Standard Operating Procedures

Purpose

To define the system of activities to publish quarterly PJOSR sponsored and published under the umbrella of the Pakistan Association for the Advancement of Science (PAAS).

Scope

The defined procedure (i.e. SOP) is applicable to the journal publication wing of the PAAS to serve the above purpose.

Operating Procedures

  1. Author(s) submit the research paper(s) (review article, new/extended work and book chapter) using the on-line submission system of the PJOSR as mentioned on the PJOSR website, no emails are accepted. Before submission of paper the author(s) require(s) to follow the submission guidelines for authors and must state a declaration (in the online system to editor) that the material presented is original, not submitted or under consideration elsewhere and not plagiarized.
  2. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author, including the co-authors, to ensure that the paper submitted for publication should attain the highest ethical standards with respect to plagiarism.
  3. Journal editor will scan the research paper using the higher education commission (HEC) approved software (Turnitin) and the report containing similarity index will be saved in the editorial office.
  4. As per scanning report, if the similarity index (SI) of plagiarized text of the research paper is found beyond the acceptable limits (Acceptable Similarity Index for Turnitin Software is less than or equal to 17% subject to no any link contains similarity greater than 5%), the editor will return the same to the corresponding author with “decline submission decision”. It should be noted that the database of the software as well as internet material updates time to time, therefore similarity index may fluctuate with number of times the document is scanned.
  5. After re-submission, the same process will be followed as per clause 3 and 4 till the paper is found free of plagiarism.
  6. Chief Editor / Editor will send the authentic paper to the two or more experts (either national or international) for their technical comments and evaluation. The Journal follows the Blind Peer Review Process.
  7. If comments / evaluation of minimum two experts are satisfactory, the paper is submitted to the Editorial Board for possible acceptance. Otherwise, it is returned back to the author(s) for modification as suggested by the expert(s).
  8. The revised paper submitted by the author(s) is again sent to the same experts for final comments, if required.
  9. The final comments of the experts/reviewers are submitted to the Editorial Board for final decision.
  10. The editor issues the acceptance or rejection letter

The Editorial Board selects the accepted papers among the approved ones for publication in the upcoming issue.