Publication Ethics & Malpractice

Publication Ethics and Malpractice Policy

Peer Review Process

The type of peer-review used in Legal Research & Analysis is a double-blind review so that the reviewer and author do not know each other. Two independent reviewers will review each article. The editor will direct articles that have this theme to be peer-reviewed. The reviewer's decision will be considered by the Editors to determine the ensuing process of the manuscript. Once the manuscript has been received with notations of minor or major revisions, it will be returned to the author for revisions. For manuscripts accepted with major revisions, authors are allotted 1-2 weeks to revise. Whereas for manuscripts accepted with minor revisions, 1 week is allotted for revision. 

At the final decision, the editor considers the feedback provided by the peer-reviewers and comes to a decision. The following are the most common decisions:

  • Accept without any changes (acceptance): the journal will publish the paper in its original form.
  • Accept with minor revisions (acceptance): the journal will publish the paper and ask the author to make minor corrections.
  • Accept after major revisions (conditional acceptance): the journal will publish the paper provided the author makes changes suggested by reviewers and/or editors.
  • Revise and resubmit (conditional disclaimer): the journal is willing to reconsider the paper in another round of decision-making after the authors make major changes.
  • Reject paper (outright refusal): the journal will not publish the paper or reconsider it even if the author makes major revisions. 

Duties and Responsibilities of Editors and Sections Editors

(http://publicationethics.org/files/Code_of_conduct_for_journal_editors_Mar11.pdf)

  • The Editors of the journal should have the full authority to reject/accept a manuscript.
  • The Editors of the journal should maintain the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts under review or until they are published.
  • The Editors should take a decision on submitted manuscripts, whether to be published or not with other editors and reviewers
  • The Editors of the journal should preserve the anonymity of reviewers.
  • The Editors of the journal should disclose and try to avoid any conflict of interest.
  • The Editors of the journal should maintain academic integrity and strive to meet the needs of readers and authors.
  • The Editors of the journal should be willing to investigate plagiarism and fraudulent data issues and willing to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions, and apologies when needed.
  • The Editors of the journal should limit themselves only to the intellectual content.
  • The Editors of the journal must not disclose any information about submitted manuscripts to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher, as appropriate.
  • Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted paper will not be used by the editor or the members of the editorial board for their own research purposes without the author's explicit written consent.
  • Section Editors (SEs) handle the peer review process on manuscripts assigned to them by the Editors. SEs play a key role in peer-reviewed publishing, supporting journal editors as subject experts on various topics. SEs oversee assigned manuscripts, moving these papers through review and revision. SEs are responsible for assessing manuscript quality, obtaining peer reviews, requesting revisions where appropriate, and making recommendations to the journal editors about the acceptance or rejection of a manuscript.

Duties and Responsibilities of Reviewers

(http://publicationethics.org/files/u7140/Peer%20review%20guidelines.pdf)

  • Reviewing manuscript critically but constructively and preparing detailed comments about the manuscript to help authors improve their research;
  • Reviewing multiple versions of a manuscript as necessary;
  • Providing all required information within established deadlines;
  • Making recommendations to the editors regarding the suitability of the manuscript for publication in the journal;
  • Declaring to the editor any potential conflicts of interest with respect to the authors or the content of a manuscript they are asked to review;
  • Reporting possible research misconducts;
  • Suggesting alternative reviewers in case they cannot review the manuscript for any reasons;
  • Treating the manuscript as a confidential document;
  • Not making any use of the work described in the manuscript;
  • Not communicating directly with authors, if somehow, they identify the authors;
  • Not identifying themselves as authors;
  • Not passing on the assigned manuscript to another reviewer;
  • Ensuring that the manuscript is of high quality and original research;
  • Informing the section editors if he/she finds the assigned manuscript is under consideration in any other publication to his/her knowledge;
  • Writing a review report in English only;
  • Authoring a commentary for publication related to the reviewed manuscript.

Authors of Legal Research & Analysis must confirm the following:

  • Submitted manuscripts must be the original work of the author(s),
  • The submitting corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all the other coauthors have approved the manuscript article's publication.
  • Only unpublished manuscripts should be submitted,
  • All authors have agreed to allow the corresponding author to serve as the correspondent with the editorial office, to review the edited manuscript and proof,
  • Acknowledge the sources of data used in the development of the manuscript,
  • All listed authors must have made a significant scientific contribution to the research in the manuscript and approved all its claims,
  • All errors discovered in the manuscript after submission must be swiftly communicated to the editor,
  • All authors must know that the submitted manuscripts under review or published with AIJSSR are subject to screening using Plagiarism Prevention Software. Plagiarism is a serious violation of publication ethics.

Correction and Retraction Policies

The papers published in Legal Research & Analysis will be considered to retract in the publication if :

  1. They have clear evidence that the findings are unreliable, either as a result of misconduct (e.g. data fabrication) or honest error (e.g. miscalculation or experimental error)
  2. the findings have previously been published elsewhere without proper cross-referencing, permission or justification (i.e. cases of redundant publication)
  3. it constitutes plagiarism
  4. it reports unethical research

The mechanism of retraction follows the Retraction Guidelines of Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) which can be accessed at:       
https://publicationethics.org/files/retraction%20guidelines.pdf.

Plagiarism Policy

Legal Research & Analysis follows the HEC (Pakistan) policies regarding Turnitin Originality Report and Plagiarism. Legal Research & Analysis aims for original script having below 19% Turnitin Originality Report with single source similarity below 5%.

For more information visit HEC relevant Weblinks:  
https://www.hec.gov.pk/english/services/faculty/Plagiarism/Pages/default.aspx

The authors must ensure that the articles sent to the editor are the results of their work, not duplicated or recycled. If the author cites the writings of other researchers or the results of his/her own research please do not forget to write the source of the article(s).  Papers must be original, unpublished, and not pending publication elsewhere. Any material taken verbatim from another source needs to be clearly identified as different from the present original text by (1) indentation, (2) use of quotation marks, and (3) identification of the source. Any text of an amount exceeding fair use standards (herein defined as more than two or three sentences or the equivalent thereof) or any graphic material reproduced from another source requires permission from the copyright holder and, if feasible, the original author(s) and also requires identification of the source; e.g., previous publication.