Publication Ethics
(Last Updated : 24-Sept-2021)
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System; managing manuscript submission and reviewing system for scholarly
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& adhoc charges. The facilities are extended to other publishers
also, who wish to do their editorial process through this platform.
The publication of an article in a peer-reviewed
journal is a direct reflection of the quality of the work of the authors and
the institutions that support them. Peer-reviewed articles support and embody
the scientific method. The publishing process involves Authors,
Editors, and Reviewers as Users of this Online Editorial Management
System. Each one of them plays an important role with a defined
responsibility to meet ethical standards at each stage of their involvement
during the finalization process of the paper.
The Editors and the publishers of the journal, take
its duties of guardianship over all stages of publishing extremely seriously
and they recognize the ethical and other responsibilities. We are
committed to ensuring that advertising, reprint or other commercial income has
no impact or influence on editorial decisions.
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for offline publishers along with an option to go online in the future.
General duties and responsibilities of Editors
- Editors will adhere to the following
guidelines to the best of their abilities:
- Strive to meet the needs of readers
and authors;
- Strive to constantly improve their journal;
- Have processes in place to assure the quality of the material
they publish;
- Champion freedom of expression;
- Maintain the integrity of the academic record;
- Preclude business needs from compromising intellectual and
ethical standards;
- Always be willing to publish corrections, clarifications,
retractions and apologies when needed.
Best Practice for
Editors includes:
- Actively seeking the views of authors, readers, reviewers and
editorial board members about ways of improving their journal's processes
- Encouraging and being aware of research into peer review and
publishing and reassessing their journal's processes in the light of new
findings
- Working to persuade their publisher to provide appropriate
resources, guidance from experts (e.g. designers, lawyers)
- Supporting initiatives designed to reduce research and
publication misconduct
- Supporting initiatives to educate researchers about
publication ethics
- Reviewing author instructions regularly and providing links
to relevant guidelines
- Ensuring that appropriate reviewers are selected for
submissions (i.e. individuals who are able to judge the work and are free from
disqualifying competing interests)
- Being guided by the COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) flowcharts
(http://publicationethics.org/flowcharts) in cases of suspected misconduct or
disputed authorship
- Publishing details of how they handle cases of suspected
misconduct e.g. with links to the COPE (Flowcharts)
- Publishing submission and acceptance dates for articles
Relations with Authors
- Editors decisions to accept or reject a paper for publication
should be based on the papers importance, originality, and clarity, and the
study's validity and its relevance to the remit of the journal.
- Editors should not reverse decisions to accept submissions
unless serious problems are identified with the submission.
- New editors should not overturn decisions to publish
submissions made by the previous editor unless serious problems are identified.
- A description of peer review processes should be published,
and editors should be ready to justify any important deviation from the
described processes.
- Editors should publish guidance to authors on everything that
is expected of them. This guidance should be regularly updated.
- Editors should provide guidance about criteria for authorship
and/or who should be listed as a contributor following the standards within the
relevant field.
Editorial Procedure
and Peer-review
Initial Checks
- All the submitted manuscripts will be checked by an
experienced editor to determine whether the submitted manuscript is properly
prepared and whether they follow the ethical policies of the journal and
contain all the necessary disclosures.
- All the submitted manuscripts will be checked for the
correctness of the references. The incomplete, inappropriate, or
vague/misleading references may lead to desk rejection.
- All the submitted articles will be checked for the English
language at this stage and authors may be asked for language editing by any
native or professional English language editor.
- The submitted articles will be screened for plagiarism as per
norms.
- Manuscripts that are not properly prepared will be returned
to the authors for revision and resubmission.
- Manuscripts with insufficient originality, serious scientific
or technical flaws, or lack of a significant message, or if not prepared as per
journals instructions are rejected without a formal peer-review.
Peer-Review
The
manuscript that passes the initial check/desk review, is subjected to
double-blinded peer-review. The manuscript will be reviewed by a minimum of two
suitable experts (whose identities will remain anonymous to the authors) in the
respective subject area. All articles reviewed earlier were done under the
Single-Blind policy.
As per the
double-blind policy, the identity of authors is not known to the reviewers and
vice-versa. To ensure that no author information is shared with the reviewer’s,
our editorial team does an initial assessment of the manuscript to make sure
that all the author details are removed from the manuscript before sending the
same to reviewers.
We believe
this will further help the peer-review process by reducing the chances of bias.
We expect our reviewers not to discriminate and make decisions that may be
based on the origins of the manuscript, including the nationality, ethnicity,
political beliefs, race, or religion of the authors. The review should also not
be affected by a potential conflict of interest with the authors.
Total
anonymity (though not guaranteed) encourages non-discriminatory and healthy
peer-review.
Relations
with Reviewers
Editors should provide guidance to
reviewers on everything that is expected of them including the need to handle
submitted material in confidence. This guidance should be regularly updated and
should refer or link to this code.
Editors should require reviewers to
disclose any potential competing interests before agreeing to review a submission.
Editors should have systems to
ensure that peer reviewers’ identities are protected unless they use an open
review system that is declared to authors and reviewers.
Duties of
Authors
Reporting standards: Authors of the original research article
must present the accurate data of work performed during their research. Authors
are also expected to discuss the objective of their work and the significance
of their results. An article should contain the sufficient information and
references to ensure the reproducibility of the work. Fraudulent or knowingly
inaccurate statements considered as unethical behavior and are unacceptable.
Data Access and Retention: Authors may be asked to provide the
raw/supplementary data for a paper that is under editorial review. The authors
should be prepared to provide the public access to these data (if practicable)
and to retain such data for a reasonable time after the publication.
Multiple Publications &
Dual submission: An author should not publish
manuscripts that describe the same concept or present the similar data, in more
than one journal. In addition, an article should not be submitted to two or
more journals simultaneously. Submitting the same manuscript to multiple
journals constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.
Acknowledgement of Sources: Authors should provide the proper
acknowledgment for the work of others. Authors should cite publications that
have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work.
Authorship of the Paper and
corresponding author: Only the
contributors who have made a significant contribution in the conception,
design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study should be titled as
author. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as
co-authors. Corresponding author is the author responsible for communicating
with the journal for publication. The corresponding author should ensure that
no inappropriate contributors are listed as co-authors in the paper. All the
co-authors should check the final draft of the manuscript before submitting it
to the journal.
Acknowledgment of Funding
Sources: All the funding sources must be
properly acknowledged.
Disclosure and Conflicts of
Interest: All the authors should disclose the
possible financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might be
influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript.
Fundamental errors in
published works: When an author discovers a
significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, he should
promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor
to retract or correct the paper.
Duties of the Publisher
The publisher is supposed to protect
the intellectual property and copyright of the contents submitted by the
authors. We respect the privacy and personal data, especially for authors and
peer reviewers. We work in close co-operation with the editors and peer
reviewers in to maintain the editorial independence, and to guarantee
transparency and integrity in peer-review process.
In cases of alleged or proven
scientific misconduct, fraudulent publication or plagiarism the publisher, in
close collaboration with the editors, will take all appropriate measures to
clarify the situation and to amend the article in question.
Plagiarism and Academic
Misconduct
It is the responsibility of the
author that likewise published data, unpublished data must be properly credited
and the appropriate permission has been sought. In the case of license data, authors
must submit a written assurance that they have signed the data-licensing
agreement with its owner.
Plagiarism can also occur
accidentally when an author does not intend to plagiarize but fails to cite his
or her sources correctly and completely. Being careful and having a clear
understanding of ethical writing can help to prevent this.
Originality and Plagiarism: Authors should ensure the
originality of their contents, while preparing a manuscript draft. In case the
authors have used the work and/or words of others this must be appropriately
cited or quoted. All the articles submitted to journal shall be screened for
plagiarism (online plagiarism detection software). In case, plagiarism is
detected during review/editorial process, such manuscript(s) will be rejected
immediately and we can also consider other steps depending upon the seriousness
of the case.
If the plagiarism is proven after
publication, such manuscript(s) will be removed from our website and
appropriate announcement will be placed in this regard.
Copyright and Licensing
According to the laws of the United
States (title 17, U.S. Code), copyright is a form of protection given to the publishers
and authors of “original works of authorship”, including literary, dramatic,
musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works. This protection is
available to both published and unpublished works. This law gives the owner of
copyright the exclusive right to do and to authorize others to publish,
reproduce, sell, distribute or modify their work.
Copyright Infringement occurs when a
copyrighted work is reproduced, distributed, publicly displayed, or made into a
derivative work without the permission of the copyright owner. An exception to
copyright infringement falls under the doctrine of “Fair Use” of copyright law
and generally represents instances in which the activity is largely for non-profit
educational, scholarship, or research purposes.
The safest way is always to get
permission from the copyright owner before using copyrighted material. When it
seems to be impracticable to obtain permission, use of copyrighted material
should be avoided unless the doctrine of “Fair Use” would clearly apply to the
situation.
It is the responsibility of the
authors of their scientific contents of the papers submitted for publication.
However, after publication of the papers, the publishers hold the copyright.
Conflict of Interest and Funding
Acknowledgement
The author(s) should certify that
all authors of the Manuscript have no commercial associations (e.g.,
consultancies, stock ownership, equity interests, patent-licensing
arrangements, etc.) that might pose a conflict of interest in connection with
the submitted Manuscript, except as disclosed on a separate attachment. All
funding sources supporting the work and all institutional or corporate
affiliations should be acknowledged in a footnote.