Copyright Policy

I. Guiding Principle

Passerelle is founded on the principle of author copyright retention. Authors who publish with Passerelle retain full and unencumbered copyright to their work.

This policy outlines the specific rights, licenses, and warranties that govern the author-publisher relationship. This document works in conjunction with our Open Access Policy, which defines the rights of the public and end-users.

II. Author Rights and Licensing

As the copyright holder, the author grants two distinct licenses: a License to Publish to Passerelle and a public license (Creative Commons) to the world.

  • License to Publish: By submitting a manuscript, the author grants Passerelle a non-exclusive license to be the original publisher of the work. This grants the journal the right to produce, publish, disseminate, and distribute the definitive version of the article (the "Version of Record") in all forms and media, and to manage all associated technical and administrative tasks (such as indexing and archiving).
  • Public License: As a Diamond Open Access journal, all articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license. This is a condition of publication. This license, which is applied by the author upon publication, dictates how end-users may share and adapt the work. The full terms and user rights are detailed in our Open Access Policy.

III. Author Warranties and Responsibilities

As the copyright holder, the author is the party legally responsible for the content of the article.

By submitting a manuscript, the author warrants that:

  1. They are the original author(s) and have the full authority to enter into this agreement.
  2. The manuscript is original, has not been previously published, and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere.
  3. The manuscript does not infringe upon any existing copyright or other third-party rights (such as privacy or publicity rights).
  4. The manuscript contains no libelous, defamatory, or otherwise unlawful statements.
  5. All necessary permissions have been obtained for the use of any third-party materials included in the manuscript (e.g., figures, tables, data).
  6. The author agrees to indemnify Passerelle and its editors against any claims, damages, or legal fees arising from a breach of these warranties. Any breach of these warranties may be treated as scholarly misconduct, as defined in our Plagiarism Policy and Publication Malpractice Statement.

IV. Repository and Archiving Rights

As the copyright holder, the author retains the full and unencumbered right to archive, self-deposit, and re-use all versions of their work. The specific rules, conditions, and best practices governing author self-archiving are detailed in our dedicated Archiving Policy. That policy provides the definitive requirements for preprints, Author's Accepted Manuscripts (AAM), and the final Version of Record (VoR), and also outlines the journal's official digital preservation strategy.