Journal Policy

Policy Document of JOSSAM

Guidelines for the Submission of Research Articles

Submission of a manuscript will be only for genuine work which has not been published before; that it is not under consideration for publication anywhere else; that its publication has been approved by all co-authors, if any, as well as by the responsible authorities – tacitly or explicitly – at the institute where the work has been carried out. The publisher will not be held legally responsible.

Committee:

Organizing Committee/ Editorial Board of the Journal

The journal's organizing committee comprises Patron in Chief, Chief Editor, Managing Editor, and three Associate Editors.
Patron-in-Chief of the Journal is the Vice-Chancellor of the
Chief Editor is the Dean of the Faculty concerned or Senior Faculty Member
The Managing Editor is the Chairperson of the Department concerned or a Senior Faculty Member
Associate editors are the three Faculty members who preferably have a research background.

Advisory Board of a Journal

The Editorial Board should preferably comprise 50% foreign and 50% local
All the foreign members should be D.
All the local members should be Ph.D. and at least Associate Professor
The consent of all the members should be received duly on the Consent Form of the Journal.
Any members of the Advisory Board can become a member of the Review Committee.

Review Committee

The members of the review committee will be:

All the members of the Editorial Board can become members of the review committee subject to their
At least 20 more PhDs from different

2.4. Frequency

The journal publishes two issues in a year; the first issue will be published in January, and the second issue will be published in the month of July each year. Each issue is first published online on the web portal of the journal and then published in print.

Review Process

Information for Authors

Peer Review Process

Policy regarding the Peer Review Process is as follows:

All the papers shall be submitted through the official web portal of the concerned journal.
The editorial board and associate editors initially receive all the submitted research papers.
If the submissions are not of high significance or not relevant to the journal or have a similarity index of more than 19%, they may not be brought into the phases of evaluation and publication by the editorial board.
The corresponding author will be informed about the status of the paper soon after the decision of Desk Review.
Research papers, which are not rejected by the editorial board, will be sent for peer review to two (02) reviewers by flowing peer review process.
If any paper is rejected by one reviewer and accepted by another, the managing editor will evaluate the form or send it to the third reviewer.
Research papers will not be sent to reviewers who belong to institutions, whose affiliation is mentioned by any of the research paper's authors.
Based on the reviewers’ feedback, a paper will be accepted or rejected.
Acceptance or rejection of the research paper based on reviewers’ feedback will be communicated to the corresponding author.

The average time for the whole process- from submission to acceptance/rejection- is three months.

3.2. Invitation to Join JOSSAMS as Reviewer Database

The researchers with good research experience are encouraged to join the JOSSAMS reviewer database by sending the profile document/CV on the journal's web portal or to the editor's email. The Organizing Committee shall send a notification to those whose profiles if approved.

3.2.1. Review Invitation

As per the journal’s peer review policy, each paper shall be sent to at least two reviewers. The process shall be,

The editorial team shall send an invitation to the potential reviewers, based on their expertise and domain of the article, from the database after the successful desk review.
The potential reviewer may accept or decline the review offer.
If any potential reviewer identifies any conflict of interest in the article and the reviewer, the reviewer should inform the editorial team.
In case any potential reviewer declines the offer, the editorial team shall send the paper to another reviewer.
If the reviewer accepts the offer to review the article, the editorial board shall send the review process details along with deadlines, benefits policy, and blind review article.
If the Editorial Team does not get a response from the reviewer within three days, a first reminder shall be sent, and the second reminder shall be sent after five days.
If the Editorial Team does not respond after two reminders, the reviewer shall be informed that the article is now being sent to another reviewer with a positive note.

3.2.2. Review Assessment and feedback

All the reviewers shall be asked to review the article on scientific soundness, methodological rigor, originality, novelty, structure quality, and language.
Reviewers also have to check the references, proper citation, and ethical considerations in the source.
Reviewers shall be asked to provide feedback to identify the article sections that need improvement correctly.
Reviewers shall be asked to provide recommendations on each of the above criterion.
Reviewers shall be asked to provide a comprehensive review report.
Reviewers shall be asked to review the article for the second round as well after the Editorial Team gets the report back from an author with recommended rectifications

3.3. Confidentiality

All the reviewers shall be required to keep the entire articles, content in complete confidentiality.
If the reviewers intend to get the review done from someone else, they need to seek prior permission from the editorial team.
The reviewers must keep their identity confidential and should not reveal it in their feedback/comments.

3.4. Ethical guidelines

Authors are expected to observe high standards of publication ethics. Falsification or fabrication of data, plagiarism, including duplicate publication of authors’ work without proper citation, misappropriation, publishing the job without the original author’s consent, and publishing others’ work in one’s name is unacceptable and unethical.

Any case of ethical publication misconduct will be treated seriously and dealt with according to HEC guidelines.

3.5. Authorship

All the authors should have been involved in the writing of the research paper and they must have read and approved the final script.
The major contributor of the paper should be nominated as the corresponding author.
There should not be more than three authors in a research papers.
All the authors should mention their affiliations.
The corresponding author should also provide their contact number and email address.
All the communication will be made with the corresponding

3.6. Originality and Plagiarism Policy

The manuscript submitted to the journal should be original, unpublished, and not under consideration elsewhere.
All the authors must submit a statement that the manuscript submitted is original and has not been accepted or is currently being considered for publication elsewhere.
Manuscript submitted to the journal will be checked by the editor or associates using anti-plagiarism software (Turnitin).
Similarity of more than 19% will not be acceptable for publication, and the editorial board will reject the manuscript.

3.7. Peer Review Process

Policy regarding the Peer Review Process is as follows:

All the papers shall be submitted through the official web portal of the concerned journal.
The editorial board and associate editors initially receive all the submitted research papers.
If the submissions are not of high significance or not relevant to the journal or have a similarity index of more than 19%, they may not be brought into the phases of evaluation and publication by the
The corresponding author will be informed about the grounds on which the paper is not sent to the
Research papers, which are not rejected by the editorial board, will be sent for peer review to two (02)
If any paper is rejected by one reviewer and accepted by another, the managing editor can decide by evaluating the form or sending it to the third reviewer.
Research papers will not be sent to reviewers who belong to institutions whose affiliation is mentioned by any of the research paper's authors.
Based on the reviewers’ feedback, a paper will be accepted or
Acceptance or rejection of the research paper based on reviewers’ feedback will be communicated to the corresponding
The average time for the whole process- from submission to acceptance/rejection- is three months.

3.8. Confidentiality / Privacy statement

All submissions will be treated as confidential documents. They will be reviewed by the Editor, Editorial office staff, and assigned peer reviewers; all of them are bound to treat the document as confidential.

Disclosure and Conflict of Interest

A reviewer should not, for their research, use unpublished material disclosed in a submitted manuscript without the approval of the editor.

The data included in the research paper is confidential, and the reviewer shall not be allowed to use it for their study,

A reviewer must declare any potentially conflicting interests (e.g., personal, financial, intellectual, professional, political, or religious). In such a situation, s/he will be required to follow the journal's policies.

A reviewer should be honest enough to declare conflicts of interest if the research paper under review is the same as they presently conducted the study.

If the reviewer feels unqualified to separate their bias, s/he should immediately return the manuscript to the Editor without review and justify the situation.

Deadlines for Publication of Journals

S. No.	Task	January Issue	July Issue
	Call for Papers	1^st October	1^st April
1.	Full paper submission	15^th November	15^th May
2.	Review of papers by Editorial Board (Department Level)	10^th October to 20^th November	10^th April to 20^th May
3.	Withdrawal/ retraction of the paper	12^th October to 22^nd November	12^th April to 22^nd May
4.	Review of papers by externals	15^th October to 25^th November	15^th April to 25^th May
5.	Review report sent to authors/Acceptance/Rejection of Articles	1^st November to 1^st December	1^st May to 1^st June

Furthermore, the ORIC department shall be responsible for the next two steps:

1.14. Frequency of the Journals

S. No.	Task	January Issue	July Issue
5	Final editing and drafting of research journal	5^th December	5^th June
	To be submitted to ORIC for printing	6^th December	6^th June
6	Journal publication	1^st January	1^st July