1. Open Access Commitment

The Media Discourse and Society - Virtual University of Pakistan is an open-access journal. It is committed to promoting the free and responsible dissemination of academic knowledge. To support open access principles and ensure wide visibility of published research, all content in the journal is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution: Non-commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) International License.

2. Creative Commons License – CC BY-NC 4.0

Under this license, authors retain full copyright of their work, while allowing others to:

• Share – copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format.

• Adapt – remix, transform, and build upon the material.

This is permitted provided the following conditions are met:

• Attribution (BY): Proper credit must be given to the original author(s), a link to the license must be provided, and any changes made must be indicated clearly.

• Non-commercial (NC): The material may not be used for commercial purposes.

This licensing framework enables broader academic collaboration and encourages the ethical reuse of scholarly content for teaching, learning, and further research, without financial or legal barriers.

3. Key Restriction on Republication

While the CC BY-NC license permits sharing and adaptation, the verbatim republication of the journal's version of record in another venue (e.g., another journal, repository, or website) is not permitted.

4. Content Integrity and Responsibility

All published articles undergo a rigorous peer-review process and are evaluated for academic quality, originality, and relevance. The views expressed in the articles are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position or policies of the Virtual University of Pakistan.

Authors are responsible for ensuring that their submissions:

• Are original and free from plagiarism.

• Adhere to ethical research and reporting standards.

• Have not been previously published or are under consideration elsewhere.

• Include proper citation of all referenced sources.

5. Author Agreement and Grant of Rights

By submitting to the journal, authors agree to the terms of the CC BY-NC 4.0 license and grant the Virtual University of Pakistan the non-exclusive right to publish, archive, and distribute their work in print and digital formats.

6. Access and Archiving

The journal follows an immediate open-access policy. All articles are freely available to read, download, and share online immediately upon publication, in accordance with the terms of the CC BY-NC 4.0 license. The journal is committed to the long-term digital preservation of its content.