Publication Ethics and Malpractices

Publication Policy of Journal of General Management Research

A research article is the output of intellectual investment of a researcher. Publication of an article in Journal of General Management Research allows the authors to disseminate their research findings to a large group of audience, including academicians as well as practitioners. It also benefits the authors, as it improves their credentials. It brings repute of making significant contribution to the development of contemporary management practices. This requires the published work to be high in academic rigour, offering rich insights that are relevant to current and upcoming management issues. The publication of an article in the journal follows an elaborate workflow of assessment and review.

Copyrights and Access policy

All the scholarly articles published in the Journal of General Management Research are open-access, with the articles covered under the Creative Commons Licence (CC BY 4.0). This gives, the articles published in the journal, a wider reach and increased readership, thereby increasing the author’s intellectual presence. The copyright of the submitted article remains with the author, with first publication rights (online as well as in print) being with the journal. The journal does not charge any publication fees from its authors. This permits anyone to copy, redistribute, remix, transmit and adapt the work provided the original work and source is appropriately cited.

Plagiarism

• Each submitted manuscript must be an original piece of work. It shall not be an article which has been published earlier or considered elsewhere.
• All submissions undergo plagiarism checks and identification of plagiarism may lead to article rejection.
• Violation of copyright in the submission may lead to rejection if the problematic pieces cannot be removed.
• Replicating a table or figure from any copyrighted publication requires proper referencing of the original source and written permissions from the copyright holders.

Open Access Policy

After being accepted and published, all the research papers will have open access and can be accessed easily. The research papers are universally accessible and freely available through internet. All of them will be available in easy and readable format. The author will not be charged for the open and free access of his/her publication.

Article renunciation

The article may be removed from the publisher’s database if it:

• Violates ethical codes.
• Is subject to a legal dispute.
• Consists of fraudulent data.

Duties of Editors

The editor has overall responsibility for the journal. He/she has to maintain the journal’s reputation. He/she is accountable for the maintenance of quality of the journal’s academic content.

Common roles and responsibilities of Editors:

• Identify emerging topics and ensuring submission of high quality manuscript to the journal.
• Design and direct the overall strategy of the journal development. It is important that their publishing contacts are kept in regular touch, to report on the performance of the journal and suggest plans for further development, in accordance with editor’s suggestion.
• Handle day to day communications, answer the submission enquiries for the journal and establish the procedure for the timely flow of manuscript i.e. author to reviewer and back, then finally to publisher.
• As the journal’s representative, the Editor has to handle the assigning content according to the accepted industry standards for integrity and with the policies of the journal and the publisher.
• Editor is authorized to select the members for Editorial and Advisory board, continuously involve them on the progress of the journal and share with them, the ideas for the development of the editorial /advisory board.
• Promote the journal to the peers and colleagues for wider expansion.
• Editor may delegate work to the associates and may also deputize some decisions to them. The editor will be the one, who assigns articles, coordinates peer review, communicates with authors and reviewers, and follows the technical editing of manuscripts.

Duties of Editorial Board

The editorial board (also known as advisory board) consists of a group of subject experts within the scope of the field of the journal. The editorial board is also responsible for the promotion of journal. They act as ambassadors for the journal. To a large extent, the quality and credibility of the journal is judged by the members of its editorial board.

Common roles and responsibilities of an editorial /advisory Board of Journal include:

• Associates directly with the editor for development and promotional initiatives of the journal.
• The selection of the editorial board is chosen on the basis of their expertise in key areas related to the journal.
• On an average, after three years the editorial board undergoes a renewal process such as inviting a new member, renewing existing members as determined by the editor and publisher for upcoming issues.
• An editorial board has to encourage the submission of articles for the journal from their contacts. This will ease the sourcing of good quality articles for the journal.
• The board members have to act as a guest editor for special/themed issues for the journal.

Note: It is important that members of the Editorial Board have a regular interaction, either in person or online platforms.

Duties of Reviewers

The role of the reviewers is to evaluate the submitted manuscript based on the requirements of the journal. The submitted manuscript must be reviewed critically, on the basis of journal guidelines, predefined standards, quality, comprehensiveness, and accuracy. The reviewers are expected to follow the given guidelines

• Compliance to Timelines: Reviewer has to follow the scientific procedures and ensure timely reviewing. To gain professional advantage, timely review is essential for publication. Therefore, it is expected from the reviewer to adhere to the deadlines and complete the review in the given time period.
• Confidentiality:Maintaining confidentiality is mandatory for reviewers. Reviewers are expected to not share any information provided in the manuscript with anyone.
• Constructive critique: Reviewers are expected to give their judgement clearly enough, so that editors and authors can understand the basis of the comments. The feedback and corresponding recommendation about the acceptance or rejection along with suggested improvements or changes should be provided to the editor about the manuscript. This will enable the editor to take the final decision.
• Competence: Reviewers are expected to have subject expertise to make their competence clear to the editor.
• Fairness and integrity: Reviewer has to maintain the integrity and quality of the journal. In this way, reviewers can help to prevent unethical research practices.

Duties of Authors

• All authors must declare that they have read and agree to the content of the submitted manuscript.
• A manuscript may be rejected by the editorial board if it is felt that the work was not carried out within an ethical framework.
• Plagiarism in any form constitutes a serious violation of the most basic principles of scholarship and cannot be tolerated.

Examples of plagiarism include the following:

• Word-for-word copying of portions of another person’s writing, without enclosing the copied passage in quotation marks and acknowledging the source in the appropriate scholarly convention.
• The use of a particularly unique term or concept that one has come across in reading without acknowledging the author or source.
• The paraphrasing or abbreviated restatement of someone else's ideas without acknowledging that another person's text has been the basis for the paraphrasing.
• False citation: Material should not be attributed to a source from which it has not been obtained.
• False data: Data that has been fabricated or altered in a laboratory or experiment; although not literally plagiarism, this is clearly a form of academic fraud.
• Unacknowledged multiple submission of a paper for several purposes without prior approval from the parties involved.
• Unacknowledged multiple authors or collaboration: the contributions of each author or collaborator should be made clear.
• Self-plagiarism/double submission: The submission of the same or a very similar paper to two or more publications at the same time.

Peer Review Policy

• Once a submitted article is found complying with author guidelines as well as fitting to the scope of the Journal of General Management Research, the editor will assign the same to a panel of reviewers. Every article submitted to the journal shall undergo a double – blind peer review. The objective of review is to assess the level of scientific rigour as well as to give a detailed view of the research proposition and establishment of a scientific procedure for arriving at results.
• The peer reviewers of the journal are selected on the basis of their area of expertise as well as availability. Reviewers are being asked to evaluate the originality of research idea, the methodology adopted along with its suitability with respect to the identified research problem, the compliance with ethical standards, the clarity and alignment of research results with the objectives, level of richness in discussions and conclusions derived. The reviewers are also expected to check the referencing of previous work quoted/paraphrased.
• Reviewers are not expected to correct the language, but they are free to provide feedback on the same to enhance the quality of submission.
• The authors must understand that the peer review process is intended to provide critical but constructive suggestions in order to improvise the manuscript.
• The peer review process in the Journal of General Management Research is a time bound activity. The reviewers are expected to complete the peer review in the suggested time frame. The reviews will be sent to the authors along with the recommendation made by the reviewers. In the rare case of contradictory recommendations, after going through the detailed reviews, the Editor may seek an additional review.
• The final decision to accept or reject a manuscript lies with the Editor only.

Duties of the Publisher

The publisher’s duty is to handle the unethical and illegal publishing behavior. In cases of fraudulent practices, misconduct, malpractices in publication or misinterpretation of plagiarism then the publisher, in close collaboration with the editors, will take all the appropriate legal measures to clarify the situation & 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. The publisher along with the editors will take reasonable steps to identify and prevent the publication of papers where research misconduct has occurred, and under no circumstances encourage such misconduct or knowingly allow such misconduct to take place.

Archiving Policy

Journal of General Management Research keenly supports the self-archiving process of author(s). Authors can self-archive their accepted version of the manuscripts on their personal and professional websites. They can deposit their published work in their Institutional repositories post-publication of their manuscript, on the condition that they have acknowledged the source of publication with citation along with the link to final printed article.