International Journal of Livestock Journal (IJLR) attempts to hold fast to the most elevated moral guidelines of scholarly publishing. Scholarly publishing goes for spreading research discoveries to the more extensive network and consequently, these discoveries ought to be exact and dependable, and without any misbehavior. It is in this way dependent upon the creators, article staff, peer commentators and distributer to fulfill the normal guidelines of moral publishing. The following is a concise outline of desires and adherence to best practices from the publication staff, peer analysts and creators while publishing their exploration in IJLR. What’s more, the methodology for managing deceptive publishing conduct is likewise recorded.
Responsibilities of Editor and Editorial Staff
All manuscripts submitted to IJLR shall be evaluated by editors solely on the basis of their scientific merit (importance, originality, the study’s validity, clarity, reproducibility, relevance) without any discrimination on the basis of race, gender, sex, ethnicity, citizenship, religious belief, political philosophy or institutional affiliation.
Decisions to edit and publish an article in IJLR are not influenced by any other parameters than its scientific merit as listed above.
The editor or the editorial staff is bound not to disclose any information about the manuscript submitted to IJLR to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial staff members, and the publisher if need be, as deemed necessary to evaluate publication of submitted manuscript.
The editor and the editorial staff will refrain from using unpublished information or ideas in a submitted manuscript for their personal advantage or for their own research purposes. The editor will recuse themselves from considering manuscripts in which they have potential conflict of interest (financial, institutional, collaborative or any other); instead, another member of the editorial board shall be entrusted to handle the manuscript.
As stated in the author guidelines for IJLR, all submitted manuscripts will undergo peer-review by at least two independent reviewers who are expert in the subject domain and do not have conflict of interest, as mentioned above, with the submitted manuscript. The decision to accept/ reject manuscript shall be the responsibility of the Executive Editor based on the suggestions of the peer reviewers. The Executive Editor may consult members of the editorial board, where the need arises, while accepting or rejecting the manuscripts.
In an event of unethical behaviour reported to IJLR, irrespective of time after publication of the article, the editor shall take due responsive measures in consultation with the editorial board. The cases of reported unethical behaviour shall be investigated using accepted international guidelines, preferably the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines. Before arriving at a decision, the editor shall give fair chance to the disputing parties of being heard. If the ethical concern is well-found after investigation, a correction, retraction, expression of concern or other note as deemed appropriate, will be published in IJLR.
Responsibilities of Reviewers
Peer review is an essential component of formal scholarly communication and helps improve scientific rigour and help both the authors in improving their manuscript and the editors in making an informed decision. IJLR follows a peer review process.
The peer reviewers shall adhere to the timelines for submitting their peer review. All reviewers have to adhere to strict criteria of confidentiality and shall not use any ideas or information submitted in the manuscript for their own advantage directly or indirectly.
An invited referee who feels unqualified to review the manuscript or cannot adhere to peer review timelines should immediately notify the editor. Any potential conflict of interest while reviewing the manuscript shall also be notified to the editor immediately. In such an event, peer reviewer should decline to review in order to contact alternative reviewers.
The reviewers are expected to be fair and objective in their assessment of manuscript while providing their observation and recommendation. The decision of peer reviewers should not be guided by any other factors than the scientific merit. Peer reviewers shall refrain from making any personal comments.
Reviewers should inform any published or submitted content under review to the editor and any other manuscript (published or unpublished) of which they have personal knowledge.
Responsibilities of Authors
The authors are expected to maintain accurate record of data and furnish or provide access to data on reasonable request while ensuring confidentiality of data and privacy of participants in case of clinical trials. The manuscript should contain sufficient detail and references which would help others to replicate work. Original articles, review articles, opinion/perspective and other forms of manuscript submitted should be accurate, objective and comprehensive. Authors should refrain from making fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements in the manuscript.
Every manuscript submitted to IJLR would undergo a plagiarism check, as a first step. Plagiarism is not limited to copying others work without due citation/acknowledgement; it also includes, “passing off” others work as authors’ own, paraphrasing others’ work without due citation or reference, claiming results from research which is conducted by others and not by the authors. The authors are expected to submit original works for consideration in IJLR and manuscripts found to be plagiarized shall be rejected at once. The authors should take due care to cite appropriate references in their work. Plagiarism is an unacceptable behaviour in scholarly publishing.
The authors shall ensure that work submitted to IJLR is not simultaneously submitted or under review in other journals. Earlier published work with minor changes in the text and title shall not be submitted.
Articles submitted to IJLR shall meet the authorship criteria. People who have –
(i) made significant contributions to the conception, design, execution, data acquisition, or analysis/interpretation of the study;
(ii) drafted the manuscript or revised it critically for important intellectual content; and
(iii) have seen and approved the final version of the paper and agreed to its submission for publication, shall only be listed as authors.
People who have provided technical help, writing and editing assistance, general support are not considered authors as they do not meet the criteria for authorship. The contribution of such people should be acknowledged in the “Acknowledgements” at the end of manuscript.
The corresponding author shall ensure that all people who have contributed intellectually are included as authors and all co-authors have read and approved the final version of the manuscript and agreed to its submission for publication. The corresponding author shall furnish the Copyright form, signed by all the authors, to IJLR at the time of submission of the manuscript.
The authors are expected to disclose any conflicts of interest. The conflict of interest statement shall be included in the manuscript. Examples of potential conflicts of interest that needs disclosure include financial support received in the form of honoraria, grants or research funding from private companies, consultancy for the private company, as well as non-financial ones that include personal or professional relationships, collaboration, knowledge or beliefs in the subject matter or materials disclosed in the manuscript. All sources of financial support should be disclosed (including the grant number or other reference number, if any).
The authors should acknowledge the work of others and cite publications that have influenced the nature of the reported work.
If the reported work involved use of animals or human participants, the authors should ensure that all experiments and procedures were performed in accordance with application laws and guidelines as well as appropriate Institutional Ethics Committee (IEC) approval was obtained. It is important to state the IEC number. In case of clinical trials, the trial shall be registered with a clinical trial registry and the number shall be cited. The statement about informed consent obtained from human participants shall be reflected in the manuscript. The privacy rights of human participants must always be observed.
In an event where editors or publisher learns about the significant error or inaccurate reporting of data or any other matter in the published work from any third party, the authors shall promptly correct the error or retract the paper, or provide evidence regarding correctness of the paper to the editor.
Dealing with Scientific Misconduct
Any scientific misconduct shall be brought to the notice of the editor, members of the editorial board or publisher, in writing, by anyone. • Misconduct may include unethical behaviour listed above and also, include data fabrication/ data falsification, duplicate/redundant, copying text, figures, diagrams without proper citation, and authorship issues among others.
While reporting scientific misconduct, it is important to provide sufficient evidence to evaluate the reported misconduct and arrive at an informed decision.
The Executive Editor, in consultation with the editorial board and the publisher, shall take an initial decision. More evidence, if needed, shall be gathered and without disclosing the matter, except for those who need to know.
Minor conduct might be dealt without wider consultation and opportunity of being heard to authors shall be provided. Major breaches may be notified to appropriate authority or employer as the case may be or in consultation with limited experts in the field.
The outcome of the enquiry, depending on severity of misconduct, may include sensitization and awareness on ethical standards, a warning letter to authors, letter to employer for appropriate action, withdrawal or retraction of paper, time bound embargo on the contribution by the group involved in misconduct, or other actions as deemed necessary and recommended.
Access to Journal Content
The archives of the journal content shall be made preserved for future use on the journal webpage.
The publisher is committed to permanent availability and ensures accessibility by partnering with organizations, and maintaining our own digital archive.
Further Details
More details on ethical practices in scholarly publishing and authorship criteria can be found at Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) https://publicationethics.org/resources
