Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

Editors Responsibilities

Publication Decisions: The editors are responsible for making decisions on a manuscript including acceptance, rejections, or modifications. In some instances, the editors may require multiple rounds of reviews and modifications. The editors should communicate review results within the timeframe and should always be ready to work on corrections, clarifications, retractions to maintain the integrity of the academic record.

Fair Review Process: The editor's decision to accept or reject a paper for publication should be based only on the paper’s importance, originality, clarity, and study relevance to the journal. The editor must ensure that each manuscript submitted to the journal is reviewed for its intellectual content without regard to the authors’ race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy. The decisions will be based on the paper's importance, originality, clarity, and relevance to the journal's scope.

Confidentiality: The editor and editorial staff always ensure that information regarding manuscripts submitted by the authors is kept confidential.

Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest: The editor and members of the editorial board of the journal should contact the journal coordinator in case of any personal and professional conflicts. They should not use unpublished material disclosed in a submitted manuscript for his/her own research without the author’s explicit written consent.

Quality of published content: Editors should take all reasonable steps to ensure the quality of the material they publish, recognizing the journal and sections within journals with different aims and standards. Editors should not reverse their given decisions unless some serious problems are identified with the submission.

For more details about editor’s roles & responsibilities, kindly visit Editors Guidelines.

Authors Responsibilities

Authors must follow the submission guidelines of the journal and should follow the below mentioned rules & regulations:

All authors have to contribute significantly to the research and statements of all data in the articles and should ensure it as their real and authentic data. Authors must certify that the manuscript has not previously been published elsewhere. Authors should appropriately cite or quote the work and words of others. Authors sign a declaration stating that the manuscript and the illustrations within the paper are original, or that he/she has taken all necessary steps to avoid breach of copyright.

Authors must certify that the manuscript is not currently being considered for publication somewhere else. Submitting the same paper to more than one journal is very unethical publishing practice. All authors mentioned in the paper must have significantly contributed to the research. The author submitting the manuscript to the journal ensures that all contributing co-authors and no uninvolved person(s) are included in the author list.

Authors must notify the editors if have any conflicts of interest that may be construed to influence the manuscript. Authors are obliged to provide retractions or corrections of mistakes at any point in time if the author(s) discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in the submitted manuscript.

For more details about authors instructions, roles & responsibilities, kindly visit our Authors Guidelines.

Reviewers Responsibilities

Confidentiality: Reviewers must keep all manuscripts received for reviewing as confidential. Any manuscripts received for review are confidential documents and must be treated as such, they must not be shown to or discussed with others.

Objectives and Standards: Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate.

Conflicts of Interest: Reviewers should not review manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, and other relationships or connections with any of the authors, associated institutions, and companies with the paper(s).

Promptness: in the event that a reviewer feels it is not possible for his/her to complete the review of the manuscript within the stipulated time he/she should notify the editor in a timely manner and withdraw from the review process.

Acknowledgment of Sources: Reviewers must ensure that authors have cited all relevant published work referred to the paper in the endnotes and bibliography. Reviewers will bring to the editors’ attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript and any other published or unpublished content. Authors should not use information obtained in the course of providing confidential services, such as refereeing manuscripts or grant applications unless they have obtained the explicit written permission of the author(s) of the work involved in the review.

Review evaluation: Reviewers evaluate manuscripts based on content without regard to the authors’ race, age, gender, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, disability, religious belief, citizenship, political orientation, or social class.

Publisher Responsibilities

Publishers should provide training & support to the editor and executive editorial board, so they can follow the COPE Code of conduct for Journal and ensure the autonomy of editorial decisions and protect intellectual property copyright.
Always be willing to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions, and apologies when needed.
Maintain the integrity of the academic record and preclude business needs from compromising intellectual and ethical standards.
Committed to the permanent availability and preservation of scholarly research and ensures accessibility by partnering with organizations and maintaining our own digital archives CLOCKS.
Ensure that good practice is maintained to the standards defined above.

We follow the latest Core Practice Guidelines for Editors, Reviewers, Authors, and Publishers as outlined by the COPE.