Ethics

FJSS adheres to all the ethical policies of HEC which have been developed keeping in view the COPE guidelines.

Editor(s) of FJSS will maintain the following ethics:

  • The Editorial Board is responsible and committed to establishing and maintaining the quality of the journal
  • The Editorial Board has authority to accept or reject any submission keeping in view the publishing policy of the Journal and the quality of the submission
  • The Editorial Board will ensure the process of blind peer review of every article
  • The Editorial Board will not edit any submitted article which would have any conflict of interest
  • The Editorial Board will select articles for publication based on merit and disregard discriminating factors, e.g. gender, race, ethnicity, religious belief, cultural sentiments, political affiliation, seniority and/or institutional association of the author(s)
  • The Editor in Chief will be responsible for appointing Members of the Editorial Board and Advisory Board and change them anytime
  • The Editor will ensure the Plagiarism Check of every article and strictly follows the HEC Plagiarism Policy
  • The Editor will ensure smooth functioning of the journal and conducting the editorial board meeting on regular basis.
  • The Editor will try to promptly respond to the author(s) upon submission, and all queries related to submission or the Journal
  • The Editor will ensure the confidentiality of the content of manuscript prior to publishing
  • The Editor will be responsible for making any corrections, reported by authors or based on evidences at any time, after placing contents online or in hard copies

 

Submitting Author(s) to FJSS will be required to maintain the following ethics:

  • An Author (principal) is a person who has significantly authored the research article
  • Someone who has contributed particularly in any design, analysis etc. can be credited as co-author
  • The Authors(s) would be fully responsible for the originality and authenticity of their submission
  • Author contributions to the submission must be declared
  • Authors(s) are supposed to bind with Journal's policy when submitting an article to FJSS
  • It is the Author(s) responsibility to ensure that their submission contains adequate detail and references to the sources of information in order to allow others to reproduce results
  • Article once submitted by the author to FJSS will not be submitted to any other journal till the time Corresponding Author is conveyed about rejection.
  • If any question arises about the accuracy or validity of the research work during the review process, the Author(s) will be required to provide raw data to the Editor
  • The Author(s) must disclose any conflict of interest
  • The review process can last between 1-3 months or longer. 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 annotated response to reviewers indicating all changes and recommendations made in the revised submission
  • In case of dissatisfaction over the decision of rejection, the Author(s) can appeal the decision by contacting the Editor in Chief or Editor

 

Reviewer(s) for FJSS will maintain the following ethics:

  • Reviewers accepting to review a article for FJSS have an ethical responsibility to complete the evaluation professionally and with objectivity, without any personal criticism on the Author(s)
  • Reviewer(s) must consider the article as a confidential document
  • Reviewer(s) must declare any conflicting interests
  • Reviewer(s) must act punctually and submit the review report on time; or inform Editor immediately about any possible delays and the revised timeline
  • Reviewer(s) must bring to the Editor's notice if the article is based on any previous research study or if the work is plagiarized
  • Reviewer(s) must accept that the final decision about publishing an article will solely rest with the Editor, regardless of the reviewer recommendation