ETHICS AND MALPRACTICE STATEMENT

To ensure the highest standards of publication ethics and prevent ethical misconduct, the authors are expected to read and understand our Ethics policy before making submissions to our Journals. The intent of our Ethics policy is to detail the roles and responsibilities of our authors, editors, and reviewers so as to maintain the scholarly integrity of the journal.

Our publication ethics and malpractice statement draws on the guidelines for journals developed by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Responsibilities of the ‘Authors’

The authors need to ensure the following:

1. The Article submitted is an original work that is fully referenced and does not infringe the intellectual property rights of any other person or entity and cannot be considered as plagiarizing any other published work.

2. Openly disclose the source of all data and third party material, including previously unpublished work by the authors themselves. Anything that could compromise the originality of the submission should be expressly avoided and/or discussed with the editorial office in the first instance. Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes unethical publishing behaviour and is unacceptable.

3. Anyone who has made a significant contribution to the article has been listed as an author. Minor contributors have been noted in the Acknowledgements section.

4. Provide accurate contact details for a designated corresponding author, who shall be deemed by the publisher and editor as fully responsible for the authorship of the paper and all communications concerning the ethical status and originality of the paper.

5. The corresponding author is required to ensure that all co-authors are included in the paper, and that the co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.

6. Necessary written permission has been obtained in respect of third party material from the appropriate copyright owner or authorities for the reproduction in the Article and in the Journal of any text, illustration or other material.

7. Declare any potential conflict of interest in the research that might be construed to influence the results or their interpretation in the manuscript or if publication were to benefit a company or services in which the author(s) has a vested interest. This can be done by including a statement to that effect in the manuscript.

8. Any support from a third party has been noted in the Acknowledgements.

9. All sources of financial support for the work should be disclosed (including the grant number or other reference number if any).

10. Sign a copyright form on acceptance of their work, which will assume that the Corresponding author is empowered to assign copyright to the publisher.

11. Correspond and fully comply with the editor and publisher in any requests for source data, proof of authorship or originality in a timely manner.

12. The Article is not currently under submission to, or consideration by, any other journal or publication, and has not been published before in its current or a substantially similar form.

13. Upon discovery of any significant error in the published work, it is the responsibility of the authors to promptly notify the editors and cooperate in the retraction or correction of the paper.

Responsibilities of the ‘Editors’

The editor/s need to ensure the following:

1. Maintain and enhance the reputation of the journals by accepting and publishing original work of the highest quality and relevance.

2. Objective and confidential peer review process of articles that pass the initial quality check and editorial assessment.

3. Fair editorial evaluation whereby evaluation of manuscripts is based on their scholarly content, relevance and contribution to literature, without having any regard to gender, race, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors.

4. Provide a transparent review and publication process as far as is possible, with full respect and care paid to the author(s).

5. Provide reasonable explanation and updates to authors while their paper is submitted and once a decision has been made.

6. Make sure that there is no conflict of interest with respect to the articles they accept/reject.

7. Maintain confidentiality about a submitted manuscript by not disclosing any information about the manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers and the publisher.

8. Publish corrections when necessary, as well as retract articles that the editor deems unethical, misleading or damaging.

9. Remain in good communication with both the publisher and the author(s).

Responsibilities of the ‘Reviewers’

The reviewers need to ensure the following:

1. Maintain absolute confidentiality with regard to the content of the manuscripts and keep their identity hidden from authors.

2. Review submitted work in an objective, responsible, impartial and timely manner.

3. Ensure that there is no conflict of interest with the authors and the subject matter of the research.

4. Substantial similarities between submitted manuscripts and other published works of which the reviewer is aware, or any other suspected ethical misconduct to be reported to the editor.

5. Provide ‘follow up’ advice to the editor(s), if requested.

6. Unpublished material disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in a reviewer’s own research without the express written consent of the authors.

Responsibilities of ‘Publisher- Journal Press India’

Journal Press India would ensure the following:

1. Publishing content of the highest quality and relevance in a timely and responsible manner.

2. Provide detailed information concerning our publication ethics on its website.

3. Use plagiarism detection software when necessary for any submission to the journal at any stage of the submissions and publication process.

4. Provide detailed instructions to authors for submission to the journal, outlining referencing style, formatting, and submission process.

5. Investigate thoroughly any suggestion of ethical misconduct detected during any stage of the submissions process including redundant publication and plagiarism.

6. Wherever necessary such as in the case of proven scientific misconduct or fraudulent publication, the publisher in conjunction with the editors shall take all appropriate measures to rectify the situation such as publish corrigenda and retract the affected work in a timely and responsible fashion.

7. Remain in good communication with editors, authors and reviewers.