Ethical Policy

Pakistan Journal of Social Issues (PJSI) follows the ethical policy of Higher Education Commission (HEC). The guidelines of journal are formulated in the light of HEC’s policy and given as;

Policy for the Editor(s):

1. Editors are liable to furnish and uphold the quality of PJSI.
2. Editors can exercise their authority according to HEC policy and international standards to accept or reject any research article that does not follow the Journal’s standards i.e., references/ material/ presentation/ language of the submitted paper and professional demands.
3. Editors are supposed to ensure and monitor the peer review policy to enhance the journal quality. Editors have the right to make corrections in the content whether online or hard copies when required by the author.
4. The plagiarism policy of HEC is strictly followed by PJSI to avoid any inconvenience. Editor can revise and revisit the structure of PJSI editorial board and can also call meetings of editorial board members.
5. PJSI condemns the discriminatory factors of gender, race, ethnicity, religious beliefs, cultural sentiments, political affiliation, and seniority.
6. Editor also follows the conflict of interest policy and authors are supposed to ensure impartiality.
7. Editor assures the confidentiality of research data accordingly to the policy of PJSI and the HEC.

Policy for the Author(s)

1. Author is the one who has written an article or research paper or contributed to the write up of the paper in co-authorship. 
2. Each author is supposed to submit the research that contains ample details of the sources used in the research. Any false information provided to PJSI will be unacceptable and action will be taken against the authors.
3. The Author will provide undertaking of novelty and originality of the research when submitting research to the journal. Author must provide the details of the contribution by the co-authors, if applicable. Authors will also include details of funding.
4. Any article or research paper once submitted to PJSI will not be considered in any other journal unless the decision is communicated by the journal editorial team to the author. Authors are also supposed to provide the data, if demanded by the PJSI.
5. The review process may extend from 60 to 90 days after the submission. Authors have right to contact the editor to enquire about the status of article.
6. When rejected, author can submit the paper elsewhere and in case of revisions, author must respond within the deadlines.

Policy for the Reviewer(s)

Review process is important to enhance the quality of research and ensure transparency through blind peer review. All the reviewers who accept the papers are supposed to respond to the deadlines created by the editorial board. Moreover, quality, credibility and reputation of the PJSI also depend upon the quality of the review process.
The reviewers should follow the following guidelines.

1. In case of not having required expertise while receiving the paper for review, the reviewers should inform the editor.
2. Reviewers are supposed to be responsible to submit the report in time to the editor and in case of delay, editors should be informed.
3. Reviewers are supposed to maintain the confidentiality of the data and papers reviewed in professional way.
4. Reviewers can decide and criticise the research based on the data and methods used in the study. S/he may also send the comments to the author and editor.
5. Any plagiarism pointed out by the reviewer shall be taken seriously by the editor. Reviewer may also consider that the research is according to the ethical policy of the PJSI and HEC.
6. The editor will consider the comments of review sent by the reviewer and send to the author along with the decision either to revise or accept/reject the research paper.

Review Policy

Pakistan Journal of Social Issues (PJSI) follows open access policy and the double blind peer review. As per this policy, the name of author(s) are removed before sending an article to the local and foreign reviewers. It is important to mention that the name of reviewer is never disclosed before the author/s. We have a very professional and competent team of scholars, literary figures, experts, and subject specialists in review panel to get the papers reviewed on time.

Publishing Policy

Pakistan Journal of Social Issues (PJSI) publishes only one issue per year.

1. Researchers/authors are discouraged to submit their articles to any other book, journal, or any other publishing purpose till the time of decision i.e. acceptance or rejection.
2. The articles not following the PJSI guidelines provided on the website are not processed.
3. All the authors can submit their grievances and complaints (if any) to the Editor in Chief through a written application.

All the corrections in the name, affiliations, addresses, or any other are admissible at any time subject to the typo errors made by PJSI editorial committee during printing, processing, and editing of the said article

Plagiarism Policy and Guidelines

1. All the articles submitted to Pakistan Journal of Social Issues (PJSI) should be free of plagiarism and have not been submitted to any other publishing agency.
2. Authors are also informed that self-plagiarism is not allowed at any level.
3. PJSI defines self-plagiarism as the intended or unintended reuse of one’s own copyrighted research work without citing the original source.
4. PJSI will check similarity with Turnitin software, as recommended by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) Islamabad, Pakistan.
5. It is important to mention that PJSI only accepts those articles whose similarity index produces by TURNITIN is less than 19 percent and the similarity from a single source should not be more than 5 percent.
6. All the papers not following HEC Pakistan guidelines for similarity index will be directly rejected without any other explanation.
7. PJSI will practice and follow the guidelines of HEC Pakistan in terms of similarity index.