ETHICAL GUIDELINES/POLICY

RAMSS ETHICAL POLICY:

Publishing Practice of the Journal works under a certain ethical policy which has been developed keeping in view the COPE guidelines and HEC ethical guidelines for this journal. Here are some key points:

  1. Editor is wholly responsible to establish/maintain the quality of the journal.
  2. He/She has full authority to accept or reject any research paper keeping in view the publishing policy of the Journal of RAMSS considering ethical policies or the standard of the topic/ references/ material/ presentation/ grammatical language of the submitted paper and professional demands as well.
  3. Editor with the assistance of Associate Editors ensures the process of blind peer review of every paper.
  4. Editor ensures the Plagiarism Check of every paper and strictly follows the HEC Plagiarism Policy regarding this matter.
  5. Editor is bound to follow the journal's policy without any institutional pressure.
  6. Editor would provide corrigendum for any correction, clarification and apologies when required.
  7. President may appoint Members of Editorial Board/ Advisory Board and change them anytime.
  8. Editor ensures smooth functioning of the journal and conducting the editorial board meeting on regular basis.
  9. Editor would disregard the discriminating factors, e.g. gender, race, ethnicity, religious belief, cultural sentiments, political affiliation or institutional association of the author(s) while selecting articles for publication.
  10. Editor would try to promptly respond to the author (s) of the papers submitted for publishing, for any query.
  11. Editor will not edit any submitted paper which would have any conflict of interest. He/She is responsible to ask the reviewers/evaluators also for disclosing any conflict of interest regarding the submitted research paper to ensure the impartiality.
  12. Editor ensures the confidentiality of the content of manuscript prior to publishing at his and reviewer's end.

HEC ETHICAL POLICY:

As per HEC guidelines, the Editor of a research journal plays an important role in establishing and maintaining the professional standards. Publication of a paper in an HEC recognized journal is expected to be a reflection of quality work of the author (s) and the affiliating institution (if any). The Editor is expected to perform the responsibility towards the journal on its all aspects and at varied stages i.e. from receiving of an article to publishing it. Keeping this in view, it becomes prime responsibility of an editor to adapt the following guidelines while publishing papers in his/her research journal.

The Editor of a research journal should be responsible for:

  • Establishing and maintaining quality of the journal by publishing quality papers in his/her journal.
  • Promotion of freedom of expression within the cultural, constitutional/legal framework,
  • Providing integrity and credibility of the research contributions,
  • Meeting the needs of authors and readers,
  • Maintaining ethical standards of their journal,
  • Providing corrigendum for any correction, clarification and apologies where required.:
  • Encourage new ideas and suggestions of authors, peer reviewers, members of editorial board and readers for improving quality of his/her journal,
  • Apply the process of blind peer review in true letter and spirit,
  • Promote innovative findings in respective field and publishing them on priority,
  • Promote anti plagiarism policy,
  • Educate contributors (authors) about ethical practices in research, and
  • Implement the journal’s policy without institutional pressure and revise the policy from time to time.

The detailed Ethical Guidelines by HEC are available at the following link:

https://www.hec.gov.pk/english/services/faculty/SSAH/Documents/JCR/HEC%20Approved%20Ethical%20Guidelines.pdf

COPE GUIDELINES:

The Journal ensures the implementation of ethical guidelines envisaged by Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Journal identifies and resolves conflict of interest using journal’s policy thereof. A team from the Advisor Board will handle complaints/grievances by authors, reviewers or any other external and internal party.

 COPE GUIDELINES FOR ACADEMIC PUBLISHING: