Publishing Ethics for KSLR

Introduction

Kathmandu School of Law Review (KSLR) is an esteemed journal which has also been recognized by the University Grant Commission of India. This document outlines the principles that we apply in our publications.

The integrity of academic content and publishing process is taken with high regard in Kathmandu School of Law Review. It is our aim to support publishers and editors to achieve high standard in publishing ethics. We also follow best practice guidelines set by other publications. We hope these guidelines will be useful to the authors, peer reviewers and editors.

Research Integrity

We uphold high standards in our publications and expect the authors to abide by these principles:

  1. Honesty in all aspects if research, including:
    • presentation of research goals, intentions and findings;
    • reporting on research methods and procedures;
    • gathering data;
    • using and acknowledging the work of other researchers;
    • conveying valid interpretations and making justifiable claims based on research findings.
  2. Scrupulous care, thoroughness and excellence in research practice:
    • in performing research and using appropriate methods;
    • in adhering to an agreed protocol where appropriate;
    • in drawing interpretations and conclusions from the research;
    • in communicating the results.
  3. Transparency and open communication:
    • in declaring conflicts of interest;
    • in the reporting of research data collection methods;
    • in the analysis and interpretation of data;
    • in making research findings widely available;
    • in presenting the work to other researchers and to the general public.
  4. Care and respect for all participants in and subjects of research.

In addition to these principles, researcher should ensure that their research is conducted according to appropriate ethical, legal and professional frameworks, obligations and standards. This includes seeking ethical approval for research where appropriate.

Anyone who has a reason to believe that research published by Kathmandu School of Law Review has not been carried out in line with these Research Publishing Ethics Guidelines and/or the above principles, can raise such concern with any of the editors or email at kslreview@gmail.com. The concerns will be addressed properly.

Editorial Process

We are committed to editorial independence, and strive in all cases to prevent this principle form being compromised through conflicts of interest, fear, or any other corporate or political influence. Our editorial processes reflect this commitment to editorial independence.

Our academic publishing programme is overseen by the KSLR editorial team, consisting of professors, adjunct professors, academics form national and international institutions as well as students selected through rigorous process. The role of editorial team is to:

  1. Check the manuscript initially. If it is in par with the standard then consult with expert on subject matter. Send the manuscript to independent peer reviewers, facilitate the process of dialogue between anonymous peer reviewer and author. Our editorial board will lead the author by giving timely advice and comments on manuscripts.
  2. Editorial decisions on articles submitted to our journals are made by editorial team assisted by external academic editors. The publication of articles will be properly supervised by in-house editors and benchmarked against leading law journals.

Peer Review

Peer review is of paramount importance in maintaining the standard of our publication. We ensure:

  • to provide appropriate system of peer review which will be fair and effective.
  • our editors and peer reviewers are in line with relevant best practices on reviewing law journal.
  • our in-house editor(s) will mediate all interactions between reviewers and authors and keep the identity of reviewer(s) undisclosed.
  • Peer reviews are not published.
  • our authors and peer reviewers will uphold any relevant confidentiality arrangements for reviewing each article and provide only necessary information to support this.

In addition to the above,

  • Our peer reviewer will undertake the entire reviewing process professionally and responsibly.
  • In order to assign appropriate reviewers, editor must match reviewers with the scope of content in a manuscript to get the best reviews possible.
  • If there is gap between the knowledge of reviewer and article then article will not be forwarded and instead the task will be re-assigned to reviewer who is competent in particular subject.
  • Our reviewer(s) will declare all potential conflicting interests and in the case, they are unsure about a potential conflict of interest that may prevent them from reviewing, they will notify the same.
  • No one will be allowed to review a manuscript just to gain sight of it with no intention of submitting a review.
  • None of reviewers will agree to review a manuscript that is very similar to the one they are preparing themselves or one they are set to publish through any another journal.
  • The reviewer(s) will review within the proposed time-frame and will not delay in the delivery of the work.
  • In case it is not possible to review within the said date, they shall inform the editorial board to ask for the required extension.
  • It is accepted if reviewer suggests additional reviewer who have germane knowledge on the subject however such additional reviewer cannot be approached and appointed by reviewers themselves but by editorial board, who shall make the final decision on the matter.

Authorship

We acknowledge that different disciplines and publication formats have different norms for who is listed as an author but for our purpose, authorship should be based on the following considerations. These should apply to all fields of research:

  1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work;
  2. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and
  3. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that question related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Our default position is that the corresponding author has the authority to act on behalf of all co-authors, and we expect the corresponding author to confirm this at the beginning of the publication process.

Plagiarism

Every academic writing should clarify the authorship and give credit to writings from where it has been adopted else such writings can be a plagiarised work. Plagiarism is not only limited to ethical dishonesty it may have legal implication as well. Kathmandu School of Law review adheres to the principles of intellectual honesty and dissuades plagiarism in academic writings. We are well aware of the fact that copying other’s works verbatim without due regard is not only considered as plagiarism, its scope is wider.[1]

We maintain a zero-tolerance policy towards any work of plagiarism. We do not entertain plagiarised work in any of our publications, and we reserve the right to check all submissions through appropriate plagiarism checking tools. Submission containing plagiarised work shall be out rightly rejected without any consideration. We also inform our readers, reviewers and editors to inform us in any case of suspicion of plagiarism (even if it is post-publication) by emailing at kslreview@gmail.com.

Duplicate and Redundant Publication

Duplicate or redundant publication occurs when a work, or substantial parts of a work, is published more than once by the author(s) of the work. This can be in the same or a different language. Redundant publication can occur when there is substantial overlap between two or more publication without appropriate cross-referencing or justification for the overlap. We do not support duplicate or redundant publication, unless there has been a clear approval from the original publication and it is felt necessary for the purpose of academic discourse.

Conflicts of Interest and Funding

We try to ensure that any publication occurring through Kathmandu School of Law Review is free from undue influence. Authors submitting manuscripts are required to declare any potential conflict of interest that could interfere with the objectivity or integrity of a publication. Conflicts of interest are situations that could be perceived to exert an undue influence on the presentation, review and publication of a piece of work. These may be financial, professional or personal in nature.

In cases where the research is funded, we require the author(s) to disclose funding declaration. It does not mean funding is dissuaded, which we do not. Indeed, we have been funding research grants and we may be funding it as per necessity. However, disclosure of such information is mandatory.

Libel and Defamation

We do not support publishing false statements. Neither do we publish materials that are intended to barb on any individuals, group or organisational sentiments. This is not an attempt to stiffen freedom of expression but to make our intellectual practice and publication matters in consonance with law and public morality. The author himself/herself is responsible in case of libel publication.

Retraction and correction

If some articles are so seriously flawed that their findings or conclusion should not be relied upon then the editorial board reserve the right of retractions. However, it shall not be invoked in minor errors. In case of minor errors of author or editors, the editorial board has the right to issue a corrigendum in the next volume or issue.

Fraudulent Research and Research Misconduct

If we are made aware of fraudulent research or research misconduct by authors, we will check upon it. Our first concern is the integrity of content we have published. For that matter we will work with appropriate personal or institutions to investigate. If publication of fraudulent research is found then the author shall be made liable and such works can be retracted.

Adaptation

Unless we grant licences to reproduce and adapt our work any individuals, publications or third-parties are not allowed to reproduce, modify in any form, adopt or reuse our content. Even after granting the license to adapt our work the editorial board retain the right to withhold the publication of such adapted work if we have concerns about the integrity and accuracy of the licensed edition. Reproducing and adapting our work without license may attract legal liabilities.

Transparency

We believe in open access in academic matters and adopt the principle of transparency in publication whereby our works shall be made easily available in print and online medium including Google scholar.

Data and Supporting Evidence

We support transparency and openness of data and other materials associated with research. We expect authors to maintain accurate records of supporting evidence necessary to allow others to understand, verify, and replicate new findings, and to supply or provide access to this supporting evidence, on reasonable request. Where other individuals or organizations who might have an interest on findings of particular research, we encourage authors to share data for the use of others.

Integrity of Record

We maintain a record of the existence of everything we publish with information describing each publication. If our content is deemed not to comply with the law of any country, we will make an effort to ensure that our publication is not made accessible to those jurisdictions. Where we find the publication is in contravention to the law of a country of publication we shall retract our publication. We preserve the academic record as far as possible and archive all our publications.

We recommend the reading of Codes of Ethics (https://www.nepjol.info/index.php/kslr/ethics).

 

[1] To know about our position in regard to plagiarism please refer to the Kathmandu School of Law Comprehensive Style to Legal Citation.