Open Access Policy
Free to read, share, and build upon — for everyone
Fully Open Access
All articles published in OSCRSJ are immediately and permanently available to read, download, and share at no cost to the reader. We do not maintain paywalls, subscription fees, or institutional access requirements. Medical knowledge — especially educational case-based literature — should be freely accessible to clinicians, trainees, and patients worldwide.
Creative Commons License
CC BY 4.0 — Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
All articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license. This means anyone is free to:
- →Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
- →Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, including commercially
The only requirement is appropriate credit — users must give proper attribution to the original authors and indicate if changes were made.
Benefits of Open Access
Global Reach
Your case report is accessible to surgeons, residents, and medical students worldwide — not just those at institutions with journal subscriptions.
Higher Visibility
Open-access articles are read, downloaded, and cited more frequently than paywalled articles, increasing the impact of your work.
Educational Impact
Trainees at community programs, international institutions, and under-resourced hospitals can access the same literature as those at academic medical centers.
Funder Compliance
Many funding agencies (NIH, NSF, Wellcome Trust) require open-access publication. CC BY 4.0 satisfies Plan S and other open-access mandates.
Author Rights
Authors retain copyright of their work. You can share, present, and reuse your article without seeking publisher permission.
How We Sustain Open Access
OSCRSJ is funded through article processing charges (APCs) paid by authors upon acceptance. APCs cover the costs of peer review coordination, copyediting, DOI registration, web hosting, and long-term digital archiving.
We offer generous waivers for trainees, first-time authors, and researchers from low- and middle-income countries. APCs are waived entirely during our 2026 launch phase. See our APC & Fees page for full details.