Ethical Guidelines

Ethical Guidelines for Editors

  • Maintaining the Quality of the Journal by publishing quality papers.
  • Promotion of freedom of expression within the constitutional/legal framework

Good Practices

  • Encouraging new ideas and suggestions for improving the quality of the Al-Asr Research Journal.
  • The process of blind peer review in its true letter and spirit,
  • Promoting & implementing anti-plagiarism & journal policy without institutional pressure.

Editorial Board Members are prohibited from publishing their papers in the Al-Asr Research Journal.

Fair play and neutrality

  • Will ensure impartial evaluation of research papers
  • Disregard all discriminating factors during the selection of articles, e.g. gender, race, ethnicity, religious belief, etc. of the author(s)

Secrecy

  • Confidentiality of the author(s) and reviewers during the peer-review process will be ensured
  • The secrecy of the participants of the research should also be ensured.
  • Before publication, the content of the manuscript would be kept confidential

The Review Process

  • Articles are initially scrutinized and then go through a double-blind peer review process.
  • Sufficient guidelines along with a Reviewer’s Proforma are provided to reviewers (through the (Open Journal System)
  • Sharing the reviewer’s comments with the author and incorporation of suggested corrections.

Dealing with Misconduct

  • Will encourage reviewers to comment on ethical issues and possible misconduct.
  • Confirmation of plagiarism through Turnitin and/or searching for similar titles etc.
  • Will publish a corrigendum, remove and retract a plagiarized article.

Transparency

  • Only one paper as a PI (principal investigator) should be published in the same issue.
  • Editorial Board Members are prohibited from publishing their papers in the Al-Asr Research Journal. Self-Institutional publication is not allowed as well, to ensure transparency and avoid conflict of interest. After the adoption of HEC's new policy for research journals for July 2019 onwards, the Al-Research Journal does not allow Editorial Board and Self-institutional publications, to ensure transparency and avoid conflict of interest (if any).
  • Authorship and co-authorship Policies will be strictly adopted.

Conflict of Interest

  • The Editor and reviewers will not edit a submitted paper for those author(s) and/or institution against which s/he has any conflicts of interest.
  • Editorial Board Members are prohibited from publishing their papers in the Al-Asr Research Journal.

Disclosure

  • will not use any unpublished information/data from the submitted research paper without the permission of the author(s)

Publication Decisions

  • Only shortlisted research papers relevant to the scope of the journal will be published after completion of the review process
  • Acceptance or rejection of a paper will be based on academic standards.
  • The Editor will justify the reason (s) for rejecting a research paper and will timely communicate the editorial decision to the author(s)

Procedure for Appeal

The Editor is responsible for establishing a proper mechanism for appeals launched against:

  • The rejection of a research paper.
  • Objections to publications causing harm to any party.

Infringement of Ethical boundaries in any manner

Self-Institutional publication is not allowed as well, to ensure transparency and avoid conflict of interest.