Researchers should conduct their research – from research proposal to publication – in line with best practices and codes of conduct of relevant professional bodies and/or national and international regulatory bodies. IJHSDR is committed to upholding the integrity of the scientific record.

​

Open Access Policy

IJHSDR is an open access journal. The IJHSDR provides immediate, unlimited and free open access to its content. Benefits of the open access are: increased citation and usage; rapid publication; faster impact with permissive licenses; copyright retention by the author.

 

Open-access articles

Authors are committed to publish their articles under Creative Commons licenses (CC-BY 4.0).Authors whose articles are published in open-access retain copyright to the content of the articles. The publisher is granted the right to make the first publication of the article. Open access articles can be published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0: allows content to be copied, adapted, displayed, distributed, re-published or otherwise re-used for any purpose including for adaptation and commercial use provided the content is attributed.

 

IJHSDR articles are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

​

Permissions

If a table or figure has been published before, the authors must obtain written permission to reproduce the material in both print and electronic formats from the copyright owner and submit it with the manuscript. This follows for illustrations and other materials taken from previously published works not in the public domain. The original source should be cited in the figure caption or table footnote.

 

Peer Review

IJHSDR uses double-blind review, which means that both the reviewer and author identities are concealed from the reviewers, and vice versa, throughout the review process. The peer-review process can take anywhere between three months to six months. The aim of the review process is to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the article, in terms of originality, interest, up-to-dateness, coherence, and balanced argumentation.

After the double-blind peer review of a manuscript, the corresponding author will receive an email in which s/he will be informed of the status of the manuscript. The possible decisions include acceptance, acceptance with major or minor revisions, or rejection. Articles that are often rejected include those that are poorly written or organized or are written in poor English. In most cases, IJHSDR reviewers recommend that authors revise their manuscripts and send their revisions to IJHSDR for further processing. In such cases, authors may want to accept some of the comments and suggestions that have been made by the reviewers, and at the same time refute some others. It is strongly recommended that authors send in a 'rebuttal' note (in the form of a Microsoft Word file (i.e., a "Rebuttal.doc" or "Rebuttal.docx" file) in which they respond to all of the comments and suggestions made by the reviewers in an item-by-item fashion. They should clearly show which comments and suggestions they accept, and which comments and suggestions they refute. Where a comment or suggestion is refuted, the author is expected to provide the reason why. However, if authors are encouraged to revise and resubmit a submission, there is no guarantee that the revised submission will be accepted. Rejected articles will not be re-reviewed. Articles may be rejected without review if the Editor-in-Chief considers the article obviously not suitable for publication. The paper acceptance is constrained by such legal requirements as shall then be in force regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism. No research can be included in more than one publication.

Even in case of a positive evaluation, manuscripts not conforming to the author guidelines will be returned to the authors for further revision.

 

Conflicts of Interest

Conflicts of Interest Policy

International Journal of Humanities and Social Development Research has a transparent publication policy and adheres in principle to the Conflict of Interest policy recommended by the COPE.

​

Transparency, objectivity, fairness, highest standards of integrity and ethical conduct are essential elements to authors, editors and reviewers for publication in IJHSDR which is strictly dedicated to the ethical principles and it is important to address potential conflicts of interest policy. Editorial members can submit to the IJHSDR with respect to blind reviewing and confidentiality.

Journal submissions are assigned to editors in an effort to minimize potential conflicts of interest. In the event that none of the editors satisfy all of the conflict screens, co-editors who are least conflicted will be assigned to the manuscript. Journal submissions are also assigned to referees to minimize conflicts of interest. After papers are assigned, referees are asked to inform the editor of any conflicts that may exist.  

 

Reviewing Process

Each manuscript undergoes a double-blind peer review process starting with initial review by the Editorial Board members. If found to be of a suitable quality and meets the aims and scope of the journal, it will then be sent to at usually two reviewers. The reviewing process takes up to 4 months from the date of receipt of the article. Where manuscript revision is required, authors are urged to ensure that the necessary corrections are made before the manuscript can be accepted for production.

​

Anonymity and Confidentiality

Editors, authors and reviewers are required to keep confidential all details of the editorial and peer-review process on submitted manuscripts. Unless otherwise declared as a part of open peer-review, the peer review process is confidential and conducted anonymously. All details about submitted manuscripts are kept confidential and no comments are issued to outside parties or organizations about manuscripts under consideration or if they are rejected. Editors are restricted to making public comments on a published article’s content and their evaluation. Upon accepting an invitation to evaluate a manuscript, reviewers must keep the manuscript and associated data confidential, and not redistribute them without the journal’s permission. If a reviewer asks a colleague to assist in assessing a manuscript, confidentiality must be ensured and their names must be provided to the journal with the final report.

We ask reviewers not to identify themselves to authors without the editor's knowledge. If they wish to reveal their identities while the manuscript is under consideration, this should be done via the editor; if this is not practicable, we ask authors to inform the editor as soon as possible after the reviewer has revealed their identity. Our own policy is to neither confirm nor deny any speculation about reviewers' identities, and we encourage reviewers to adopt a similar policy.

We deplore any attempt by authors to confront reviewers or try to determine their identities. Reviewers should be aware that it is our policy to keep their names confidential and that we do our utmost to ensure this confidentiality. We cannot, however, guarantee to maintain this confidentiality in the face of a successful legal action to disclose identity.

Regardless of whether a submitted manuscript is eventually published, correspondence with the journal, referees’ reports, and other confidential material must not be published, disclosed, or otherwise publicized without prior written consent.

​

Duplicate Publication

Papers must be original and not published or submitted for publication elsewhere. This rule also applies to non-English language publications.

​

IJHSDR allows and encourages prior publication on recognized community preprint servers for review by other scientists before formal submission to a journal. The details of the preprint server concerned and any accession numbers should be included in the cover letter accompanying manuscript submission. This policy does not extend to preprints available to the media or that are otherwise publicized outside the scientific community before or during the submission and consideration process.

IJHSDR also allows publication of meeting abstracts before the full contribution is submitted. Such abstracts should be included with the journal submission and referred to in the cover letter accompanying the manuscript. Again this policy doesn’t extend to meeting abstracts and reports available to the media or which are otherwise publicized outside of the scientific community during the submission and consideration process.

​

Plagiarism

The editorial board is very strict regarding plagiarism. The journal believes that taking the ideas and work of others without giving them credit is unfair and dishonest. Copying even one sentence from someone else’s manuscript, or even one of your own that has previously been published, without proper citation is considered plagiarism-use your own words instead. The editorial board retains the absolute authority to reject the review process of a submitted manuscript if it subject to minor or major plagiarism and even may cancel the publication upon the complaint of victim(s) of plagiarism.

Plagiarism is not limited to the text; it can involve any part of the manuscript, including figures and tables, in which material is copied from another publication without permission and attribution. An author may not reuse his or her own previously published work without attribution; this is considered text recycling (also known as self-plagiarism).

​

Data Fabrication & Falsification

Falsification is the practice of altering research data with the intention of giving a false impression. This includes, but is not limited to, manipulating images, removing outliers or “inconvenient” results, or changing, adding or omitting data points. Fabrication is the practice of inventing data or results and recording and/or reporting them in the research record. Data falsification and fabrication call into question the integrity and credibility of data and the data record, and as such, they are among the most serious issues in scientific ethics.

Some manipulation of images is allowed to improve them for readability. Proper technical manipulation includes adjusting the contrast and/or brightness or colour balance if it is applied to the complete digital image (not parts of the image).  All sources and methods used to obtain and analyze data, including any electronic preprocessing should be fully disclosed; detailed explanations should be provided for any exclusion. If there are questions or concerns regarding possible image manipulation during the review process, original data images may be requested by the editor.