How JoST works.

JoST is a diamond open-access journal. Nobody pays. There are no subscriptions, no article processing charges, no submission fees, and no paywalls.

Anyone can read and download every paper without an account. An account is only needed to rate papers, write peer reviews, or submit work.

JoST is published by the Academy of Systems Thinking (AST), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. JoST is a journal of AST. ISSN 2767-3847.

JoST holds the copyright to the papers it publishes. Papers are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

In plain terms, that license means:

• Anyone may read, download, copy, and share a paper in any medium.
• Anyone who shares it must credit the authors and JoST and link to the license.
• No one may use the paper for commercial purposes.
• No one may share a changed or adapted version of the paper.

Quoting short passages with a citation is normal scholarly use and needs no permission.

JoST uses post-publication peer review. A paper is published once it meets the journal's clear, public submission standards. Peer review then happens in the open, on the published paper.

Before publication, two to three editors check every submission against the published standards. They classify the paper by type: it is published as empirical research only if it reports an observation and a sample, theory, conceptual and methods papers are held to the gate for their type, and opinion is published only as an invited editorial, not as research. They also check originality, plagiarism, sources, conflicts of interest, and ethics.

The standards decide. Editors don't. Editors run the process and check that each submission follows the rules. They do not judge the content, hand-pick favorites, or veto a paper because they dislike it. If an editor returns a submission, it is because a written standard was not met, and the reason is given.

Peer reviews at JoST are public and attributed. Each review carries the reviewer's name and verified ORCID iD.

• Reviewers apply for a reviewer account, and an editor approves it.
• Reviewers rate a paper overall and on soundness, evidence, clarity, and transparency, and write a review explaining their assessment.
• Reviewers must disclose any conflict of interest. The disclosure appears with the review.
• An editor checks each review for relevance and conduct before it is posted. Editors do not change a reviewer's assessment.
• Authors cannot review or rate their own papers.
• A reviewer who reviews a paper cannot also give it a reader rating, so each person's view counts once.

Any signed-in reader can rate a paper once. A reader can change their rating later.

Star ratings count right away. Written comments appear after an editor checks that they are about the paper and follow the conduct rules. Comments that are off-topic, abusive, or personal are not posted.

Authors can respond publicly to any peer review of their paper. The response appears directly under the review.

Authors can also submit a revised version from their profile. A revision includes a new Word file, a new PDF, and a short public note on what changed. An editor checks the revision before it goes live.

Every earlier version stays readable. Each review shows which version it reviewed, so readers can follow the whole conversation and not just the final paper.

• Every submission needs two files: a Word file (.docx) and a PDF.
• The Word file becomes the web-readable version of the paper. Equations written in LaTeX inside the Word file are displayed as typeset math.
• The PDF is the official downloadable version.
• Authors who submit work, and reviewers, need a verified ORCID iD connected to their JoST account.

Authors must submit original work, cite their sources, and disclose conflicts of interest and funding. Editors may check submissions for plagiarism. Work that breaks these rules may be returned before publication or retracted after it.

Use of AI tools. Authors must disclose any substantial use of AI tools in writing the paper or in analyzing data. AI tools cannot be listed as authors, because they cannot take responsibility for the work. Reviewers must not upload unpublished manuscripts to AI tools.

JoST does not delete the record. There are no secret rejections and no anonymous retractions.

If a paper is retracted, it stays public with a dated retraction notice and the reason for the retraction. Corrections are published as new versions of the paper, and earlier versions stay readable.

JoST registers a DOI (Digital Object Identifier) for each published paper with Crossref, under the prefix 10.54120. A DOI is a permanent link that keeps working even if the journal's web address changes.

Each paper's page includes the information that scholarly search engines and indexes use to list it.

JoST stores its papers and files on its own infrastructure, hosted by Cloudflare, and registers their DOIs with Crossref.

The Academy of Systems Thinking (AST), JoST's publisher, archives every published paper, its files and its reviews separately from the journal's website, so the record survives independently of it.

Editorial decisions follow the published standards and are not influenced by the publisher, funders, or the identity of authors.

Authors, reviewers, and readers can raise a complaint or appeal a decision by writing to the editors at hub@jost.science. Please include the paper's title or DOI and explain the concern. The editors will respond and, where a decision is changed, the change will be recorded openly.

Journal of Systems Thinking (JoST), published by the Academy of Systems Thinking (AST). The Academy of Systems Thinking (AST) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to advancing and protecting the science and practice of systems thinking.

Email: hub@jost.science