Policies and Guidelines
Peer Review Policy
All manuscripts that are put forward, are subjected to "double-blind" peer review, which means that the authors' identities are kept hidden from the reviewers and vice versa. To accomplish this, referees are given anonymized versions of the manuscript. The editor reviews submitted papers after they are received. Papers that do not fall within the scope of the journal are 'desk-rejected.' Furthermore, papers that do not meet a minimum quality and originality standard are rejected without being sent to reviewers.
Papers that pass this initial editorial review are typically sent to a minimum of two referees (one national and one international). ". If one or more of these declines the invitation to provide a review, other referees will be appointed in their place. Normally, at least two authoritative reviews are required before the respective editor can decide whether to accept, reject, or request that the submitted paper be revised and resubmitted.
Publication Charge Policy
All articles published in our journals are open access and obtainable online as soon as they are published. The journal does not charge a fee for the submission or publication of the article. In addition to other publishing functions, authors do not pay the Article Processing Charge (APC) and Article Publication Fee (APF) to cover the costs of peer review administration and management, professional production of articles in PDF and other formats, and dissemination of published papers in various venues.
The publisher, the University of Management and Technology in Lahore, Pakistan, bears all costs. There are no fees for rejected articles, submission fees, or surcharges based on article length, figures, or supplementary data. All items (manuscripts, editorials, teaching modules, corrections, addendums, retractions, comments, and so on) are distributed for free.
Publication Malpractice Statement
The Journal of Quantitative Methods and its publisher, University of Management and Technology, adhere to the COPE (Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors and the Code of Conduct for Journal Publishers) as well as the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan's ethical publication guidelines. As a result, the authors, reviewers, and editors are anticipated to adhere to the following best-practice guidelines:
Authorship Policy
Authorship Credit
Only those who have made a noteworthy contribution to the article's construction may be given authorship credit. The responsibility of giving credit to co-author is due upon the corresponding author. He should give credit to the co-author whose work is involved in the whole process of the work. Furthermore, the corresponding author should ensure that the final submission and ready-to-publish version of the article has been approved by all co-authors. Others who have contributed to certain monumental aspects of the research should be acknowledged in an "Acknowledgement" section.
Changes in Authorship
When submitting an article to a journal, the authors are entirely responsible for providing their names. Any addition, deletion, or rearrangement of the authors' names after the article has been accepted for publication will not be considered unless approved by the journal's editor. To request such a change, the corresponding author must provide the journal's editor with (a) the reason for the author list change and (b) (e-mail, letter) with the written confirmation from authors that they agree with the addition, removal, or rearrangement, as well as confirmation from the author being added or removed. Only in exceptional circumstances and for compelling reasons will the editor consider adding, removing, or rearranging authors after the manuscript has been accepted. While the editor scrutinizes the request, the manuscript's publication preparation will be halted. If the manuscript has already been published in an online issue, the editor may decline any requests.
Order of Authors
It is the author's responsibility to come to a consensus on the order of the authors before putting forward the article to the journal. Any such disagreements must be resolved prior to submission.
Guest Authorship
The "guest" author contributes not a sausage to the study and thus does not qualify for authorship. The appearance of guest authorship on articles in Smarcons journals is not permitted.
Anonymous Authorship
Because authorship should be crystal clear and requires public liability, using pseudonyms or publishing scientific reports anonymously is not appropriate. A journal editor may decide to publish anonymous content in extremely rare cases, such as when the author can make a credible claim that attaching his or her name to the document would cause serious hardship (e.g., a threat to personal safety or loss of employment).
Acknowledgment
Authors may crave to include the names and contributions of those whose participation in a study did not make them to qualify for authorship (due to journal policy) but who contributed to the article in some way in the Acknowledgements section.
Contributors
The "Eidolon" and/or "Guest" author phenomenon has been usual in conventional research paper listing. This has raised concerns about inappropriate authorship practices in which some individuals had no actual input into the experiment. Only authors who have made a valuable scientific contribution to the research in the manuscript should be listed individually in the submitted manuscript, according to the journal (including students and lab technicians).
Duplicate Submission
Articles that have been published elsewhere or are being considered for publication elsewhere will be considered "duplicated." If the author(s) have used already published work (or work currently under review), they must cite the previous work and explain how their submitted manuscript offers a standing contributions and adds value in a different way (from the previous work).
Citation Manipulation
Submitted manuscripts that contain citations in order to add the number of citations to a specific author's work or to articles published in a specific journal will be considered to contain "citation manipulation" material.
Accessibility Policy
We are highly committed to constantly improving the accessibility of our published data in order to maximize readability without interruption. We run all of our articles through the Open Journal System (OJS), which automatically generates HTML files and converts those that are not in the desired format, making our files at hand to all types of users on the web.
Statement on Open Access
This journal is totally an open access source, which means that all content is free to the user or his or her institution. Users may print, read, download, copy, distribute, search, or link to the whole content of the articles for any lawful activity, without seeking prior permission from the publisher or author.
All articles are immediately available to all users on the internet after they are published. Commercial and non-commercial use and distribution in any medium are permitted, as long as the author and the journal are considerably credited.
Corrections and Retraction Policy
Authors who find errors in previously published articles should have the corresponding author contact the journal's editorial office with a detailed description of the necessary correction. Corrigenda (corrections to errors made by the author) and errata (corrections to errors made by the publisher) will be published at no cost to the authors. Corrections to published articles that affect the interpretation or conclusions will be reviewed by the editors.
An article may be reconstructed if the integrity of the published work is seriously jeopardized due to errors in the study's design, analysis, and/or reporting. Breach of publication or research ethics may also result in the retraction of a study. The original article has been retracted, but readers can still access a PDF version, and the retraction statement is bi-directionally linked to the original published paper. The authors' assent or dissent is typically included in retraction statements. The editorial office reserves the right to remove an article from the journal's online platforms in exceptional circumstances. Such action may be taken when I the editorial office has been informed that content is defamatory, infringes a third party's intellectual property right, right to privacy, or another legal right, or is otherwise unlawful; (ii) a court or government order has been issued, or is likely to be issued, requiring the removal of such content; or (iii) content, if acted upon, would pose an immediate and serious risk to health. The removal can be either temporary or permanent. Bibliographic metadata (e.g., title and authors) will be retained, along with a statement explaining why the content was removed.
Digital Archiving Policy
The journal is fully committed to archiving published material on digital archives to ensure that articles are always accessible to readers, even if a publication is lost or discontinued. All published articles should be deposited in a long-term digital preservation service or archive to ensure that they are always accessible to readers.
On a regular basis, all Smarcons journals are digitally archived on the Internet Archive and Self-Archive via OJS. The journal has also ensured that all of its open-access journals' metadata is compatible with all of the well-known repository services and that their digital crawlers can collect it on a regular basis for record and preservation. Furthermore, the journal assigns Digital Object Identifiers (DOI) to all of its issues and contents in order to facilitate access to their permanent links on the internet. Furthermore, the journal management system regularly self-archives the data on Smarcons servers.
Confidentiality Policy
According to the journal's publication policy, the editors and publication handling/managing staff keep all information about a submitted manuscript confidential and share it only with those involved in the evaluation, review, and publication processes. The journal uses an automated journal management system to ensure a transparent double-blind peer review process as well as information confidentiality. To serve as a reminder to authors, editors, and reviewers, the Editors should consider including a confidentiality notice in all correspondence, including reviewer forms.
Conflict of Interests Policy
A Declaration of Conflicting Interests policy is referred to as a formal policy that a journal may have that demand a conflict of interest statement or disclosure from publishing author.
In its Guidelines on Good Publication Practice (2003), the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) states that "conflicts of interest arise when authors, reviewers, or editors have interests that are not fully apparent and that may influence their judgments on what is published." They've been described as "those that, if revealed later, would lead a reasonable reader to believe they'd been misled or deceived."
Many professionals and researchers may have potential conflicts of interest that could influence or be perceived to influence their research. As a result, the journal needs to set up a declaration of conflicting interests, which makes a statement to be included within the foliate published article.
Relationships, allegiances, or hostilities to specific groups, organization, or interests that may influence one's judgments or actions excessively may result in a potential conflict of interest. When such interests are private and/or may result in personal gain, the issue becomes especially sensitive.
When competing interests are declared, all manuscripts submitted to the journal are evaluated fairly and are not necessarily rejected.
The following are some examples of potential conflicts of interest, but this is not an exhaustive list:
- Having received consulting fees.
- Receiving research funding.
- Having worked for a related company.
- Owning stock or shares in a company that could be harmed by the publication of your paper.
- Receiving funds to reimburse you for attending related symposia or talks.
If you have any other interests that a reasonable reader might believe have influenced your research, you should declare them as well.
(Please keep in mind that when a competing interest is declared, it is not expected that financial arrangements be disclosed.)
Conflict of interests
If a conflict of interest is discovered, the editors may request additional information from the author, which may include the following:
- Recognition of financial assistance/sponsorship in their contribution.
- Any commercial or financial involvements that may appear to present a conflict of interest related to the contribution are unveiled in a covering letter following the contribution, and all such potential conflicts of interest will be discussed with the editor to determine whether disclosure of this information with the published contribution is to be made in the journal.
- If they have been in an agreement with sponsor of that research that prohibits you from publishing both positive and negative results or prohibits you from publishing this research without the sponsor's prior approval.
- If they have checked the guideline of manuscript submission to see if the journal requires a Declaration of Conflicting Interests and have followed the requirements where such a policy exists. When submitting a manuscript, authors must fill out and sign the Copyright and Author Consent Form. Editor responsibilities regarding competing interests
The same commitment apply to editors or guest editors who write editorials for the journal. When submitting or publishing your article in a journal that needs a Declaration of Conflicting Interests, please include one at the end of your manuscript, after any Acknowledgements and before the Funding Acknowledgement, Notes (if applicable), and References, under the caption 'Declaration of Conflicting Interests.' If there is no conflict of interest, please state, 'The Author(s) declare(s) that there is no conflict of interest.'
*Please keep in mind that a Conflict of Interest Statement will not pop up in journals that do not require one. Where a declaration is required, the information of disclosure must be specific and include any financial relationship that all authors of the article have with any sponsoring organization and the for-profit interests represented by the organization, as well as any for-profit product discussed or hinted in the text of the article.
Privacy Policy
The journal makes considerable steps to ensure privacy and ensures that the author(s)' personal information is protected in accordance with the Intellectual Property and Copyrights Ordinance 1962, which also applies to all personal information of website users. This privacy policy does not apply to information provided to Smarcons journal staff or public information. Our journal strongly supports research ethics, such as confidentiality, consent, transparency, and integrity (for example, reporting standards, conflicts of interest, research funding, appeals, and complaints). The journal's privacy policy is consistent with the Code of Public Ethics (COPE).
We collect personal information in order to communicate with you, collect feedback about services, and keep you up to date on the latest journal news and events. We collect personal information such as a user's name, email address, academic qualifications, professional affiliations, address, contact number, city, state, and country of residence, as well as information that the user voluntarily provides through various forms on the website. The user is not required to provide any personal information in order to browse, view, or download articles from this website.
Users of the journal's website may choose not to share personal information and thus discontinue use of the Website. Some services necessitate the submission of personal information. When submitting a manuscript, for example, the author's name is required. The journal never shares personal information collected from site users on this website and keeps personal information for as long as it is relevant to our purpose or until you request that your information be removed from your database. If a user wishes to have his or her personal information removed, he or she should contact the "Contact Us" page. Personal information such as your gender, zip code, date of birth, education, occupation, financial information, and interests may not be required by the Smarcons journals. Your information is used by the journal to improve the quality of products and services and to keep our users up to date. When necessary, we may combine personal information with other information.
By using the website, you agree to the terms and conditions of the privacy policy. In the event of exceptional circumstances, we reserve the right to modify our privacy policies. We recommend that you review the privacy statement on a regular basis to stay up to date on any changes. If you do not agree to any of the terms and conditions of the privacy statements, you must leave the site immediately.
Anti-plagiarism and Anti-predatory Procedures
The journal's editorial policy is to appreciate indigenous o work that is not being considered for publication elsewhere concomitantly. All authors must understand the significance of presenting content that is based on their own research and communicate in their personal thoughts. Plagiarism is considered unethical and bad practice. Originality guidelines, as part of the journal's Copyrights Policy, are intended to assist authors in understanding acceptable and unacceptable practices. Our strategy is focused on promoting and protecting authors' work.
Verbatim copying - Copying more than 10% or 15% (or a significant passage or section of text) of another person's work verbatim. Plagiarism of the following types should be avoided:
Without any acknowledgment, references, or quotation marks
Paraphrasing- Improper paraphrasing of someone else's work occurs when a sentence in a paragraph is changed completely without giving due attribution. This seems unethical. Significant improper paraphrasing (more than 10% of work) without due attribution is taken with the same seriousness as verbatim copying.
Re-using parts of a work without attribution- Reusing elements of someone else's work, such as a figure, a table, or a paragraph, without acknowledgment, references, or quotation marks. It is the author's responsibility to obtain permission from the copyright holder to reuse elements of another person's work.
Self-plagiarism- All authors must sign a copyright form stating unequivocally that their submitted work has not previously been published. If elements of a work have formerly been published in another publication, including any Smarcons publication, it is the responsibility of the author to acknowledge the previously done work and explain how the subsequent work differs from and builds on the previous work's research and conclusions. We recommend that research be reused only to support new conclusions, rather than being copied verbatim from the author's own work.
We recommend that authors cite all previous stages of publication and presentation of novel ideas, including conference papers, workshop presentations, and listserv communications that have culminated in the final work. This will make it sure that a complete record of all work-related communication is kept.
Original work reprinting - With a few exceptions, only original and innovative work is published in the journal. Conference papers, archival papers republished in special issues, and at the editor's discretion are examples of exceptions. The original work is fully and correctly attributed, and permission has been obtained from the appropriate copyright holder. Furthermore, it is the author's responsibility to include any relevant facts in accordance with an ethical standard statement at the end of the manuscript.
Attribution-All references to other publications must be formatted according to the APA 7 manual. Completeness, accuracy, and consistency should be checked on all references. Include all author names and initials, as well as the full title of any journal.
Handling plagiarism allegations- The journal strives to maintain academic integrity and author rights, and to that end, the editors take all cases of plagiarism very seriously. The editors are conscious of the fact of the potential consequences of a plagiarism allegation, which can destroy the career of a researcher. As a result, they have procedures in place to deal with alleged plagiarism cases. To maintain objectivity, they thoroughly investigate each case, seeking clarification from all parties involved. When an alleged case of plagiarism is brought to the attention of this journal, it uses software such as Turnitin.com to seek assistance. If the editors are approached by a third party with a plagiarism allegation, they will always seek a response from the author(s)/contributors or copyright holder(s) before taking any action. Their decisions will be unbiased and objective, with no outside influences.
Individual cases of alleged plagiarism are not required to be discussed with third parties by the journal. We reserve the right not to pursue a case further if the complainant provides a false name or affiliation or acts inappropriately or threateningly toward the journal editors and staff.
Prior publication- If the submitted manuscript or a significant portion of it has previously been published, it will not be accepted for publication in the journal. However, authors must notify the editor and acknowledge the first source of publication for abstracts and posters submitted at conferences. Articles presented at a conference but not published by the conference organizers may be considered as well. If the author preserves all rights of the work, the journal editor may assess the article for publication based on the fact that articles presented at a conference are unlikely to be the same or substantially the same version as that accepted by the journal.
In all cases, the author should notify the editor of any prior publication or distribution and ensure proper attribution to the prior distribution and/or publication of the material.
Copyright Policy
SMARCONS Journals has a policy of Open-access, so the full text of all accepted articles is immediately available for free. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License governs the publication and distribution of articles. Thus, work presented to SMARCONS Journals implicit that it is the authors' original, unpublished work that has not been previously published or accepted/under consideration for publication elsewhere. When a manuscript is accepted for publication, the corresponding author will sign and submit a completed Author Consent, Copyright, and Declaration Form on behalf of all co-authors.
Any information written/informed/reported in the submitted manuscript will be the responsibility of the authors. Although we do not require authors to submit the data collection documents and coded sheets used to conduct quantitative or qualitative analysis, we reserve the right to request them at any time during the publication process, including after the article has been published. It is the author's responsibility to obtain signed permission from the copyright holder to use and reproduce previously published text, illustrations, tables, etc. in other journals, electronic or print media.
Statements of conflict of interest will be included at the end of the article. If there is no conflict of interest, the sentence "The authors declare no conflict of interest" will be used. Authors must disclose any sponsorship or funding received from any institution in connection with their research. The editor(s) will decide whether or not to make any disclosures available to the readers.
Authors have no permission to post the work on any board, forum, blog, or website, by any means, from the time the work is submitted to Smarcons journals until they receive the final decision on the paper. If a paper is accepted for publication, the authors are not permitted to post the work in its entirety on any website/blog/forum/board or in any other location, by any means, until the paper is published in Smarcons Journals.
The authors may, however, post the title, author's names and affiliations, and abstract on the first page of the paper, along with the statement "The manuscript has been accepted for publication in Smarcons Journals." After the article is published, it may be posted anywhere with the full journal citation included, and SMARCONS Journals encourages relevant efforts for research dissemination.
All articles published in Smarcons journals are open-access articles that are published and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which allows for reproduction, distribution, derivatives, and commercial use as long as the original work is properly cited and the authors and publisher are properly identified.
All authors who submit manuscripts to Smarcons Journals and have their articles published will retain full copyright to their work. Regardless, the author(s) grant Smarcons Journal(s), its editors, publishers, owners, and other people associated with it, as well as other users/readers, a license to use the article as described in the License Agreement section below. Smarcons may reproduce printed copies of articles in any format in the future. We reserve the right to reproduce the author's articles in this manner, subject to the terms of the license listed below.
Licensing agreement
The SMARCONS Journals adheres by Creative Common Attribution 4.0 agreements, which state that:
Share-Copy and redistribute the content in any medium or format.
Adapt-Remix, transform, and build on the material for any purpose, including commercial ones.
Author E-prints
Smarcons supports a variety of author benefit policies, including the provision of an e-print and the ability to purchase offprints. E-prints of articles published ahead of print and in print, issues are automatically sent to the corresponding authors. The author is given a link that allows them to download the article directly from the Smarcons journal's website and forward the link to their co-authors. Please consult the manuscript submission guidelines for the journal's policy before presenting or publishing your article.
