Publication Ethics

Indian Journal of Library and Information Technology (IJLIT)

Our journal is committed to maintaining the highest standards of publication ethics. All parties involved in the publication process, including authors, editors, reviewers, and the publisher, are expected to adhere to the ethical guidelines outlined in this statement. We follow the principles of transparency, integrity, and accountability to ensure the credibility and integrity of the academic research we publish.

Duties of Authors

• Originality and Plagiarism: Authors must ensure their work is original and plagiarism-free. Proper citation and acknowledgment of the work of others are mandatory. Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.
• Reporting Standards: Authors must present their results clearly, honestly, and without fabrication, falsification, or inappropriate data manipulation. All data should be represented accurately in the manuscript.
• Multiple, Redundant, or Concurrent Publication: Authors should not submit the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal constitutes unethical publishing behavior.
• Acknowledgment of Sources: Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given. Authors should cite publications that have influenced the nature of the reported work.
• Authorship of the Paper: Authorship should be limited to those who have contributed significantly to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. Others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the research project should be acknowledged or listed as contributors.
• Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest: All authors should disclose any financial or other substantive conflicts of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed.
• Fundamental Errors in Published Works: When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in their own published work, it is the author's obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with them to retract or correct the paper.

Duties of Editors

• Publication Decisions: The editor is responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the journal should be published. The decision should be based on the paper's importance, originality, clarity, and relevance to the journal's scope.
• Fair Play: The editor must evaluate manuscripts for their intellectual content without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors.
• Confidentiality: 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, other editorial advisers, and the publisher, as appropriate.
• Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest:Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in an editor's own research without the author's express written consent. Editors should recuse themselves from handling manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest.

Duties of Reviewers

• Contribution to Editorial Decisions:Peer review assists the editor in making editorial decisions and, through editorial communications with the author, may also assist the author in improving the paper.
• Promptness:Any selected reviewer who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and excuse themselves from the review process.
• Confidentiality:Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shown to or discussed with others except as authorized by the editor.
• Standards of Objectivity:Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Reviewers should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.
• Acknowledgment of Sources: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. Reviewers should also call to the editor's attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper they know personally.
• Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest:Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts 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.

Duties of the Publisher

• Handling of Unethical Publishing Behaviour:In cases of alleged or proven scientific misconduct, fraudulent publication, or plagiarism, the publisher, in close collaboration with the editor(s), will take all appropriate measures to clarify the situation and to amend the article in question. This includes the prompt publication of an erratum, clarification, or, in the most severe case, the retraction of the affected work.
• Access to Journal Content:The publisher is committed to the permanent availability and preservation of scholarly research and ensures accessibility by maintaining our digital archive.

Suppose your research is published, and none of these conditions have been met. In that case, we may take action in line with the COPE guidelines, which may result in one of the following correction notices, or we may remove or retract the article or book chapter from our database. For details about publication ethics and publication malpractices, one can visit COPE: https://publicationethics.org/