Open Access Policy

Georgian Medical Journal

Open Access Policy

Public Health Institute of Georgia (PHIG) · CC BY 4.0 · Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) · DOI prefix: 10.66636

Open Access Statement

The Georgian Medical Journal (GMJ) is a fully open access journal. All articles are made freely available online immediately upon publication, without subscription or registration barriers.

Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of GMJ articles, and use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author.

This policy is in accordance with the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) definition of open access.

License and Reuse

All articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license, unless explicitly stated otherwise. This license permits unrestricted use, sharing, adaptation, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original author(s) and source are properly credited.

Recommended Attribution Format

Author(s). Article title. Georgian Medical Journal. Year;Volume(Issue):Pages. DOI.

Authors retain full copyright of their work.
Authors grant GMJ a non-exclusive license to publish the article, identify itself as the original publisher, and disseminate the Version of Record.

Article Processing Charges (APCs) and Fees

GMJ does not charge submission fees. From 5 January 2025 to 1 January 2027, all accepted articles are published free of charge under the 100% PHIG Publication Grant.

If APCs are introduced in the future, GMJ will provide clear and transparent information regarding pricing, waiver, and discount policies, including support mechanisms for authors from low- and middle-income countries. See the Price Policy for full details.

Self-Archiving and Preprints

Preprints: GMJ accepts submissions previously posted on non-peer-reviewed preprint servers. Authors must disclose the preprint DOI or URL at submission, and it will be cited in the published article.

Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) and Version of Record (VoR): Authors may deposit the AAM or VoR immediately upon publication in institutional repositories, subject repositories, personal websites, or academic networks — without embargo — provided that the CC BY 4.0 license and the final published DOI are clearly indicated.

Peer Review and Openness

GMJ operates a double-anonymised peer review process. At the editor's discretion, GMJ may offer transparent peer review, including the publication of reviewer reports and author responses with consent. The peer review model does not limit or restrict reuse rights granted under CC BY 4.0.

Data, Code & Materials

GMJ requires a Data Availability Statement for all research articles. Authors are strongly encouraged to deposit de-identified data, code, and supporting materials in trusted repositories providing persistent identifiers (DOIs). Where possible, data should be shared under open licenses such as CC0 or licenses compatible with CC BY.

Text and Data Mining (TDM)

The CC BY 4.0 license permits text and data mining (TDM) of GMJ content for any lawful purpose, provided appropriate attribution is given and any third-party content is properly respected.

Third-Party Content

Authors are responsible for obtaining permission for any third-party material not covered under CC BY 4.0. Such material must be clearly identified with appropriate rights statements in figure captions, tables, or acknowledgements.

Indexing, Discoverability & Metadata

GMJ assigns permanent Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) to all published articles and provides structured, machine-readable metadata to support indexing and discoverability.

5 January 2025 – 8 April 2026: DOIs issued via Zenodo (CERN/DataCite) — permanently valid.
From 9 April 2026: GMJ is a full Crossref member registering DOIs under prefix 10.66636, ensuring integration with global citation and indexing systems.

Preservation and Permanence

GMJ ensures long-term digital preservation through multiple systems: PKP Preservation Network (PKP PN) with LOCKSS-based archiving, CLOCKSS dark archive, Zenodo (CERN) for earlier publications, Crossref metadata infrastructure, and geographically distributed backups.

This multi-layered approach ensures continued access to all published content, even in the event of platform changes or journal discontinuation.

Compliance with Funder Mandates

The CC BY 4.0 license, immediate open access, and self-archiving permissions support compliance with institutional and funder open access policies, including international requirements.

Authors remain responsible for ensuring compliance with specific funder mandates, including acknowledgement and data-sharing obligations where applicable.

Georgian Medical Journal (GMJ) · Published by the Public Health Institute of Georgia (PHIG) · Open Access · CC BY 4.0 · DOI prefix: 10.66636 · editor@gmj.ge · gmj.ge