Publication, Ethics and Malpractice Policy

Open Access Policy

We are an open access journal. We believe that knowledge shared is knowledge multiplied. All published content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users of our website are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access.

We only request that appropriate credit for first publication be given to EJSSS by a citation in such reproductions.

Editorial Policy

All research papers published in the journal are subject to a two-step review.

First, the acceptability of abstract and the paper will be assessed by an editor-member of the Editorial Board. If considered, the author will be asked to submit the full paper. Initial decision regarding acceptability of abstract for inviting full paper for consideration will be communicated within 07 to 10 days of submission of Abstract.

Second, the paper will undergo blind peer review by subject experts empanelled with the journal. Where necessary, subject experts outside the Review Board will also be requested for blind peer review. Publication of the paper, however, will be only after peer review and revisions if any, necessitated during that process. The review process is normally around 6 to 8 weeks from the date of receipt of the full manuscript.

Plagiarism

EJSSS believes in publishing original research and therefore takes reasonable efforts to check each work submitted by the authors for plagiarism. Through licensed software (Plagiarism Checker X), we screen each work 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.

Where the editorial board or the editor-in-chief considers that a second opinion on plagiarised content is needed, we have intuitional arrangement to have the work screened through Turnitin.

AI Generated Content

With AI assisted tools becoming increasingly available, we deem it necessary to lay down the below given content as our policy on the subject:

Editorial Board of EJSSS recognizes that contents of manuscripts can be created by using artificial intelligence, language models, machine learning or such other technologies and tools currently available and may further develop in the future.
Use of such tools and technology in preparing a full manuscript is not acceptable. AI or its tools cannot be listed as Co-Author.
If the subject matter of the manuscript and the objective of the work is to evaluate such generative technologies and/or they are part of the research design and methods (to be specifically stated in the methods section of the manuscript), a clear description of the content thus created, the model or tool used, its version and extension numbers, and its manufacturer.
Author(s) may however use the following which we do not consider as plagiarism/unacceptable practice, subject to para 5 & 6 below:
1. AI text summarizer tools like Quillbot to examine or sift through sources that are relevant to the work and are actually used and cited in the manuscript.
2. Employ AI tools to generate research questions that align with the work.
3. Use brainstorming AI tools to develop a structure or outline for the work.
4. Editing and proof reading the final manuscript, including improving sentence structure and grammar.
A clear statement at the end of the manuscript (before the Reference Section) is to be provided by the author specifically stating the tool and the purpose for which that tool was used.
If AI generated content is detected without the statement as specified in para 5 above, EJSSS reserves the right to reject the work, without any liabilities.

Authors must note that while our plagiarism/similarity policy follows the general norms observed by reputed journals, acceptance or rejection of a percentage or level of AI generated content in the manuscript is subject only to the decision of the editorial board/editor-in-chief. As a thumb rule, if a clear statement has not been provided by the author(s) as mentioned in para 5 above, the manuscript will be rejected.

Permission to use Copyright Content in Manuscripts

We strongly advise that where prior permission is needed to include any data/diagram/map/tables etc., from any source used by the authors in the manuscript, 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.

Publication Fee

We have no Article Submission Charge. EJSSS has no agents or intermediary to receive manuscripts for consideration of publication. All submissions are to be made directly to the journal as per procedure prescribed in our Submit Manuscript page at https://www.ejsss.net.in/submit_manuscript.php

Article Processing Charge: We have introduced Article Processing Charge (APC) from our December 2021-January 2022 Issue onwards. The purpose is to offset basic administrative expenses in processing submissions for publication. The APC in respect of different categories of authors are as below:

For salaried academicians/working professionals/independent researchers - INR 3000 (Three Thousand Indian Rupees) per paper or work accepted for publication.

For Students/Scholars receiving scholarships or financial assistance for studies - INR 2000 (Two Thousand Indian Rupees) per paper or work accepted for publication.

For Book Review/PhD Synopsis submissions - INR 1500 (One Thousand Five Hundred Indian Rupees) per accepted submission.

Note: Authors are requested to specifically mention the category they belong to in the cover letter while submitting their Abstracts. Necessary details for remitting the APC will be communicated to the Author after review and acceptance of the submitted work. Remittances are to be made in Indian Rupees only.

Fee Waiver: We are a not-for-profit journal and therefore have no provision for fee waivers. However, should an author belong to economically weaker strata in any part of the world and is not in receipt of government concessions and scholarships (including private funding) for his/her study, an email stating the specific financial disadvantage may be sent to the Managing Editor at submission.ejss@gmail.com. Decision of the editor-in-chief on such requests is final.

Other Fee: EJSSS has no other hidden or implied fee for publishing any accepted work. Please note that we do not provide language corrections, proof reading, writing services, or any other supplementary services.

Archiving Policy

EJSSS archives and preserves published content, Issue wise, in its own server. Our archives and their individual content is available to readers and researchers free of charge at https://www.ejsss.net.in/archives.php

WE have no print version as of now. We intend to create a library of print editions in due course, when our resources so permit.

Repository & Author Self-Archiving Policy

Authors can deposit the URL/DOI of their published article in any repository of their choice, in addition to the Version of Record held with this journal.

The Version of Record (published version of articles) is available with this journal’s server and is preserved in its archives. Published version can be accessed and downloaded (including the XML) without cost from the Current Issue or Archives tab of the journal. This guarantees that the definitive and final published version is readily available to those accessing these articles from repositories of Author’s choice to ensure that the article is cited correctly.

Sharing Versions of Articles in Publication Process

Authors are entitled to make their article publicly available including the versions mentioned below:

We note that there are at least three versions of every article from the time the first manuscript is submitted. As an Open Access journal, we have no objection if an author wishes to share versions of manuscript before it is finally published. The ways in which they may be shared are provided below.

EJSSS strongly encourages authors to share the following without any embargo or restrictions:

The pre-publication manuscript (PPM) in institutional repositories or on their own websites prior to publication by EJSSS.

What is Pre-Publication Manuscript (PPM)?

Pre-Publication Manuscript is Author’s Original Manuscript which is submitted for consideration for publication by this journal. This is the original manuscript before the journal assigns it for peer review.

How to share the PPM? The PPM can be shared as much as the author wishes, without any redactions or abstraction, via social media, through a scholarly collaboration network, own personal website, or on a preprint server intended for non-commercial use of the author’s choice. These are not considered to be duplicate publication. If the author decides to share the PPM, we only request that, upon acceptance by the source where it is hosted, an acknowledgement is given that the article is under consideration for publication by this journal in the following manner:

“This article is under consideration for publication in Electronic Journal of Social and Strategic Studies (ISSN Online: 2582-9645)”.

The Accepted Manuscript (AM) during the submission process, after receiving confirmation from EJSSS regarding acceptance for publication.

What is Accepted manuscript (AM)?

Accepted Manuscript (AM) is the version has been through the peer review process, observations, and comments by the Reviewer and/or the Editor have been duly considered and revised by the author, as applicable, and has been finally accepted by a journal editor for publication. The acceptance of a final version is communicated by the journal by email to the author. Once this mail is received from the Journal’s Online Submission System, a copy of the AM can be used for sharing through the mediums as mentioned.

IMPORTANT: Please ensure that you have received a confirmation email regarding acceptance for publication through a system generated email and an email from submission.ejss@gmail.com

How to share the AM? The Accepted Manuscript (AM) can be shared through all mediums including posting to Facebook, Google groups, LinkedIn, or Twitter and such other platforms or institutional repositories the author is associated with.

To facilitate citation of the AM, we recommend inserting the following:

“This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article to be published in Electronic Journal of Social and Strategic Studies (ISSN Online: 2582-9645) in its forthcoming ………… (Provide the Volume Number, Issue Number and Period of publication) Issue.”

The final formatted PDF version after publication (VOR)

What is Version of Record (VOR)?

VOR is the final, published, citable version of the paper, which has been copyedited, typeset, had metadata applied, and has been allocated a DOI (Digital Object Identifier). This appears on the Current Issue Tab of our journal website as part of the Issue in which it is contained.

How to share VOR? On publication of the article, the author can link to the VOR using the DOI or can post the article PDF on any websites (including his/her institution and personal ones), social media platforms and repositories.

We recommend the following for connecting the different versions of the article published or shared by the author through various platforms by the following method:

If the PPM and AM have been shared through various mediums, link these to the VOR after publication, by adding a suitable text such as:

“This is a Version of Record (VOR) of an article published in Electronic Journal of Social and Strategic Studies on [date of publication], [Vol No. & Issue No.], [Pages xxx-yyy] available at [Article DOI].”

By using a link containing the DOI, article downloads, XML data, and citations can all be tracked and collated. This would help the author to assess the impact of his/her work.

This benefits authors with productive exchanges with the academic/scholarly community and promotes appropriate citation of published works.

We strongly recommend that the users give due credit to the author and the first-publishing credit to EJSSS while disseminating or using the works published in this journal.

Use of ORCID IDs

EJSSS recommends authors to provide their ORCID ID as part of biographic information provided in the title page of the manuscript. Author’s ORCID ID, if provided, will be reflected alongside his/her/their name in the Contents Page of the relevant Issue and in the short-bio section of the same page.

Copyright & Licencing Policy

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.

Authors are advised to share, distribute, or reuse works published by EJSSS with a clear attribution to this journal as the original source of publication with correct citation details.

EJSSS strongly recommends that authors/users to give due credit to this journal for first publication in all such cases where their published content is further used.