The SMR is an scholar-led open-access journal, meaning all content is accessible immediately after publication free of charge. From 2025, SMR is published as a Diamond Open Access journal, neither readers nor authors pay any fees, with production costs covered through institutional co-funding.

For all articles published from 2026 onwards, authors retain copyright and content can be reused unrestrictedly under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY) 4.0, which permits use and distribution in any medium provided appropriate credit is given. Preprints, postprints, authors' accepted manuscripts, and the version of record can be deposited without restrictions.

The transition of SMR to Diamond Open Access is supported and funded by ZBW, Leibniz Information Centre for Economics through its Open Library Economics (OLEcon) initiative. More information on ZBW and OLEcon can be found here: https://olecon.zbw.eu/en/home