SLJMR

Funding for the Sri Lanka Journal of Multidisciplinary Research (SLJMR) publication is exclusively from Eastern University funds. Also, research funders should be acknowledged by the authors of the research papers.

SLJMR publishes only original works of the authors that have not been published earlier either in printed format or electronically. All authors of manuscripts submitted to the SLJMR must confirm that neither the manuscript nor any part of it, regardless of the language in which it was originally written or published, has been published or is under consideration for publication or accepted for publication elsewhere. Further, authors are expected to be knowledgeable of and comply with best practices in publication ethics, specifically with regard to authorship, dual submission, plagiarism, manipulation of figures, competing interests and compliance with policies on research ethics.

Authors should be followed applicable copyright laws and conventions. Copyright material should be reproduced only with appropriate permission and acknowledgement. Relevant previous work and publications, both by other researchers and the authors’ own, should be properly acknowledged and referenced. The primary literature should be cited both in the text and in the reference list. Authors should inform editors if findings have been published previously or if multiple reports or multiple analyses of a single data set are under consideration for publication elsewhere. Authors should provide copies of related publications or work submitted to other journals.

Copyrights of the published papers are with the authors, and SLJMR takes the responsibility of publishing the manuscript only. Editors of SLJMR are devoted not to discriminate against the authors on the grounds of gender, age, experience, social status, occupation, sexual orientation, working institution, colour of the skin, religious or political beliefs, or ethnic or geographical origin. All the papers published by the SLJMR are solely on a merit basis.

Outline

SLJMR is a double-blind peer-reviewed journal that ensures the highest values of publication ethics. All stakeholders of the journal, such as the Editors, Authors, Reviewers and Publishers, have to agree upon the total ethical behaviour in this context. The Publication Ethics of this Journal is based on the Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) (https://publicationethics.org/)

Responsibilities of the Editor-in-Chief and the Editors

1. Making initial evaluation of the manuscripts exclusively based on their academic and intellectual merit, without considering the author(s)’ race, age, gender, sexual orientation, disability, ethnic origin, religious belief, citizenship, political orientation or social class.
2. Deciding which of the manuscripts submitted to the journal should be sent for reviewers’ evaluation following the initial evaluation based upon the policies and authors’ guidelines of the journal and legal requirements with regard to vilification, copyright infringement and plagiarism.
3. Ensuring appropriate peer reviewers are selected to evaluate the manuscripts.
4. Guaranteeing a fair and unbiased double-blind peer review of the manuscripts and ensuring all information related to the authors and reviewers are kept confidential, and ensuring both authors’ and peer reviewers’ identities are secured.
5. Provision of direction and guidance to members of the Editorial Board, authors and reviewers on their responsibilities and ethical expectations and also on the description of peer review processes.
6. Developing and maintaining a database of appropriate reviewers and updating the same based on reviewer competence, punctuality, and responsiveness.

Responsibilities of the Editorial Board

1. Ensuring the maintenance of overall quality of the journal.
2. Assuring the international standards of both online and print publications of the journal by providing opinions to the executive editors of the journal.
3. Making a set of clear guidelines available for authors with regard to the subject area of the journal and the overall design of the issues
4. Establishing the journal policy and ensuring its implementation.
5. Assisting in ensuring the international recognition and acceptance of the journal
6. Ensuring the implementation of publication ethics of the journal by all the stakeholders

Responsibilities of the Authors

1. Authors should not submit the same manuscript simultaneously to more than one publication at a time. This is found to be unethical publishing behaviour and is obnoxious.
2. Authors must ensure and declare that their work is original and that any work or statement from other authors or sources has been appropriately acknowledged and referenced.
3. Manuscripts submitted by authors for publication in SLJMR must be original articles and must confirm that the submitted works represent their own contributions and that they have not been copied or plagiarized in whole or partially from others’ work and such must not be included with no clear cited sources.
4. Authors should cite publications that are relevant to the submitted work only.
5. Should understand and act towards the fact that plagiarism in all its forms that exhibit unethical publishing behaviour is unacceptable.
6. Authors need to submit a written statement that clearly states the manuscript has not been published elsewhere in any form of publishing.
7. Authorship should comprise those who have contributed significantly to the planning, designing, implementing or interpreting of the relevant research or study. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors.
8. Main author and the corresponding author must take all the responsibilities in ensuring all the ethical considerations of the journal.
9. Main author and corresponding author with the journal should ensure that all appropriate co-authors are included in the list of authors of the manuscript. Total consensus of all co-authors in approving the final version of the paper and its submission for publication should be ensured.
10. All sources of financial support for the work submitted to the journal should be disclosed and acknowledged.
11. All the responsibilities regarding the published material are vested in the main author and co-authors.
12. The journal is freely available online. Authors should agree with the open access policy, which enables unrestricted access and reuse of all published articles. The articles are published under the Creative Commons Copyright License Policy CC BY-SA. This license permits users to use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided it is licensed under the same terms and the original work is properly cited.

Responsibilities of the Reviewers

1. Peer reviewers should assist, especially the Editor-in-Chief, the handling Editor, and the Editorial committee whenever necessary, in making editorial decisions by submitting their recommendations on the eligibility and relevance of the manuscripts for publication.
2. Manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents and should not be discussed on their content with outside parties and should not be multiplied in any form.
3. If a selected reviewer is not competent to review a given manuscript or knows that the timely review of the same will be impossible, the reviewer should immediately inform the Editor-in-Chief and the handling Editor without delay, enabling the Editors to call an alternative reviewer.
4. Reviewers are requested to report to the Editors if they are aware of copyright breaches and plagiarism on the author’s side.
5. Reviewers must strictly evaluate the manuscripts only based on content, without imagining the author’s race, age, gender, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, disability, religious belief, citizenship, political orientation or social class.
6. Peer review must be done very objectively, with clear logic, so that authors can use them to improve the paper.
7. Reviewers should not consider any manuscript for reviewing in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, establishments or institutions connected to the manuscripts.

Responsibilities of the Publishers

The publisher of the SLJMR is the Eastern University, Sri Lanka

1. To ensure and secure the autonomy of the decisions of the Editorial Board.
2. To protect the intellectual property rights, privacy of the authors and copyrights.
3. To assist the Editorial Board in maintaining the overall quality of the journal.
4. To provide necessary logistic support to the Editors to maintain publication ethics of the journal.