Policies & Guidelines
JoDPRP is an open-access, double-blind peer-reviewed journal. JoDPRP follows international publishing guidelines and standards.
1. Peer Review Policy
Each submitted article, if accepted for review undergoes a vigorous double-blind Peer Review by two referees (one national and one international) with expertise in the relevant field suggested by the editor.
Authors submit their manuscripts through an online submission system called “Open Journal System”. The identities of authors and reviewers are kept confidential to avoid any bias in the peer-review process. Authors are asked to submit the blind version of their manuscript without any identifying information such as their names, affiliations, and acknowledgments from the manuscript. The editor does not disclose the identity of reviewers. So, a unique identification code is used to keep it confidential. After the review, reviewers’ constructive feedback is shared with the author for the revisions anonymously. Based on the peer review, the editor decides on whether to accept, reject, or request revisions to the manuscript.
Authors need to be cognizant of the fact that during this process, their submissions will be edited for substance, language, and grammar by a team of referees and expert editors, and their editorial and review decisions will be considered final. Moreover, deadlines/duration of all processes are as follows: a. Paper submission – January every year b. Review of articles (double blind peer review) – 6 – 8 months c. Editing / Acceptance of articles / publication of articles - 3 months d. Timelines of publication of issues, steps involved from date of receipt of research article till the publication of article. The papers are accepted from the first announcement of the call of papers till the given deadline as available for each volume of the website. Late submissions are accommodated in the forthcoming volume. Each article goes through a desk review, software review, and two blind peer reviews followed by editing.
2. Publication Fee Policy
All the articles published in JoDPRP are open access and immediately available on the website upon publication freely. The publisher of Journal of Development Policy, Research & Practice (JoDPRP) is dedicated to disseminating research for the benefit of all stakeholders, therefore, the Institute does not charge Publication Fee or Article Processing Charges from the authors. The publisher institute bears the expense of staff, hosting of website and other related costs.
3. Publication Malpractice Statement
JoDPRP and its publisher, i.e., SDPI, follow the ethical guidelines of Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and Higher Education Commission of Pakistan. All the authors, reviewers, and editors of JoDPRP are bound to follow their guidelines. For more details, please click on the guidelines of COPE and HEC below.
HEC Policies and Guidelines: https://www.hec.gov.pk/english/services/faculty/journals/Pages/default.aspx
Committee on Publication Ethics Guidelines
Guidelines for the Reviewers: https://publicationethics.org/authorship-discussion-document
Guidelines for the Editorial Office: https://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines/ethics-toolkit-editors
Guidelines for Publisher: https://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines/guidelines-managing-relationships-between-society-owned-journals-their-society
Guidelines for Authors: https://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts/complete-set-english
4. Copyright Policy
Authors are required to be mindful of content that might hurt the sentiments of any religious/ethnic group or be considered blasphemous, which might be considered libelous, defamatory, obscene, or otherwise unlawful, or misleading.
Creative Commons Licensing Agreement
This is a human-readable summary of (and not a substitute for) the license.
Disclaimer: Under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license, authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication.
Under CC-by 4.0 authors are free to:
Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format.
Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.
The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms if the license terms are followed.
Under the following terms:
Attribution — Author must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. Author may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses author or author’s use.
No additional restrictions — Author may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
5. Authorship Policy
JoDPRP follows COPE Guidelines for authorship. Articles included in the review process are approved for the review process if they match the scope of the Journal. In case during the review, the referee or the editors team identify issues or authors perspective conflicts with that of the Institute, the case is then referred to the Advisory / Editorial Board. The Board/s then review/s both sides and gives their decision, which the Editors team complies with.
Disclosure of Authorship: Each author should provide a statement that outlines their contribution to the research. This statement should be included in the article. In the article's acknowledgements, contributors who do not meet these criteria should be acknowledged. A statement outlining each author's contribution to the research project is required. During the submission process, this statement must be made available to the Journal's editorial team and included in the article.
Order of Authorship: The primary author should be listed first in the order of authorship based on their relative contribution to the research. Before submitting the manuscript, all authors should agree on the authorship order.
Corresponding Author: The manuscript should identify the corresponding author and include their contact information. Throughout the submission, peer review, and publication phases, communication with the Journal is the corresponding author's responsibility.
Conflict of Interest: Any potential financial or other conflicts of interest that could affect how the research is interpreted must be disclosed by all authors. The article ought to detail any potential conflicts of interest.
Acknowledgments: In the acknowledgements section, all contributors who do not meet the requirements for authorship should be acknowledged. This section should also mention technical assistance and funding sources.
Open Data and Reproducibility: Authors may be required to make their research data and findings public. Transparency and reproducibility in research may benefit from this.
Duplicate Submission: The authors are required to disclose whether the submitted research paper has been previously published or is currently being reviewed by another journal. The authors must provide the specifics of the previous publication or submission if the paper has been previously published or is currently being reviewed by another journal.
The Journal's editorial team will thoroughly examine the manuscript to see if it shares any similarities or overlaps with other works that have been published. The Journal might look for duplicate submissions by using software that detects plagiarism.
The Journal may reject the manuscript, notify the author's institution, and take disciplinary action against the authors, including a ban on future submissions, if it discovers a duplicate research paper submission.
The authors will be notified and allowed to respond if the Journal discovers a potential case of duplicate submission.
To resolve any concerns regarding duplicate submissions, authors must cooperate with the Journal's editorial team and provide all necessary information.
The Journal may take measures to prevent submissions of duplicate research papers, such as requiring authors to sign a statement stating that the paper has not been published before or is not being reviewed by another journal.
Citation Manipulation: Authors must adhere to ethical standards when citing previous work, such as avoiding excessive self-citation and citing only relevant and significant research.
The Journal's Editorial Board will keep an eye on how papers are cited and investigate any unusual spikes in citations. If it turns out that a paper used citation manipulation, the Journal may retract it.
Authors who manipulate citations may face penalties from the Journal, such as rejection, exclusion from future publications, and notification of the author's institution, among other things.
6. Accessibility Policy and Open Access Statement
JoDPRP is committed to continuously improving the accessibility of our published database to ensure uninterrupted readability. All our articles are processed by the Open Journal System (OJS), which converts any files that are not in the desired format and automatically generates "HTML" files for us. This makes our files easily accessible to all kinds of users on the internet and in crawling data to other indexing databases.
Open Access Statement: This is an open-access Journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. This allows for immediate free access to the work and permits any user to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose.
After they are published, all articles are immediately accessible to all internet users. Non-business and business use and circulation in any medium are allowed, given the author and the journal are appropriately credited.
7. Corrections and Retraction Policy
Retractions and corrections are crucial to preserving the integrity of academic publishing. JoDPRP's procedures for retractions and corrections are outlined in the following policy:
Corrections: If an error is found in a distributed paper, the author(s) should inform the publisher/journal's editorial team. The editorial team will take corrective action after a thorough investigation. The Journal may publish a correction notice with the updated information and any necessary explanations if the error is minor. The Journal may consider retracting the paper if the error is more severe.
Retractions: Retractions are reserved for situations in which a paper contains serious errors or ethical concerns, such as plagiarism, data fabrication, and falsification, among others. The author(s) must inform the Journal in writing and explain the retraction if one is required. The Journal's Editorial Team will thoroughly examine the paper, which may involve outside experts if necessary. The Journal will issue a retraction notice with the reasons for the retraction, the title of the paper, the authors, and any other pertinent information if the investigation demonstrates the need for retraction. The withdrawal notice will be distributed in the Journal and mainly linked to the first paper.
Notification: The Journal will inform the authors, readers, and relevant indexing and abstracting services of the correction or retraction in correction and retraction cases. In addition, the Journal will send a copy of the notice to the author's institution and, if applicable, funding agencies.
Appeals: The author(s) may write an appeal to the Journal's Editorial Team if they disagree with the correction or retraction decision. The Editorial Team will provide a written response to the appeal.
Keeper of Records: All corrections and retractions will be recorded in the Journal, along with the reasons for the decision, the title of the paper, the authors, and any other pertinent information. The retraction and correction notices will also be available to Journal’s readers.
8. Digital Archiving Policy
Deposit: The Journal will store all published papers, including metadata, in a reliable digital or institutional repository. The archive should stick to worldwide norms for advanced safeguarding and be focused on long-term conservation and access.
Access: The Journal will give open access to its advanced files, permitting readers to look, view, and download papers without limitations. Using standard indexing and metadata services, the Journal will also ensure that the digital archives are easy to find.
Formats: The Journal will deposit papers in a format suitable for long-term accessibility and preservation. The Journal will also provide authors with guidelines regarding the preferred submission formats to guarantee that papers are deposited in the appropriate format.
Metadata: The Journal will provide accurate and comprehensive metadata for each paper uploaded to the digital repository. The title, authors, abstract, keywords, and publication date will all be included in the metadata.
Backup: To prevent loss in disaster or system failure, the Journal will ensure that backup copies of all digital archives are stored in secure, geographically dispersed locations.
9. Confidentiality Policy
The JoDPRP will treat all submitted manuscripts as confidential documents. The authors, editors, and peer reviewers are involved in the peer review process all of whom are expected to maintain confidentiality.
The Journal guarantees that private information gathered from authors, reviewers, or others is handled safely. The Journal will also ensure that personal information is kept safe and can only be accessed by authorized individuals. The Journal will inform the individuals affected and provide a concise explanation of any breach of confidentiality.
10. Conflict of Interests Policy
Articles included in the review process are approved for the review process if they match the scope of the Journal. In case during the review, the referee or the editors team identify issues or authors perspective in conflict with that of the Institute, the case is then referred to the Advisory / Editorial Board. The Board/s then reviews both sides and gives their decision, which the editors’ team complies with.
11. Plagiarism Policy
Each paper is screened through the Higher Education Commission’s (HEC) licensed plagiarism detection software. Authors are encouraged to generate their own debate and analysis. Referenced/cited text should not exceed 19% of the paper. The Journal has zero tolerance for plagiarism. Authors are requested to rely on recent data and publications.
For details, please visit HEC Plagiarism guidelines at https://www.hec.gov.pk/english/services/faculty/journals/Pages/default.aspx and COPE Plagiarism Flow Chart at https://publicationethics.org/sites/default/files/plagiarism-published-article-cope-flowchart.pdf.
