Journal SOPs

• PURPOSE

To define the system of activities to publish bi-annual SRC.

• SCOPE

This procedure is applicable to the Publication Division of the SRC to serve the above purpose.

• OPERATING PROCEDURE
  • Author(s) submit the research paper(s) through the on-line system of the journal or email to the Associate Editor. Before submission of paper the author(s) require(s) to follow the approved instructions for authors and must sign a declaration that the material presented is original, not submitted or under consideration elsewhere and not plagiarized.
  • It is responsibility of each author, including the co-authors, to ensure that the paper submitted for publication should attain the all ethical standards as outlined by HEC available online atHEC Website: 
  • The Publication coordinator will make necessary arrangements to scan it for finding authenticity of the research paper through HEC approved software for plagiarism. The outcome of this step will be a scanning report containing similarity index available to the Publication Coordinator and Associate Editor.
  • As per scanning report, if the similarity index of plagiarized text of the research paper is found beyond the acceptable limits (Acceptable Similarity Index for Turnitin Software is less than or equal to 15% subject to no any link contains similarity greater than 5%), the Publication Coordinator will return the same to the corresponding author for modification/refinement. It should be noted that the database of the software as well as internet material updates time to time, therefore similarity index may fluctuate with number of times the document is scanned.
  • After re-submission, the same process will be followed as per above steps till the paper is found free of plagiarism. (i.e. within permissible range of similarity index)
  • Editor will send the authentic paper to the two to three experts for their technical comments and evaluation. This Journal follows Blind Peer Review Process.
  • The outcome of this round of review may be “Accept”, “Minor Revision”, “Major Revision” or “Rejection”. Two positive reviews are required to finally accept the paper. However the final decision regarding the manuscript acceptance or rejection lies with the Chief Editor/Editor of the Journal. The Editor will notify author(s) of the outcome of the peer-review process through e-mail. The Editor will also notify the author(s) of the date for the submission of revised copy of a manuscript.
  • The revised copy submitted by the author(s) is again sent to the same experts for final comments.
  • In the light of final review comments, the Editor makes a final decision of “accept” or “decline. This final decision will depend on how well the reviewer’s comments were addressed. The manuscript is returned to the author for further revisions if the Editor thinks that the author(s) did not provide enough revisions to satisfy the Editor/reviewers.
  • Editor-in-Chief issues Acceptance or rejection letter.