Policy

Ethical policy

Publishing Practice of Balochistan Journal of Linguistics is follows a certain ethical policy which is according to the COPE guidelines and HEC ethical guidelines for the journals. Following are some key points of it:

Policy for the Editor(s):

  • Editor is solely responsible for quality and maintenance of the journal.
  • S/He is authorised to accept or reject any research paper keeping in view the publishing policy of Balochistan Journal of Linguistics or the standard of the all the prerequisites of the submitted paper and professional demands as well.
  • Editor ensures the process of blind peer review of every paper.
  • Editor ensures the Plagiarism Check of every paper and strictly follows the HEC Plagiarism Policy regarding this matter.
  • Editor is bound to follow the journal's policy without any institutional pressure.
  • Balochistan Journal of Linguistics discourages any sort of discrimination: Religious, Ethnic, Racial, Political or Gender.  

Policy for the Author(s)

  • Principal Author would be credited as well as will be fully responsible for the originality of the paper published in Balochistan Journal of Linguistics. One who has contributed at some extent or helped out the author in write up or has contributed particularly in any design, analysis etc. s/he can be credited as co-author.
  • It is the author(s)' responsibility to ensure that the research paper and data contain adequate detail and references to the sources of information in order to allow others to check its credibility. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behaviour and are unacceptable.
  • Author(s) is required to provide an undertaking stating that the submitted manuscript contains solely his original work and no material has been copied without reference from anywhere. If someone co-author’s the paper their contribution should be explicitly stated in that undertaking.
  • Article once submitted by the author to Balochistan Journal of Linguistics will not be submitted to any other journal till the time he would have been conveyed about rejection from our side. Concurrent submission of the same manuscript to more than one journal is unethical publishing behaviour and is unacceptable.
  • Authors are supposed to allow the journal while submitting the paper to reserve the right to circulate the article.
  • Authors are supposed to bind with journal's policy when submitting a paper to Balochistan Journal of Linguistics.
  • The review process can last between 1-2 months or longer and during this period the author(s) reserve the right to contact the Editor to ask about status of the review. In the case of rejection, the author(s) reserves the right to publish the article elsewhere. In case of revisions, the author(s) must provide an exposition of all corrections made in the manuscript. In case of dissatisfaction over the decision of rejection, the author can appeal the decision by contacting the Editor.

Policy for the Reviewer(s)

Review process allows author(s) improve their manuscript through editorial communications. Scholars/ Reviewers accepting to review a research paper have an ethical responsibility to complete this assignment professionally. The quality, credibility and reputation of a journal also depend on the peer review process. The peer review process depends on the trust, and demands that a reviewer is supposed to fulfil ethically. The reviewers should:

  • Immediately inform the editor if they do not have the subject expertise required to carry out the review.
  • Be responsible to act punctually and submit review report on time. They should immediately inform the editor of any possible delays.
  • The data included in the research paper is confidential and the reviewer is not allowed to use for their personal study or any other academic or professional purpose.
  • Reviewers would consider the research paper as a confidential document. They must not discuss its content on any platform except in cases where professional advice is being sought with the authorization of the editor. They are bound not to disclose the details of any research paper prior to its publication without the prior approval of the editor.
  • A reviewer must declare any conflicting interests (e.g. personal, financial, intellectual, professional, political or religious). They should declare if the research paper under review is the same as to their presently conducted study.
  • The reviewer may justifiably criticize a manuscript but it would be inappropriate to resort to personal criticism on the author(s). They are supposed to objectively carry out the review with a consideration of high academic, scholarly and scientific standards.
  • Reviewer should bring into the editor's notice, before writing the evaluation report, if the research paper is based on any previous research or is replica of an earlier work, or the work is plagiarized. Moreover, if the reviewer suspects the given results to be untrue/unrealistic/fake, or there has been an indication of violating ethical norms in the treatment of human beings (e.g. children, female, poor people, disabled, elderly, etc.), all these points should also be identified to the editor.
  • For writing an evaluation report, reviewers are sent prescribed form(s) from the editor and they are supposed to share their comments on that form.
  • The editor will surely consider reviewer's comments and may send the paper to someone else for another opinion or send it back to the author(s) for revision before making any decision. But it is very clear that the final decision about publishing a research paper (either accept or reject) will solely rest with the editor. A reviewer cannot challenge the decision of the editor at any forum.

Publishing Policy

Balochistan Journal of Linguistics is published annually in December.

  • Maximum Twenty research papers are published yearly. This obligation has been adopted as per HEC Pakistan guidelines for research journals.
  • The author(s) is not allowed to submit their research paper to any other journal if once submitted to Balochistan Journal of Linguistics till the time they receive any rejection.
  • Papers, not written/ composed as per the guidelines for authors given at Balochistan Journal of Linguisticswebsite, will not be entertained for further process.

Plagirism Policy

Any reproduction of text from other sources without explicitly mentioning them is plagiarism. Production of same text, results, or content with different titles of an author(s) is self-plagiarism. Balochistan Journal of Linguistics does not tolerate and it discourages any form of plagiarism. The Journal will check the plagiarism with the software recommended by HEC. The team of the journal also checks it manually. If plagiarism is found in any manuscript at any stage, 1st scrutiny, reviewing or editing, the author(s) will be informed to cite the sources or reconsider the content, otherwise the manuscript will not be processed further. The overall similarity index of manuscript with other sources should not be more than 19% and the minimum similarity index from a single/individual source should not be more than 2% as determined by HEC Pakistan. If similarity index exceeds 20% the author(s) will be asked to reconsider the text, otherwise the paper will be rejected and the same will be notified to the author(s).

The author(s) must declare that their research is original and is not submitted elsewhere. An undertaking form can be downloaded from the website for this purpose.

Review Policy

The submitted paper usually goes through an initial scrutiny of editorial board. Those manuscripts that meet the minimum criteria are forwarded to at least two experts for review.

Peer Review We use double blind reviewing, in which both the referee and author remain anonymous throughout the process. We usually make it possible to select a referee who is matched to the paper according to his/her expertise. In our panel we have a bunch of academia and scholars from all over the world who are expert in the fields and disciplines of research.

Referees are asked to evaluate the originality, methodology, arguments that support the conclusions and accuracy of references to the previous relevant work. The final report is prepared on the findings of the referees and the recommendations of the referees are conveyed to the author(s). The Editor makes the final decision of publishing a manuscript in light of the reports.