ICPK

For Librarians & Institutions

There is nothing to subscribe to, license, or negotiate. Every article published by the International Center for Promoting Knowledge (ICPK) is free to read from the date of publication, with no embargo and no reader-side charge. No subscription is required, and libraries do not need to configure authentication, proxy access, entitlements, or institutional accounts. Institutional users reach ICPK content in the same way as every other reader.

Libraries and institutions may link published articles from catalogues, discovery records, reading lists, repositories, and course materials without seeking permission. Authors may also deposit the published version in any repository at any time without permission; ICPK asks only that the repository record link to the version of record through its DOI. The publisher’s access model is explained in Open Access & Licensing.

Identifiers and publication metadata

ICPK journals have registered ISSNs, including print and online ISSNs where applicable. Every published article is assigned a Crossref-registered DOI, and its metadata is deposited with Crossref at publication. ICPK is a direct Crossref member rather than using a sponsoring organization or registration agent.

DOI prefixes are presented at journal level. A librarian assessing or cataloguing a title can find the applicable prefix on that journal’s about page. Individual article records provide the DOI for citation and linking to the version of record.

For information about DOI registration, the current retention arrangements, and the relationship between published PDFs and online records, see Preservation & DOI. The complete title directory is available under Our Journals.

Current status: stated without ambiguity

Accurate journal evaluation criteria include not only what a publisher provides, but also what it does not currently have. ICPK therefore states the following directly:

  • ICPK is not a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). It follows widely used principles of transparency and best practice as a matter of publishing practice, but this does not constitute COPE membership.
  • ICPK is not listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ).
  • ICPK journals are not indexed in Scopus, Web of Science, EBSCO, Index Copernicus, Ulrich’s, or any comparable database.
  • ICPK is not enrolled in CLOCKSS, LOCKSS, Portico, or the PKP Preservation Network.

Current retention relies on managed hosting with routine backups, with published PDFs held alongside their online records. This should not be represented as participation in an external preservation network.

ICPK states these limitations openly rather than leaving librarians to discover them during due diligence. A publisher that is vague about membership, indexing, or preservation status is harder to assess than one that provides a direct and complete account. Institutions should use the status above as it stands and should not infer inclusion from the presence of ISSNs, DOIs, editorial boards, or open access.

What institutions can assess

The absence of particular memberships, listings, indexes, or preservation services does not remove the need for evidence-based assessment. Librarians, research offices, and academic departments can examine the following publicly available features:

  • named editorial boards and international advisory boards, with public affiliations;
  • each journal’s documented peer review process;
  • a complete public set of editorial, ethical, and legal policies;
  • registered journal ISSNs and resolvable article DOIs;
  • Crossref metadata deposited when each article is published;
  • freely accessible archives of everything published, without reader-side charges; and
  • journal-level transparency about author-side charges and applicable licence terms.

Editorial authority belongs to each journal’s Editor-in-Chief and editorial board. ICPK provides publishing infrastructure, policy, and administrative support; it does not review manuscripts or participate in acceptance and rejection decisions. Accordingly, institutions evaluating a particular title should examine that journal’s aims and scope, editorial board, peer review process, charges, copyright and licence terms, author guidance, and indexing statement alongside the publisher-level policies.

This approach supports open access for librarians and institutions without reliance on unsupported status claims. It also distinguishes infrastructure indicators from editorial indicators, which must be assessed at journal level.

Costs and institutional access

There is no cost to an institution for reading or providing links to ICPK content. ICPK does not sell institutional subscriptions, memberships, access packages, or any other library access product. It operates no institutional payment scheme, and there is no access-management arrangement for a library to administer.

Some journals may levy an author-side article processing charge. Where one applies, the amount is published in advance on that journal’s own charges page and becomes payable only after acceptance. Charges and licence terms are determined per journal, not across ICPK as a publisher. Editors are not informed of an author’s payment, waiver, or funding status while assessing a manuscript.

For practical purposes, institutional access to open access ICPK content means direct public access: there are no credentials, IP ranges, subscription records, or renewal dates to maintain.

Enquiries

Questions about institutional evaluation, catalogue linking, publisher policies, identifiers, access, or metadata may be sent to info@theicpk.org. For the journal directory and title-level information, visit Our Journals. Other routes are available on the Contact page.

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