Journal of Academic Research for Humanities (JARH) is a double-blind, peer-reviewed, Open Free Access, online Multidisciplinary Research Journal
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Publication Ethics Policies

Publication Ethics Policies of JARH

These policies apply to all submissions to the International "Journal of Academic Research for Humanities" (JARH), ISSN 2788-4139 (online) / 2663-192X (print), published by BWO Researches Pvt. Ltd., Islamabad, Pakistan. They were written by the journal. In preparing them we used the guidance of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), available at publicationethics.org. JARH follows COPE guidance; it is not a member of COPE. Questions about any policy can be sent to jarh.bwo@gmail.com.

1. Peer review

JARH uses double-blind peer review: reviewers do not know the authors' identities and authors do not know the reviewers' identities. Every research article is first checked by an editor (desk check for scope, completeness, similarity and basic quality). Manuscripts that pass the desk check are sent to at least two independent expert reviewers. The handling section editor, and not the reviewers, makes a recommendation, and the Editor-in-Chief (or a deputy with no conflict of interest) makes the final decision. Authors may suggest reviewers, but the editor decides whether to invite them and will not rely only on author-suggested reviewers. Reviewers are invited by email through the journal system.

2. Editorial independence

Editorial decisions are made by the editors on academic merit alone. They are independent of the owner and publisher (BWO Researches Pvt. Ltd.) and of article processing charge (APC) income. The publisher does not take part in decisions on individual manuscripts.

A manuscript submitted by an editor, a member of journal staff or the owner/publisher is handled by another editor who has no conflict of interest with the authors; the submitting person has no access to the review or the decision. Such papers are reviewed in exactly the same way as other papers, and the published article says how the conflict was managed. The people who decide on articles do not handle payments, invoices or waiver requests.

3. Fees and waivers

There is no charge for submission, peer review or reading. An article processing charge (APC) is invoiced only after a manuscript has been accepted. The current amounts are listed on the Submissions page. Payment, non-payment and waiver requests have no influence on editorial decisions, and reviewers are not told whether an author has paid or asked for a waiver.

Waivers and discounts. Authors who cannot pay the APC may request a full waiver or a discount before submission or at the time of acceptance by writing to jarh.bwo@gmail.com with the subject line "APC waiver request" and a short explanation. Waiver requests are decided by journal administration staff who are not involved in the peer review of the manuscript, and the decision is sent to the corresponding author in writing.

4. Ethics approval

Authors must state in the manuscript whether the research needed ethics approval and, if so, give the name of the approving committee and the approval number or date. If approval was not required, authors must say why (for example, a written exemption from the committee, or the study used only published or fully anonymised public data).

Research involving human participants, such as surveys, interviews, focus groups, classroom studies, ethnography or the analysis of identifiable personal records, must have approval from an institutional review board (IRB) or ethics committee, or a written exemption from that body. Where research involves health or clinical data, it should follow the Declaration of Helsinki. Research with children or other vulnerable groups needs consent from a parent or guardian as well as the participant's own agreement where possible.

The editors may ask for a copy of the approval letter and may reject a manuscript if ethical approval is missing or unclear.

Authors must confirm that informed consent was obtained from every participant (or from a parent or legal guardian where the participant cannot consent) and describe how it was obtained, for example written or recorded oral consent. Personal details, images or quotations that could identify a person may be published only with that person's specific written consent for publication. Where consent was waived by an ethics committee, the manuscript must say so.

6. Funding

Every manuscript must include a Funding statement naming each funder and grant number, and describing any role the funder had in the study design, data collection, analysis, decision to publish or writing. If there was no specific funding, the statement must say "This research received no specific funding."

7. Conflicts of interest

Authors must declare any financial or non-financial interest that could be seen as influencing the work, such as employment, consultancy, grants, shareholdings, patents, personal relationships, or an editorial role with this journal. If there is none, the manuscript must say "The authors declare no conflict of interest."

Reviewers must decline or tell the editor if they have a conflict with the manuscript or its authors, for example a recent collaboration, the same institution, a personal relationship, or a competing project.

Editors and staff must not handle a manuscript where they have a conflict, and must pass it to another editor. Papers by editors, staff or the owner are handled as described in Section 2.

8. Authorship and changes to authorship

Everyone listed as an author must have made a substantial contribution to the work, helped write or critically revise it, approved the final version, and agreed to be accountable for it. Others who helped should be named in the Acknowledgements. Each article should include a short Author Contributions statement.

Requests to add, remove or reorder authors after submission must be sent by the corresponding author to jarh.bwo@gmail.com with the reason and the written agreement of all authors, including any author being removed. Changes after acceptance are allowed only in exceptional cases, and changes after publication need a correction notice. The editor may pause the manuscript while a dispute about authorship is resolved; the journal does not decide authorship disputes itself and may ask the authors' institutions to do so.

9. Artificial intelligence (AI) tools

Authors. AI tools, including large language models, cannot be listed as authors because they cannot take responsibility for the work. Authors who use AI tools for writing, editing, translation, data analysis or creating images must describe which tool was used and for what purpose in the Methods or in an "AI use declaration" at the end of the manuscript. Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality and referencing of all content. Use of basic spelling and grammar checkers does not need to be declared. Undisclosed or misleading use of AI is treated as a breach of this policy.

Reviewers. Manuscripts under review are confidential. Reviewers must not upload any part of a manuscript or their review to a generative AI tool, and must not use AI to write their review. Reviewers are responsible for the full content of their reports.

Editors. Editors must not upload manuscripts, reviews or decision letters to generative AI tools, and must not use AI to make or write editorial decisions. Software for similarity checking or AI-text detection may be used as one screening aid; its results are checked by an editor and are never the only basis for a decision.

10. Data sharing

JARH encourages authors to make the data that support their findings available, for example survey data, interview transcripts (anonymised), coding frames, archival references and analysis scripts, in a public repository (such as Zenodo or an institutional repository) with a persistent identifier. Every research article must include a Data Availability statement that says where the data can be found, or explains why they cannot be shared (for example, privacy, consent or legal limits) and how researchers may request access. Authors must keep their raw data for at least five years after publication and provide them to the editors if questions arise.

11. Text recycling, redundant publication and preprints

Submitted work must not have been published elsewhere and must not be under consideration by another journal. Re-using substantial parts of the authors' own published text (text recycling) without clear citation is not acceptable; limited re-use of standard methods descriptions is allowed if the source is cited. Publishing the same results more than once (redundant or duplicate publication) is misconduct. A secondary publication, such as a translation, is allowed only with the agreement of both editors and a clear citation of the original.

Authors may post a preprint of their manuscript on a non-commercial preprint server or repository before or during submission. They must tell the journal at submission, and once the article is published they should link the preprint to the published version (DOI). Posting a preprint does not count as prior publication.

Authors keep the copyright in their articles. By publishing with JARH, authors grant the journal a non-exclusive licence to publish the article and to distribute and archive it. Articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-SA 4.0), which lets anyone share and adapt the work for any purpose, including commercial use, as long as they give credit and license any adaptations under the same terms. Authors may deposit the published version in institutional or subject repositories.

13. Text and data mining and AI training

Because articles are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0, anyone, including researchers, indexing services and AI developers, may copy and analyse the published articles by text and data mining without asking permission, provided they follow the licence: credit the authors and the journal, link to the licence, state any changes, and share adapted material under the same licence. Automated access must not overload the journal website; large-scale users should use the journal's OAI-PMH interface (https://jar.bwo-researches.com/index.php/jarh/oai) and may contact jarh.bwo@gmail.com. Unpublished manuscripts, peer review reports and personal data are not covered and may not be mined.

14. Complaints

Anyone may complain about the journal's processes, an editor's or reviewer's conduct, delays, or a published article by writing to the Editor-in-Chief at jarh.bwo@gmail.com with the subject line "Complaint" and the manuscript or article number if there is one. We acknowledge complaints within 7 days and aim to give a full reply within 30 days. A complaint about the Editor-in-Chief is handled by another senior editor with no involvement in the matter. Complaints do not affect the handling of any unrelated manuscript.

15. Appeals

Authors may appeal against an editorial decision once. The corresponding author should email jarh.bwo@gmail.com within 30 days of the decision, with the subject line "Appeal – Manuscript ID", explaining why the decision should be reconsidered and responding to the reviewers' and editor's comments. The appeal is assessed by an editor who was not involved in the original decision, who may seek a further independent review. We aim to reply within 4 weeks. The outcome may be to uphold the decision, invite a revised manuscript, or send the manuscript for further review. The decision on the appeal is explained to the author in writing.

16. Allegations of misconduct

Concerns about possible research or publication misconduct (for example plagiarism, fabricated or manipulated data, duplicate publication, undisclosed conflicts of interest, authorship manipulation or peer review manipulation) can be sent, with evidence, to jarh.bwo@gmail.com with the subject line "Research integrity concern". Anonymous concerns are considered if they include enough evidence. The journal handles every concern in the same steps:

  1. The Editor-in-Chief (or an editor with no conflict) acknowledges the concern and checks the evidence.
  2. The authors are told about the concern and given a fair chance to respond.
  3. If needed, the editor seeks advice from independent experts and asks the authors' institution or ethics committee to investigate.
  4. The editor decides on the outcome and informs the authors and, where appropriate, the person who raised the concern.
  5. Possible outcomes include no action, a request for clarification, rejection of an unpublished manuscript, a correction, an expression of concern, or a retraction of a published article, and informing the authors' institution.

The journal follows the relevant COPE guidance and flowcharts when handling such cases.

17. Corrections, expressions of concern and retractions

Published articles are part of the permanent scholarly record and are not removed or "unpublished". If an error is found at any time after publication, the authors or readers should contact jarh.bwo@gmail.com. Depending on the case, the journal will publish:

  • a correction (erratum or corrigendum) when an error affects part of the article, including errors in the content, while the main findings remain reliable;
  • an expression of concern when there is serious doubt about an article that is still being investigated;
  • a retraction when the findings are unreliable or the article involves serious misconduct, such as plagiarism or duplicate publication.

Each notice is published openly, linked to the original article, and explains the reason. A retracted article stays online, clearly marked "Retracted". Removal of content is limited to rare legal cases (for example defamation or a serious privacy risk) and is recorded with a notice. There is no fixed time limit for requesting a correction.

18. Digital preservation

JARH has applied for LOCKSS and CLOCKSS digital preservation, and these have not yet been confirmed. JARH is also setting up the PKP Preservation Network (PKP PN) plug-in in Open Journal Systems. This page will be updated when the preservation arrangements are confirmed.