Policy_Guidelines

 

 

 

Scope and Missions

Review in Iqbal Studies “Afkar e Taza” promotes the research done in Iqbal studies in Pakistan and on the issues related to the Iqbal’s Thoughts and the whole world. Because Iqbal studies is a vast field, the journal has a broad scope. Researchers from universities, colleges, and research centers are invited to publish their work in “Afkar e Taza”. We do not discriminate based on cast color, race, religion, affiliation, or geographic location. We have an exceptionally recognized and dedicated editorial board comprised of experts from various academic fields, which ensures that the journal's quality and review standards adhere to international research publishing standards, as well as the timely release of research articles. The research work is published on merit. The editorial board has the final right to accept or reject any research work. The decision of the editorial board of “Afkar e Taza” cannot be challenged. It is an open-access journal and follows the guidelines of creative common (CC-BY-NC).

Our mission is to promote research in Iqbal Studies and mainly provide opportunities to the researchers of Pakistan to share their research findings with the world. We appreciate new ideas and research work with practical implications in our region and country.

Content and Licensing

“Afkar e Taza” by USKT provides open access according to the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 International License.

Privacy Statement

According to the CC BY NC licensing agreement, you are accessible to Share-copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and Adapt-remix, transform, and build upon the material.

The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms as given under:

  • Attribution - You must give appropriate credit, link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so reasonably, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
  • Noncommercial- You may not use the material for commercial purposes.
  • No additional restrictions- You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

Notices: You do not have to comply with the license for elements of the material in the public domain or where an applicable exception or limitation permits your use.

No warranties are given. The license may not give you all the permissions necessary for your intended use. For example, other rights such as publicity, privacy, or moral rights may limit how you use the material.

All papers submitted to “Afkar e Taza” are considered on the following conditions:

  • It should be the original work of the author/s and is not copied from any previously published work of any other author/s or the same author/s.
  • It should only be submitted to “Afkar e Taza” and not to any other journal simultaneously. Further, it should not be under consideration/peer-reviewed/accepted for publication in the press or published elsewhere.
  • It should not contain abusive, defamatory, libelous, obscene, fraudulent, or illegal.

Any author who fails to adhere to the above conditions will be barred from further publishing in “Afkar e Taza”.

Copyrights

“Afkar e Taza” gives the publication and copyrights under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 to the author/s. “Afkar e Taza” uses plagiarism detection software to screen manuscripts for unoriginal material. By submitting your manuscript to “Afkar e Taza”, you agree to any necessary originality checks your manuscript may have to undergo during the peer-review and production processes.

 Ethical Guidelines

“Afkar e Taza” has ethical guidelines for researchers, editorial board members, reviewers, publishers, and this journal's stakeholders. In addition, we have our ethical guidelines, which are followed in letter and spirit. In addition, we also follow the ethical guidelines of the Higher Education Commission-HEC of Pakistan. Further, “Afkar e Taza” also abides by the ethical guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics-COPE.

  • Ethical Guidelines of “Afkar e Taza”
  • Ethical Guidelines of HEC
  • Ethical Guidelines of COPE

Ethical Guidelines for Researchers

“Afkar e Taza” ethical guidelines are given here for those who intend to publish their work in this

1 The manuscript you submit to “Afkar e Taza” must not be forwarded to any other journal until the decision of the editorial board of “Afkar e Taza” is communicated to you.

2 The manuscript should not contain any illicit material nor contravene any existing copyright unless with due permission.

3 The author should have permission from another manuscript holder(s) to reconstruct their manuscript not owned by the author.

4 "Proof of Consent" regarding the use of names of people and organizations must be given.

5 The author who submits the final draft of the manuscript is responsible for the material concur to publication and the order of the other authors listed on the paper.

6 All persons making significant contributions to the research should be listed as author(s). Minor contributions may be acknowledged in the Acknowledgement section.

7 It is the responsibility of the author(s) to announce any potential conflict of interest in the paper. Any support from the third party must be mentioned in the Acknowledgement section.

8 The author should not deposit the final version of the manuscript into an organizational repository until “Afkar e Taza” has published the manuscript. The paper will be deposited in the repository by the editor(s) of “Afkar e Taza” after publishing.

9 The author should not allow others to gather and save his paper to a separate server electronically.

10 All authors must submit a Consent Form and a Contribution Form mentioning their contribution to the research paper submitted. The consent form should have the signatures of all the authors showing that they have reviewed the article and agree to take responsibility for the content.

The corresponding author who submits the manuscript to “Afkar e Taza” should practice and follow the authors' guidelines as mentioned, as all manuscripts which are not according to the guidelines will not be processed. Furthermore, the author should also accept that, in severe cases of misconduct, which the editorial board will finally decide, they may be barred from publishing in “Afkar e Taza”.

Errors and Corrections

Notices of corrections will be uploaded on the website and in the online version of the journal. Any possible modification will be done in the manuscript in fulfillment of the corrections requirements. Authors must submit an Errors and Omissions Correction Form to the editor. Such notices will contain one of the following:

(a) Error and Omissions in Printing a. Any error or omission in publishing due to oversight of the publisher is corrected at the request of the author(s). This form indicates publishing errors or negligence usually occurring in the publication process. Such errors will appear on the online version of the manuscript at the abstract level to ensure visibility for readers. Moreover, corrections are made upon scrutiny of the request made by the author(s).

(b) Error and Omission in Writing a. Any error or omission made before submitting the manuscript also requires a request on the error correction form by the author(s). The editorial board will then scrutinize the request and make necessary changes and corrections. These corrections will be made in the manuscript's online version to ensure readers' visibility.

Retraction

This notice will only be used in major cases of ethical misconduct or when research is misleading, plagiarized, or against the general interest of the country or society. In normal

circumstances, the manuscript will remain in the outline version of the journal. However, the retraction will appear on the manuscript's online version to ensure readers' visibility. The retraction notice will be published as a separate item in the upcoming issue and assigned a DOI number for future reference by the researchers.

Such notice will clearly state the causes for the manuscript being withdrawn factually. For example, it might be necessary to eradicate manuscripts from the database for legal reasons. In this case, a note to this effect will be presented on the online table of contents. If this notice is required for the author's work, “Afkar e Taza” will reserve the right to bar the author(s) from publishing in “Afkar e Taza”.

Clarification Note

A clarification note may clarify any points as and when required, which may not be considered a correction. Please note that any amendment must be highlighted as a stated publishing error, author error, or note of clarification. The editorial board can only amend the text if required, and their decision will be final.

Expression of Concern

In cases where the conclusion is unclear or where we cannot make a fair decision due to conflict of interest or lack of information, “Afkar e Taza” will publish an expression of concern about the manuscript. An expression of concern will appear on the online version of the manuscript at the abstract level to ensure visibility for readers. It will also appear on the online version of the manuscript.

“Afkar e Taza” reserves the right not to proceed with a case if the complainant presents a false name or misbehaves towards the “Afkar e Taza” team.

Guidelines in Making Decisions about Ethical Misconduct

Ethical Misconduct

There are several types of ethical issues. The ethical misconduct may include the following:

  • Plagiarism
  • Self-plagiarism
  • Authorship issues
  • Defamation/Libel
  • Fabrication
  • Unethical Research or Testing
  • Conflict of interest

Plagiarism

There should be zero plagiarism. However, there may be similarity in the submitted articles, which is then analyzed for any possibility of plagiarism. This similarity should also not exceed 19%.

  • There should not be any missing reference of work cited in the text by the author in the list of references at the end of the article
  • There should not be any similarity of more than 5% from a single source
  • The editorial board has the right to evaluate a submitted paper to determine whether any similarity constitutes plagiarism.
  • The editorial board may ask the author/s to provide the data files and the results drawn by the authors

Self-Plagiarism

“Afkar e Taza” only accepts original work. Any similarity between someone's work or the author/s own work is scrutinized for plagiarism detection. Any reproduction from the author's work should be according to the requirements and norms of research. Research papers submitted from research theses by scholars and students should also adhere to the general rules of similarity.

Authorship Issues

All authors should have significant contributions to a research paper. Anyone who has a minor contribution to a research paper should be acknowledged.

Authorship issues fall into three main types:

  • the exclusion of a contributor from the list of authors
  • the inclusion of persons who have not contributed to the manuscript
  • the order of the authors on the manuscript and the level of contributors that have made to the manuscript

The editorial board's decision of the journal “Afkar e Taza” will be final in resolving any authorship dispute. Nevertheless, as the research process is undertaken before submitting a manuscript to “Afkar e Taza”, “Afkar e Taza” or the editors can't comment on the level of contribution by each author.

Authorship cannot be changed after the completion of the peer-review process. However, if an article is not sent for peer review, the corresponding author may apply for changes in authorship with a sound reason.

Defamation/Libel

Suppose a study is done by some organization or people. Their consent should be provided. In case of any defamation, seen by the editorial board or mentioned by the concerned organization/person, the submitted article may be rejected.

Suppose unconfirmed, controversial, and wrong statements are made about organizations or people in a submitted paper. In that case, “Afkar e Taza” reserves the right to ask for changes and alterations or may reject the manuscript.

Critiques and reviews of products and services are acceptable, but comments must be constructive and must not be made maliciously.

If statements have been made in a manuscript published by “Afkar e Taza” and considered defamatory, retraction may be done, and “Afkar e Taza” may issue an apology.

Fabrication

Making up data or results and/or reporting the results would constitute fabrication. In case of fabrication, the editorial board of “Afkar e Taza” may reject the article, or if found after publishing the paper, it may be retracted. In addition, the author/s may also be barred from publishing in “Afkar e Taza”.

Unethical Research and Testing

An author must follow appropriate national and international procedures regarding data protection, privacy rights, medical testing on humans and animals, and child protection. Authors must make all consent and requisite forms available from the appropriate regulatory bodies to the editors and publishers at “Afkar e Taza”. “Afkar e Taza” encourages all authors to demonstrate how their study contributes to the advancement of society. If a study is found to break national and international procedures and this is confirmed with the appropriate regulatory body, “Afkar e Taza” may go for retraction.

Conflict of Interest

The authors, editor, and reviewers should declare all conflicts of interest.

Conflict of interest:

  • A personal and financial interest in the outcomes of the study
  • Undisclosed financial support for the study by an interested third party
  • A personal and financial interest in the suppression of the study

Before the review, a note to highlight the background of financial support for the study from third parties or any other possible conflict of interest must be added to the manuscript.

If a conflict of interest is suspected, then this should be reported to “Afkar e Taza”. For example, a concern about an editor should be raised with the journal publisher at “Afkar e Taza”.

In all cases, “Afkar e Taza” may:

  1. Act efficiently and professionally and reply to emails and letters of complaint to
  2. Be completely objective and fair
  3. Always scrutinize the evidence before taking further steps
  4. Always approach the accused person/s to clarify their position before taking any action
  5. Ensure that they provide sufficient time for all parties to respond
  6. Keep all parties informed of decisions, including copyright owners, authors, and editors
  7. It is “Afkar e Taza's responsibility to secure the author's moral rights and to ensure the correct record of the literature

Following a fair and considered process, the final decision in any disputed case will rest with the “Afkar e Taza” and its editorial board. Please note that “Afkar e Taza” reserves the right to end the process with a case if the complainant presents a wrong name or acts inappropriate or threatening towards the “Afkar e Taza” team.

Ethical Guidelines of HEC

“Afkar e Taza” also adheres to the Ethical Guidelines of the Higher Education Commission-HEC of Pakistan. These ethical guidelines can be downloaded using the following link:

https://www.hec.gov.pk/english/services/faculty/SSAH/Documents/JCR/HEC%20Approved%20Ethical%20Guidelines.pdf

Ethical Guidelines of COPE

“Afkar e Taza” also considers the Ethical Guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics while solving ethical issues of publication in the journal. These guidelines can be downloaded using the following link:

https://publicationethics.org/guidance/Guidelines