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AJIR

Editorial and Ethics Policies

For the quality standards, Asian Research Association (ARA) follows the CORE practices that are formulated by Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), (https://publicationethics.org/core-practices). Moreover, ARA also follows the guidelines provided by ICMJE (https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/).

Authorship and Contributorship

According to ICMJE authorship can be applicable if it meets the following four benchmarks (https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html)

  1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work
  2. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content
  3. Final approval of the version to be published
  4. 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.

Authors who did not meet any of the four criteria cannot be considered for authorship and they can only be added in the acknowledgment section. Authors should not acknowledge their co-authors /corresponding authors (Usually supervisor) in a acknowledge section.

  • The above guidelines are to facilitate flawless reviewing process and to remind the authors on the crucial factors for acceptance of the manuscript.
  • With no restriction in number of authors, the journal expects each author to substantially contributeto the conceptualisation, writing, review, editing, data analysis and its interpretation with utmost transparency. For more details regarding autor contribution statement we encourage the authors to read the following article (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/leap.1210)
  • All the authors of the manuscript are entitled the accountability towards plagiarism, piracy and Genuity of the concept.
  • In case of collaborative research work of authors admits various agencies, institutions or countries, the collaboration should seem justifiable. Mere inclusion of members may impact the authenticity of the work.
  • As the scope of journal focuses on researches involving human samples, details on informed consent or ethical approval of participants appropriate disclosure are to be mentioned in the manuscript or a certificate may also be enclosed with the manuscript.

For more details regarding the authorship and contributorship we encourage the authors to read COPE policies (https://publicationethics.org/authorship).


Peer Review

All submitted articles are reviewed by the editorial team (at least two editors) to verify they match our editorial standards. Only those likely to satisfy our requirements are forwarded for formal evaluation, saving authors and peer-reviewers time. Articles judged uninteresting or improper are immediately discarded, with no external assessment. Articles deemed potentially interesting by our readers are forwarded for formal evaluation, normally to two or three reviewers (double blind review process) who is familiar with the relevant title, but occasionally to more if particular guidance is required. The editors then make a choice based on the suggestions of the reviewers. Outlining the benefits and drawbacks of publication might be more beneficial than a simple advice. Which provide editors the information they need to make an informed choice. When reviewers agree to analyse a paper, they promise to keep an eye out for subsequent updates. Editors will not return resubmitted work to reviewers if authors do not appear to have addressed comments. Further, ARA follows the ethical guidelines formulated by the COPE (https://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines/cope-ethical-guidelines-peer-reviewers) (https://publicationethics.org/peerreview).

If the article is published by Editor-in-Chief or any of the editors then the publisher forms a committee where the publisher, one of the editors and one anonymous subject expert appointed by the publisher will lead the review process and will intimate the decision of the article to the EIC/Editor/Board member. Anonymity will be maintained throughout the process.


Confidentiality

  • The editors of the journal are advised to maintain the anonymity during the pre and post publication process.
  • Since the journal follows double blind peer review system the details of the reviewers will be kept secret. Moreover, the articles will be sent to the reviewers without the information of authors and affiliations.
  • If the article is not accepted/published in our journal then the details will not be made public and will be deleted after a year from our system.
  • ARA maintains the right to notify funders, regulatory organizations, journals, and the authors' institutions in situations of suspected research or publishing misconduct.

Ethics and Malpractices Policies

Data Sharing Policy

ARA instigate the authors to freely and openly share their contents, data, code, and related methods with readers. Any restrictions on the availability of resources or information must be communicated to the editors both during the submission process and in the article itself.
If authors refuse to follow these principles after publication, readers may contact the chief editor of the journal. If the problem cannot be resolved, the authors' funding institution may be contacted, and a formal statement of correction may be issued online, saying that readers were unable to access the required materials.


Ethics policies for participants (Vulnerable Populations)

We prioritize the ethical treatment of vulnerable participants in our research publication. We strictly adhere to international standards and guidelines given by US Department of Health and Human Services (https://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/regulations-and-policy/belmont-report/read-the-belmont-report/index.html), UNESCO, Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights (https://en.unesco.org/about-us/legal-affairs/universal-declaration-bioethics-and-human-rights) ensuring that studies involving vulnerable populations undergo rigorous ethical scrutiny. Authors must provide explicit details on how they address the welfare, autonomy, and informed consent of vulnerable participants. We advocate for studies that contribute positively to vulnerable communities, respecting their dignity and minimizing potential harm. Our commitment to ethical practices fosters a scholarly environment that upholds the highest standards of integrity and sensitivity towards vulnerable participants.


Clinical Trial Policy

The Asian Research Association (ARA) values the significance of openness and moral behaviour in clinical studies. In accordance with the guidelines set forth by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and to foster accountable research publication, ARA journals mandate the following criteria for manuscripts detailing clinical trials:
The following ethical standards must be adhered to in any human experiments, ensuring compliance with the principles outlined in the Helsinki Declaration (available at: https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects/).
Authors are required to incorporate the trial registration number and its registration date within the manuscript, accompanied by a hyperlink directing to the registry entry.Rare exceptions to this mandate may be entertained, notably in instances like retrospective studies utilizing anonymized data, provided there is adequate justification within the manuscript and approval from the editorial board.
In order to uphold ethical research practices and ensure transparent reporting, manuscripts detailing clinical trials must exhibit compliance with the ethical tenets outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki (available at: https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects/).
This encompasses acquiring informed consent from all participants and obtaining approval from an appropriate ethical review board. Moreover, authors are encouraged to adhere to the CONSORT guidelines (available at: https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/consort/), which advocate for thorough and transparent reporting of clinical trial methodologies, outcomes, and interpretations.

Guidelines for Reporting:
Reporting guidelines for case reports or case series dictate that if conducted within the context of a clinical trial assessing efficacy in an individual patient, authors must include a CONSORT extension tailored for N-of-1 trials. In cases where treatment is administered outside of a clinical trial (e.g., compassionate use or experimental observational study), authors are obligated to affirm that the research protocol received approval from Institutional Review Boards (IRB) and ethics committees, and that participants provided written informed consent, following CARE guidelines and aligning with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki.
Randomized trials are expected to adhere to CONSORT 2010 guidelines, with the accompanying CONSORT checklist to be included along with the manuscript and supplementary materials, including the protocol. While non-randomized trials are encouraged to utilize CONSORT principles and structure in their reporting, reports failing to comply with CONSORT guidelines may necessitate revisions before undergoing formal review.
Observational studies, including cohort, case-control, or cross-sectional designs, should be reported in accordance with the STROBE statement.
Systematic reviews and meta-analyses must adhere to PRISMA guidelines. And all these reporting guidelines are available at https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/consort/
Studies detailing biomarkers in association with clinical outcomes should follow the STARD guidelines. For biomarker studies in oncology, authors are requested to adhere to REMARK guidelines. Additional resources can be found at the NLM's Research Reporting Guidelines and Initiatives (available at: https://www.nlm.nih.gov/services/research_report_guide.html).
Please note that the journal does not publish articles that merely replicate the protocol for an individual clinical trial, nor does it consider articles solely reporting the outcomes of completed clinical trials.

Procedures:
Regarding new clinical tools and procedures, authors must provide a clear rationale in the manuscript for why the new procedure or tool was deemed preferable over standard clinical practice to meet the patient's clinical needs, if reporting its use in a clinical setting. Such justification is unnecessary if the new procedure is already approved for clinical use at the authors' institution. Authors are expected to have obtained approval from ethics committees and informed patient consent for any experimental use of a new procedure or tool where a clear clinical advantage based on clinical need was not evident prior to treatment.
ARA promotes researchers to proactively register their clinical trials and abide by these guidelines to guarantee responsible research behavior and publication standards.


Plagiarism and Manipulation of Data

Plagiarism and misleading data are not permitted in any journal publication. ARA has a stringent anti-plagiarism policy, which is enforced by two methods: reviewer checks and plagiarism prevention technology (iThenticate). Before sending the articles to the reviewers, all submissions will be checked and validated through our editorial staff. Further the authors are suggested to read the COPE policy on Plagiarism for submitted and post published articles. For more details the authors are suggested to read COPE guidelines (https://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts/plagiarism-submitted-manuscript).
It is strictly forbidden to publish the same research paper in several journals. If an article contains incorrect information, the authors will be held accountable for producing retractions or corrections. Currently, ARA follows COPE and ICMJE guidelines and the authors are suggested to read for the guidelines. (https://publicationethics.org/retraction-guidelines) (https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/publishing-and-editorial-issues/corrections-and-version-control.html). Further ARA follows the COPE policies on manipulation of Data and images and the authors can find the more details on the COPE platform (https://publicationethics.org/data)


Corrections, Retractions and Research Misconduct

The ARA Journal takes up responsibility for the Corrections, retraction notifications, and other post-publication alterations to published content. An Author Correction may be published to rectify substantial mistakes made by the author(s) that might imperial the scientific integrity of the published work, the publishing record, or the authors' or the journal's reputation.
A Publisher Correction may be issued to remedy substantial errors made by the journal that might jeopardise the scientific integrity of the published work, the publishing record, or the authors' or journal's reputation.
In addition to the published article if significant additional data has to be added, a post script is frequently published that is critical to the reader's understanding.
The publication may be withdrawn if the integrity of the published work is considerably undermined owing to flaws in the study's design, analysis, and/or reporting, or violations of publishing or research ethics. The original article will be withdrawn, but readers will still be able to access a PDF version, and the retraction statement will be linked in both ways to the original published work. The authors agreement or disagreement may be included in retraction notices. ARA further encourages the authors to read COPE policies on retractions (https://publicationethics.org/sites/default/files/retraction-guidelines-cope.pdf)
On the HTML webpage of an published article as well as in the PDF of the published article,  the readers can find out the Crossmark button and just by clicking them it enables the readers to identify the current version of the record they are reading including corrections/modifications.
The ARA Journal maintains certain regulations in extreme circumstances, to withdraw an article, chapter, book, or other content from varied online platforms. If ARA Journal is notified that the content is calumnious, violate a third party's intellectual property right, or right to privacy, or is otherwise unlawful, or if a court or government order requiring the removal of such content has been issued or is likely to be issued, or if the content would pose an immediate and serious risk to health, this action may be taken. Depending on the degree of defamation the removal may be temporary or permanent, and also noting why the item was deleted, will be maintained. The following COPE Guidelines will be followed for Retracting Articles (https://publicationethics.org/retraction-guidelines) and allegations on Research Misconduct (https://publicationethics.org/misconduct).


Conflict of interest

For Authors:

Contributors must declare any genuine or potential conflict of interest, including any financial, personal, or other connections with other people or institutions that could unfairly influence, or be perceived to influence, their work within three years of starting it. For more details the authors are directed to read ICMJE and  COPE guidelines (https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/author-responsibilities--conflicts-of-interest.html) (https://publicationethics.org/competinginterests).

For Editors:

Duty to the Journal: Editors of the Asian Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (AJIR) are committed to maintaining the integrity, impartiality, and credibility of the journal. They ensure that their primary responsibility is to the journal and its readers.
Impartial Decision-Making: Decisions are based solely on the merit of submissions, free from personal or professional influences.
Disclosure of Conflicts: Editors promptly disclose potential conflicts of interest, ensuring impartial manuscript handling.
Recusal from Decision-Making: Editors abstain from decisions involving manuscripts with personal or professional connections.
Transparency: Editors maintain transparency by communicating relevant conflicts of interest to authors, reviewers, and readers.
These principles (https://publicationethics.org/resources/forum-discussion-topics/editorial-conflicts-interest) aim to uphold high editorial standards and ensure the credibility of the AJIR journal.


For Reviewers: click here
For Publisher: click here

Acknowledgements

The acknowledgement part is designed to express gratitude to anyone who assisted for the research work but did not fulfil the authorship criteria and to provide details about the grant and technical/instrumental support. 


Fees

All accepted papers will be published for free, and authors will not be charged any submission or publishing costs.


AI Policies

The Asian Research Association (ARA) embraces the growing use of AI tools in research, acknowledging their potential to enhance scholarship. However, to safeguard the integrity of academic publications and adhere to COPE guidelines, the ARA establishes this policy on responsible AI use.

1. AI in Authorship and Content Generation
AI tools cannot be credited as sole authors on research papers. Authorship requires significant human involvement in the research process. When AI substantially contributes content, researchers must disclose the specific type of tool used and its role in the methodology. It's crucial to emphasize that a human author always oversees the AI-generated content, ensuring its accuracy, relevance to the research, and adherence to ethical research practices.

2. Generative AI Images
Researchers using generative AI images must ensure they hold the copyright or have proper permissions. Transparency is key: all figure legends should clearly state whether the image is AI-generated or not. For images central to the research, a detailed explanation of the AI generation process should be included in the methods section. It's vital that AI images accurately represent the data and don't mislead readers. To achieve this, researchers should clearly label them and, whenever possible, present them alongside the original data they depict.

3. AI-Assisted Peer Review
Peer reviewers are encouraged to utilize AI tools for tasks that can enhance the review process, such as detecting plagiarism or suggesting relevant citations (https://publicationethics.org/resources/forum-discussions/artificial-intelligence-fake-paper). However, it's important to remember that the ultimate decision on the manuscript's quality and suitability for publication remains with the human reviewers. To ensure transparency, reviewers who leverage AI tools during the review process should disclose this practice to the editor.

The Asian Research Association encourages responsible AI use in research and publishing. This policy promotes transparency, scientific integrity, and ethical conduct.


Copyright and Open Access Policy

The author(s) retain total ownership of the publication rights. The ARA work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License granting permission for anyone to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the content for any lawful purpose, with the condition that the original work and source are appropriately cited. 


Digital Archiving / Sharing Policy

Being a Portico member, all the journal contents will be preserved permanently and remain accessible to scientific community (https://www.portico.org/publishers/ara/?keyword=&filter_by%5B%5D=e-journal). Apart from PORTICO the contents are also preserved in J-Gate database (https://jgateplus.com/admin/footer-html/PublisherPartners.jsp) and indexed in the Keepers Registry (https://keepers.issn.org/).
ARA follows the green archiving policy formulated by Sherpa/Reomeo’s and since all the articles are published under CC BY 4.0 license which allows the authors to deposit their pre an post publications in institutional and other repositories.


Advertising & Marketing Policy

ARA does not publish any commercial and non-commercial advertisement on the any of our journal website
All the information regarding new issues, published issues and indexing related alerts are delivered only to the registered user of our website who have agreed to receive the update through email. And the journal promotion is also done through the social networks.


Complaints Policy

The authors and readers may directly send their complaints to the Editorial office via support@asianresassoc.org and it will be solved in the maximum of 3 weeks. All the complaints received by the ARA will be addressed based on the guidelines proposed by the COPE (https://publicationethics.org/).


Journal Management and Revenue Sources

Publisher

Asian Research Association
(A Non-Profit Educational Trust), 5/342, Angalamman Street, Naickenpalayam, Coimbatore-641020, Tamil Nadu, India.
Ph: +91 422 299 5626

Regd.No : R/PN/BK-4/71/2021 (Indian Trust Act 1982)
PAN Card No: AAITA6320M

Organization Website: https://asianresassoc.org/
Email: contact@asianresassoc.org

Currently the journal generates its revenue through membership and hardcopy subscription to the Individuals and Institutional libraries.

Asian Research Association is a Member of the following Organizations

ALPSP Crossref Portico