Ethical Policy

Publishing Practice of Oriental College Magazine is going on under a certain ethical policy which has been developed keeping in view the COPE guidelines and HEC ethical guidelines for the journals. Here are some key points:

Policy for the Editor(s):

·      Editor is wholly responsible to establish/maintain the quality of the journal.

·      S/He has full authority to accept or reject any research paper keeping in view the publishing policy of Oriental College Magazine or the standard of the topic/ references/ material/ presentation/ language of the submitted paper and professional demands as well.

·      Editor ensures the process of blind peer review of every paper.

·      Editor ensures the Plagiarism Check of every paper and strictly follows the HEC Plagiarism Policy regarding this matter.

·      Editor is bound to follow the journal's policy without any institutional pressure.

·      Oriental College Magazine discourages any sort of discrimination: Religious, Ethnic, Racial, Political or Gender. 

Policy for the Author(s)

·     An author (principal) is a person who has significantly authored the research paper. One who has contributed at some extent or helped out the author in write up or has contributed particularly in any design, analysis etc. s/he can be credited as co-author.

·      Author would be fully responsible for the paper.

·      It is the author(s)' responsibility to ensure that the research paper and data contain adequate detail and references to the sources of information in order to allow others to check its credibility. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable.

·      Author(s) is required to provide an undertaking stating that the submitted manuscript contains solely his original work and no material has been copied without reference from anywhere. If someone coauthors the paper then his contribution should be explicitly stated in that undertaking.

·      Article once submitted by the author to Oriental College Magazine will not be submitted to any other journal till the time s/he would have been conveyed about rejection from our side. Concurrent submission of the same manuscript to more than one journal is unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.

·      Authors are supposed to allow the journal while submitting the paper to reserve the right to circulate the article.

·      Authors are supposed to bind with journal's policy when submitting a paper to Oriental College Magazine.

·      The review process can last between 1-2 months or longer and during this period the author(s) reserve the right to contact the Editor to ask about status of the review. In the case of rejection, the author(s) reserves the right to publish the article elsewhere. In case of revisions, the author(s) must provide an exposition of all corrections made in the manuscript. In case of dissatisfaction over the decision of rejection, the author can appeal the decision by contacting the Editor.

Policy for the Reviewer(s)

Review process allows author(s) improve their manuscript through editorial communications. Scholars/ Reviewers accepting to review a research paper have an ethical responsibility to complete this assignment professionally. The quality, credibility and reputation of a journal also depend on the peer review process. The peer review process depends on the trust, and demands that a reviewer is supposed to fulfill ethically. The reviewers should:

 ·     Immediately inform the editor if they do not have the subject expertise required to carry out the review.

·      Be responsible to act punctually and submit review report on time. They should immediately inform the editor of any possible delays.

·      The data included in the research paper is confidential and the reviewer is not allowed to use if for his/her personal study or any other academic or professional purpose.

·      Reviewers would consider the research paper as a confidential document. They must not discuss its content on any platform except in cases where professional advice is being sought with the authorization of the editor. They are bound not to disclose the details of any research paper prior to its publication without the prior approval of the editor.

·      A reviewer must declare any conflicting interests (e.g. personal, financial, intellectual, professional, political or religious). She/he should declare if the research paper under review is the same as to his/her presently conducted study.

·      The reviewer may justifiably criticize a manuscript but it would be inappropriate to resort to personal criticism on the author(s). He/she is supposed to objectively carry out the review with a consideration of high academic, scholarly and scientific standards.

·      Reviewer should brought into the editor's notice, before writing the evaluation report, if the research paper is based on any previous research or is replica of an earlier work, or the work is plagiarized. Moreover if the reviewer suspects the given results to be untrue/unrealistic/fake, or there has been an indication of violating ethical norms in the treatment of human beings (e.g. children, female, poor people, disabled, elderly, etc.), all these points should also be identified to the editor.

·      For writing an evaluation report, reviewers are sent prescribed form(s) from the editor and they are supposed to share their comments on that form.

·      The editor will surely consider reviewer's comments and may send the paper to someone else for another opinion or send it back to the author(s) for revision before making the any decision. But it is very clear that the final decision about publishing a research paper (either accept or reject) will solely rest with the editor. A reviewer cannot challenge the decision of the editor at any forum.