The Preventive Care in Nursing and Midwifery Journal (PCNM), published by Zanjan University of Medical Sciences (ZUMS), operates as a Diamond/Platinum Open Access journal, upholding the highest principles of equitable access to knowledge. Our model ensures that:

• No Article Processing Charges (APCs): The journal charges no fees of any kind, no submission fees, processing fees, page charges, or publication fees—to authors. This ensures that all researchers, regardless of institutional affiliation or funding, can publish their work without financial barriers.

• Immediate Open Access: All published articles are made immediately and permanently freely available worldwide upon publication.

• Sustainable Funding: The full cost of publishing operations, including editorial management, peer review, production, hosting, and archiving, is sustainably covered by our publisher, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences.

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Funding Sources & Transparency

To maintain full transparency, our funding structure is as follows:

• Primary Funding: Zanjan University of Medical Sciences (ZUMS) provides the core institutional funding that covers all operational and publishing costs.

• Grants and Donations: PCNM may accept grants or donations from non-profit organizations or government agencies that support the mission of open-access scholarly communication. All such funding is accepted only under the strict condition that it does not influence editorial independence, content selection, or the peer review process. Acknowledgement of such support is published transparently.

• Author Funding Disclosure: Authors are required to declare all sources of financial support for their research in the ‘Funding Statement’ section of their manuscript. This is mandatory for transparency and conflict of interest management.

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Advertising, Sponsorship, and Commercial Support

PCNM maintains a strict policy to safeguard its editorial independence:

• No Commercial Advertising: The journal does not host or display any form of commercial advertising, sponsored content, or promotional material.

• Sponsored Supplements or Special Issues: Proposals for supplements or special issues that receive external funding require explicit written approval from the Editor-in-Chief and the editorial board. Such projects will only be considered if they undergo the journal's full standard peer-review process, and the source of funding will be explicitly stated. This practice aligns with COPE Guidelines on Sponsorship.

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Copyright and Licensing

• Author Rights: Upon acceptance, authors retain copyright to their work. Authors grant PCNM an exclusive license to publish the article and identify itself as the original publisher.

• Licensing: All articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license.

• Self-Archiving Policy: Authors are encouraged to self-archive the pre-print (submitted version) and post-print (accepted manuscript) of their article in institutional or subject-based repositories without any embargo period, with a link to the final published version.

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Commitment to International Standards

As a journal dedicated to the highest ethical standards, PCNM’s financial and transparency policies are rigorously developed in alignment with leading international frameworks and best practices. While PCNM is currently indexed in its primary databases, our editorial and financial policies are designed to meet the stringent criteria for transparency and ethical publishing as outlined by:

• Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE): We adhere to all COPE principles, particularly those concerning transparency and ethical funding.

• World Association of Medical Editors (WAME): We follow WAME recommendations  on financial relationships and editorial independence.

• Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ): Our policies conform to DOAJ's best practices for open access publishing.
  We are continuously working to align our practices with the requirements of major indexing services such as Scopus  and PubMed/MEDLINE as part of our long-term development strategy.

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Transparency and Integrity Statements

• Financial Disclosure: A summary of revenue sources and major expenditures is made available to ensure full financial transparency.

• Editorial Independence: The Editor-in-Chief and the editorial board have full authority over all editorial content. Our publisher, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, provides financial support without any influence over the selection, processing, or evaluation of manuscripts. This principle is inviolable.

• Fee Waivers: A waiver policy is not applicable as the journal is entirely free for authors and readers.