Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement of Indian Journal of Agricultural Marketing

Indian Journal of Agricultural Marketing (IJAM) ethics and malpractice statement is based on the guidelines developed by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) for all parties involved in the act of publishing (the author(s), the journal editor(s), the peer reviewers, and the publisher). All parties will follow the expected ethical behavior upon standards developed by the COPE.

Manuscripts submitted to IJAM are evaluated entirely based on their content. There are no publication charges. All possible measures are taken to uphold the highest standards of publication ethics and to prevent malpractices.

Duties/Responsibilities of Editors

• Publication decisions and Confidentiality: The Editorial Team of the IJAM, comprising the Editorial Board, the Chief-editor and Managing Editor is responsible for deciding as to which of the articles submitted to the journal are to beprocessed further. The Editors have complete discretion to reject/accept an article. The evaluation of manuscripts is made based on their scholarly and intellectual content without having regard to the nature of the authors or the institution including gender, race, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors. IJAM follows a policy of fair play in its editorial evaluation. The editors are expected to exercise caution and ensure that they have no conflict of interest concerning the articles they accept/reject. The editors and the editorial staff follow strict confidentiality and are required not to disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the correspondingauthor and theManaging Editor.Current legal requirements regarding libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism should also be considered.
• Disclosure, conflicts of interest, and other issues: The editor will be guided by COPE's Guidelines for Retracting Articles when considering retracting, issuing expressions of concern about, and issuing corrections pertaining to articles that have been published in IJAM. Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted paper will not be used by the editor or the members of the editorial board for their own research purposes without the author's explicit written consent. The editor is committed to ensuring that advertising, reprint or other commercial revenue has no impact or influence on editorial decisions. The editor should seek to ensure a fair and appropriate peer-review process. Editors should recuse themselves (i.e. should ask a co-editor, associate editor or other member of the editorial board instead to review and consider) from considering manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or (possibly) institutions connected to the papers. Editors should require all contributors to disclose relevant competing interests and publish corrections if competing interests are revealed after publication. If needed, other appropriate action should be taken, such as the publication of a retraction or expression of concern.
• Involvement and cooperation in investigations: Editors would guard the integrity of the published record by issuing corrections and retractions when needed and pursuing suspected or alleged research and publication misconduct. Every reported act of unethical publishing behavior will be looked into, even if it is discovered years after publication. IJAM editors follow the COPE Flowcharts when dealing with cases of suspected misconduct. If, on investigation, the ethical concern is well-founded, a correction, retraction, expression of concern or other note as may be relevant will be published in the journal.

Duties/Responsibilities of Reviewers

Contribution to editorial decisions and other issues: Editorial decisions are based on peer review. The reviewers are expected to maintain absolute confidentiality about the contents of manuscripts. The reviews are to be conducted objectively and the referees are expected to express their views clearly with supporting reasons. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. The reviewers should have no conflict of interest with the authors and the subject matter of the research. The reviewers are required to identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. Any observation or argument which has been previously reported should also be accompanied by the relevant citation. Similarities or overlaps between the manuscript under review and any other published paper of which the reviewer may have personal knowledge may also be brought to the attention of the editors. The information or ideas obtained through peer review are of a privileged nature and must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships with any of the authors or institutions connected to the papers.

Duties/Responsibilities of the Authors

• Reporting standards and Originality: Authors who submit papers to IJAM attest that their work is original and unpublished and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. Besides, authors confirm that their paper is their own original work, that has not been copied or plagiarized, in whole or in part, from other works, and if the authors have used the works of others the same has been appropriately cited or quoted. A paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable. Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be made. Authors are not expected to submit manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently would constitute the unethical practice and would be unacceptable.
• Data Access and retention: Authors could be asked to provide the raw data of their study together with the paper for editorial review and should be prepared to make the data publicly available if practicable.
• Authorship of the paper: Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution towards conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. Where others who have participated in certain substantive aspects in the development of the paper should also be acknowledged. The corresponding author is required to ensure that all co-authors are included in the paper, and that the co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.
• Disclosure and conflicts of interest: All sources of financial support should also be disclosed. All authors should include a statement disclosing any financial or other substantive conflicts of interest that may be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript.
• Fundamental errors in published works: Upon discovery of any significant error in the published work, it is the responsibility of the authors to promptly notify the editors and cooperate in the retraction or correction of the paper.
• Hazards and human or animal subjects: If the work involves chemicals, procedures or equipment that have any unusual hazards inherent in their use, the authors must clearly identify these in the manuscript. If the work involves the use of animals or human participants, the authors should ensure that all procedures were performed in compliance with relevant laws and institutional guidelines and that the appropriate institutional committee(s) has approved them; the manuscript should contain a statement to this effect. Authors should also include a statement in the manuscript that informed consent was obtained for experimentation with human participants. The privacy rights of human participants must always be observed.

Publisher Responsibilities

• Publisher's confirmation: Indian Society of Agricultural Marketing, Hyderabad publishes IJAM (peer-reviewed journal). ISAM is committed to working with editors to define clearly the respective roles of publishers and editors to ensure the autonomy of editorial decisions. The Publisher and the Journal do not discriminate based on age, race, religion, creed, disability, marital status, veteran status, national origin, race, gender, genetic predisposition or carrier status, or sexual orientation in its publishing programsThe publisher protects the intellectual property and copyright of IJAM, its imprints, authors, and publishing partners by promoting and maintaining each article's published version of record. According to journal policy, the copyright of any manuscript remains with the journal, unless it is withdrawn appropriately.
• Handling of unethical publishing behavior: IJAM ensures the integrity and transparency of each published article. In cases of alleged or proven scientific misconduct, fraudulent publication, or plagiarism the publisher, in close collaboration with the editors, will take all appropriate measures to clarify the situation and to amend the article in question. This includes the prompt publication of a correction statement or erratum or, in the most severe cases, the retraction of the affected work.
• Access to journal content: The publisher is committed to the permanent availability and preservation of scholarly research and ensures accessibility by partnering with organizations and maintaining our digital archive. Past issues of the journal since 2014 are available online at http://www.indianjournals.com/ijor.aspx?target=ijor:ijam&type=home