POLICY DOCUMENT OF JOURNAL OF POLICY RESEARCH (ISSN: 2414-1771, 2409-9368)

 FREQUENCY OF JOURNAL

Journal of Policy Research is published quarterly, in March, June, September, and December.

GUIDELINES FOR SUBMISSION OF RESEARCH ARTICLES

Manuscript submission to Journal of Policy Research is online via the OJS only. We do not accept submissions via email, nor hardcopies by hand or post.

Author guidelines have been prepared to help the authors who upload the manuscripts on OJS, which can be retrieved 24/7 from the link: https://www.bbejournal.com/index.php/BBE/guide

Please note that authors are instructed to processed without a cover letter, follow ethical values of research and fill submission form completely. Upon initial submission, the team confirms if all the valid documents are present and complete. If the submission is incomplete, the article is returned to the author for completion. Authors will have two weeks to complete the submission. Failure to do so within the time limit will result in automatic deletion of the article from the online submission system without prior notice. For this reason, we request all authors to put all information carefully and completely in the online submission form.

PEER REVIEW POLICY

 Double Blind Peer review process is followed for the evaluation of manuscripts submitted to Journal of Policy Research. Submissions are reviewed by the experts in related fields. Peer review enables authors to receive critical feedback from experts on individual manuscripts.

• Reviewers evaluate the submitted manuscripts in an objective manner. They express their opinions clearly and support their comments.
• All submitted manuscript is kept confidential. Reviewers are not allowed to share or disclose unpublished information in a manuscript.
• Reviewers of Journal of Policy Research avoid evaluating manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest. They contact editors if there is any conflict of interest that could affect their evaluation of a manuscript. In those cases, they can reject reviewing the manuscript.
• Reviewers can recommend to author/s any related work that is not cited.

We use a double-blind system for peer review: The identities of both reviewers and authors remain anonymous. Each submitted manuscript is peer reviewed by at least two experts. In some rare cases, we may start a third peer review according to the recommendations from editors and reviewers.

 ORIGINALITY AND PLAGIARISM POLICY

The Research Journal uses turitin.com for pilgrims checking. Its acceptable rate is 19%. 

SUBSCRIPTION DETAILS AND CHARGES

The journal is open access and charge no fee from subscribers like libraries or readers. The journal also charges no fee for submission or processing fee. The publication fee of PKR 50,000 is charged from the authors upon acceptance of their manuscript for publication after completion of double-blind peer review process. We also offer up to 10% fee waiver in publication fee to MS/M.Phil./PhD students who face financial hardship. The details of payment will be emailed upon submission of a complete manuscript.

For overseas manuscripts (outside Pakistan), a sum of US$ 250/- will be charged as publication fee upon acceptance of manuscript. Overseas authors can send the fees through bank transfer. Exact details of the account and transfer will be emailed once a complete manuscript is submitted, processed, and accepted after double-blind peer review process.

ETHICAL GUIDELINES

Ethical approval of research in the form of letters from the ethical review committee (ERC), ethical review board (ERB), institutional review board (IRB), or any other relevant form of ethical approval is encouraged for all manuscripts submitted to Journal of Policy Research. The exceptions to this rule include letters to the editor based on some new information, narrative reviews, and special communications in the form of a review. Reporting a case report or case series in retrospect does not require an IRB certificate but a letter of approval from the head of the department or institute on the institute’s letterhead is required. Ensure that you have read our editorial policy on ethical approval.

• IRB number.
• Date when IRB approval was given.
• Permission of time period during which the research can be conducted.
• Signature of chairperson of the IRB/ERB with additional designation of chairperson if any. Stamp of the IRB of the institute should be present.
• Letter should be on the letter head of the IRB of the institute.

Download the Ethical Approval letter template 

We follow rules as suggested by HEC, Pakistan

https://www.hec.gov.pk/english/services/faculty/SSAH/Documents/JCR/HEC%20Approved%20Ethical%20Guidelines.pdf

PRIVACY STATEMENT

The names and email addresses entered in this journal’s site will be used only for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party/ institution whatsoever.

AUTHOR AGREEMENT FORM

Submission of work requires that the piece to be reviewed has not been previously published. Upon acceptance, the Author assigns to the Journal of Policy Research the right to publish and distribute the manuscript in part or in its entirety. The Author's name will always be included with the publication of the manuscript.

The Author has the following nonexclusive rights: (1) to use the manuscript in the Author's teaching activities; (2) to publish the manuscript, or permit its publication, as part of any book the Author may write; (3) to include the manuscript in the Author's own personal or departmental (but not institutional) database or on-line site; and (4) to license reprints of the manuscript to third persons for educational photocopying. The Author also agrees to properly credit the Journal of Policy Research as the original place of publication.

The Author hereby grants the Journal of Policy Research full and exclusive rights to the manuscript, all revisions, and the full copyright. Journal of Policy Research rights include but are not limited to the following:

(1) to reproduce, publish, sell, and distribute copies of the manuscript, selections of the manuscript, and translations and other derivative works based upon the manuscript, in print, audio-visual, electronic, or by any and all media now or hereafter known or devised; (2) to license reprints of the manuscript to third persons for educational photocopying; (3) to license others to create abstracts of the manuscript and to index the manuscript; (4) to license secondary publishers to reproduce the manuscript in print, microform, or any computer-readable form, including electronic on-line databases; and (5) to license the manuscript for document delivery. These exclusive rights run the full term of the copyright, and all renewals and extensions thereof.

 Author (s) hereby accept the terms of the above Author Agreement.

DEADLINES OF ALL PROCESSES I.E. DURATION OF PAPER SUBMISSION, REVIEW OF ARTICLES, ACCEPTANCE OF ARTICLES AND PUBLICATION OF ARTICLES

 TIMELINES OF PUBLICATION OF ISSUES*

	First Quarter Issue (March)	Second Quarter Issue (June)	Third Quarter Issue (September)	Fourth Quarter Issue (December)
Paper Submission	January	April	July	October
Review Process	February	May	August	November
Acceptance/Rejection Notification to Authors	March	June	September	December
Publication	March	June	September	December

          *In case of delay in review process by reviewers, revision process by authors, or initiation of multiple review rounds by editorial team to ensure quality of the manuscript, submission to publication duration may change/vary from the above timeline, depending upon the situation at hand. In Such cases processed manuscripts, complete in all respects, may be considered for publication in the very first upcoming issue of the journal.

 STEPS INVOLVED FROM DATE OF RECEIPT OF RESEARCH ARTICLE TILL THE PUBLICATION OF ARTICLE

 ARTICLE PROCESSING/PUBLICATION FEE

The journal is open access and charge no fee from subscribers like libraries or readers. The journal also charges no fee for submission or processing fee. To finance web, office, indexing, and other expenses, the publication fee of PKR 50,000 is charged from the authors upon acceptance of their manuscript for publication after completion of double-blind peer review process. We also offer up to 10% fee waiver in publication fee to MS/M.Phil./PhD students who face financial hardship. The details of payment will be emailed upon submission of a complete manuscript.

For overseas manuscripts (outside Pakistan), a sum of US$ 250/- will be charged as publication fee upon acceptance of manuscript. Overseas authors can send the fees through bank transfer. Exact details of the account and transfer will be emailed once a complete manuscript is submitted, processed, and accepted after double-blind peer review process.

DISCLOSURE AND CONFLICT OF INTEREST, CORRECTION AND RETRACTION OF RESEARCH ARTICLES, CONTRIBUTION AND CONSENTS OF EACH AUTHOR AND ANY OTHER INFORMATION   

 When submitting a manuscript to Journal of Policy Research, authors are always asked to disclose potential conflicts of interest. A conflict of interest is any activity or role of an author that might cause bias in the research conducted in the paper. Ideally conflicts of interest should be avoided, but in reality, this is not always possible; for example, an author might be a consultant for a drug company because he or she is an expert in the field. The purpose of declaring conflicts of interest in scientific papers is to provide transparency in reporting science to the public, and to give readers an opportunity to judge the value of the publication.

Conflicts of interest can be financial or non-financial. All journals require disclosure of financial relationships (funding, employment, stocks, consultant fees, lecturing fees, etc), while some journals also require disclosure of non-financial relationships (unpaid advisory role, membership, etc, sometimes even political or personal beliefs). Journal of Policy Research Form for Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest, which does include non-financial relationships. Nature journals only started requesting authors to disclose competing non-financial interests this year. Authors should always check journal guidelines about what to include. Only relationships relevant to the study in the manuscript need to be declared. There is no definite cut-off as to how relevant or how much money is involved when a conflict of interest has to be reported. The authors will need to make their own judgment, but if it is something that a reader might perceive as can affect the objectivity of the author, it should be disclosed.

If a conflict of interest is not disclosed in a published paper but later found out by a reader and reported to the journal, the journal usually will ask the authors to clarify whether such a claim is true and may ask the authors’ institution to investigate if the research is still credible. Failure to disclose conflicts of interest generally will not lead to retraction of the paper by the journal, but the authors will need to update their disclosure and the journal would publish a correction. However, retractions may happen if journals find that the authors have omitted major conflicts of interest that are likely to influence the study.

Of course, authors are not the only ones who need to disclose conflicts of interest during the publication process. Reviewers and editors are also required to disclose any potential conflicts of interest to the editorial board when handling a paper.