Editorial Policies

The International Journal of Business & Computational Sciences (IJBCS), published by the Health and Education Research Network (HERN), Pakistan, is committed to publication ethics, research integrity, editorial independence and an accurate scholarly record.

Authors, reviewers, editors and journal staff must act responsibly and transparently throughout publication. The journal takes account of guidance from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Reference to this guidance does not imply COPE membership.

1. Author Responsibilities

Authors must submit original work, report methods and findings accurately, acknowledge sources, disclose funding and competing interests, identify all eligible authors, obtain applicable ethical approvals and permissions, and comply with journal policies. The corresponding author must ensure that all authors approve the submitted manuscript and its submission.

2. Originality and Plagiarism

Unattributed copying of text, ideas, data, images or code is prohibited. Submissions may undergo similarity screening and editorial examination. A similarity percentage alone does not establish plagiarism; editors assess the nature, extent, source and context of overlap. Confirmed plagiarism may lead to rejection, correction or retraction and, where appropriate, referral to the relevant institution.

3. Fabrication, Falsification and Data Integrity

Fabricated research, falsified results, selective manipulation and intentional misrepresentation are prohibited. Authors must retain supporting research records and respond to reasonable editorial requests for data, analysis files, code, documentation or ethics approvals, subject to lawful confidentiality safeguards.

Simulation and synthetic data are permissible research methods when clearly identified and justified. They must never be presented as observations collected from real participants, organizations or events.

4. Figures, Images and Digital Materials

Figures and digital materials must accurately represent the underlying information. Changes for clarity must not alter interpretation. Misleading enhancement, selective deletion and fabricated visual evidence are prohibited. Authors must obtain permission for third-party material when required and identify its source.

5. Duplicate and Redundant Publication

A manuscript must not be under consideration at another journal. Authors must disclose related manuscripts, conference papers, working papers and previous versions so editors can assess overlap. Preprints do not by themselves constitute duplicate journal publication. Substantial reuse must be disclosed, cited and justified.

6. Authorship and Contributions

Authors must make substantial scholarly contributions, participate in drafting or substantive revision, approve the final manuscript and accept responsibility for the work. Gift, guest, honorary and ghost authorship are prohibited. Other assistance must be acknowledged with appropriate permission. The journal encourages the CRediT contributor roles taxonomy to describe contributions.

Requests to add, remove or reorder authors require an explanation, written agreement from all affected authors and editorial assessment. Unresolved authorship disputes may pause consideration and be referred to the authors' institutions. Post-publication authorship changes require a transparent notice.

7. Competing Interests

Authors, reviewers and editors must disclose relevant financial, professional, institutional, academic and personal relationships. Authors must include a competing-interest statement, including a statement when none exists. Disclosure does not automatically prevent publication. Reviewers and editors must decline or recuse themselves where impartial assessment cannot be maintained.

8. Funding Disclosure

Authors must identify financial or material support and describe any funder involvement in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, writing and the decision to submit. Where there was no specific funding, this should be stated.

9. Human Participants and Consent

Research involving participants, surveys, interventions or identifiable personal information must meet applicable institutional and ethical requirements. Manuscripts must identify the approving ethics body and approval reference where available, and describe informed consent. Exemptions and waivers must identify their basis and the responsible authority. Identifiable participant information requires appropriate consent for publication.

10. Animal Research

Where relevant to a manuscript within the journal's scope, animal research must comply with applicable institutional and national ethical requirements. Authors must report the approving body and relevant authorization.

11. Privacy and Confidential Information

Personal, confidential, proprietary and restricted information must be obtained, analyzed and shared on an appropriate ethical and legal basis. Authors must minimize identification risks and respect consent, contractual restrictions and data-access conditions.

12. Data, Code and Reproducibility

Methods must be sufficiently detailed for scholarly evaluation. Authors should provide a data and code availability statement and deposit supporting materials in a suitable repository where sharing is permissible. Restrictions arising from privacy, ethics, security, contracts or commercial confidentiality must be explained. Claims of availability must match the actual access arrangements.

13. Generative AI and Automated Tools

AI systems cannot be authors. Human authors remain responsible for accuracy, originality, references, interpretations and integrity. Substantive use of generative AI in writing, analysis, coding, figures or research must be disclosed with the tool and its purpose; methodological use must be described sufficiently for evaluation.

Invented references, quotations and findings are prohibited. AI-generated or synthetic research materials must be clearly identified and must not masquerade as authentic observations. Confidential manuscripts or sensitive research data must not be uploaded to external AI services without appropriate authorization and confidentiality protections.

14. Peer-Review Integrity

False reviewer identities, author-controlled reviewer accounts, impersonation and improper influence are prohibited. Editors may independently verify reviewer identities, affiliations and expertise. Suspected manipulation may result in suspension of assessment, investigation and appropriate action on submitted or published work.

15. Reviewer Responsibilities

Reviewers must provide objective, constructive and evidence-based assessments, disclose conflicts, protect confidentiality and report significant methodological or ethical concerns. They must not use unpublished material for personal advantage or demand irrelevant citations. They must not delegate reviews or upload manuscripts to external AI services without editorial authorization and appropriate confidentiality safeguards.

16. Editorial Responsibilities and Independence

Editorial decisions must reflect scholarly quality, originality, methodological rigor, ethical compliance and relevance to scope. Commercial interests, personal relationships and an author's ability to pay must not determine acceptance. Editors must protect confidentiality, manage conflicts and address credible integrity concerns fairly.

17. Editorial-Board Submissions

Submissions by editors or board members must receive independent handling and the same assessment standards as other submissions. The author-editor must have no role in reviewer selection, assessment or the decision on their manuscript. An independent editor without a material conflict must oversee the process.

18. Citation Ethics

Citations must be selected for scholarly relevance. Coercive citation requests, irrelevant journal self-citation requirements, coordinated citation exchanges and arrangements intended primarily to inflate metrics are prohibited. Authors must verify that cited sources support their claims.

19. Publication Charges

The journal's stated article processing charge is USD 100 per article. Payment does not guarantee acceptance and must not influence editorial screening, peer review or final decisions. Fee arrangements must be communicated transparently to authors.

20. Corrections

Errors that materially affect the record but do not invalidate the principal findings may require a correction. Notices must identify the article and explain the change, and should be linked in both directions. Authors should promptly notify the journal of significant errors they discover.

21. Retractions

Retraction may be appropriate for substantially unreliable findings, major error, fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, redundant publication, unethical research or compromised peer review. The journal takes account of COPE guidance when assessing cases. Retraction notices should explain the reason and who is retracting the work, remain accessible and link to the article. Retracted articles should remain available and clearly marked except where removal is necessary for a compelling legal or privacy reason.

22. Expressions of Concern

An expression of concern may alert readers to serious unresolved issues while an investigation is pending or when available evidence does not permit a reliable conclusion. The notice should be updated when the matter is resolved.

23. Post-Publication Changes and Dates

Versions of Record must not be silently altered to conceal substantive errors, authorship changes or integrity concerns. Material amendments require a transparent notice. Publication dates must accurately reflect the scholarly record; migration or digitization must not be used to invent a prior publication history. Distinct original-publication and online-release dates should be explained when applicable and supported by records.

24. Complaints and Appeals

Complaints and appeals should be sent to the editorial office with the article or submission identifier, the concern, relevant evidence and the requested resolution. An appeal should identify a substantive factual or procedural issue. Where possible, it should be assessed by an editor who was not responsible for the original decision. The journal will communicate the outcome and its reasons; an appeal does not guarantee reversal.

25. Confidentiality

Submitted manuscripts and reviews are confidential. Editors, reviewers and staff must not disclose them or exploit unpublished information without authorization. Necessary disclosures in an integrity investigation must be limited to appropriate parties and handled with due regard for privacy and fairness.

26. Editorial Misconduct

Concerns about editors, reviewers, staff or publisher representatives are subject to impartial assessment. A person implicated in a complaint must not control its investigation. Complaints about the handling editor should be referred to an uninvolved editor; concerns about the Editor-in-Chief should be referred to HERN for independent handling by a person without a material conflict.

27. Investigation of Misconduct

The journal assesses evidence, distinguishes honest error from misconduct and normally gives affected parties an opportunity to respond. It may request supporting records and, where appropriate, contact institutions, funders or other journals. Editorial action may include rejection, correction, an expression of concern or retraction. Decisions should be proportionate to the evidence and protect the integrity of the record. Concerns may be examined regardless of an article's age.

28. Preservation of the Scholarly Record

Corrections, retractions and expressions of concern should remain accessible and linked to the relevant work. This commitment does not imply participation in a particular digital preservation service; active arrangements must be separately verified and disclosed.

29. Reporting a Concern

Editorial Office
International Journal of Business & Computational Sciences (IJBCS)
Health and Education Research Network (HERN), Pakistan
Email: editor@ijbcs.org

Reports should provide enough detail to identify the work and assess the concern. Good-faith reports will be considered on their evidence. The journal seeks to protect confidentiality but cannot promise absolute anonymity where investigation or applicable requirements necessitate disclosure.

30. Policy Review

These policies may be reviewed as publishing standards and technologies evolve. Changes must be communicated transparently. Authors, reviewers and editors are expected to follow the policies applicable at the relevant stage of publication.