Peer review process for publication of an article forms the core of Publication ethics policy of BJKines- National Journal of Basic & Applied Sciences. We strictly follow and maintain the expected ethical behaviour for all parties involved in the act of publishing: authors, journal editors and the peer reviewers. Our ethic statements are based on COPE’s Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors.
In case of identification of breach of publication ethics, the editorial team holds the right to ban the authors from future publication in the journal up to a period of 3 years. The list of authors barred from publication will be uploaded on the journal website. The editors may also decide to inform the affiliated institutes/ university regarding research misconduct by the authors.
The editor of the journal reserves the final authority for deciding which of the articles submitted to the journal should be published. The editor shall take into consideration the policy of journal’s editorial board and other legal requirements, as applicable. The editor may confer with other editors or reviewers in making this decision.
An editor at any time evaluates manuscripts for their intellectual content without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship or political philosophy of the authors.
The editor and any editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, editorial advisers and the publisher, as appropriate.
A statement regarding disclosure of funding and conflict of interest should be included in the published manuscript, as and when applicable.
The protection of a patient's right to privacy is essential. A statement to indicate that written informed consent had been obtained must be included in the ‘Methods’ section of the manuscript. If necessary, the editors may request a copy of any consent forms.
Any corrections in the already published manuscripts will be communicated in the subsequent issues.
The editorial team will involve reputed subject expert from various specialties or super specialties to assist the review process. Peer reviewers assist the editor/ editorial team members in making decisions regarding acceptance/ rejection/ revision of submitted manuscripts. This may help the author as well in improving the paper.
In case a reviewer feels that a prompt review will not be possible, then he or she shall notify the editor and excuse himself or herself from the review process.
Any manuscripts received for review must be handled as confidential documents. They must not be shown to or discussed with others except as authorized by the editor.
Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Reviewers should express their views distinctly with supporting arguments. Any doubts/ concerns regarding the manuscript may directly be conveyed to the editorial team by the reviewers as well.
Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. Any statement that an observation, derivation, or argument had been previously reported should be accompanied by the relevant citation. A reviewer should also bring to the editor's attention, if any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper is detected.
Elite information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal benefit. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts for review in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.
Authors of reports of original research should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data should be represented accurately in the paper. A paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable.
Authors may be asked to provide raw data in connection with a paper for editorial review, and should be prepared to provide public access to such data whenever required by the editorial team or readers. Authors should in any event be prepared to retain such data for a reasonable time after publication.
The authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works, and if the authors have used the work and/or words of others that this has been appropriately cited or quoted.
An author should not in general publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal or primary publication. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behaviour and is unacceptable.
Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given. Authors should cite publications that have been used while reporting the present work.
If the work involves chemicals, procedures or equipment that have any unusual hazards inherent in their use, the author must clearly identify these in the manuscript.
All authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might be important with regards to interpretation or influence of results or that of the manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed.
When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper.