Iseeadyar

Indian Society for Education and Environment

Indian Journal of Science and Technology

Publication Policies and Editorial Ethics

Publication Policies and Editorial Ethics

Publication Policies and Editorial Ethics

  1. Open Access Policy

In order to ensure maximum reach of contents published by Indian Society for Education and Environment (iSee), we have adopted the open access policy, meaning that;

  • All the articles published by Indian Society for Education and Environment (iSee) are made freely accessible online immediately after publication in an easily readable format, without any subscription or registration barrier.
  • All the published articles are licensed under a Creative Commons license.

Articles can be shared and adapted, provided the attribution for the work is given.

II.Peer-review Policy

All the manuscripts submitted to Journal Published by iSee will be subjected to double blinded peer review process;

o The manuscript will be reviewed by two suitable experts in respective subject area.

o The reports of both the reviewers will be considered while deciding on acceptance/revision or rejection of a manuscript.

o Editor-In-Chief will make the final decision, based on reviewer’s comments.

o Editor-In-Chief can ask one or more of the advisory board members for their suggestions upon a manuscript, before making the final decision.

o Associate editor and review editors provide the administrative support to maintain the integrity of peer review process.

o In case, authors challenge editor’s negative decision with suitable arguments, the manuscript can be sent to one more reviewer and the final decision will be made based upon his recommendations.

III. Licensing Policy

To fully realize the potential of open access to research literature, barriers to reuse

need to be removed. The Creative Commons (CC) licenses have emerged as an effective legal instrument to achieve this.

Instead of transferring rights exclusively to publishers (the approach usually followed in subscription publishing), authors grant a non-exclusive license to the publisher to distribute the work, and all users and readers are granted rights to reuse the work.

CC-BY allows for unrestricted reuse of content, subject only to the requirement that the source work is appropriately attributed. The CC-BY license thereby requires that authors are given appropriate credit for their work, as explained in a recent post from Creative Commons (http://wiki.creativecommons.org/BIS_committee_UK_OA_Policy).

  1. I Archiving Policy

This journals published by iSee utilizes the AWS system to create permanent archives of the journal contents for purposes of preservation and restoration.

  1. Publication Ethics
  • The Journals published by Indian Society for Education and Environment is an electronic Double Blind peer reviewed journals upholding the highest standards.
  • Articles not in accordance with publication ethics and malpractices will be removed from publication if detected at any time.
  • Plagiarism and research fabrication such as making up of data, manipulation of existing data, tables etc. and ethical clearance on the use of humans or animals for the study will also be checked.
  • The publisher reserves the right to use plagiarism detecting software to screen submitted papers at any time and suspected plagiarism or duplicate publishing will be reported immediately.
  1. AI policy

iSEE publication follows COPE recommendation. AI assisted manuscript preparation involving Large Language Models (LLMs) including ChatGPT do not satisfy the authorship criteria (https://publicationethics.org/cope-position-statements/ai-author). While, AI- assisted copy editing is acceptable to minimize human role in proof-reading and grammatical corrections, AI-generated autonomous content creation does not support for ‘Original manuscript’ a human author to claim.     Authors’ declaration indicating how AI tool was used should be stated.

VII. Authorship Policy

In broader sense, the “Authorship” is  a recognition of a person who makes a substantial contribution in to the research and being accountable for the work undertaken. iSee follows the COPE guidance (https://publicationethics.org/files/COPE_DD_A4_Authorship_SEPT19_SCREEN_AW.pdf).

Author(s)’ Responsibility

i.They must ensure that:

  • Their work is original
  • Must not have been published elsewhere
  • Other authors, contributors or sources should be appropriately credited
  • They are responsible for language editing before submission
  • Their work has not been copied or plagiarized in whole or part from any other work
  • The financial support and conflict of interest for the project / research work if any should be disclosed
  • They are obliged to notify the editor if any error or inaccuracy is discovered and co- operate with the editor to correct the same
  • Articles should be submitted using online procedures. Simultaneous publication in more than one publication is a breach of publication ethics.

Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) during the 2nd World Conference on Research Integrity in Singapore in 2010 has developed the below mentioned guidelines. Indian Society for Education and Environment Journals, as a publisher follows COPE, WAME and has adopted COPE’s best practice guidelines for dealing with ethical issues in a journal. The Journal Members (Advisory Board, editors and the journal manager) have consented to adopt the COPE as it meets the purpose and objective of the Journals. The Editorial Board also works in consensus with ‘Asian Council of Scientific Editors’ expectations.

The following is a summary of COPE’s international standards for authors of scholarly research publications and describes responsible research reporting practice. The comprehensive guidelines can be downloaded here

▪     The research being reported should have been conducted in an ethical and responsible manner and should comply with all relevant legislation.

▪     Researchers should present their results clearly, honestly, and without fabrication, falsification, or inappropriate data manipulation.

▪     Researchers should strive to describe their methods clearly and unambiguously so that their findings can be confirmed by others.

▪  Researchers should adhere to publication requirements that submitted

work is original, is not plagiarized, and has not been published elsewhere.

▪     Authors should take collective responsibility for submitted and published work.

▪  The authorship of research publications should accurately reflect individuals’

contributions to the work and its reporting.

▪  Funding sources and relevant conflicts of interest should be disclosed.

VIII. Ethical Clearance

iSEE insists the authors to get necessary approval from the  Institutional Ethics Committees/Institutional Review Boards/Ethics Committees (ECs). For Experiments involving humans or human samples or Data. The authors need to disclose such approval  by indicating the Reference number and date of issue. The Ethical approval level may vary as per the geographical jurisdiction, but iSEE insists authors to follow the SCOPE guidelines for ethical clearance

Experiments involving Cell lines:

When cell lines of cancer derivatives used, the authors should disclose the source of supply with reference number; if gifted by someone, the original source should be disclosed; a written consent should be provide if it is of human origin. In all these cases, an Institutional ethical committee’s approval must be obtained.

Experiments involving Plant:

iSEE recommends for authors to comply with Convention on the Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and the Convention on Biological diversity when wild and endangered plants are used as study materials. Necessary National or institutional permission should have obtained while using infected plants or infecting the plants with endemic pathogens. 

For Clinical Protocols

Clinical study-based manuscripts should SPIRIT (http://www.spirit-statement.org/) protocols

Clinical Trial Policy

iSEE publication follows World Health Organisation  (WHO) guidelines for a clinical study: “Any research study that prospectively assigns human participants or groups of humans to one or more health-related interventions to evaluate the effects on health outcomes. Interventions include but are not restricted to drugs, cells, and other biological products, surgical procedures, radiological procedures, devices, behavioural treatments, process-of-care changes, preventive care, etc. This definition includes Phase I and Phase IV trials”.

  1. Data sharing policy

iSEE supports transparency in publication and endorses the need for Research data publicly available. Hence, the authors are suggested to make data availability statement in the manuscript which includes the details on what data and where it is available. The sharing of research data on public domain may include what modifications made in the protocol or algorithms, codings, software, raw data obtained, questionnaires used in data collection, sequencing of genetic materials or peptides etc. We also encourage authors to deposite/ archive their research data for public domain. In case of  ethical or privacy issues, those data should not be shared but authors should make known the limitations or exceptions clearly in the Data Availability Statement. However, the authors need to include the essential data or experimental protocol information or key modification of the existing algorithms or codes that may be felt as minimum requirement in the manuscript for publication.

iSEE encourages the authors to make use of Open Science Framework to deposit data and archive in Zenodo. Also encouraged to follow the Data Availability Statement guidelines provided by NatureResearch  or MDPI 

  1. Editor’s Responsibility

They must ensure that:

▪     The submitted manuscript undergoes Double – blind peer review before publishing

▪  They will strive to prevent any conflict of interest between the

author and editorial and review personnel

▪     All the information related to the submitted manuscript is kept confidential prior to publishing

  1. Reviewer’s responsibility

Peer Review is the backbone for quality publication. The articles published in Indian Journal of Science and Technology follows the process by which Editors mediate all interactions between reviewers  and authors.

The iSEE publication adapts COPE guidelines (COPE Council. COPE Ethical guidelines for peer reviewers — English.  https://doi.org/10.24318/cope.2019.1.9) and insists the reviewers to follow the COPE guidelines laid out as follows:

“Professional responsibility

 Authors who have benefited from the peer review process should consider becoming peer reviewers as a part of their professional responsibilities. Some journals require a formal process of appointment to the review panel, and some require specific expertise; anyone interested in becoming a reviewer should look for the journal guidelines on peer review and follow any requirements posted. In order to assign appropriate reviewers, editors must match reviewers with the scope of the content in a manuscript to get the best reviews possible. Potential reviewers should provide journals with personal and professional information that is accurate and a fair representation of their expertise, including verifiable and accurate contact information. It is important to recognise that impersonation of another individual during the review process is considered serious misconduct (eg, see COPE Case 12-12: Compromised peer review system in published papers) (https://cope.onl/case-review-2). When approached to review, agree to review only if you have the necessary expertise to assess the manuscript and can be unbiased in your assessment.  It is better to identify clearly any gaps in your expertise when asked to review.

Competing interests:

Ensure you declare all potential competing, or conflicting, interests. If you are unsure about a potential competing interest that may prevent you from reviewing, do raise this. Competing interests may be personal, financial, intellectual, professional, political or religious in nature. If you are currently employed at the same institution as any of the authors or have been recent (eg, within the past 3 years) mentors, mentees, close collaborators or joint grant holders, you should not agree to review. In addition, you should not agree to review a manuscript just to gain sight of it with no intention of submitting a review, or agree to review a manuscript that is very similar to one you have in preparation or under consideration at another journal. Timeliness It is courteous to respond to an invitation to peer review within a reasonable time frame, even if you cannot undertake the review. If you feel qualified to judge a particular manuscript, you should agree to review only if you are able to return a review within the proposed or mutually agreed time frame. Always inform the journal promptly if your circumstances change and you cannot fulfil your original agreement or if you require an extension. If you cannot review, it is helpful to make suggestions for alternative reviewers if relevant, based on their expertise and without any influence of personal considerations or any intention of the manuscript receiving a specific outcome (either positive or negative).

Timeliness:

It is courteous to respond to an invitation to peer review within a reasonable time frame, even if you cannot undertake the review. If you feel qualified to judge a particular manuscript, you should agree to review only if you are able to return a review within the proposed or mutually agreed time frame. Always inform the journal promptly if your circumstances change and you cannot fulfil your original agreement or if you require an extension. If you cannot review, it is helpful to make suggestions for alternative reviewers if relevant, based on their expertise and without any influence of personal considerations or any intention of the manuscript receiving a specific outcome (either positive or negative).”

In case, plagiarism is detected during review/editorial process, such manuscript(s) will be rejected immediately and we can also consider other steps depending upon the seriousness of the case. If the plagiarism is proven after publication, such manuscript(s) will be removed from our website and appropriate announcement will be placed in this regards.

Further, Indian Society for Education and Environment or its Journal’s Editorial Board representative can bring such instances to the notice of author’s funding agencies, author’s institutes (where they work) and to the original authors whose work has been plagiarized. Please report the plagiarism to  indjst@gmail.com or indjst@iseeadyar.org

Editorial board or Publisher of the Journals reserves the right to verify the originality of research content submitted for publication with organization where the research reportedly carried out.

XII. Special Issue

Indian Journal of Science and Technology upholds the quality objectives laid by DOAJ for ‘Special issue publication’. 

“Journals that publish special issues or other content curated by guest editors must adhere to these additional criteria:

  • The Editor-in-Chief must be responsible for the content of the entire journal, including all special issues, which must fall within the scope of the journal
  • Special issue articles must have the same editorial oversight as regular papers, including external peer review, and be clearly labelled
  • Journals must ensure that guest editors’ credentials are checked and approved
  • The Editor-in-Chief or dedicated board members must oversee the guest editors
  • Papers submitted to a special issue by the guest editor(s) must be handled under an independent review process and make up no more than 25% of the issue’s total”

XIII. Manuscript Withdrawal Policy

Authors must abide by these policies after submission of their manuscript.

Authors must provide their consent to publish their manuscript prior to peer- review process. Withdrawing an already confirmed manuscript after it has been accepted would attract a minimal article handling charge.

If the author withdraws the article after acceptance of the manuscript and payment has also been made, there will be NO REFUND of the Article Processing Charge (APC) already paid.

If a Manuscript is withdrawn over indexing issues, NO REFUND will be made.

XIV. Waiver Policy

Indian society for Education and Environment as publisher may grant the

partial/full waiver in article processing charges to those authors who are unable to pay the APCs due to financial crisis.

Only the authors from low income countries can apply for waiver. Waiver is applicable for one article per year for each submitting author. Please send your waiver requests along with abstract to  indjst@gmail.com, for confirmation before submission.

  1. Disclaimer

The author(s) of each article appearing in iSee’s Journal is/are solely responsible for the content thereof; neither the Publisher nor the journal editors or anyone else involved in creating, producing or distribution assumes any liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information provided in the Journal (s), nor shall they be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages arising out of the use of the journal content.

XVI. Plagiarism

For every Journal, the peer review process is at the heart of the success of publishing. As part of our commitment to the protection and enhancement of the peer review

process, The Indian society for Education and Environment would like to ensure that all published articles are within the accepted level of plagiarism. The publisher uses the very well and widely accepted Plagiarism Detection tool, iThenticate alone or in combination with other tools. All submitted Manuscripts are first subjected to Plagiarism check and then the Publishing cycle begins.

In case, plagiarism is detected during review/editorial process, such manuscript(s) will be rejected immediately and we can also consider other steps depending upon the seriousness of the case. If the plagiarism is proven after publication, such manuscript(s) will be removed from our website and appropriate announcement will be placed in this regards. Further, the publisher or Journal Editor can bring such instances in notice of author’s funding agencies, author’s institutes (where they work) and to the original authors whose work has been plagiarized. Please report the plagiarism to  indjst@gmail.com

XVII. Article Retraction

Editor’s decision is the decisive factor for all scholarly publications. However, this decision is based on Editorial Policies – which includes plagiarism, copyright etc  are in tune with the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) for retraction. It becomes important to retain the Published articles as it is – without any alterations. However, owing to certain circumstances, a published article may at times be retracted, removed or may require a change.

Retraction could be due to: Plagiarism

Bogus Authorship Fraudulent Data Correction in Publication

Standards for Article Retraction at Indian Society for Education and Environment

Journals are:

The article PDF will remain available with the watermark “Retracted” available on it. Only in case of legal/controversial/incorrect PDF, they will be replaced or removed completely from the website with a note.

  XVIII. Geopolitical neutrality

ISee, in all its publications, maintains its geopolitical neutrality; any trans boundary rights of sovereign States and their representations and institutional affiliations are solely the representative of the authors only.

Privacy Policy:

What information do we collect? We collect information from you when you register on the site, place an order, respond to a survey or communication such as e-mail, or participate in other site promotions. When ordering or registering, we may ask you for your name, date of birth, e-mail address, mailing address, phone number, credit card information or other information.

How do we use your information? We may use the information we collect from you when you register, purchase products, Article Processing Charge (APC), enter a contest or promotion, respond to a survey or marketing communication, browse the website, or use certain other site features in the following ways:

         To quickly and securely process transactions

         To administer promotions, surveys or other site features

         To allow us to better service you in responding to your customer service requests

If you have opted-in to receive Indian Society for Education and Environment (iSee) e-mails and its product information/newsletters, we may send you periodic e-mails from iSee. If you would no longer like to receive iSee e-mails or newsletters, please free to unsubscribe via the option below each mailer. Visitors who register or participate in other site features such as marketing programs will be given a choice whether they would like to be on our e- mail list and receive e-mail communications from us.

How do we protect visitor/Author information? We implement a variety of security measures to maintain the safety of your personal information. Your personal information is contained behind secured networks and is only accessible by a limited number of persons who have special access rights to our systems, and are required to keep the information confidential. When you place orders or access your personal information, we use a secure server. All sensitive/credit information you supply is transmitted via Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology and then encrypted into our databases to be only accessed as stated above.

Do we disclose the information we collect to outside parties? We do not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer to outside parties your personally identifiable information unless we provide you with advance notice, except as described below. The term “outside parties” does not include website hosting partners and other parties who assist us in operating our website, conducting iSee business/publications, or servicing you, so long as those parties agree to keep this information confidential. We may also release your information when we believe release is appropriate to comply with the law, enforce our site policies, or protect ours or others’ rights, property, or safety. Non-personally identifiable visitor/author information may be provided to other parties for marketing, advertising, academic or other uses.

How can you opt-out, remove or modify information you have provided to us? To modify your e-mail subscriptions or completely opt-out of receiving iSee or its publication product e-mails please let us know by emailing us at indjst@iseeadyar.org and simply ask us to remove your company, name or account from our email list. Please note that due to email production schedules you may receive any emails already in production.

If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on this page. Policy changes will apply only to information collected after the date of the change. This online privacy policy applies only to information collected through our website and not to information collected offline.

 

WEBSITE TERMS & CONDITION

This website is owned and operated by Indian Society for Education and Environment (iSee) , as “Publisher”. By accessing or using our website in any way, you agree to comply with the following Website terms and conditions of use, Privacy Policy, and iSee Policy (collectively our “Website Conditions”), as well as any other laws or regulations which apply to this website. In addition, when you make an enquiry or submit articles for publication or order any products or services through this website, you will do so subject to the terms and conditions on this page, iSee policy, subject to all our other website conditions and such further terms and conditions as may be notified to you. By using this website, you acknowledge that you have read and understood all of the website conditions and agree to be bound by them. However, if you do not or cannot accept our website conditions in totality and without modification, you must stop using our website immediately.

We may revise and update our website conditions at any time and your continued usage of this website means you accept those changes. While iSee aims to ensure that the information in this website is correct, sometimes errors do occur for which we apologize. Please refer back to these website terms & conditions of use from time to time so that you are aware of the revised and current terms and conditions.

All fees or Article Processing Charges (APCs), unless indicated otherwise are in Indian Rupees or in USD. By indicating user’s acceptance to purchase any product or service offered on the site, the user is obligated to complete such transactions. Users shall prohibit from indicating its acceptance to purchase products and services where it does not intend to complete such transactions.

In a credit card transaction, you must use your own credit card. iSee will not be liable for any credit card fraud. The liability to use a card fraudulently will be on the user and the onus to ‘prove otherwise’ shall be exclusively on the user.

COPYRIGHT

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