Ethics and Principles

Plagiarism: A manuscript is not further processed if any instance of plagiarism is discovered at any phase before its publication. As a manuscript will be reviewed for instances of plagiarism even after the issuance of an acceptance letter, the journal will reserve the right not to publish a manuscript once the occurrence of plagiarism becomes evident and will not accept submissions from such authors for a minimum of two years.

Supervisors’ names: All manuscripts primarily based on theses and dissertations should include the supervisor’s name irrespective of the time-lapse between the defense session and submission of the manuscript unless the supervisor sends an email or letter to the journal stating his/her decision as to not being willing to be named as an author. The journal’s definite preference is the inclusion of the supervisor as the first author. The author submitting the manuscript, either the supervisor or the co-author is considered to be the corresponding author unless otherwise indicated.

Revision: When a paper is returned to the author for revision, depending on the scope of the revision, the author needs to revise the paper within 2-3 weeks. Returning a paper to the author for revision does not amount to its final acceptance unless the reviewers approve the application of their comments.

Review policies and decisions:  The review process normally takes three months. Papers submitted to the journal are first screened through in-house review to ensure that submission guidelines have been largely observed and to determine whether the paper merits further independent review. Next, they undergo rigorous peer review. This involves anonymized reviewing by two anonymous reviewers and where there is a split decision by a third reviewer. A manuscript may be accepted without revision, with minor revision without being returned to the reviewers after modification, with major revision, or rejected. In case a manuscript requires revision, reviewers’ comments will be sent to the author. For manuscripts rejected after in-house review, the author will not receive any detailed comments.