Publications Ethics and Statement on Prevention of Malpractice

The Journal is a monthly, open access, peer-reviewed journal. All persons involved in the working of the journal in one capacity are expected to follow proper ethical procedures and malpractice.

Decision on Acceptance/ Rejecting of Manuscripts: The decision to either accept or reject the manuscript depends on the decision of the editor-in-chief and co-editor, who are guided by the policies of the journal's editorial board and constrained by legal requirements such as force regarding label, copyright infringement and plagiarism. All manuscripts are initially screened by our licensed plagiarism software (Plagiarism Checker X). Users are duly notified by e-mail regarding the status of their manuscript and can check themselves on the online journal management system from time-to time. 

However, sending the manuscript for peer-review does not guarantee acceptance. The peer-reviewers’ comments and revision by authors play an important role in acceptance of the manuscript. 

Time taken for editorial decision: Since inception, it has been a policy of journal to provide speedy editorial decision without compromising on the quality of the journal. Normally, the decision takes around 48 to 72 hours in fastrack sumission and 10 to 14 days in regular submission, but can be extended in exceptional circumstances (Unavailability of internet services, natural calamity, high number of  manuscripts submitted etc.) beyond the control of the editorial board. 

Fair, unbiased decision: The editor-in-chief, editorial board and the technical team at journal evaluate manuscripts for their intellectual content without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors.

Confidentiality: The editor, editorial staff and technical team do not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers and the publisher.

Disclosure and conflicts of interest: Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in an editor's own research without the express written consent of the author.

 

Duties of Reviewer
Contribution to Editorial Decisions: To evaluate the manuscripts submitted for content and quality for publishing in journal and to aid the editor in decision making for acceptance of the manuscript.

Promptness: The assigned reviewer should be prompt in express willingness to be able to review or inability to review the manuscript within three working days of a manuscript being assigned to him/her by the editor.

Confidentiality: Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shown to or discussed with others except as authorized by the editor.

Standards of Objectivity: Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Referees should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.

Acknowledgement of Sources: Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. Any statement that an observation, derivation, or argument had been previously reported should be accompanied by the relevant citation. It is the duty of the reviewer to bring to the editor's attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.

Disclosure and Conflict of Interest: Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.

Duties of Authors
Reporting standards: Authors of reports of original research should present an accurate and unmanipulated account of the work performed as well as should provide an objective discussion of its significance. A manuscript should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements that constitute unethical behavior are unacceptable and can lead to rejection of the manuscript, even after acceptance and withdrawal after publication. 

Data Access and Retention: The editor reserves the right to ask the authors to provide raw data in connection with the manuscript for editorial review, to check authenticity of the manuscript and upon request of the reviewer to cross-check the data. The data hence, should be prepared to provide public access to such data (consistent with the ALPSP-STM Statement on Data and Databases), if practicable, it should be prepared to retain such data for a reasonable time after publication. 

Originality and Plagiarism of Research: The authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works, and if the authors have used the work and/or words of others then it should be appropriately cited or quoted. Plagiarized manuscripts are duly rejected and for each manuscript, a Plagiarism report is generated by the editor, which is sent to the reviewers as a supporting document.  

Multiple, Redundant or Concurrent Publication: An author should not in general publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal or primary publication. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable and can lead to the author being blacklisted or banned from publishing in the journal. 

Acknowledgement of Sources: Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given. Authors should cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work. 

Authorship of the Paper: Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. Other authors who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the research project, they should be acknowledged or listed as contributors.

The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are included on the paper, and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication. 

Authors are requested to not provide any guest authorship as it degrades the quality of research published in the journal. 

Hazards and Human or Animal Subjects: If the work involves chemicals, procedures or equipment that have any unusual hazards inherent in their use, the author must clearly identify and mention these in the manuscript. 

Ethical clearance and patient consent: Studies that require ethical clearance must obtain a prior approval from an ethical committee. All intervention/experimental studies must explain the subjects of the potential benefits and risks of the study and preferably, a written consent should be obtained. journal reserves the right to ask for any documents pertaining to the same for authentication of facts provided in the submitted manuscript. 

Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest: All authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed. 

Fundamental errors in published works: When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper. 

Timely communications: Authors are request to reply to mails sent by the editor in a timely manner as it affects the entire publishing processes. Additional information if required, should be promptly provided. 

Due to a delay in providing the necessary data, it is possible that the manuscript could be placed on hold and miss the publishing deadline for that specific month, and be published in the next month.