The AJSS is committed to applying publication ethics based on the COPE’s Code of Conduct and Best Practices.

Introduction:

The AJSS aims to be a main channel for communicating data and sharing ideas and information with the scientific research community. It is mandatory for us to strictly follow a code of ethics, which will greatly enhance the quality of the published works in the journal. This current written code of ethics provides guidance on the proper behavior of editors, authors and reviewers in the process of scientific publication.  

Authors and Co-authors 

Authors

The AJSS is committed to following and applying the International Standards for Authors provided by the Committee on Publication Ethics, in designing and leading the journal’s reviewing and publishing processes and other related issues.

Authors submitting a paper confirm that the manuscript has been read and approved by all authors and that all authors agree to the submission of the manuscript to the journal. 

The AJSS adheres to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), who recommend  that authorship be based on the following four criteria:

• Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work,
• drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content,
• final approval of the version to be published, and
• agreement 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.

It is a requirement that all authors have been accredited as appropriate upon submission of the manuscript. Contributors who do not qualify as authors should be mentioned under Acknowledgements. 

In addition, authors must strictly follow the code of ethics by only submitting manuscripts that are their own original work or work they are associated with during their tenure. 

Submitted manuscripts should contain original and new results, data, and ideas, which have not been submitted for publishing to other publications or published elsewhere. Fabrication of data and results, intellectual property theft, and plagiarism are highly unacceptable. Information obtained via various media should be provided in the manuscript only with prior permission from the owner of the source of information or data. 

AJSS uses Turnitin to detect submissions that overlap with published and submitted manuscripts. Manuscripts that are found to have been plagiarized from a manuscript by other authors, whether published or unpublished, will be rejected and the authors may incur sanctions. Any published articles may need to be corrected or retracted.

Authors must properly cite the work they are referencing and are strongly advised to crosscheck the reference before submitting a manuscript. 

They may not promote their works in any form via any media to get them published. No article may have an author who is not directly involved in the work. 

Authors and co-authors are requested to review and ensure the accuracy and validity of all the results prior to submission. Any potential conflict of interest should be communicated to the editor in advance. Authors are bound by the Creative Commons licensing policy of publication. 

All authors are requested to submit the copyright transfer form without failure, once they receive the acceptance of their article for publication.  

Editors 

The AJSS is committed to following and applying the International Standards for Editors provided by the Committee on Publication Ethics, in designing and leading the journal’s reviewing and publishing processes and dealing with related issues.

The term editor is a commonly used to refer to the Chief Editor of any journal, its Content Editor, Subject Editor, and editorial board members. 

Editors of the AJSS are fully responsible for the editorial and technical decisions of the journal. Any editor or office bearer should not intervene or give comment on any editorial decisions taken on any manuscript by the concerned editor. Editors are requested to give unbiased considerations for the articles submitted. The AJSS aims for timely publication, and editors are therefore advised to process the manuscripts promptly and diligently. 

Editors are the persons solely responsible for the acceptance or rejection of a manuscript; it may be subjected to peer review, but the final decision is bound to the concerned editor. 

Any decision taken or matter of concern about a submitted article should not be revealed to anyone by an editor. If one of the editors is willing to publish an article, the article should be processed by another editor. 

Any editor should refrain from using the information, data, theories, or interpretations of any submitted manuscript in his/ her own work, until that manuscript is in press.  

Reviewers 

Reviewers are the main element of the journal, as a peer reviewed (blind referee) journal. They are obligated not to disclose their identity in any form. 

A reviewer should immediately decline to review an article submitted if he/she feels that the article is technically unqualified or if the timely review cannot be done by him/her or if the article has a conflict of interest. 

All submissions should be treated as confidential; editorial approval may be given for any outside person’s advice received. 

No reviewer may pass on the article submitted to him/her for review to another reviewer. If that happens, it should be declined immediately. 

Reviewers must ensure that the articles published must be high quality and original. They may inform the editor if they find the article submitted to them for review is under consideration in any other publication. 

Analysis and evaluation of articles is done on a case-to-case basis, taking into consideration the worthiness, quality, and originality of the article submitted. 

In general, the following may be evaluated in a review: 

• The structure of the article submitted and its relevance to authors’ guidelines 
• The purpose and objective of the article 
• The method of using transitions in the article 
• The introduction and the conclusion
• The references provided to substantiate the content 
• Grammar, punctuation, and spelling
• Plagiarism issues 
• Suitability of the article to the need 

The acceptance or rejection of an article is decided by reviewers; they are one major element in a peer review process. All our reviewers are requested to review the articles submitted to them in detail and provide their comments without any bias, which will increase the quality of the journal.  

Breach of Code 

All individuals must abide by the code of ethics. Being a non-profit body, the AJSS does not enforce this: it is the internal responsibility of individuals to abide by it.

AJSS committee members are entitled to take action against an individual, if they are found to have violated the code.