Note: These guidelines are retrieved from the Higher Education Commission (HEC), Pakistan manual for “Ethical Guidelines for Journals”, which has been prepared by Dr. Rukhsana Kausar, Director of Institute of Applied and Clinical Psychology, University of the Punjab, Lahore.

 FOR AUTHORS:

The following ethical guidelines are mandatory for all author(s). Violation of these guidelines may result in the application of penalties by the competent authorities, which will lead to the suspension or cancellation of publishing rights.

1. Reporting Standards:

• Will ensure that the research report and data contain satisfactory detail and references.
• False, knowingly inaccurate, or inappropriate statements are unethical and unacceptable in any way/case.

2. Originality of Research and Plagiarism:

• If Plagiarism is found in any of its forms, it sets up unethical publishing manners and leads to the rejection of research.
• Material quoted in the same must be placed in quotation marks.
• The similarity index shouldn’t be more than 19%, As per HEC’s policy.

3. Declaration & Certificate:

• A declaration certificate will be required that the Article/Research Paper/ manuscript contains the only author(s) original work that is not under consideration for publishing in any other journal/proceedings in any form.
• The co-authored paper must be accompanied by an undertaking to claim the right to authorship and to ensure that all have agreed to the sequence/order of authorship.

4. Submission to Other Journals for Publication:     

• Submission of the same manuscript to more than one journal is unethical and leads to rejection at once.         

5. Acknowledgment of Sources in Research:

• A paper must contain a proper acknowledgment of the work of others.
• The author(s) must also acknowledge the contributions of people, organizations, and institutes who assisted the process of research or financial funding (in the acknowledgment).
• It is the duty of the author(s) to conduct a literature review and cite the original publications.

6. Research Work Authorship Credit:

• Authorship of the work will be only credited to those who have made a significant contribution to the presentation of the concept, data analysis, and writing up of the manuscript.
• The corresponding author(s) should ensure that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.

7. Privacy of Participants/Author(S):

• Authors must respect the privacy of the participant(s) of the research.
• Authors must ensure that in examples where the identity of the participant needs to be revealed in the study, obvious and informed consent of the concerned party is obtained.

8. Research Data Access and Preservation:

• If any question arises about the accuracy or validity of the research work during the review process the author(s) should provide raw data to the Editor.

9. Already Disclosure and Conflicts Of Interest:

• The potential conflicts of interest of all author(s) must be conveyed to the editor at the earliest possible stage, including but not limited to employment, consultancies, honoraria, etc.
• If necessary for Research, all sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed at the earliest.     

10. Conditions of Manuscript’s Acceptance and Rejection:

• 60 days after submission of the Paper and receiving an acknowledgment letter, the author can ask about the status of his article.
• In case of any recommended and suggested revision, the author(s) will be demanded to revise his research accordingly in the time given by the Editor. Later on, he must provide a description of all corrections made in the manuscript and the revised copy.
• If the author does not satisfy with the decision of rejection, the author can appeal the decision by contacting the Editor.