All articles published in the Journal of Childhood Education (JOCE) are licensed under an open-access publishing model to ensure the widest possible dissemination of scholarly work in early childhood education and related fields. Authors retain the copyright of their work while granting the journal the right of first publication.

Upon acceptance of a manuscript, authors agree to the following copyright terms:

1. Copyright Ownership
Authors retain full copyright of their articles. The journal does not transfer ownership but requires authors to grant a non-exclusive publishing right to JOCE to publish, distribute, archive, and promote the article in all formats and media.

2. Licensing and Reuse
Published articles are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0) or an equivalent open-access license. This allows users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, and link to the full texts of articles, provided proper credit is given to the original authors and the journal.

3. Author Responsibilities
Authors must ensure that the submitted manuscript is original, has not been previously published, and does not infringe any copyright, intellectual property rights, or ethical standards. Any third-party materials included in the manuscript must have appropriate permissions.

4. Journal Rights
The journal reserves the right to perform editorial revisions, formatting, indexing, and digital preservation to maintain academic integrity and publication quality. The publisher may archive and distribute the work through indexing databases, repositories, and scholarly platforms.

5. Self-Archiving Policy
Authors are permitted to deposit the published version of their article in institutional repositories, personal websites, or academic networks, provided that full citation and DOI information are clearly stated, acknowledging JOCE as the original publisher.

6. Compliance with International Publishing Standards
This copyright policy aligns with international open-access publishing practices to support transparency, accessibility, and ethical dissemination of scientific knowledge in early childhood education research.