Editor’s Guidelines
The Editor’s Responsibilities
The Editor(s) of “SUJRIS (Swat University Journal of Religious & Islamic Studies)” will be responsible for:
∙Establishing and maintaining quality of the journal by publishing quality papers in his/her journal.
∙Promotion of freedom of expression within the cultural, constitutional/legal framework
∙Providing integrity and credibility of the research contributions
∙Meeting the needs of authors and readers
∙Maintaining ethical standards of the journal
∙Providing corrigendum for any correction, clarification and apologies where required.
Good practices for their job includes to:
∙Encourage new ideas and suggestions of authors, peer reviewers, members of editorial board and readers for improving quality of “SUJRIS (Swat University Journal of Religious & Islamic Studies)”.
∙Apply the process of blind peer review in true letter and spirit,
∙Promote innovative findings in respective field and publishing them on priority
∙Promote anti plagiarism policy
∙Educate contributors (authors) about ethical practices in research
∙Implement the journal’s policy without institutional pressure and revise the policy from time to time.
Fair play and Impartiality
The criteria for the selection of research papers for “SUJRIS (Swat University Journal of Religious & Islamic Studies)” is impartial and the Editor will only select academically and scientifically sound articles,
The Editor will:
∙Promptly respond to the author (s) of the papers submitted for publication, and
∙Assign a specific number to an article submitted for processing; and pay impartial consideration to all research papers submitted for publication.
∙To ensure evaluation of the content of research papers impartially,
∙Disregard the discriminating factors, e.g. gender, race, ethnicity, religious belief, cultural sentiments, political affiliation, seniority and/or institutional association of the author(s) while selecting articles for publication,
∙To ensure impartiality of the review process by informing the reviewer (s) that s/he needs to disclose any conflicts of interest regarding the submitted research paper.
Confidentiality
∙The Editor will ensure confidentiality of the author(s) and reviewers during the process of double-blind peer review
∙Information pertaining to a research paper should not be disclosed by the Editor to anyone except the author(s), reviewer(s), and editorial board members
∙Upon reaching a decision about a research paper, only the Editor may disclose or announce title of the study and name of the author(s) that has been accepted for publication. Any other information may only be disclosed with the prior approval of the author(s)
∙Confidentiality of the participants of the research should also be ensured by protecting personal information (e.g. identifiable personal details, images, and/or individual results).
∙Prior to publication, the content of the manuscript would be kept confidential, both the Editor and reviewer(s) will not share or use any part of the work.
Editing and Formatting Guidelines
The Editor(s) of “SUJRIS (Swat University Journal of Religious & Islamic Studies)” prepared clear guidelines about preparing and formatting of a paper, which are available under Instructions for authors tab and printed in each issue of the journal. (It can be also downloaded from download section)
The Review Process
All articles are initially scrutinized by Editors, if the articles are coincided with the objectives and guidelines of the “SUJRIS (Swat University Journal of Religious & Islamic Studies)”; they are forwarded for further review process.
∙All scrutinized papers will go through a double-blind peer review process.
∙The Editor of “SUJRIS (Swat University Journal of Religious & Islamic Studies)” ensures that peer-review is masked in both directions and as such the identity of the author is removed from the manuscript prior to its review in order to protect the confidentiality and privacy.
∙The Editor of “SUJRIS” (Swat University Journal of Religious & Islamic Studies)” provides sufficient guidelines to reviewers, including necessary information about the review process and provide them a Reviewer’s Proforma for recording his/her comments. (Reviewer’s Proforma can be downloaded from download section)
∙The Editor of ““SUJRIS” (Swat University Journal of Religious & Islamic Studies)” ensures that peer review process is prompt, non-discriminatory and highly professional.
∙The Editor of “SUJRIS” (Swat University Journal of Religious & Islamic Studies)” developed a system of confidentiality of research papers undergoing the review process.
∙After the completion of review process, The Editor of “SUJRIS (Swat University Journal of Religious & Islamic Studies)” sends reviewers’ comments to author(s) promptly and ensures that the corrections suggested by the reviewers are incorporated by the author(s) in true letter and spirit.
∙The Editor of “SUJRIS” (Swat University Journal of Religious & Islamic Studies)” critically evaluates peer review practices regularly and makes improvements, if required.
∙The Editor of “SUJRIS” (Swat University Journal of Religious & Islamic Studies)” refers troublesome cases (e.g. in case of one acceptance and one rejection or any conflict arisen after review) to Advisory Committee in order to resolve the matter amicably.
Dealing with Misconduct
The Editor of “SUJRIS” (Swat University Journal of Religious & Islamic Studies)” always encourages reviewers to comment on ethical issues and possible research and publication misconduct (e.g. inappropriate research design, incomplete detail on participant’s consent, data manipulation, and presentation).
∙The Editor of “SUJRIS” (Swat University Journal of Religious & Islamic Studies)” encourages reviewers to comment on the validity of submitted research paper and identify “subtle (simply copy-paste)” and/or “blatant (paraphrasing)” type of plagiarism, if, practiced by the author(s).
∙The Editor of “SUJRIS” (Swat University Journal of Religious & Islamic Studies)” confirms plagiarism (carry out objective check through Turnitin) and/or searching for similar titles to the submitted research paper, and
∙The Editor of “SUJRIS” (Swat University Journal of Religious & Islamic Studies)” will publish a corrigendum, remove and retract a plagiarized article if it comes to his/her knowledge subsequent to its publication.
Transparency
The Editor ensures that multiple papers as a principal investigator submitted by an author should not be published in the same issue.
∙Only ONE co-authorship is allowed for those authors who also contribute a research paper as a principal investigator in the same issue, as per HEC guidelines.
∙For the members of the Editorial Board (including the Editor), it will only be limited to ONE paper per issue either to submit research paper as a principal investigator or co-author, and
∙The Editor adopts authorship or co-authorship policy that will strictly discourage any misconduct (e.g. forcible inclusion of a name in the author list). Authorship should only be given to those individuals who have substantially contributed in the said article.
Conflict of Interest
The Editor will not edit a submitted paper for those author(s) and/or institution against which s/he has any conflicts of interest (e.g. resulting from competitive, collaborative and/or professional standing).
∙The Editor will also apply this guideline on their reviewers and Editorial Board members.
∙To ensure unbiased review, the Editor declares a clear cut policy for his/her own submission and a research paper submitted by an Editorial Board member, and
∙In case of article (s) submitted by the Editor, the decision pertaining to the editor’s submitted article/s, one of the Associate Editors will take responsibility for the evaluation of the article and information pertaining to reviewers would be kept confidential.
Disclosure
The Editor will not use any unpublished information/data from the submitted research paper without the permission of the author(s)
∙Any information received after the peer review process will be kept confidential and will be not used for personal gains.
Publication Decisions
The Editor should shortlist research papers which have relevance to the scope of the journal clearly stated in the Journal, using his /her judgment, but without any personal bias.
∙After completion of the reviewing process, the submission of revised manuscript, and assessing the quality and validity, the Editor has a right to accept or reject a research paper.
∙The Editor’s decisions to accept or reject a paper for publication should be based purely on merit, academic standards and professional demands of the journal.
∙The Editor will justify the reason (s) of rejecting a research paper to author(s). This may include:
- Failure to fit in the scope of the journal (may be communicated after preliminary review)
- Insufficient depth of content
- Major errors related to design, analysis, write up and format
- Any misconduct or conflicting factors (e.g. plagiarism, copyright infringement, legal issues, fake data, authorship issues)
∙The Editor is required to timely communicate the editorial decision to the author(s),
∙The Editors should not reverse decisions in favour or against author(s) on their own.
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.
“These guidelines are retrieved from Higher Education Commission (HEC), Pakistan manual of “Ethical Guidelines for Journals”, which has been prepared by Dr. Rukhsana Kausar, Director Institute of Applied and Clinical Psychology, University of the Punjab, Lahore”