Copyright Holder

Copyright for all published articles is held by Utkarsh Journal of Health Sciences and Environment (UJHSE), published by Utkarsh Research Network. Upon acceptance and publication, copyright ownership of the article transfers to the journal.

License

All articles published in UJHSE are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

What This Means

Under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license:

• You are free to Share: Copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format.

Under the following terms:

• Attribution: You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made.
• NonCommercial: You may not use the material for commercial purposes.
• NoDerivatives: If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material.

Author Rights

Authors retain the right to:

• Use their published work for non-commercial academic purposes
• Include the work in teaching materials and presentations
• Include the work in a thesis or dissertation
• Share preprints and accepted manuscripts
• Post on personal or institutional websites with proper attribution to UJHSE

Self-Archiving Policy

Version	Permitted?	Conditions
Preprint (before peer review)	Yes	May be posted at any time, on any platform
Accepted Manuscript (post-print)	Yes	Immediately upon acceptance, with acknowledgment of UJHSE as the journal of publication
Published Version (version of record)	Share DOI link	Share the DOI link freely; do not redistribute the published PDF without permission from the journal

Third-Party Content

Authors are responsible for obtaining all necessary permissions for any third-party content (including figures, tables, images, and data) included in their manuscripts. Such permissions must be secured prior to submission and documented upon request.

Copyright Transfer Agreement

Authors are required to sign a Copyright Transfer Agreement (CTA) upon acceptance of their manuscript. The CTA formally transfers copyright to UJHSE while preserving the author rights described above. The signed agreement must be submitted before the article can proceed to publication.

DOAJ & SHERPA/RoMEO Compliance

UJHSE's copyright and licensing policies are designed to be fully compliant with the requirements of the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and are registered in SHERPA/RoMEO for easy reference by authors and institutions.

• License type is clearly stated on every published article
• License terms are machine-readable (embedded in article metadata via Crossref)
• The full text of the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license is linked from every article page
• Self-archiving permissions are clearly documented (see table above)

Copyright Infringement

If any party believes that content published in UJHSE infringes upon their copyright, they should contact the editorial office at editor@ujhse.utkarshresearchnetwork.in with full details. UJHSE will investigate all claims promptly in accordance with COPE guidelines and take appropriate action, which may include removal or correction of the infringing content.

Why CC BY-NC-ND 4.0?

UJHSE has adopted CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 after weighing reader access, author protection, and ecosystem compatibility. This license:

• Guarantees free, immediate, worldwide access to the version of record (the "Open Access" mandate)
• Permits unrestricted reading, downloading, copying, distribution, printing, and linking
• Prohibits commercial reuse without permission — protecting the work from being repackaged by predatory aggregators
• Prohibits derivative works (translations, adaptations, mash-ups) without permission — preserving the integrity of the scientific record while still allowing translations on request
• Requires correct attribution to authors, journal, year, and DOI

Authors needing a more permissive license (CC BY for example, often required by Plan S funders) may request a license switch on a case-by-case basis at acceptance — see Funder Compliance below.

Funder & Institutional Mandate Compliance

UJHSE's open-access publication model is compatible with the requirements of major funders and mandates. Authors should confirm their funder's specific requirements before submission.

Funder / Mandate	UJHSE compatibility
NIH Public Access Policy (USA)	Compliant — accepted manuscripts are deposited automatically; final version openly accessible from publication date
Wellcome Trust / UKRI	Compliant on request — authors may opt for CC BY 4.0 at acceptance to satisfy these mandates (no extra fee)
Plan S / cOAlition S	Compliant on request — authors choose CC BY 4.0 at acceptance; UJHSE does not embargo content
Horizon Europe / European Research Council	Compliant on request — CC BY available; deposit in OpenAIRE / Zenodo supported
ICMR / DBT / DST / DHR (India)	Compliant — open access from publication; deposit in Indian repositories supported
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation	Compliant — CC BY available; immediate open access

To request a license switch from CC BY-NC-ND to CC BY for funder compliance, indicate this in the cover letter and at acceptance. There is no additional charge for this option.

Version of Record & Versioning

UJHSE distinguishes the following article versions per NISO JAV:

• Submitted Version (SMUR) — the original manuscript as submitted; may be deposited on a preprint server
• Accepted Manuscript (AM) — the post-peer-review, pre-typesetting version; may be self-archived without embargo
• Version of Record (VoR) — the final, typeset, copyedited version published by UJHSE with the DOI; this is the citable version

Only the Version of Record carries the official DOI and is the version indexed in Crossref, Google Scholar, and other databases.

Moral Rights

Authors retain their moral rights in perpetuity, in particular:

• The right to be identified as the author (right of attribution)
• The right to object to derogatory treatment of the work that would prejudice their honour or reputation (right of integrity)
• The right not to have the work falsely attributed to them

These rights are not transferable and persist beyond any copyright transfer.

Plan S & Rights Retention Strategy

Authors funded by Plan S signatories may apply a Rights Retention Statement to the accepted manuscript, asserting CC BY rights from the moment of submission. UJHSE recognises and supports this strategy. Authors should include a statement in the manuscript such as: "For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) public copyright licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission."

Reuse & Permissions

Reuse permitted by CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 — such as quoting, downloading, printing, or sharing for non-commercial educational use — does not require permission. For uses beyond the license (commercial reuse, translation, modification, inclusion in textbooks for sale), please contact editor@ujhse.utkarshresearchnetwork.in. UJHSE will respond within 14 working days. A small permissions fee may apply for commercial reuse.