publication ethics, authorship, research integrity, corrections, complaints, research data, AI use, access, preservation, privacy, and related responsibilities.
ICPK does not carry advertising, sponsored content, or paid placement on its sites. Editorial decisions are kept separate from financial and administrative considerations. The applicable principles are explained in Editorial Independence & Advertising.
Operating from the USA and Bangladesh
ICPK is a registered legal entity in Bangladesh and operates from the USA and Bangladesh. Its US presence is operational through editorial board members and academic collaborators; the registered entity, contracting party, data controller, governing jurisdiction, and jurisdiction for disputes are in Bangladesh.
This operating footprint supports ICPK’s aim of helping scholarship circulate between institutions and countries. Academic publishing depends on intellectual participation that is not confined to the location of the publishing entity. Editorial and scholarly collaboration across the USA and Bangladesh gives the journals connections to different academic settings while retaining a clear legal and administrative base.
The two-country footprint does not change the allocation of responsibility. ICPK remains the publisher and infrastructure provider. Editorial authority remains with each journal’s Editor-in-Chief and editorial board, including where board members and collaborators participate from different locations.
Identifiers, Metadata, and the Published Record
Scholarly publishing requires more than placing files online. Articles need stable identification, discoverable metadata, a clear version of record, and a maintained relationship between the article and its journal.
ICPK maintains registered ISSNs for its journals, including print and online ISSNs where applicable. It is a direct Crossref member. Every published article receives a Crossref-registered DOI, and its metadata is deposited at publication. A DOI provides a persistent identifier for the version of record and supports reliable citation even when discovery occurs through different services or repositories.
Published articles are freely accessible through journal archives. The online record and corresponding published PDFs are maintained through managed hosting with routine backups, and published PDFs are held alongside their online records. ICPK is not presently enrolled in an external preservation network. The current arrangements and their scope are stated on Preservation & DOI.
ICPK also maintains named editorial and international advisory boards with public affiliations. Each journal publishes its peer review process, allowing prospective authors and readers to understand the procedure used by that title. A complete public set of editorial, ethical, and legal policies defines the responsibilities that apply across the publishing programme.
Similarity screening forms part of manuscript handling. ICPK uses Turnitin, additional third-party similarity tools, and comparison against its own archive of published and submitted manuscripts. Similarity results inform editorial examination; they do not replace academic judgement or establish misconduct by themselves. ICPK does not use iThenticate and does not currently use Crossref Similarity Check.
An Honest Account of ICPK’s Current Standing
ICPK does not currently hold membership in the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Its journals are not listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), and they are not indexed in Scopus, Web of Science, EBSCO, Index Copernicus, Ulrich’s, or a comparable database. ICPK is not enrolled in CLOCKSS, LOCKSS, Portico, the PKP Preservation Network, or another external preservation network. It does not publish an impact factor, citation metric, acceptance rate, or comparable performance figure.
ICPK should be evaluated on what it presently maintains and makes open to examination. It is a registered legal entity in Bangladesh, operates from the USA and Bangladesh, and is a direct Crossref member. Its journals have registered ISSNs, and every published article receives a Crossref-registered DOI with metadata deposited at publication. Published content is freely accessible without an embargo or reader-side charge, and the published PDFs are maintained alongside their online records with routine backups.
The editorial structure is also public. Journals identify their editorial and international advisory boards and their members’ affiliations. Each journal documents its peer review process. Editorial authority is assigned to the Editor-in-Chief and editorial board rather than to the publisher, and payment or funding information is withheld from editors during manuscript assessment.
ICPK publishes its editorial, ethical, and legal policies as a connected framework. It follows widely used principles of transparency and best practice as a matter of publishing practice, without presenting that adherence as membership in an external body. Readers can examine the standards governing authorship, research integrity, corrections and retractions, complaints and appeals, research data and ethics approval, AI use, access, preservation, privacy, and editorial independence through the Policies directory.
These are concrete grounds for assessment: identifiable journals, public editorial governance, documented processes, registered publication identifiers, accessible records, declared limitations, and policies readers can inspect. ICPK states its current position so authors, reviewers, librarians, and readers can make informed decisions without having to infer what a badge, listing, or promotional phrase might mean.
Ethics, Integrity, and Accountability
ICPK’s publisher-level policies establish common expectations across the portfolio. They address publication ethics; authorship and contributorship; research integrity and misconduct; corrections and retractions; complaints and appeals; research data and ethics approval; the use of artificial intelligence; open access and licensing; preservation and DOI practice; editorial independence; privacy; terms of use; and accessibility.
These policies are intended to make responsibilities visible before a manuscript is submitted and to provide a reference when questions arise after publication. They distinguish allegation from evidence, define the roles of authors and editorial participants, and explain how the published record may be corrected when necessary. They also provide routes for complaints and appeals without implying an automated system or online case-tracking facility.
Reviewer and editor coordination takes place off-platform by email. Reviewers are not paid and receive no honorarium, voucher, fee, article processing charge discount, or other benefit with monetary value. Non-monetary recognition is limited to a certificate, issued on request after three reports for the same journal have been accepted by the editor as usable, and an annual acknowledgement list for reviewers who completed at least one review that year and gave explicit advance consent to be named. Both are tracked manually. Neither identifies a manuscript, author, decision, or outcome.
The current policy framework can be reviewed through Policies. Questions about its application may be directed through Contact.
Information for Authors, Reviewers, and Institutions
Authors considering ICPK should begin with the journal directory, confirm that the relevant title is accepting submissions, and then consult that journal’s scope and author information. Only IJSPE currently provides a live submission workflow. Publisher-level statements do not replace journal-specific instructions, charges, licence terms, or peer review details.
Reviewers can use the public journal pages to examine the journal’s subject area, editorial board, and documented peer review process. Review work is coordinated by email rather than through a reviewer portal. The publisher’s reviewer information and ethics policies explain confidentiality, conflicts, report quality, and recognition.
Librarians and institutional readers can access all published material without a subscription, membership, or institutional account. There are no access packages to purchase. Journal pages and article records provide the relevant identifiers and publication information, while publisher pages explain the shared open-access, preservation, DOI, and governance framework.
The most useful starting points are Our Journals, Policies, Preservation & DOI, and Editorial Independence & Advertising. For general enquiries about the International Center for Promoting Knowledge, contact info@theicpk.org or use the Contact page.