Instructions for Author
Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractices Statement
The following guidelines are fully aligned with the requirements of the
Higher Education Commission of Pakistan and follow the recommended
principles by HEC for the code of conduct. We at JPS encourage the use of
best practices and evaluate all the publication malpractices. Plant
Sciences Journal takes full responsibility as a publishing body and carries
its duties effectively during all the phases of publishing.
Publication Fee
Publication is free of approved papers.
Note: As per GCU revised policy (with effect from JULY 2023)
Plant Sciences - Journal rules, policies and Ethical Guidelines for the
Author(s)
Originality and Plagiarism
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It is the author(s)' responsibility to ascertain that she/he has
submitted an entirely original work, giving due credit, by virtue
of proper citations, to the works and/or words of other authors
where they have been used.
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Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes unethical publishing
behavior and is not acceptable.
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Material quoted verbatim from the author(s)' previously published
work or other sources must be placed in quotation marks.
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In case the manuscript has a similarity index of more than 19%, it
will either be rejected or left at the discretion of the Editorial
Board for the purposes of a conditional acceptance.
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Percentage of similarity from Self/Single source should be less
than 5 percent.
Declaration
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Authors are required to provide an undertaking/declaration stating
that the manuscript under consideration contains solely their
original work that is not under consideration for publishing in
any other journal in any form.
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A manuscript that is co-authored must be accompanied by an
undertaking explicitly stating that each author has contributed
substantially towards the preparation of the manuscript in order
to claim right to authorship.
Multiple Redundant and Current Publications
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The authors and editor must agree to the secondary publication,
which must cite the primary references and reflect the same data
and interpretation of the primary document.
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Concurrent submission of the same manuscript to more than one
journal is unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.
Acknowledgment of Sources
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A paper must always contain acknowledgment of the work of others,
including clear indications of the sources of all information
quoted or offered, except what is common knowledge.
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The author(s) must also acknowledge the contributions of people,
organizations and institutes who assisted the process of research,
including those who provided technical help, writing assistance or
financial funding (in the acknowledgment section).
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It is duty of the author(s) to conduct a literature review and
properly cite the original publications that describe closely
related work.
Authorship Credit
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It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to include
the name(s) of only those co-authors who have made significant
contributions to the work.
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The corresponding author should ensure that all co-authors have
seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed
to its submission for publication. Others who have participated in
certain substantive aspects of the research should be acknowledged
for their contribution to an "Acknowledgement" section.
Images
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The author(s) should ensure that images included in an account of
research performed or in the data collection as part of the
research are free from manipulation,
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The author(s) must provide an accurate description of how the
images were generated and produced.
Copyright
Authors may have to sign an agreement allowing the journal to
reserve the right to circulate the article and all other derivative works
such as translations.
Manuscript Acceptance and Rejection
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The minimum review period is 1-month
and during this period the
author(s) reserve the right to contact the Editor to ask about the
status of the review.
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Once the review process has been completed, the author will be
informed about the status of the manuscript which could either be
an acceptance, rejection, or revisions. In the case of rejection,
the author(s) reserves the right to publish the article elsewhere.
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In case of revisions, the author(s) must provide an exposition of
all corrections made in the manuscript and the revised manuscript
should, then, go through the process of affirmation of revisions
and be accepted or rejected accordingly.
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In case of dissatisfaction over the decision of rejection, the
author can appeal the decision by contacting the Editor.
Ethical Guidelines For the Reviewers
The Reviewers should:
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Inform the Editor, if they do not have the subject expertise
required to carry out the review and s/he should inform the Editor
immediately after receiving a request.
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Be responsible to act promptly and submit a review report on time.
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Immediately inform the Editor of any possible delays and suggest
another date of submission for a review report.
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There should be no unnecessary delay in the review process, either
by prolonged delay in submission of their review or by requesting
unnecessary additional data/information from the Editor or
author(s).
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Reviewers should consider the research paper as a confidential
document and must not share its content on any platform except in
the case where professional advice is being sought with the
authorization of the Editor.
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Reviewers are professionally and ethically bound not to disclose
the details of any research paper prior to its publication without
the prior approval of the Editor.
Review Report
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The reviewer must explicitly write his/her observations in the
section of 'comments' because author(s) will only have access to
the comment’s reviewers have made,
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For writing a review report, the reviewers are requested to
complete a prescribed form.
The reviewers should indicate the revisions clearly and comprehensively and
show a willingness to confirm the revisions submitted by the author(s) if
the Editor wishes so.