Policy Document
INTRODUCTION
Journal of Social Research Development, ISSN (P-2788-8320) (E-2788-8339), has the aspirations of publishing quality research work. It is a quarterly, blind peer-review, broad-spectrum, and open access journal. The journal publishes original research work in forms of review articles, communications, invited reviews, commentaries, and research notes that correspond with both its scope and editorial criteria. For an expedited process of research work publication, the journal operates on Online Journal Management System for online submission and processing of the manuscripts. In processing and publication of research work, the Journal currently follows the HEC criteria for "Y" category. The policy document covers the different parameters from different dimensions as follows:
1. FREQUENCY OF PUBLICATION
The frequency and regularity are the main requirement which directly influences the credibility of journals. In this connection, Journal of Social Research Development publication schedule comprises One (01) volume with Four (04) issues each year on the regular basis.
2. TIMELINE OF PUBLICATION
Journal of Social Research Development publication timeline of represents the complete duration from articles submissions to publications with the following descriptions:
Period for publishing 1st issue: January-March
Period for publishing 2nd issue: April-June
Period for publishing 3rd issue: July-September
Period for publishing 4th issue: October-December
3. AUTHORSHIP OF PAPER
Authorship of papers represents authors’ (Faculties, Researchers, and Ph.D. Scholars) scholarly contributions in different scope and domain as per their field and relevancy. Journal of Social Research Development accepts the authorships contributions as per journal’s scope. The author contributions statement (equal contributions) towards the research work is included as separate statement at the end of article. The authors substantial contributions to the research work have been mentioned. The authors’ names, affiliations and e-mail addresses along with contact numbers of all authors (corresponding, principal, & co-authors) of manuscript have been mentioned on first-page. Furthermore, ORCID identifiers identification is encouraged.
4. ORIGINALITY AND PLAGIARISM POLICY
The articles submitted to Journal of Social Research Development, as part of submission process, the authors are required to check submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
A. The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration in any other journal.
B. The manuscript is based upon the original research work submitted to the journal and is not plagiarized as a whole or any part of the
C. The manuscript submitted holds nothing that is obscene, defamatory, abusive, fraudulent or illegal. If author(s) send same manuscript to any other journal within or outside country, they will in anticipation let us know that will be considered as voluntary withdrawal from the
D. The plagiarism policy is followed strictly in letter and spirit as available at HEC website to ensure the quality parameters from all requisite
5. PEER REVIEW POLICY
A. Submission of Paper
The corresponding author can submit research work for potential and prospective publication in Journal of Social Research Development via Online Journal System (OJS).
B. Editorial Office Assessment
Journal of Social Research Development editorial office checks the submitted manuscripts’ format and composition in line with the author's guidelines and scope of journal. This stage of scrutiny does assess the quality of research.
C. Chief Editor’s Appraisal
The chief editor apprises whether research work is original, has potential of novelty, and is appropriately aligned with the journal’s scope. If the manuscript does fulfil the aforementioned criteria, it is liable to rejection at this stage without being considered for any further review.
D. Chief Editor’s Assignment to an Associate Editor
After appraising the manuscript, the chief editor assigns the task of further appraisal to associate editors through desk review/editing.
E. Desk Review
The associate editor scrutinizes the manuscript in light of the journal scope and contents requirements of Journal of Social Research Development and recommends the potential improvements and incorporation in the manuscript.
F. Communicating Suggestions to Authors
The associate editor’s desk review suggestions for potential revisions and improvements of manuscript are shared with authors for incorporation. After these necessary incorporations, manuscript is forwarded to the experts’ review phase.
G. Invitation to Reviewers
The associate editor invites potentials the reviewers within specialized fields for the manuscript review. The manuscript is sent out to the reviewers in light of the responses received from them. As per journal’s policy, manuscript is sent to two reviewers (two national).
H. Review Conducted
The potential and expert reviewers spare ample time to read manuscript and this reflected from the way they highlight both strengths and weaknesses of research work. If they find major issues in manuscript, reviewers have freedom either to completely reject it or suggest major revisions. The reviewers submit their reviews to journal’s editorial team with the recommendations of either to accept (with/out minor or major revisions) or reject.
I. Journal Evaluates the Reviews
The journal’s editorial team considers and scrutinize all the reviewers’ comments and decisions before reaching a final decision. In case of wider differences in reviewers’ comments, editor might invite an additional reviewer (if deemed appropriate) to get further opinions before making the final decision.
J. Decision Communication
The editor communicates the decision with authors via email containing relevant reviewer’s comments and advises the authors to incorporate all the changes as per the reviewers’ suggestions.
K. Final Decision
After receiving the revised draft from authors, editorial team ensures the incorporation of all reviewers’ suggestions and if found suitable from all respects, manuscript is sent to copyediting. After this process, manuscript is moved to the production phase as per the specified schedule for publication.
6. ARTICLE PROCESSING/PUBLICATION FEE
The Journal of Social Research Development is managed under Asian Research Development (PVT) Limited. Globally, the publication costs and associated expenses of many journals are covered by different resources like sponsoring parties that include organizations, societies, and research groups and thus do not demand any publication charges. In case of JSRD, there is no financial assistance and income sources to meet expenses associated with the publication process. JSRD is determined to index with well-reputed indexing agencies and ensures standard parameters to bring up journal at par with international level. Journals uses variety of means to generate income required to meet publication costs including editorial cost, peer review, website maintenance, indexing cost, content registration, promotion, circulation and production.
To meet desired standards and secure academic and financial scope of authors, JSRD recommends nominal publication charges to meet journal’s expenses. JSRD charges fee in two phases wherein Rs. 5000/- are charged at the time of submission that will cover article initial desk review through experts along with similarity index. In second phase, authors are charged Rs. 25000/- after acceptance of article for publication based upon positive reviews from reviewers and their recommendations for publications that will cover journal overall expenses. The publication charges of the JSRD will help to further improve standards and paves way towards inclusion of well-reputed indexing agencies like Scopus and web of science that is dire need in contemporary competitive situations wherein researchers are desirous for publications.
7. DISCLOSURE AND CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
Conflict of interest (COI) refers to situations in which truthfulness of an academic activity, specifically research, might be perceived as compromised by monetary or other personal interests. A conflict of interest happens when a secondary interest either gets distorted or has the potential to distort judgement or decision associated with the primary interest. Additionally, a professional’s judgment does not essentially have to be prejudiced because that researcher to have a conflict of interest, even the manifestation of a conflict of interest is ethically troublesome. COI is defined as anything that has potential to create a divided loyalty or appearance of one between researcher, institution, and individuals enrolled in research. COI could be circumstances, cause risk that scholar professional judgments or actions concerning primary interest [academic uprightness, employee benefits & societal obligations] will be markedly influenced by a secondary interest [personal, monetary & professional benefits].
Interests are broadly categorized into two types: conflicts of commitment and financial benefits. In this linking, the conflicts could be a personal affiliation; such as family association, friends relationships, and any other close personal associations; beliefs and ideologies, such as religious or political that is relevant to the research work; the academic interests such as competitors or somebody whose research work is critiqued; affiliation such as the employment, advisory board membership, or membership of an organization with an interest in the outcome of said work; financial such as funding, goods, services, and any other payments received/anticipated by author(s) related to the subject of the work or from an organization with an interest in the outcome of the work and maybe an intellectual property such as the trademarks or patents owned by an individual or an organization.
A. For Authors
All manuscripts, articles, editorials, original research reports, book reviews, comments, reviews, and letters that are submitted to journal must be accompanied by a conflict-of-interest disclosure statement or a declaration by the authors that they do not have any conflicts of interest to declare. All the research work such as articles, etc., published in this journal should mandatorily accompany conflict-of-interest disclosure statement or a statement that the authors have replied that they have no conflicts of interest to declare. To facilitate this policy, all authors must privately disclose ‘ALL their potential conflicts of interest’ to editors at time of submission. These include all financial and non-financial interests and relationships with other organizations. Authors should disclose any conflict of interest that may have influenced either the conduct or presentation of the research to editors, including but not limited to close relationships with those who might be helped or hurt by publication, academic interests and rivalries, and any personal, religious or political convictions relevant to topic at hand. In the article, authors must include a draft statement that discloses all relevant conflicts of interest and affiliations.
B. For Editors & Reviewers
Editors and reviewers must reject/decline to be involved with the submission when they have a recent/current publication or submission with author. Share or recently shared affiliations with author, collaborate, or have close relationships with the author or financial interest/gain, or feel unable to be objective. Editorial staff must not use information gained through working with manuscripts for private gain. Reviewers must declare any remaining interests in the ‘Confidential’ section of review form, which will be considered by the editor. Reviewer(s) must declare any conflict of interest which may affect their review work. In cases of conflict of interest, reviewer(s) are requested to notify the editorial team of their inability to review a particular research paper. Editors and peer reviewers should disclose interests that might appear to affect their ability to present or review work objectively. These might include the relevant financial interests or the personal, political, or religious interests, and detailed descriptions about tasks, responsibilities of all parties on how to avoid and manage COIs.
8. CORRECTIONS & RETRACTIONS OF RESEARCH ARTICLES
Well-defined and precise knowledge sharing is chief objective of Journal of Social Research Development and facilitates the academic community via information distribution. Furthermore, to serve the academic community, Journal of Social Research Development has a strong faith in intelligibility through delivering correct information and maintaining all essential record. Journal explains this procedure from initial submission till final stage and the publications are available in diverse volumes and issues. Once manuscript is published, editorial team display the volume and issues of the journal at journal website, which can be easily explored, read, downloaded, and shared through an open access policy.
The Journal of Social Research Development offers prospects to authors for getting their manuscripts proofread beforehand the availability of the online version, which ensures the accuracy of contents. Since issuing corrigenda and errata increase the likelihood that the journal content readers and the users would difficulties, contents are therefore, made error free to the possible extent. Further, in this connection, even after a manuscript is published, partial corrections might be made at the decision of editorial team of Journal of Social Research Development. Therefore, to improve the quality of published research work, the editorial team might opt for the minor alterations and corrections at any stage as they are vital to ascertain the integrity of the published materials to ensure the quality and transparency of research.
The Journal of Social Research Development takes a serious note of the issues related to copyright infringement, plagiarism, and violation of other ethical codes in publication process. In this respect, sometimes, whenever any violation of publication ethics and copyright infringement are exposed, the journal reserves the right to proceed for appropriate and necessary actions to correct the record on the priority basis no matter that the authors present either intentionally or unintentionally and communicate to journal’s editorial team. Consequently, materials that this journal has already published, it becomes the journal’s intellectual property and holds the rights of replacing the accurate materials in the best interest of the journal and the academic community.
9. POLICY & PRINCIPLES ON RESEARCH DATA
The principle and policy towards the research data signifies authors’ responsibility to submit reliable and accurate research data for publication with following description:
A. The contents of Journal of Social Research Development are open as archives are freely available on its Thus, for copyright and licensing, Journal of Social Research Development follows open access and open archives policies to facilitate the users of the journal. However, the users are required to cite the work with proper reference wherever they are using contents of Journal of Social Research Development. It is the responsibility of the journal to maintain metadata of articles processed for publications submitted to journal which can be communicated on-demand where required.
B. Journal of Social Research Development is Open Access Journal that means that its contents are available free for the users. Without asking any prior permission from the publisher, the users are allowed to read, download and use its contents for lawful purposes wherein by using its contents, the users are required to quote the materials with references where it is used in citation that is prescribed under predetermined conditions specified by guidelines, code of conduct and CC by Thus, authors hold copyright for their work and can use it for their legal purpose without any permission from the journal.
C. The copyright of manuscripts published in JSRD are retained by the author/authors by granting the first publication rights to the Journal of Social Research Development. Journal of Social Research Development and editorial team will not be responsible for any successive use of the author(s) work and even if desired so, it is responsibility of author(s) to bring an encroachment action by providing the clear statement about the conflict of interest in the copyright agreement between the authors and the Journal of Social Research Development to ensure the transparency of the publication ethics.
10. CONTRIBUTION OF EACH AUTHOR WITH DETAILS
Journal of Social Research Development considers innovative and original research that has neither previously been published nor under considerations for publications with any other publisher or journal. It is the author(s’) obligation to ensure originality of their research work sent to journal for publication and have clear understanding that the contents of the manuscript are not under considerations either by or for any other publisher or journal. Journal of Social Research Development reserves rights to transform, revise, and translate author(s’) contributions nonetheless, the authors will receive a statement from the journal’s editorial representative prior to the publication of the same in the Journal of Social Research Development.
The author contributions statement refers to work or equal contributions of the work that includes as the separate statement. The headings should include all those who have made substantial contributions to research work. The full names, affiliations and e-mail addresses along with contact numbers of all authors (principal, co-authors & corresponding) must be provided on first-page upon submission of the manuscript. Moreover, the use of ORCID identifiers is encouraged.
11. ANY OTHER NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL GUIDELINE
Journal of Social Research Development is open access, peer reviewed, multi-disciplinary scope that considers the authors’ scholarly contributions within scope of elementary, secondary and higher education, curriculum, adult education, mass communication, business and economics, health and physical education, human rights, sociology, gender studies, social work, psychology, international relation, defense and strategic studies, management studies, public administration, public policy, political science, African and Asian studies, History, Pakistan, and languages and linguistics studies. The journal offers the authors opportunities authors to publish valued and original research work on diverse subjects and issues falling in the scope of the Journal.
Disclaimer
The aim of this disclaimer is to apprise the readers and users of the contents of this journal that all the viewpoints and ideas contributed by the authors is their sole property and are exclusively related to them, and not inevitably related to author(s’) employer, committee, an organization or any other group. All such opinions expressed by the author(s) through diverse sources by exploring participants’ views from any institution or organization(s) do not essentially replicate the opinions and views Journal of Social Research Development. Additionally, it clarified that all standpoints, opinions, findings, and conclusions that are expressed and articulated either in both submitted and published research work or any other contents are the exclusive of the authors and do not reflect the standpoint of the Journal of Social Research Development team and publisher.
Copyright
The copyright of manuscripts published in Journal of Social Research Development are reserved by the author(s) through granting its first publication rights to this journal. The Journal of Social Research Development and its editorial team will not bear any responsibility for any consecutive or dual use of the author(s) research work and even if anticipated and desired so, it is the author(s) responsibility to bring an encroachment act by postulating a clear declaration about the conflict of interest duly mentioned in copyright agreement between the authors and the Journal of Social Research Development to ensure transparency of the publication ethics. Prior to submission of research work to Journal of Social Research Development, authors are advised and required to make sure to comply with all of the following guidelines, otherwise submissions might be returned to authors:
A. The submission file must be in the Microsoft Word, Open Office, or RTF document file format with no
B. The work has neither previously been published nor is it for consideration to be published with any other
C. The text follows the formal, stylistic, and bibliographic prerequisites thoroughly outlined in the Author
D. The text is written single-spaced, 12-point font, and all figures, illustrations, and tables are placed within the text at exact points.
E. The manuscript includes nothing that could either be or interpreted as abusive, defamatory, fraudulent, obscene, libelous, or
F. In case of sending same research work to any other publisher either within or outside the country, authors are liable to let us know in anticipation and that would be considered as their volunteer withdrawal from Journal of Social Research Development.
