About the Journal
The International Journal of Business & Computational Sciences (IJBCS) is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal published by the Health and Education Research Network (HERN), Islamabad, Pakistan.
Aims and Scope
IJBCS publishes interdisciplinary research connecting computational, quantitative, analytical, digital, and data-driven methods with substantive questions in business, management, economics, finance, information systems, and organizational decision-making.
- Artificial intelligence, machine learning, and business analytics
- Information systems and digital transformation
- Computational finance, financial technology, and economics
- Operations research, supply chains, optimization, and decision science
- Digital innovation, cybersecurity, privacy, and information governance
- Computational management and organizational research
Submissions must explain their contribution to this intersection. Purely technical demonstrations without a relevant application, and descriptive business papers without a substantive analytical contribution, may fall outside scope.
Article Types
The journal considers original research, systematic and narrative reviews, methodological and modelling studies, data and software papers, case studies, perspectives, and editorials. Article types must accurately reflect the work performed. Conceptual or review papers must not be represented as empirical research.
Peer Review and Editorial Independence
Submissions undergo editorial screening for scope, originality, reporting, ethics, and methodological suitability. Research manuscripts proceeding to external review are normally assessed by at least two independent reviewers through double-anonymized review. Editors make decisions on scholarly merit, methodological quality, and the review evidence. Review duration varies; acceptance and publication dates are not guaranteed.
Editors and reviewers disclose competing interests and recuse themselves where appropriate. Editor-authored submissions receive independent handling. The publisher supports administration and production; financial considerations do not determine editorial decisions.
Publication Schedule
IJBCS publishes one annual issue. Articles may be added to the current issue as they are published; individual article publication dates identify their release separately from the issue opening date. Earlier volumes are available in the archives.
Copyright and Open Access
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal a non-exclusive right to publish their work. The journal's current article license is Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). Readers may access articles without a subscription. The license attached to each published Version of Record governs its reuse; existing licenses are not changed retrospectively by a website-policy update.
See the Copyright Policy and Licensing and Archiving page.
Article Processing Charges and Waivers
The article processing charge is USD 100 for international authors and PKR 25,000 for national authors based in Pakistan, per accepted article. For multi-country collaborations, the rate is determined by the corresponding author's institutional location at submission. The applicable amount is confirmed before invoicing. There is no submission fee; payment is requested only after editorial acceptance.
Authors unable to meet the APC may request a full or partial waiver by emailing editor@ijbcs.org at submission, explaining financial hardship and the availability of institutional or grant support. Requests are considered individually, subject to available resources, and the outcome is communicated before an invoice is issued. Waivers are discretionary and are not guaranteed.
Waiver requests and payment administration are assessed separately from academic decisions. A waiver, its refusal, or an author's ability to pay does not affect editorial screening, reviewer selection, peer review, acceptance criteria, or the standard editorial process. Payment never guarantees acceptance.
No unannounced compulsory charges are added. Duplicate or erroneous payments are refundable after verification. If an accepted article is withdrawn before production begins, authors may request a refund; after production begins, any refund is assessed against work already completed and explained in writing. Requests should identify the manuscript and payment reference and be sent to editor@ijbcs.org.
Author Guidance and Research Integrity
Manuscripts use Vancouver references, numbered in order of first citation. Authors must provide accurate metadata, affiliations, declarations of funding and competing interests, author contributions, ethics and consent information where applicable, and data and code availability statements. See the submission guidelines.
Fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, undisclosed duplicate publication, manipulated peer review, purchased citations, and inappropriate authorship are prohibited. Substantive AI use must be disclosed; authors remain responsible for accuracy and originality. Confidential manuscripts must not be uploaded to public AI services by editors or reviewers.
Corrections and Appeals
Concerns and appeals may be sent to editor@ijbcs.org with the article or submission identifier and supporting evidence. An uninvolved editor assesses concerns where practicable. Substantive post-publication changes require a documented correction, expression of concern, or retraction as appropriate. Published dates, authorship, and findings must not be silently altered.
Identifiers, Discovery, and Preservation
Online ISSN: 3080-3756. Print ISSN: 3080-3748. ISSN registration identifies a serial; it is not certification of research quality or selective indexing.
Indexing and preservation coverage is reported only when independently verifiable. Public access on this website does not itself establish participation in an external preservation service. See Indexing and Discovery and Licensing and Archiving.
Publisher and Contact
Health and Education Research Network (HERN), Islamabad, Pakistan. Editorial inquiries: editor@ijbcs.org. Further contact details appear on the Contact page.
