Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement 

The journal follows publication ethics and strict guidelines to deal with malpractices. The issues such as data manipulation, plagiarism, undue credit given to authors not practically contributing to a manuscript, misuse of images, audio, video recordings or exploiting the personal information of the participants and other such unethical practices are strictly handled by the Editor/s of the journal with a zero-tolerance policy. All manuscripts submitted to the journal are preliminarily scrutinized by the editorial office to examine whether they strictly adhere to the ethical policy of the journal. In case of violation of the journal’s ethical policy for the publication of manuscripts, they are immediately rejected without proceeding a peer-review.

Approval from Institutional Review Board/Research Ethics Committee
Approval from an Institutional Review Board (IRB) or a Research Ethics Committee (REC) should be sought before executing research that involves human participants, and it should be described in Recruitment of Participants under the Methods section of the manuscript. It should be reported that participants were engaged in the study after gaining written informed consent and that their identity will not be disclosed at any time in the future.

Data Protection and Personal Information
The participants’ personal or professional life should not be at risk due to their involvement in the research. Any sensitive data must be reported with the utmost care, anonymity, and confidentiality, particularly in qualitative studies, where researchers work very closely with the participants.

The authors are required to protect the data in any form reported in the manuscript for at least one year after the publication of the manuscript so that it may be produced in case of an objection or violation of ethical principles of publication identified or reported later on. If authors themselves found inaccuracies or discrepancies, they should bring it into the notice of the Editor for rectification on an urgent basis. The authors must ensure the confidentiality and anonymity of the participants, and it should be assured that the results of the study would not harm them anyway.

Plagiarism and Data Manipulation
Plagiarism is defined as producing or re-producing a text, data in any form or idea without appropriate citation of the original sources. The plagiarism and manipulation of data such as images and audio or video recordings will not be accepted at any cost. A manuscript having plagiarism at any stage during the submission, review, or publication process will be rejected. A manuscript will be withdrawn or retracted by the journal if the plagiarism is reported or detected after the publication, and the editorial office will notify this on our webpage. The authors are recommended to avoid self-plagiarized content that is not properly cited and/or substantially re-produced.

According to the COPE Report (1999), “Fabrication and falsification of data do constitute misconduct” (p. 43). The images, audios, and videos are prohibited and considered highly unethical if they are subject to forging or adjusted in any form. An identification of manipulation in any form of qualitative or quantitative data during the review, publication process or after the publication would be rejected or retracted. The authors should report the results impartially and remain unbiased while discussing these results.

It is suggested that authors should read journal’s page on Instructions for Authors before submitting the manuscript.
Also, they are advised to read GUIDELINES ON GOOD PUBLICATION PRACTICE developed by Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Retractions, Corrections and Expressions of Concern
The Journal will consider retractions, corrections or expressions of concern in accordance with COPE’S RETRACTION GUIDELINES. The journal follows these guidelines for retracting or correcting manuscripts when required. The journal’s editor will issue a corrigendum or an erratum if an error is made by the author/s or the journal respectively. We are always willing to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies when required during the publication process.

Authorship and Contributorship
The journal recommends to follow the given below four principles of authorship and contributrorship described in Publishing Ethics: Academic Research (June 2020) by Cambridge University Press:

1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; and/or
2. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and
3. Final approval of the version to be published; and
4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work and to ensure that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

It implies that an individual would qualify as an author if he/she had sustainably contributed to a manuscript in terms of conceptualization of the research problem, design of the research, data collection, analysis, presentation, revision, editing, or drafting of the manuscript. The authors should clearly indicate about such contribution/s they have made while researching, reviewing or reporting the manuscript. According to the COPE Report (1999), “If there is no task that can reasonably be attributed to a particular individual, then that individual should not be credited with authorship (p. 44).”

A manuscript submitted to another journal concurrently will be rejected. It is strictly prohibited to translate an already published content into the English language and submit to the journal. Nevertheless, the authors are allowed for retractions or corrections of mistakes. They should also provide a list of references, financial support and acknowledgement if applicable.

A replacement or addition of an author in the list should be supported by all the other authors already included in the list provided evidence of contribution is established. The corresponding author should coordinate between the editorial office and all the other authors for reaching a numinous decision about the inclusion of another author or making a change in the author list. An addition or change in the author list will not be supported if we can not find evidence of contribution by the concerned author.

It is suggested that authors should read journal’s page on Instructions for Authors before submitting the manuscript.
Also, they are recommended to follow the guidelines given in HOW TO HANDLE AUTHORSHIP DISPUTES: A GUIDE FOR NEW RESEARCHERS developed by Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Duplicate and Redundant Publication

Duplicate or redundant publication is a reproduction of an already done research, its main part or a self-plagiarized work presented without cross-reference to the original work or without providing a justification of the duplication by the author/s. The journal allows such publications as recommended by Cambridge University Press Publishing Ethics: Academic Research (June 2020) in the following lines:

1. It is felt that editorially this will strengthen the academic discourse; and
2. We have clear approval from the original publication; and
3. We include citation of the original source.

Conflicts of Interest
According to the COPE Report (1999), “Conflicts of interest comprise those which may not be fully apparent and which may influence the judgment of author, reviewers, and editors. They may be personal, commercial, political, academic or financial (p. 44).” The authors should reveal a possible conflict of interest, if there is any, in the manuscript before submission to the journal. The authors and reviewers should disclose their personal interests, benefits, or relationships that could unethically affect the authorship or evaluation of the manuscripts. Conflict of interests may occur in the form of financial gains such as a monetary grant, scholarship, funding, paid position or employment, and non-monetary benefits such as promoting personal relationships, professional development, promotions, or up-gradation in the job status. Such interests, where relevant, must be declared to editors by researchers, authors, and reviewers.

Copyright and Access
The articles published by JSSSH are available publically and openly without making any payment to the journal. The articles can be accessed in full text without prior permission from the corresponding author or the journal. Nevertheless, the researchers, scholars, and authors must cite the original author/s of the published articles appropriately. The journal allows the author/s to hold the copyright and to retain publishing rights without restrictions. For more details, please visit our page on Open Access Policy.

Responsibilities of the Editor
All manuscripts submitted to the Editorial Office pass through a meticulous review process. Two independent reviewers are engaged by the editor for peer-review depending on a specific field of research and availability of the reviewers. On the recommendation of the reviewers, a final decision is made by the Editor or by a member of the Editorial Board nominated by the Editor of the journal in case conflicts of interest can influence the decision. The Editor maintains the quality of entire publication procedures by coordinating with academic and administrative persons. He approves Associate Editors, Editorial Assistant/s, and new members of the Editorial Board. The Editor communicates with Associate Editors of the journal and Members of the Board when required.

For more details, please visit our page on the Journal’s Editorial Policy.

Peer Review
All manuscripts are subject to a thorough peer-review process. Initially, the Editorial Office scrutinizes a manuscript to assess the minimum acceptable standard of the manuscript and to evaluate if it fits in with the scope of the journal. The Editor or one of the Associate Editors then allocates two reviewers to a manuscript who are expected to provide review reports as per the criteria laid out in the evaluation proforma. The recommendation and reports of reviewers are conveyed to the corresponding author if required, and the author submits the revised version of the manuscript. The second round of review may be undertaken by the reviewer/s, if suggested by the Editor or Associate Editor. The revised manuscript is reviewed by the Editor, one of the Associate Editors or Members of the Editorial Board if the reviewer/s did not show his/her willingness to review it again. Finally, the decision of publication is made by the Editor after all the requirements are met by the corresponding author, reviewers, and the Editorial Office.

The reviewers should focus on the ethical aspects of publications. It should be noted that authors have credited the sources by appropriate citation and referencing method. The reviewers should indicate the relevant published work which is not yet cited in the manuscript and reviewed manuscript should be treated confidentially before it is published.

The editorial office attempts to take necessary measures to avoid any conflict of interest. Nevertheless, the reviewers are requested to examine the manuscript to see if they suspect a conflict of interest that may cause bias on their part. We expect from the reviewers to report such manuscripts so that alternative reviewers may be assigned for ensuring unbiased review reports and maintaining ethical values of publication. The reviewers, in any case, should understand that the content of the assigned manuscript should be kept confidential, and they should not disclose their identity to the corresponding author, co-authors, or any other colleague or friend who may know the authors of the manuscript.

It is recommended that reviewers should read journal’s page on Review Process & Policy before reviewing the manuscript.
Also, they are advised to read ETHICAL GUIDELINES FOR PEER REVIEWERS (ENGLISH) developed by Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Archiving
The journal is listed in Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and planning for electronic backup and preservation of access to its content. We are also requesting to seek archiving service from Public Knowledge Project (PKP).

Right to Appeal
We consider appeals on editorial decisions. The authors, reviewers, and editors have the right to appeal to the Editor of the Journal. The authors may appeal a rejection of their manuscript by presenting a detailed description of the justification as per the objections raised by the reviewer/s and/or the editorial office. The Editor may engage reviewer/s, any member of the editorial board, and associate editor/s to reconsider the status of the manuscript. Any decision taken at this stage is considered final and cannot be challenged. If you have concerns and desire to appeal or file a complaint please contact: editorial.office@jssshonline.com

Dealing with Misconduct
It is the responsibility of authors, reviewers, and the editorial office of the journal to mutually cooperate to find out a violation of any of the above-mentioned guidelines, identify malpractices or any other misconduct that is judged to be against the ethical values of researching, reporting and publishing a scientific manuscript. The editorial office will contact to concerned author, organization, or funding agency for appropriate measures that may be taken for rectification of the published content or any other action that may be taken by the relevant person or a body. The misconduct will be investigated by the Editor/s and the principles of dealing with misconduct, determination of serious, less serious misconduct and possible sanctions that may be applied to deal with malpractices and misconduct will be guided by The COPE Report (1999).

The GUIDELINES ON GOOD PUBLICATION PRACTICE developed by Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) will be followed to deal with misconduct.
Also, the relevant sections of SHARING OF INFORMATION AMONG EDITORS-IN-CHIEF REGARDING POSSIBLE MISCONDUCT developed by Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) will be followed for managing possible misconduct.