Publishing Ethics

Ethical Statement

Margalla Papers establishes and maintains the highest quality of research work. It promotes freedom of expression within the cultural, constitutional, and legal framework. Margalla Papers maintains impartiality, novelty, diversity of opinion, and avoidance of fallacies. It encourages new ideas and suggestions of readers, authors, peer reviewers, members of editorial and advisory boards.

Margalla Papers supports and uses HEC Ethical Guidelines, COPE Guidelines and COPE Core Practices.

Publishing Ethics

Obligations of the Editor

  • No self-publication as per the HEC policy.
  • Neutrality:   The submitted manuscripts are evaluated regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, ethnicity, and political philosophy of the authors.
  • Confidentiality:   All manuscripts are confidential documents and not be shared/shown to anyone except editorial team and potential reviewers. 
  • Disclosure of Information and Conflicts of Interest:   Unpublished data contained in the submitted manuscript will not be used by editors or reviewers in their research without the explicit consent of the author.
  • Decision on Publication:   Editor decides on the publication of submitted articles after due consideration on the legal and professional obligations. In the event of any rejection of any article by the reviewer, the editor may solicit two new reviewers.

Obligations of the Reviewers

  • Editorial Decisions:  Reviewers assist the editorial staff in making decisions and may also assist the author to improve the quality of the manuscript.
  • Delays and Deadlines:  When a reviewer does not feel competent enough to evaluate the research presented in the manuscript, or if he/she finds himself/herself unable to provide his/her report in time, he/she must inform the editor without delay to give time to contact other reviewers.
  • Standards of Objectivity, Civility, and Respect:   The reports must be objective. Personal remarks and criticisms directed at the author or hurtful remarks about the contents must be avoided. The opinion of the reviewer must be clear, well-argued, and respectful of the author.
  • Indication of Sources:   The reviewer must identify appropriate publications not cited by the author. Any such indication must be accompanied by an appropriate comment. The reviewer should draw the editor's attention to any similarity or overlap between the manuscript and previously published data.
  • Disclosure of Information and Conflicts of Interest:   Information and ideas obtained through anonymous replay are confidential and should not be used for the personal benefit of the reviewer. Reviewers should not accept reviewing manuscripts where this may result in a conflict of interest arising with the author(s).

Obligations of the Author

  • Information Validity: The information contained in the manuscripts submitted for publication must present the results of the authors’ research as well as an objective discussion of such results and their importance. The underlying data must be presented correctly. Fraudulent and consciously inaccurate information is considered unethical and unacceptable.
  • Originality and Plagiarism: Authors must ensure that their study is completely original and if they have used other persons’ books or content/material, that must be properly cited. The similarity index must be less than 19% and the single-source similarity index must not be more than 5%. 
  • Multiple Publications: An author(s) should not submit manuscripts representing the same study to more than one journal (or book). In the case of multiple publications, the authors must give the reference of the first publication and be free from the copyright of the original publisher.
  • Paternity of the Manuscript: Only person(s) having made a significant contribution to the study in question should be the author(s). If other people have been involved in some aspects of the research project, they should be mentioned in the acknowledgments. The lead author must ensure that all co-authors and only they are included in the list of authors of the manuscript, that the co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the manuscript, and that they have agreed to the submission of the manuscript.
  • Disclosure of Information and Conflicts of Interest:  All authors must indicate, because of their biographical presentation, any conflicts of interest that may affect their proposed publication. Funding for research projects that made the study possible must be indicated.
  • Errors in Publishing: If the author discovers an important error or inaccuracy in its publication, his/her obligation is to quickly inform the editor and to consider, in agreement with the person in charge, the withdrawal of the article or the publication of the information about the error.
  • Authors to ensure that, the manuscript contains nothing abusive, defamatory, libelous, obscene, fraudulent, or illegal, and is not against any institution/university, armed forces, federal/provincial governments.