Publishing Ethics & Malpractice Statement

Ethical Statement

ISSRA Papers (The Journal of Governance and Public Policy) establishes and maintains the highest quality of research work. It promotes freedom of expression within the cultural, constitutional / legal framework. ISSRA Papers maintains impartiality, novelty, diversity of opinion, strength of and avoidance of fallacies. It encourages new ideas and suggestions of authors, peer reviewers, members of editorial and advisory board.

ISSRA Papers supports and uses HEC Ethical Guidelines, COPE Guidelines and COPE Core Practices.

Publication Ethical Policy 

  1. Obligations of the Editor
    • Neutrality   The submitted manuscripts are evaluated regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, ethnicity, political philosophy of the authors.
    • Confidentiality   All manuscripts are confidential documents and will not be shared / shown to anyone without the permission of the editor. Any information about the manuscript will be disclosed to anyone except the author, reviewers and potential reviewers.
    • Disclosure of Information and Conflicts of Interest   Unpublished data contained in the submitted manuscript will not be used by editors or reviewers in their own research without the explicit consent of the author.
    • Decision on Publication   The editor will decide on the publication of submitted articles. However, before publishing any article, the editor will take into account the legal obligations regarding defamation, copyrights and plagiarism. The editor can share the decision with other members of the Editorial Board, Advisory Board or with reviewers. In the event of any rejection of any article by the reviewer, the editor may solicit two new reviewers.
  2. Obligations of Reviewers
    • Editorial Decisions  Reviewers assist the editorial staff in making decisions and may also assist the author to improve the quality of the manuscript.
    • Delays and Deadlines  When a reviewer does not feel competent enough to evaluate the research presented in the manuscript, or if he finds himself unable to provide his report in time, he must inform the editor without delay in order to give him time to contact other reviewers.
    • Standards of Objectivity, Civility and Respect   The reports must be objective. Personal remarks and criticisms directed at the author or hurtful remarks about the contents must be avoided. The opinion of the reviewer must be clear, well-argued and respectful of the author.
    • Indication of Sources  The reviewer must identify appropriate publications not cited by the author. Any such indication must be accompanied by an appropriate comment. The reviewer should draw the editor's attention to any similarity, or overlap between the manuscript and previously published data.
    • Disclosure of Information and Conflicts of Interest   Information and ideas obtained through anonymous replay are confidential and should not be used for the personal benefit of the reviewer. Reviewers should not accept reviewing manuscripts where this may result in a conflict of interest arising from competitive, collaborative or other relationships with the authors
  3. Obligations of the Authors
    • Information Validity   The information contained in the manuscripts submitted for publication must present the results of the authors' research as well as an objective discussion of such results and their importance. The underlying data must be presented correctly. Fraudulent and consciously inaccurate information is considered unethical and unacceptable.
    • Originality and Plagiarism   Authors must ensure that their study is completely original and if they have used other persons' books or content/material, that must be properly cited. Similarity index must be less than 19% and single source similarity index must not be more than 5 %.
    • Multiple publications   An author(s) should not submit manuscripts representing the same study to more than one journal (or book). In case of multiple publications, the authors must give the reference of the first publication and be free from the copyright of the original publisher.
    • Paternity of the Manuscript   Only persons having made significant contribution to the study in question should be considered to be authors. If other people have been involved in some aspects of the research project, they should be mentioned in the acknowledgments. The lead author must ensure that all co-authors and only they are included in the list of authors of the manuscript, that the co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the manuscript, and that they have agreed to submission of the manuscript.
    • Disclosure of Information and Conflicts of Interest   All authors must indicate, as a result of their biographical presentation, any conflicts of interest that may affect their proposed publication. Funding for research projects that made the study possible must be indicated.
    • Errors in Publishing  If the author discovers an important error or an inaccuracy in its publication, its obligation is to quickly inform the editor and to consider, in agreement with the person in charge, the withdrawal of the article or the publication of the information about the error.  
    • Provide retractions or corrections of mistakes, in case of detection.
    • Authors to ensure that, the manuscript contains nothing that is abusive, defamatory, libelous, obscene, fraudulent, or illegal, and is not against any institution/ university, Armed forces, federal / provincial governments.

Malpractice/ Misconduct Policy

The Editorial Committee aims to shape the journal environment such as ethical publishing practices, inform those involved in the editorial process, and foster informed decision-making by editors so the integrity of our publications is upheld. In addition, publishers and editors take reasonable steps to identify and prevent the publication of papers where research misconduct has occurred; in no event shall a journal or its editors encourage such misconduct, or knowingly allow such misconduct to take place; in the event that a journal’s publisher or editors are made aware of any allegation of research misconduct the publisher or editor shall deal with allegations appropriately; the journal should have available guidelines for retracting or correcting articles when needed; and finally publishers and editors should always be willing to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies when needed.

Copyright and Access

Authors who claim ownership to the data being reported, along with the manuscript’s authors, may be asked to sign over certain publication rights to the journal through copyright transfer or a licensing agreement. Authors should be aware of, and must abide by, the terms of these agreements.

Archiving

The Journal of ISSRA PAPERS is published online with a frequency of Annually. Besides that, special issues of ISSRA PAPERS will be published non-periodically from time to time.

Publisher

NDU as the publisher is committed to ensuring that advertising, reprint or other commercial revenue has no impact or influence on editorial decisions. In addition, NDU will assist in communications with other journals and/or publishers where this is useful to editors. Finally, NDU will work closely with other publishers and industry associations to set standards for best practices on ethical matters, errors and retractions are prepared to provide specialized legal review and counsel if necessary.