Ethical Guidelines

Ethics and Malpractices Statement

The Journal is committed to meeting and upholding the standard of ethical behavior at all stages of the publication process. Conformance to the standards of ethical conduct is expected of all parties involved: authors, editors, and reviewers.  

The Journal is committed to the highest standards of critical scholarly review and professional publishing judgment. By insisting on thorough peer review procedures combined with careful editorial assessments, The Journal performs an intellectual gatekeeping function, ensuring that only scholarship of the highest quality receives acceptance for publication.

Furthermore, the following publication ethics and malpractice statements set out the specific responsibilities of all parties involved to ensure that The Journal complies with internationally accepted guidelines for ethical and culturally competent research.

Responsibilities of the Reviewers

  • Any selected referee who feels unqualified to review the research reported in an article or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the Editor and excuse themself from the review process;
  • Any manuscript received for review shall be treated as a confidential document by the reviewers;
  • Double-blind peer reviews are conducted objectively. Referees should express their views clearly with supporting arguments;
  • The Reviewers should identify relevant published work that the authors have not cited and
  • The Reviewers must not use unpublished material disclosed in a submitted manuscript in their research without the author's express written consent (s).

Responsibilities of the Authors 

  • It is the author's responsibility to ensure that the manuscripts are reviewed/edited by an English language expert before submission to the Journal of Law, society, and policy review;
  • The authors shall ensure that the referencing and citation style is maintained according to the APA guidelines (latest edition);
  • The authors shall ensure an in-text citation style used with a list of references at the end of the manuscript;
  • The corresponding author shall ensure that the manuscript is not submitted and/or is under review for publication elsewhere;
  • The corresponding author shall ensure no conflict of interest between the principal author and the co-author(s);
  • The corresponding author shall ensure no plagiarism and/or similarity in the manuscript. Any data or ideas taken from other sources are cited correctly by international standards;
  • The international standards of research ethics must be followed and ensured by the authors/co-authors; 
  • Complete affiliation details of author/co-authors, either with one or more institutions, shall be provided during the submission of the manuscript;
  • The corresponding author shall ensure that the manuscript, once accepted for peer review, is not submitted/published elsewhere unless rejected by JLSPR;
  • Author(s) shall provide a signed agreement/undertaking allowing the JLSPR to reserve the right to circulate the article and all other derivative works, such as translations and
  • It is the author's responsibility to carefully read the author (s) guidelines and ensure that all the requirements and conditions of the Journal are fulfilled before submitting the manuscript.
  1. HEC’s Ethical Guidelines
  2. COPE’s Ethical Guidelines

The Journal of Law, Society and Policy Review (JLSPR) follows rigorous ethical standards for publishing articles. The JLSPR ethics and malpractice statement is conceptualized on Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines.