Journal Policies and Ethics

To ensure maximum dissemination of information available on the Journal of Applied Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research, JAPSR website we have adopted Open Access policy. According to Open Access policy, the published content on the JAPSR website will be freely available without any registration or subscription in a readable form preferentially in PDF format from any part of the world. This Journal works on OJS/PKP platform and provides an interface for metadata harvesting and XML for Articles & Issues.

Archiving Policy

Journal of Applied Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research currently uses LOCKSS Digital data Archiving Policy.

Peer-review and Publication Policy

Manuscripts submitted to the Journal of Applied Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research, JAPSR are reviewed by the Blind Peer Review process. The manuscript first undergoes an Editorial/Technical Review to determine the eligibility and appropriateness of the manuscript as per the Journal’s scope. Manuscripts rejected at this stage are those that are insufficiently original, have serious scientific flaws, poor grammar or English language, are outside the aims and scope of the journal, or are not written as per the journal's guidelines. After analyzing the appropriateness of the manuscript it will be forwarded for review.

Generally, all the manuscripts are reviewed by at least two external experts in the respective subject area. The report of the reviewers will be considered while deciding on acceptance/revision or rejection of a manuscript, but the ultimate responsibility for acceptance or rejection lies with the Editor. Editor-In-Chief makes the final decision on every manuscript submitted to JAPSR.
Editor-in-Chief can seek advice from one or more advisory board members for their suggestions on a manuscript, before making the final decision.
Associate editors provide administrative support to maintain the integrity of the peer-review process.
When Editors are Authors: Following COPE recommendations on ethical editing for Editors, Editors will assign any submissions they cannot handle to a member of the Editorial Board or a guest editor.

Manuscripts after editorial review will be sent for expert review after obtaining Copyright transfer form from the authors. The manuscript will be reviewed by one or two subject experts in respective fields. The comments of the reviewers will be considered and the comments of the reviewers will be forwarded to the corresponding author for revision as per the reviewer’s suggestions and Journal’s manuscript preparation guidelines. Before publication, the manuscript will be screened for grammar and technical parameters and the Galley proof will be prepared and sent to the authors for last time to identify corrections. After suggested corrections, the article is published with all relevant inclusions like Page numbers, DOI etc.

Associate editor and review editors provide the administrative support to maintain the integrity of peer review process. JAPSR follows strict and standard review and manuscript preparation guidelines from International Committee of Medical Journals Editors (ICMJE).

Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

Journal of Applied Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research (JAPSR) adheres to the COPE Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for publications. Journal advises academic editors, reviewers and authors to follow COPE guidelines which are as follows:

ETHICAL GUIDELINES FOR THE ACADEMIC EDITORS

The editors of the Journal of Applied Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research (JAPSR) are responsible to make the editorial decision on the submitted articles. The journal relies on the integrity and honesty of the editors in selecting high-quality manuscripts that conforms to ethical standards and meets all the requirements. The editors of this journal must follow the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) “Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors”.

The editorial decisions must be made only on intellectual merit without any prejudice or bias. The editors must maintain the confidentiality of the submitted manuscripts and ensure the integrity of blind peer-review. The editors are required to read the journal’s Conflict of Interest policies carefully and ensure compliance with the same.

ETHICAL GUIDELINES FOR THE REVIEWERS

The volunteer contribution of peer-reviewers is indispensible for maintaining the scientific integrity and selection of high-quality articles. The peer-reviewers are required to follow the COPE guidelines to the peer-reviewers and peer-review guidelines of this journal.

The reviewers are also requested to read the journal’s Conflict of Interest policies carefully and ensure compliance with the same.

The reviewers are expected to maintain the confidentiality and objectivity of the blind peer review as already stated under peer-review guidelines.

ETHICAL GUIDELINES FOR THE AUTHORS

Authors willing to submit their manuscript to JASPR are required to fulfill the ICMJE’s definition of the authors and contributors [Link]. The ICMJE recommends that any article’s authorship must be based on the following 4 criteria:

Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, and/or interpretation of the data for the study included in the manuscript; AND
Contribution in form of drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
Final review and 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.

The authors should read and ensure compliance with the journal’s policies such as;

Authors of the original research article must present accurate data and provide sufficient information and references to ensure the reproducibility of the work. Fraudulent or knowingly hiding facts or inaccurate statements are considered unethical behavior and is unacceptable. Authors may be asked to provide the raw/supplementary data for their paper that is under editorial review. The authors must be ready to provide the public access to these data (if practicable) and to retain such data for a reasonable time after the publication.

Redundant or duplicate submission/publication

Duplicate or redundant submission is the same manuscript (or the same data) that is submitted to different journals at the same time. International copyright laws, ethical conduct, and cost-effective use of resources require that readers can be assured that what they are reading is original (Kindly Read I CMJE recommendations). An author should not publish manuscripts that describe the same concept or present similar data, in more than one journal. Submitting the same manuscript to multiple journals constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.

In case the editor was not aware of the violation and the article has been published, a notice of the duplicate submission and the ethical violation will be published.

Acknowledgment and funding sources

Proper acknowledgment to the work of others must be provided by the authors. Authors should cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work wherever required.

The authors must declare all sources of funding received for the research submitted to the journal. Authors should give the name of granting agencies and grant numbers, along with a short description of each funder’s role. Only the funding related to the submitted work should be mentioned and authors are NOT required to provide the complete list of every single grant that supports them.

ETHICAL GUIDELINES FOR THE PUBLISHER

The publisher is supposed to protect the intellectual property and copyright of the contents submitted by the authors. We respect privacy and personal data, especially for authors and peer reviewers. We work in close cooperation with the editors and peer reviewers to maintain the editorial independence and to guarantee transparency and integrity in the peer-review process. This journal follows the ICMJE guidelines for journal owners and editorial freedom.

Whereas Committee on Publication Ethics, COPE, Core Practices guidelines are followed for the Publication Malpractice related issues like:

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSING POLICY

All the articles published in JAPSR are distributed under a creative commons license (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

Under this license, you are free to:

Share- copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format for any purpose, even commercially.
Adapt- remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.

The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.

Attribution — You must give appropriate credit , provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made . You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes .
ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.
No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

Copyright policy

The journal allows the author(s) to hold the copyright of their work. That means the authors do not need to transfer the copyright of their work to the journal. However, the authors grant JAPSR a license to publish the article and identify itself as the original publisher.

Licensing policy

Authors must submit a Copyright form to editor.japsr@gmail.com along with the submission of the manuscript or can also upload on our online journal management system.

Plagiarism Policy
All the authors willing to submit manuscript to the Journal of Applied Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research, JAPSR must ensure the originality of the contents drafting a manuscript.

Use of work/findings/information/results of other researchers must be properly cited at appropriate places within the manuscript. JAPSR uses Crossref Similarity Check software (i-Thenticate) to detect plagiarism. In case, plagiarism is detected during review/editorial process, such manuscripts will be rejected immediately.

If the plagiarism is proven after publication, such manuscript(s) will be retracted from the journal and appropriate announcement will be placed in this regards. Authors involved in plagiarism will be debarred from publication in JAPSR in future.

Policy statement for Conflict of interest (COI)

CONFLICT OF INTERESTS

JAPSR strictly follows the recommendation of International Council of Medical Journal Editors (ICJME) for defining and handling issues related to conflict of interest.

A conflict of interest defined as any relationship authors, reviewers or editors have, which interferes with the full and objective presentation, peer review, editorial decision-making, or publication of a manuscript. Conflicts of interest can be financial or non-financial, professional or personal, and can arise in relation to an organization or an individual.

Authors

When authors submit a manuscript of any type or format they are responsible for disclosing all relationships and activities that might bias or be seen to bias their work (e.g. employment, consulting fees, research contracts, stock ownership, patent licenses, honoraria, advisory affiliations, etc.). JAPSR is committed to following ICMJE recommendation on “Author Responsibilities—Conflicts of Interest” in authors’ conflict of interest issues. The ICMJE has developed a Disclosure Form to facilitate and standardize authors’ disclosures. Authors are required to upload the duly filled and signed form under the additional files section, during manuscript submission. They can also send it by email to editor.japsr@gmail.com. Please follow the link to read the detailed ICMJE recommendations for disclosure of financial and non-financial relationships and activities, and conflicts of interest.

Reviewers

Reviewers must disclose to journal editors any relationships or an activity that could bias their opinions of the manuscript and should recuse them from reviewing specific manuscripts if the potential for bias exists. Reviewers must not use knowledge of the work they’re reviewing before its publication to further their own interests. Please use the review form provided at your reviewer login area to disclose the conflicts of interest.

Editors and Journal Staff

JAPSR editors who make final decisions about manuscripts must have no personal, professional, or financial involvement in any of the issues they might judge. Other members of the editorial staff, if they participate in editorial decisions, must provide editors with a current description of their financial interests (as they might relate to editorial judgments) and recuse themselves from any decisions in which a conflict of interest exists. Editorial staff must not use information gained through working with manuscripts for private gain. When editors submit their own work to this journal, a colleague in the editorial office should manage the manuscript and the editor/author should recuse himself or herself from discussion and decisions about it.

Additional Information

For more information on Conflict of Interest policies, existing codes of practices, disclosure form and more general good practice in relation to journal publication ethics please follow the links given below:

Policy statement for Ethical Approvals (if applicable)

Patient Rights

Patients have a right to privacy, thus all the studies including humans should be conducted with informed consent. Publication should not contain any identifying information of the subjects in written descriptions, photographs, and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian) gives written informed consent for publication. When informed consent has been obtained, it should be indicated in the article. Investigations with human subjects must follow the ethical standards formulated in the Helsinki Declaration of 1964, revised in 2008. All the experiment should be approved by the institutional human experimentation committee or equivalent.

Animal Rights

Animal experiments must follow the ethical standards for the care and use of laboratory animals. Article involved the animal experiments must seek approval from the appropriate and CPCSEA (Committee for the Purpose of Control And Supervision of Experiments on Animals) in India or Institutional Ethical Committee in accordance with "Principles of Laboratory Animal Care" (NIH publication no. 85-23, revised 1985).

Clinical trial registry
The authors are advised to register for the clinical trials with a clinical trial registry that allows free online access to public. Registration in the following trial registers is acceptable: Clinical Trial Registry India, Netherlands Trial Register, UMIN Japan, NHMRC Australia, USNLM, ISRCTN registry and other recognized institutions.

APC Waiver Policy

JAPSR offers full APC waiver for authors with financial restrictions provided corresponding author must apply for waiver along with manuscript submission. APC waiver request can be submitted at editor.japsr@gmail.com and editor@japsr.in.

Disclaimer

Authors of the individual articles published in Journal of Applied Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research, JAPSR are solely responsible for the content thereof. Journal of Applied Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research, Editor-In-Chief, its editorial board members, advisory members, publishers or anyone else involved in editing, pagination, producing or distribution assumes any liability for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information provided in the Journal, nor shall they be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages arising out of the use of the Journal of Applied Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research.