Publication Ethics and Malpractices

International Journal of Entrepreneurship, Business, Marketing and Management Sciences (IJEBMMS) follows rigorous ethical standards for publishing articles. International Journal of Entrepreneurship, Business, Marketing and Management Sciences (IJEBMMS) ethics and malpractice statement is conceptualized on Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines.

The author (s) are solely responsible for the originality and reliability of the research outcomes and must comply following rules.

  • Data and findings of the research shall be provided only if they are real and reliable.
  • The findings of highlighted research issue must be original.
  • The contribution of other works shall be acknowledged and referred to appropriately. Data sources and supporting evidence must be cited accurately in the text and references section.
  • Any manuscript shall not be submitted if it is already published or sent for publication in another journal.
  • There shall be no violation of copyrights in the text, tables, graphics, and formulas of the manuscript.
  • IJEBMMS strictly condemns breach of research ethics and copyright infringement in submitted articles. Authors are responsible for any kind of manifestations of plagiarism in their manuscript and the editorial board takes rigorous steps to prevent such violations.
  • The authors are accountable for the accuracy of provided information i.e., facts, personal, geographical, companies, organizational and institutional names, etc.  
  • The opinions expressed in research articles are by the authors that do not necessarily suggest the viewpoints of the editorial board. Therefore, no obligation is imposed on IJEBMMS editorial team in this context.
  • A manuscript should not be withdrawn at an advanced stage of the publication process i.e. after completion of the peer-review process or acceptance.

 

Ethical Guidelines for Authors

Reporting Standards

  • It is the author(s) responsibility to ensure that the research report and data contain adequate detail and references to the sources of information to allow others to reproduce the results.
  • The fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statement constitutes unethical behavior and will be unacceptable.

Originality and Plagiarism

  • It is the author(s) responsibility to ascertain that s/he has submitted an entirely original work, giving due credit, under proper citations, to the works and/or words of others where they are used.
  • Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is not acceptable.
  • Material quoted verbatim from the author(s) previously published work or other sources must be placed in quotation marks.
  • As per HEC policy, in case the manuscript has been found to have a similarity index of more than 19% it will either be rejected or left at the discretion of the editor for purposes of conditional acceptance.

 Declaration

  • Authors are required to provide an undertaking/declaration stating that the manuscript under consideration contains solely their original work that is not under consideration for publishing in any other journal in any form.
  • Authors can submit a manuscript previously published in abstracted form, e.g. in the proceedings of an annual meeting, or a periodical with limited circulation and availability e.g. reports by government agencies or university departments.
  • The manuscript that is co-authored must be accompanied by an undertaking explicitly stating that each Author has contributed substantially towards the preparation of the manuscript to claim the right to authorship.
  • It is the responsibility of the corresponding author that s/he has ensured that all those who have substantially contributed in the manuscripts have been included in the author list and they have agreed to the order of authorship.

 Multiple, Redundant and Current Publication

  • Authors should not submit manuscripts describing essentially the same research to more than one journal or publication except it is a re-submission of a rejected or withdrawn manuscript.
  • Authors can re-publish previously conducted research that has been substantially altered or corrected using more meticulous analysis or by adding more data.
  • The authors and editor must agree to the secondary publication, which must cite the primary references and reflect the same data and interpretation of the primary document.
  • Concurrent submission of the same manuscript to more than one journal is unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.

 Acknowledgment of Sources

  • A paper must always contain a proper acknowledgment of the work of others, including clear indications of the sources of all information quoted or offered, except that what is common knowledge.
  • Author(s) must also acknowledge the contributions of people, organizations and institutes who assisted the process of research, including those who provided technical help, writing assistance or financial funding (in acknowledgment).
  • It is the duty of the author(s) to conduct a literature review and properly cite the original publications that describe closely related work.

 Authorship of the Work

  • Authorship of the work may only be credited to those who have made a noteworthy contribution in conceptualization, design, conducting, data analysis and writing up of the manuscript.
  • It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to include the name of only those co-authors who have made significant contributions to the work.
  • The corresponding author should ensure that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.

Others who have participated in the certain substantive aspect of the research should be acknowledged for their contribution to an “Acknowledgement” section.

 Privacy of Participants

  • Authors must respect the privacy of the participant of research and must not use any information obtained from them without their informed consent.
  • The authors should ensure that only information that improves the understanding of the study is shared.
  • Authors must ensure that in instances where the identity of the participant needs to be revealed in the study, explicit and informed consent of the concerned party is obtained.
  • In the event of the demise of a participant, consent must be obtained from the family of the deceased.

 Data Access and Retention

  • If a 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.

 Images

  • The author(s) should ensure that images included in an account of the research performed or in the data collection as part of the research are free from manipulation,
  • The authors must provide an accurate description of how the images were generated and produced.

 Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest

  • The potential and relevant competing financial, personal social or other interest of all author(s) that might be affected by publication of the results contained in the manuscript must be conveyed to the editor.
  • Author(s) should disclose any potential conflict of interest at the earliest possible stage, including but not limited to employment, consultancies, honoraria, patent applications/registrations, grants or other funding.
  • All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed alongside a brief overview of the role played if any by the responses during the various stages of research.

 Copyright

  • Authors may have to sign an agreement allowing the journal to reserve the right to circulate the article and all other derivative works such as translations.  

 Manuscript Acceptance and Rejection

  • The review period can last between 1-2 months or longer and during this period author has reserved a right to contact the editor to ask about the status of the review.
  • Once the review process has been completed, the author will be informed about the status of the manuscript which could either be an acceptance, rejection or revision. In the event of rejection, the Author reserves the right to publish the article elsewhere.
  • In case of revisions, the author must provide an exposition of all corrections made in the manuscript and the revised manuscript will, then, go through the process of affirmation of revisions and be accepted or rejected accordingly.
  • In case of dissatisfaction over the decision of rejection, the author can appeal the decision by contacting the editor.

Review Process

  • Details about the review process should be declared,
  • The editor should ensure that all published papers have gone through a double-blind peer review, and at least one of the reviewers is from outside the country,
  • The editor should ensure that peer-review is masked in both directions and as such the identity of the author is removed from the manuscript before its review to protect the confidentially and privacy,
  • The editor should provide sufficient guidelines to reviewers, including necessary information about the review process and provide them a reviewer comment form for recording his/her comments,
  • The editor must ensure that the peer-review process is prompt, nondiscriminatory and highly professional,
  • The editor should develop a system of confidentiality of research papers undergoing the review process,
  • The editor is required to send reviewers comments to the author(s) promptly,
  • The editor should ensure that the corrections suggested by the reviewers are incorporated by the author(s) in letter and spirit,
  • Editor to critically evaluate peer review practices regularly and make the improvement, if, required,
  • The editor should maintain a database of competent and qualified reviewers. For this purpose, s/he may use various sources other than personal contacts to identify new reviewers (e.g. referring by author(s), citations and references section in a book/journal), and
  • The editor should refer to trouble cases (e.g. in case of one acceptance and one rejection or any conflict arisen after review) to the advisory committee to resolve the matter amicably.