Editorial Policies
1. Plagiarism
Plagiarism checking is done through CrossCheck powered by Ithenticate now Turnitin. Plagiarized manuscripts are desk rejected and are supplied with the report for their reference. Self-plagiarism is also considered seriously, however, if an abstract has been published and the author wants to publish a full paper now, they may do so by providing prior information. Articles archived in pre-print servers or blogs may be submitted, with clear information about the same.
2. Copyright permissions
Authors should obtain copyright permissions wherever required adhering to the license under which that material is published. Clear referencing of original source is required. Failing to do so i.e., if still the non-permitted content is retained in your paper or if no proper reference to the original work or both, will lead to the rejection of your manuscript.
3. Authorship
Authors with the below criteria are considered eligible to publish with us.
Qualifications: Ph.D., MD, MSW/ MPH, Masters, or any equivalent research-based qualification or position.
Affiliations: Authors should be affiliated with any university or organization with a formal appointment.
Independent researchers: Should have significant publishing history.
4. Author Contributions
Author contributions should be listed clearly in the cover letter. Authorship should be defined as per the IJCMJE and COPE guidelines (point 6. Appropriate authorship and acknowledgment) as given in the below links
http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html
https://publicationethics.org/files/International%20standards_authors_for%20website_11_Nov_2011.pdf
Changes in author names: Changes like a change of order of author names, inclusion or exclusion of any of the authors after acceptance/publication should be stated in writing with consent from with appropriate reason, all authors including the author who is subject to change or withdrawal or inclusion. Failing to do so will not result in any change and the paper will be published as is.
5. Conflicts of interest
Conflicts both financial and non-financial related details are to be reported in this section of the manuscript. More at
http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/author-responsibilities--conflicts-of-interest.html
6. Open access and peer review policy
Open access policy statement: The free availability on the public internet, permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of research articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself. The only constraint on reproduction and distribution, and the only role for copyright in this domain, should be to give authors control over the integrity of their work and the right to be properly acknowledged and cited.
In simple words, Open-access (OA) literature is digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions. It removes price barriers (subscriptions, licensing fees, pay-per-view fees) and permission barriers. Its policy protects the copyright of the author.
More at https://openaccesspub.org/open-access
Peer review type: Single Blind peer review is our standard. However, authors can prefer Double blind peer review by excluding their names and affiliations details from the manuscript and providing them only in the cover letter if they prefer to do so.
7. Funding Disclosure
Funding information will be included in the manuscript itself and will be available in the Online and PDF versions of the article. This section is provided only if there are any funding details.
8. Ethics
Ethical behavior is expected from all of them involved in the publishing process. Though we list the ethical conduct expected from each role, we also follow the guidelines of COPE. We recommend our editors, reviewers, and authors kindly go through the COPE and ICMJE websites for more information.
Animal Research: Laboratory animals are to be treated according to the rules and are to be handled with care. Precautionary measures undertaken while performing the experiment are to be mentioned. Otherwise, it will be treated as a violation of the law. No scientific fraud and false research will be entertained. Serious action will be taken regarding the (fraudulent) scientific misconduct. Copyright violations are also considered unethical.
Human Subjects: Research Obtain consent from all involved in the study only after disclosing the possible outcome or any other situations, regarding the result of the failure of the experiment also. Privacy and strict confidentiality are to be maintained whenever necessary. Do not influence the population or individuals by greatly rewarding them for the manipulation purpose.
9. Copyright and License
We are licensed under CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSE. This Copy right allows you to copy and distribute your work provided you implement citation of the author for his credit appropriately.
Authors hold copyright and publishing rights without restrictions. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ According to CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSE 4.0
You are free to -
Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.
The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms. Under the following terms:
Attribution — You must give appropriate credit provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
10. Changes to published papers
Corrections, retractions, addendums, additional information, etc., to Published Work, if any will be handled according to COPE guidelines and will be marked by CrossMark in order to maintain the information regarding the data and the currentness of the data available.
Crossmark is a multi-publisher initiative from Crossref to provide a standard way for readers to locate the current version of a piece of content. By applying the Crossmark logo Publisher Name is committing to maintaining the content it publishes and to alerting readers to changes if and when they occur. Clicking on the Crossmark logo will tell you the current status of a document and may also give you additional publication record information about the document.
More resources we recommend reading for our authors:
COPE international standards for authors