Open Access and Copyright Policy

The Dyke 

The Dyke is committed to the unrestricted dissemination of knowledge and the principles of open access. This policy outlines the journal’s stance on accessibility, copyright ownership, and licensing for published content.

Open Access Policy

All articles published in The Dyke are made freely and immediately available to the public under an open access model. Readers may read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of articles without asking permission from the publisher or the author, in accordance with the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) definition of open access.

  • There are no subscription fees or paywalls.
  • There are no article processing charges (APCs) or submission fees.

Copyright Policy

Authors retain full copyright of their work published in The Dyke.

Upon acceptance and publication, authors grant The Dyke a non-exclusive licence to publish and distribute their article in all formats and media. This means:

  • Authors may freely share, deposit, and republish their work (e.g., in institutional repositories, websites, or future publications), provided proper citation and acknowledgment of The Dyke as the original venue is included.
  • The journal will never require authors to transfer copyright to the publisher.

Licensing Terms

All articles in The Dyke are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).

Under this licence:

  • Others may copy, redistribute, remix, transform, and build upon the work for any purpose, even commercially.
  • Appropriate credit must be given to the original author(s) and source (The Dyke), along with a link to the license.
  • Any changes made must be indicated.

Full licence details: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Archiving and Preservation

The Dyke supports long-term preservation of scholarly work through partnerships with digital repositories and indexing services, including Sabinet African Journals. Authors are also encouraged to deposit a copy of their published article in institutional or subject-specific repositories.

Author Responsibilities

Authors must ensure that:

  • All third-party content (e.g., images, data sets, quotations) used in their article has the necessary permissions and is properly cited.
  • They understand and agree to the terms of the open access licence prior to publication.

For any questions regarding copyright, licensing, or permissions, contact the editorial office at editorinchief@thedyke.msu.ac.zw.