Ethics and Malpractice Policy
COPYRIGHT & LICENSING
EJSSS is an Open Access and Peer Reviewed Journal. The copyright of all works published in this journal belong to the respective authors and they are welcome to use, reuse, disseminate, adapt or put into such other use in any legitimate form the contents, in full or in part, of any work that they have published through this journal. EJSSS strongly recommends that they must give due credit for first publication to this journal in all such works where such published content is used. Even though EJSSS has not specifically displayed a suitable Creative Commons License, authors of works published in this journal are advised to adhere to the Creative Commons License CC-BY-SA in spirit.
EJSSS publishes editorially and peer-reviewed research papers adhering to high standards of research publications. Ethical behavior of all parties is involved in publishing process of an article/paper in this journal, i.e.: the Author, the Editor in Chief, the Reviewer and the Publisher. In keeping with the objective to maintain highest standards of publishing, following are to be adhered to:
RESPONSIBILITIES OF EDITORS
Decision on the Publication of Articles
The Editor in Chief of the Journal is responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the journal should be published. The Editor in Chief may be guided by the assessments of the journal's editorial board with due regard to legal requirements concerning copyright, libel, infringement and plagiarism. The Editor in Chief may confer with other editors or reviewers in making this decision.
Fair play
Manuscripts shall be evaluated solely on their intellectual merit without regard to authors’ race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy. The opinion of the subject expert Editor/Review Board member on the suitability of the contents for scholarly publishing shall be primarily considered.
Confidentiality
The Editor in Chief/Editors/Review Board member/staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, assigned reviewers, editor-in-chief and the publisher. Name of the Author/Authors and affiliation of submitted manuscripts are not to be communicated to the Reviewers.
Disclosure and conflicts of interest
Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used by anyone who has a view of the manuscript (while handling it) in his or her own research without the express written consent of the author.
RESPONSIBILITIES OF REVIEWERS
Contribution of Editorial Review Board
Editorial Review Board assists the Editor in Chief and the editorial board in making editorial decisions. Editorial communications with the author may be used to assist the author in improving the paper through the online system at the EJSSS website only.
Promptness
Any Editorial Review Board member who feels unqualified to review the assigned manuscript or unable to provide a prompt review should notify the editor and excuse himself from the review process. Normally, a week from the date of intimation or request to review should be the norm in order to ensure due service to the author in meeting his/her expectations for publication through this journal.
Confidentiality
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 in Chief. Editors and members of Editorial Review Board are to adhere to this standard as part of their ethical and moral obligations.
Standards of Objectivity
Objectivity is the hallmark of review process. Personal criticism of the author or his views must be avoided at all cost. Reviewers should express their views clearly with supporting arguments. Constructive criticism with the dual aim of assessing suitability for publication and improving the quality of the manuscript should be the norm.
Acknowledgement of Sources
Reviewers are to identify the sources cited by the authors. Reproduction of already published works without appropriate citation must be specifically pointed out to prevent plagiarism. To the extent feasible, reviewers are to provide appropriate sources for authors to reference in the paper under review. The aim is to assist the authors to produce original works.
Confidentiality
Analysis, tables, diagrams and data provided by authors in their papers based on their field work and research are privileged. Such privileged information or ideas are not to be taken advantage by the reviewers in any manner that will inhibit the author.
Conflict of Interest
Reviewers must decline to review manuscripts on which they have conflicts of interest with any of the authors, in any form.
RESPONSIBILITIES OF AUTHORS
Authorship of the Paper
Authorship and co-authors must be properly mentioned. Authors must distinguish between those who assisted them in conceptualizing/conduct the research and those who encouraged. The names of those who encouraged must be given as ACKNOWLEDGEMENT in the paragraph preceding the references. Please keep the acknowledgement to the minimum. Article word count includes acknowledgements.
Acknowledgement of Sources
Authors should cite publications that have been consulted, referred to or otherwise relied upon to develop their arguments/analysis, supplement their views and arrive at their findings and conclusions. Standardized referencing format should be followed. This journal recommends and accepts only APA 6th Edition citation format.
Corresponding Author
Wherever there are more than one author for a paper, name of the Corresponding Author must be specifically mentioned in the title page of the paper. This journal shall communicate with only the corresponding author on all matters pertaining to the paper during the submission, publication and subsequent processes. No communication from any other author or other person claiming to be associated with the paper shall be entertained by this journal. The Corresponding Author is solely responsible to deal with any conflict of interest that may arise between him/her and any other person claiming to be associated with the paper.
Conflict of Interest
Any financial or any other substantive conflict of interest in the course research culminating in the paper must be specifically mentioned by the author. He/she shall be responsible for all its consequences. Acceptance of the paper by this journal in no way shall implicate the journal into the conflict of interest or its course of events.
Errors in Published Works
Should an author discover significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, the author is obliged to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper. The journal owns no responsibility in this regard.
Funding Sources
The author must specifically acknowledge in the paper an organization, institution or individual, if the research has been funded by them.
Plagiarism
EJSSS believes in publishing original research and therefore takes reasonable efforts to check each work submitted by the authors for plagiarism. Through intuitional arrangement, we screen each work by licensed and open source software for plagiarized content. In keeping with high standards of publishing ethics followed by internationally reputed publishers, we reject content that is not original or contains an unacceptable proportion of similarities without due credit to the original sources. We also strongly advise that where prior permission is needed from any source relied upon by the authors, such permissions ought to have been taken by them before submitting their work to this journal.
Authors must ensure that they have appropriate permissions to cite the works of published material, wherever such permissions are needed. The publisher and Editor-in-Chief or any official associated with this journal do not share any responsibility towards this aspect. If and when such a question of copyright or any other violation of copyright pertaining to any paper published in this journal arises, the author and author alone, is responsible to deal with all matters concerning such disputes. The journal accepts no responsibilities pertaining to copy rights violation by the authors in any form.
Retention and access to Data
Authors are expected to provide the raw data in connection with a paper for editorial review, and should provide public access to such data when needed. It is advisable to retain such data for a reasonable time after publication, in order to avoid conflict of interest with other researchers who have published works on similar areas.
Simultaneous or Repeat Publication
Authors must ensure that their paper submitted to this journal is not simultaneously or parallel or otherwise submitted for publication or published in other journals or books. This journal retains the publication right over material published in its website. However, authors are free to use, re-use and build upon the contents of their publications in this journal elsewhere, subject to the condition that their work in this journal is appropriately credited. In other words, EJSSS strives to make all the contents freely available to academic community everywhere for furtherance of knowledge for non-commercial purposes. Copy Rights over the contents of the paper remain with the author for use subject only to his/her obligation to give credit to EJSSS.
Standard of Writing
Authors should attempt to present an accurate account of their research work in an objective manner, bringing out significant outcomes. Appropriate statistical/scientific data must be presented bringing out their analysis correctly. External sources relied upon must be cited correctly, giving due credit. Scientific approach is the norm even in papers that deal with subjective aspects like philosophy.
