Publication Ethics

Publication Ethics Policy of Indian Journal of Society and Politics is based on the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and Indian Journal of Society and Politics’s own guidelines on Ethical Social Research.

Indian Journal of Society and Politics is committed to publish the highest standards of publication ethics and take all possible measures against any publication malpractices. All the members of Editorial Board, Advisory Board, Editors, Reviewers, Authors, Co Authors, Readers and contributors should follow these ethical policies working once with Indian Journal of Society and Politics.

Publication Decisions

The Editor of the Indian Journal of Society and Politics is responsible for deciding which of the submitted articles to the journal should be published and editorial board take/makes the final decision about the articles to be published. The Editor is directed by the policies of the journal’s editorial board and constrained by such legal requirements and shall then be in force regarding libel, copyright, infringement and plagiarism. The Editor may confer with editorial board or their reviewers in decision making.

Fair Play

An editor at any time can evaluate articles for their intellectual contents regardless to race, gender, belief, religion, ethnic origin, citizenship or political philosophy of the author.

Confidentiality

The editor and any journal staff must not disclose any information about a submitted article to anybody other than corresponding author, reviewers, other editorial advisors and the publishers as appropriate.

Disclosure and Privacy Policy

Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in editor’s own research without the express written permission of the author. The names and email address of the author and coauthors entered in Indian Journal of Society and Politics will be used exclusively for the stated declared purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or any other part.

Acknowledgement of Sources

Authors must always duly acknowledge the picked work of others and must cite the influential publication in determination of nature their report/work. Authors are directed not to maintain or used the information obtained by conversation, private correspondence or discussion with third parties (Except Authors, Co-Authors, Publication Officials of Indian Journal of Society and Politics) without written permission from those.

Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest

Authors should disclose every financial or other substantive conflict of interest in their manuscript that might be constrained to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project must be duly disclosed.

Fundamental errors in Published Works

When the 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.

Conflict of Interest

Indian Journal of Society and Politics wishes that all authors, editors and reviewers acknowledge upfront any relationship that they think could be said as resulting in a certain, potential or perceived conflict of interest with regard to the article. A conflict of interest may exist when an author, reviewer and editor has personal or financial relationship that influence inappropriately his/her action.

These relationships vary from those with negligible potential to those with great potential to influence judgment and not all relationship represent true conflict of interest. The potential for conflict of interest can exist whether or not an individual believes that the relationship affects his or her scientific judgment, financial or business relationship (Such as employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony) are most easily identifiable conflicts of interest and most likely to undermine the credibility of the journal and author’s conflicts can also occur for other reasons such as personal relationship, academic competition or intellectual or ideological beliefs.

The authors are responsible for submitting a detailed conflict of interest disclosure statement during manuscript submission. At the end of their manuscript, author should disclose financial and personal relationship with organization or people that could in appropriately influence their work. If there are no conflicts author must include this statement on manuscript page “The Authors declare no potential conflict of interest”

During asked for review a manuscript, reviewers should disclose to editors any conflict of interest that could bias their opinions of the manuscript. If reviewers believe that they cannot judge a manuscript impartially because of contact with authors or possible conflicts of interest, they should decline the invitation to review and provide an explanation to the editor. If a reviewer is unsure whether the potential for bias exists, advice should be sought from editor, reviewer, must not use knowledge of manuscript under review before its publication to further their own interest.

If editor has a conflict of interest or a deanship relationship that may bias their treatment of the manuscript under consideration, they should excuse themselves from handling the manuscript.

Duties and Responsibilities of Author(s)

  During submission of their manuscript in Indian Journal of Society , Author(s) reports of original research should present on accurate account of the work and equitable discussion of the significance of their finding, data, procedure and methods used in the research should be presented in sufficient detailed reference in their paper so that other researchers can replicate the work.

  Authors must certify that their manuscripts are their original work and if the authors have used the same work or words of others that it has been appropriately cited of quoted, plagiarism, duplicate, date fabrication, falsification and redundant publication are forbidden, Any signs of plagiarism will be taken very seriously. If there is any site of misconduct, the manuscript will be removed immediately.

  An author should not publish in general manuscripts described in essentially the same research in more than one journal are primary publication. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.

  An author must acknowledge properly the work of others. Author should cite the publication that has been influential in determining the nature of reported work.

  When an author discover 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.

  Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution, design execution or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made significant contribution should be listed as co-author. Where those are others who made 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 all the co-authors have been seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.

  Any financial or other substantive conflict of interest should be disclosed by authors in their manuscript. All financial support and its support should be revealed. During the submission of an article the respective authors that the article neither is under consideration nor published in other journal.

Duties and Responsibilities of the Reviewers

  Peer review assists the editor in making editorial decisions and through the editorial communications with the author may also assist the author in improving the paper. Peer review is an essential component of formal scholarly communication. Authors who wish to contribute to publications have an obligation to do a fair share of reviewing.

  Reviewer’s decision should solely depend on scientific merit, relevance to the subject, and scope of the journal. Reviewer’s should not carry any particular, personal or racial or religious agenda during the processing of the manuscripts.

  Any selected referee who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and excuse himself from the review process.

  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.

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

  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. A reviewer should also call 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.

  Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in a reviewer´s own research without the written consent of the author. 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 and Responsibilities of Editorial Board

  In addition to many general duties, such as constantly improving the quality and integrity of the journal, striving to needs of authors and readers, encouraging academic debate, and others, the editors accept obligation to apply best will and practice to cope with the following responsibilities:

  Editorial board will be generated from recognized experts in the field. The editor will provide full names and affiliations of the members as well as updated contact information for the editorial office on the journal webpage.

  The editor should be responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the journal should be published. The validation of the work in question and its importance to researchers and readers must always drive such decisions. The editor may be guided by the policies of the journal's editorial board and constrained by such legal requirements, copyright infringement and plagiarism. The editor may confer with other editors or reviewers in making this decision.

  All of a journal’s content should be subjected to peer-review. Articles submitted for possible publication are subjected to a peer review process. Articles are first reviewed by editors. The editor may reject it out of hand either because it is not dealing with the subject matter for that journal or because it is manifestly of a low quality so that it cannot be considered at all.

  Editors should be ready to justify any important deviation from the described process. Editors should not reverse decisions on publication unless serious problems are identified.

  Editors should publish guidance to either authors and reviewers on everything that is expected of them. This guidance should be regularly updated and will refer or link this code.

  Editor and any editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher. Editors will ensure that material submitted remains confidential while under review.

  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. Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Editors should recuse themselves (i.e. should ask a co-editor, associate editor or other member of the editorial board instead to review and consider) from considering manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or (possibly) institutions connected to the papers. Editors should require all contributors to disclose relevant competing interests and publish corrections if competing interests are revealed after publication.

Dealing with Unethical Behavior

Unethical behavior may be identified and brought to the attention of the editor and publisher at any time, by anyone. Whoever informs the editor or publisher of such conduct should provide sufficient information and evidence in order for an investigation to be initiated. All allegations should be taken seriously and treated in the same way, until a successful decision or conclusion is reached. Every reported act of unethical publishing behavior must be looked into, even if it is discovered years after publication.

The editor should take reasonably responsive measures when ethical complaints have been presented concerning a submitted manuscript or published paper, in conjunction with the publisher. Such measures will generally include contacting the author of the manuscript or paper and giving due consideration of the respective complaint or claims made, but may also include further communications to the relevant institutions and research bodies, depending on the misconduct seriousness. Minor misconduct might be dealt with without the need to consult more widely. In any event, the author should be given the opportunity to respond to any allegations. Serious misconduct might require application of one or more measures like : Informing or educating the author or reviewer where there appears to be a misunderstanding or misapplication of acceptable standards. Or publication of a formal notice detailing the misconduct. Or a formal letter to the head of the author's or reviewer's department or funding agency. Or formal retraction or withdrawal of a publication from the journal, in conjunction with informing the head of the author or reviewer's department

Note : For more information on ethical issues please read the COPE’s guidelines that might be helpful for authors as well as editors.