Food Systems, Safety & Sustainability (FSSS) is a fully open-access scholarly journal. All published articles are made freely available online immediately upon publication, without subscription charges, mandatory registration, paywalls, or embargo periods. The journal supports unrestricted access to scholarly knowledge and its responsible dissemination and reuse in accordance with applicable open-access licences.

FSSS follows the gold open-access publishing model. Readers may access, read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, link to, and reuse published articles in accordance with the applicable licence. The journal seeks to facilitate the dissemination of research across academic, professional, governmental, educational, and public settings, without imposing financial barriers on readers.

Open-Access Licence

Unless otherwise expressly indicated, articles published in FSSS are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY 4.0). This licence permits broad access, sharing, adaptation, and reuse of published scholarly material, including commercial reuse, subject to the conditions of attribution and the other terms of the licence.

Under CC BY 4.0, users may:

• Copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format.
• Adapt, remix, transform, translate, and build upon the material.
• Reuse the material for academic, educational, professional, commercial, and other purposes permitted by law.
• Deposit, distribute, and share the published Version of Record through repositories, websites, databases, and other platforms.

When reusing material under this licence, users must comply with the applicable attribution conditions, including:

• Giving appropriate credit to the author or authors, retaining relevant attribution and copyright notices, and identifying the original source as required by the licence.
• Providing a link or reference to the applicable Creative Commons licence.
• Indicating whether modifications, adaptations, or other changes have been made.
• Avoiding any suggestion that the original authors, journal, editors, or publisher endorse the reuse or adaptation without their permission.

Licence information: The full terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence are available at Creative Commons CC BY 4.0. The licence terms govern permitted reuse of material covered by the licence. Third-party material identified as excluded from the article's licence remains subject to its own applicable rights and permissions.

Copyright and Publication Rights

Authors retain copyright in their original scholarly work published in FSSS. The journal does not require authors to transfer copyright ownership to the publisher as a condition of publication.

For manuscripts accepted for publication, authors grant FSSS and its publisher, Panorama Scholarly Group, the non-exclusive rights necessary to publish, reproduce, distribute, identify, preserve, and make the authoritative published version, or Version of Record, publicly accessible in accordance with the applicable publication agreement and open-access licence.

Authors may continue to exercise their copyright and reuse or distribute their own work, subject to any applicable third-party rights, contractual obligations, and licensing conditions. The allocation of copyright ownership, publication rights, and licensing responsibilities is further governed by the journal's Copyright and Licensing Policy.

Immediate Access and Long-Term Availability

The published Version of Record is made openly accessible immediately upon publication. FSSS does not impose an embargo period or require readers to pay subscription or access fees to consult published articles.

The journal is committed to maintaining the long-term accessibility, integrity, and discoverability of its scholarly content. Published articles are intended to remain accessible through the journal's official website and its applicable digital preservation and archiving arrangements.

Details of the journal's preservation arrangements, archival responsibilities, and long-term access practices are addressed separately in its Archiving and Preservation Policy. Open-access availability and successful deposit in a specific preservation service should be distinguished when describing the preservation status of individual articles.

Author Sharing and Repository Deposit

Authors may share and deposit their published Version of Record in institutional repositories, disciplinary repositories, personal academic websites, research profiles, funding-agency repositories, and other lawful platforms without a journal-imposed embargo, provided that the terms of the applicable licence and any separate third-party rights are respected.

When sharing or depositing a published article, authors are encouraged to provide sufficient bibliographic and licensing information to identify the authoritative publication. This information may include:

• The complete article title and author information.
• The journal title and full bibliographic citation.
• The digital object identifier (DOI), where one has been assigned.
• The publisher and original publication details.
• The applicable Creative Commons licence and a link to its terms.

Authors may also share links to the official article page to support accurate citation, identification of the Version of Record, and access to associated corrections, updates, or supplementary materials where applicable.

Third-Party Material

Articles may contain material originating from third parties, including images, photographs, figures, tables, maps, datasets, measurement instruments, illustrations, or other protected content. Such material is not necessarily covered by the article's Creative Commons licence.

Authors are responsible for identifying third-party material, obtaining any permissions required for its inclusion and publication, and providing appropriate attribution and rights information. Where particular material is excluded from the article's open-access licence, that exclusion should be clearly indicated in the relevant credit line or accompanying documentation.

Users wishing to reproduce, adapt, or redistribute excluded third-party material must determine whether their intended use is otherwise authorised by law or by the material's separate licence. Where necessary, permission must be obtained from the relevant rights holder.

Article Processing Charges

Open access ensures that readers are not charged to access published scholarly content. Any fees applicable to authors or their institutions are distinct from reader access charges.

Where an Article Processing Charge (APC) or another author-side publication fee applies, the applicable amount, payment conditions, waiver arrangements, and exemptions are specified separately on the journal website. Authors should consult the journal's current Article Processing Charges policy before submitting a manuscript.

Payment of an APC does not guarantee manuscript acceptance and must not influence editorial assessment, peer review, or publication decisions. Such decisions are based on scholarly quality, originality, methodological soundness, research integrity, relevance to the journal's aims and scope, and compliance with applicable editorial policies.

Access, Attribution, and Responsible Reuse

FSSS supports the broad dissemination, accessibility, and responsible reuse of scholarly knowledge. Its open-access policy is intended to facilitate scientific communication, education, interdisciplinary collaboration, evidence-informed policymaking, and the practical application of research concerning food systems, food safety, and sustainability.

Reuse of published material should respect research integrity, accurate attribution, transparency, and applicable legal requirements. Plagiarism, falsification, misleading attribution, and misrepresentation of scientific findings may raise ethical or legal concerns independently of whether the underlying material is available under an open-access licence.

Open-access principle: FSSS permits access to and reuse of its published scholarly content under the applicable open-access licence. Copyright ownership, third-party rights, publication ethics, research integrity, and any legal obligations remain governed by their respective policies and applicable law. Users should consult the licence information accompanying each article to determine the conditions governing its reuse.