Open Access Policy

For Readers

Every article JPSIM publishes is completely free to view, read, download, print and share for anyone, anywhere, with no access restrictions. There is no charge, and no search restriction of any kind — anyone can search, browse and open the full text or the PDF of any published article, and share it with colleagues or on social media without limitation.

Every published article is openly accessible to read, download and print at no cost — no institutional subscription, paywall, account, or registration is ever required, for individual readers or institutions.

Unrestricted Search & Browsing

The full archive is open to search and browse for everyone — no sign-in wall, no search limit, and no article hidden behind a login prompt.

Share Freely, Including on Social Media

Articles and their PDFs can be shared with anyone, anywhere — by link, by email, or on social media — with no limitation on how widely they’re passed on.

Reuse Rights (CC BY 4.0)

Under the CC BY 4.0 license, anyone may copy, redistribute, adapt and build upon published articles for any lawful purpose, including commercial use, without asking permission from the publisher or the author, provided the original work is properly credited, a link to the license is given and any changes are indicated.

Free for Institutions & Libraries

Medical institutions, universities, hospitals, and libraries across Pakistan and internationally may access, download, and distribute copies of published articles for teaching and research purposes free of charge, with attribution.

Available Immediately

There is no embargo period between acceptance/publication and open availability — articles are live and free to access the moment they are published.

Standards & Good Practice

JPSIM follows the openness, licensing and publishing-practice standards expected of open access journals, including the principles set out by the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ):

Clear, Machine-Readable Licensing

All content is published under a clearly stated CC BY 4.0 license, displayed in every article and in the page metadata.

ISSN Registration

Registered print ISSN 2709-8729 and online ISSN 2710-0804, displayed consistently across the site.

Persistent DOIs via Crossref

Every published article is assigned a unique, permanent Digital Object Identifier (DOI) through Crossref, enabling citation tracking and discoverability across scholarly databases.

Full Metadata & Google Scholar Discoverability

Structured, complete metadata (title, authors, affiliations, abstract, references) is published on every article so that search engines, including Google Scholar, can discover and index it.

Transparent Ownership, Editorial Board & Peer Review

The journal’s ownership is documented on the Publisher and Ownership page. The Editorial Board and Advisory Boards are listed with their roles, and the double-blind peer review process, including reviewer selection, timeframe and appeals, is publicly documented.

Publication Ethics & Archiving

JPSIM follows COPE guidelines on publication ethics and misconduct (see Ethical Compliance), and every published article is deposited in the Internet Archive for long-term preservation (see the Archiving and Digital Preservation policy).

For Authors

Authors retain copyright in their work under the CC BY 4.0 license, and grant the journal the right of first publication. Copyright is not transferred to JPSIM or to the Pakistan Society of Internal Medicine, and “All rights reserved” is not applied to any article. Authors may deposit any version of their article, including the published PDF, in an institutional or other repository or share it on scholarly networks, provided the original publication in JPSIM is cited. Full details on author rights, self-archiving, and how to attribute a published article are covered in the Copyright & Licensing policy.

Charges. JPSIM charges authors a submission fee and a processing fee, paid together at submission; see Fee Details for current amounts, payment instructions, refund rules and the waiver policy. These fees are the only charges made for publication. There is no charge for readers, and authors have the same full, free access as every reader — viewing, downloading, printing and sharing any published article, including their own — at no further cost. Payment does not guarantee acceptance, and decisions are made independently of the author’s ability to pay.

JPSIM is a fully open access journal. All scholarly articles are freely and permanently available online immediately upon publication, without embargo, subscription, payment or compulsory reader registration. Users may read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, link to and otherwise reuse content in accordance with the license stated on the article, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author.

Manuscripts are evaluated on scholarly merit, originality, methodological quality, ethical compliance and relevance to scope. Decisions are not influenced by nationality, institutional affiliation, gender, ethnicity, religion, political belief, seniority, disability, geographic location or the author's ability to pay.

The journal publishes clear information about its ownership, editorial board, peer review, licensing, copyright, charges, ethics and contact arrangements. Editors and reviewers must preserve confidentiality and disclose conflicts. Submissions from editors, board members or PSIM office bearers receive independent handling.

The open access statement, license and copyright terms are consistent across the website and are shown on every full-text article.