Publication Ethics Policy

Review/Screening Process
All the manuscripts we receive undergo a rigorous and exhaustive four-tier blind peer review process. Only those manuscripts that meet the exceptional quality standards are published. There is no fixed number of manuscripts we publish in each issue. A four-tier blind peer-reviewed process is followed in the evaluation of all the manuscripts. Each editor prepares a detailed review report of a manuscript which he or she is assigned. At the first level, the manuscript is reviewed by an associate editor, Thereafter, the concerned manuscript and its review report are scrutinized at the senior associate editor level. The senior associate also prepares a report of his or her assessment which is further reviewed by the senior editor. Lastly, the Editor-in-Chief in consultation with the consulting board along with the President and Vice President decide upon the publication of the finalized article. A non-exhaustive list of criteria followed by the editors while preparing the review report is mentioned hereunder:
  1. The article must reflect the originality of the research
  1. The topic of the article must be relating to the fields of Law and/or Public Policy in the present context.
  2. The language of the article must strictly adhere to the highest level of English language proficiency.
  3. The Author should provide sufficient evidence in support of his notion.
  4. The Author’s own views should substantiate his notion.
  5. The Article must reflect that the author has a substantial academic understanding of the topic.
  6. In light of the aforementioned guidelines, the associate editor must satisfy himself/herself for the decision regarding the selection/rejection of the article.
  7.  The editor must record detailed reasons for his/her decision.
The decision making with regard to the selection of manuscripts for publication rests on four levels:
  1. The President and the Vice President
  2. Advisory Board
  3. Consulting Board
  4. Editorial Board
Authorship
All authors whose names appear on the submission
  1. made substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data;
  2. drafted the work or revised it critically for important intellectual content;
  3. approved the version to be published; and
  4. agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
Based on/adapted from:
ICMJE, Defining the Role of Authors and Contributors, http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html
Please note that author names will be published exactly as they appear on the accepted submission
Please make sure that the names of all authors are present and correctly spelled, and that addresses and affiliations are current.
Adding and/or deleting authors at the reviewing stage is generally not permitted, but in some cases, it may be warranted. Reasons for these changes in authorship should be explained. Approval of the change during the review stage is at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief.
Copyright Policy
The manuscripts published by the IJLPP are the Intellectual Property of the Journal. However, for non-commercial purposes, the use of published material is not prohibited.
Competing Interests
Authors must disclose interests that are directly or indirectly related to the work submitted for publication. Interests within the last 3 years of beginning the work (conducting the research and preparing the work for submission) should be reported. Interests outside the 3-year time frame must be disclosed if they could reasonably be perceived as influencing the submitted work. Disclosure of interests provides a complete and transparent process and helps readers form their own judgments of potential bias
What Represents a Competing Interest?
A competing interest is anything that interferes with or could reasonably be perceived as interfering with, the full and objective presentation, peer review, editorial decision-making, or publication of research articles submitted to IJLPP.
A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple interests, financial interests, or otherwise, one of which could possibly corrupt the motivation of the individual or organization. The presence of a conflict of interest is independent of the occurrence of impropriety
(Derived from Committee on Publishing Ethics’ (COPE) definition of conflict of interest)
Declaring all potential competing interests is a mandatory requirement at IJLPP
What to Declare?
Everyone involved in the peer review process must declare all potential competing interests.
  1. Financial competing interests
Financial competing interests include but are not limited to:
  1. Paid employment or consultancy
  2. Board membership
  3. Non-financial competing interests
Non-financial competing interests include but are not limited to:
  1. Membership in a government or other advisory board
  2. Relationship (paid or unpaid) with organizations and funding bodies including nongovernmental organizations, research institutions, or charities
  • Membership in lobbying or advocacy organizations
  1. Personal relationships (e.g. friend, spouse, family member, current or previous mentor, adversary) with individuals involved in the submission or evaluation of a paper, such as authors, reviewers, editors, or members of the editorial board of IJLPP
  2. Personal convictions (political, religious, ideological, or other) related to a paper’s topic that might interfere with an unbiased publication process (at the stage of authorship, peer review, editorial decision-making, or publication)
Who Must Declare Competing Interests?
Authors
At the time of submission, authors must list all competing interests relevant to the submitted manuscript. Examples may include but are not limited to:
Whether they have served or currently serve on the editorial board of the journal to which they are submitting
Editors
Editors must declare their own competing interests. Editorial Board Members are required to declare any interests that might influence, or be perceived to influence, their editorial activities. Failure to do so is a disciplinary action.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is not acceptable in IJLPP submissions. Plagiarized content will not be considered for publication.
Our publishing standards demand originality of content. The submission guideline requires the author(s) to submit manuscripts without any kind of plagiarism. (https://ijlpp.com/guidelines/). We are using one of the best software in the market to check plagiarism. We operate “Plagiarism Checker X” which is a proprietary software to check plagiarism
Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to:
  • Directly copying text from other sources without attribution
  • Copying ideas, images, or data from other sources without attribution
  • Using an idea from another source with slightly modified language without attribution
If plagiarism is detected during the peer review process, the manuscript may be rejected. If plagiarism is detected after publication, we may issue a correction or retract the paper, as appropriate. We reserve the right to inform authors’ institutions about plagiarism detected either before or after publication. 
Confidentiality
IJLPP is committed to ensuring the integrity of the peer-review process. All submitted material should be treated as strictly confidential until published.
The peer-review process is confidential to all parties. Correspondence as part of the review process is also to be treated confidentially by all parties, including authors.
The authors may provide basic details about the nature of the research presented in manuscripts currently under review.
Editors are required to treat all submitted manuscripts in strict confidence and should not share information about submissions with any other parties unless previously agreed with the editor. The involvement of a third party in the review must be declared at the time of the submission of the review.
We expect that editors will not make use of any material or take advantage of any information they gain through the peer-review process.
Simultaneous Submissions
IJLPP publication policy requires that authors should only submit original work that has neither appeared elsewhere for publication nor is under review for another refereed publication. Manuscript submitted for publication must be original and must not have been submitted to any other publication
Duplicate Submissions
Duplicate publication is a publication of a paper that overlaps substantially with one already published in print or electronic media. Previously published papers are not to be submitted at IJLPP for consideration. If a redundant or duplicate publication is attempted or occurs such a manuscript will be liable to be rejected.