Policies

The journal upholds and supports open access research publication that allows global sharing of scholarly information without restrictions. Through this platform, free access to shared information promotes knowledge and education. As such, this journal publishes open-access research articles that anyone can reproduce, redistribute and transform, commercial or non-commercially, with proper attribution. The articles' first publication in the journal should always be acknowledged.  

The open-access articles herein are published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license, which grants anyone to reproduce, redistribute and transform, commercially or non-commercially, with proper attribution. Authors retain the copyright but grant the journal the right to the first publication. Authors can use any contents of the article provided there is proper acknowledgement. Reprint and reproduction of the article does not require prior permission. Read full license details here: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

The authors are allowed to deposit their articles in institutional repositories, publish in institutional websites and upload in social networking sites with proper attribution and link to the article's DOI.

This journal uses OJS/PKP submission that allows archive of pre-print. The post-print in PDF version is also deposited in Internet Archive for long-term preservation of the articles. 

Upon signing the open access publishing agreement, authors ensure that:

• The article is an author’s original work.
• It is not considered for publication nor any part previously published elsewhere.
• The author confirms, to the best of his knowledge, the authenticity and integrity of the data gathered.
• There are no fabrication, plagiarism, material misrepresentation, academic dishonesty, discriminatory and bigoted language contained in the article.
• The author obtains prior permission for the use of any previously published text or material owned by another person.

The journal recruits experts in the field to assist the editor in the evaluation and acceptance of papers. They are selected based on their qualification and specialization.

All submitted papers duly accepted for suitability to journal scope or structural requirements are sent to the reviewers. The journal editorial staff reserve the right to choose the appropriate reviewer based on their knowledge of the topic. The reviewers normally are composed of section editor and/or editorial board member and external reviewer.

The journal adheres to the double blind peer-review process. Neither the author nor the reviewers know each other’s identity. Invitations are sent to potential reviewers. Thereafter, the paper is sent only to those who agreed to accept the review invite. 

Any submission goes for two evaluation and review process: a) preliminary evaluation by the editor-in-chief and/or associate editor and b) peer review. The editor-in-chief and/or associate editor evaluate the paper based on its fitness to journal scope or structural requirements while the reviewers give detailed comments on the paper based on the evaluation criteria. The result of the review may be any of the following: accept, accept with revision (minor or major) or reject. The editor makes the decision after the receipt of at least two reviews. The decision of the editor is communicated to the corresponding author through email.

Any accepted article with minor or major revisions is sent back to the author for the corrections. The author is given ample time to comply depending on the severity of the corrections. If the time given is insufficient, the author is advised to formally request extension through email. The author then submits the corrected article for final evaluation by the editorial board. If the paper requires further revision, the editorial board provides further revisions request through email or through discussion forum in the portal. If the article is accepted, the author is advised to pay the fees prior to the publication. The open access publishing agreement is then signed. 

The entire review process takes minimum one week to maximum one month. However, it is highly dependent on various uncontrollable circumstances. The journal ensures adherence to the proper timeline which completes the submission to final publication acceptance within the maximum 60 days.

The journal uses the OJS-PKP platform and workflow for the submission and review of articles. For guidance and assistance on the use of the portal, you can download the workflow guidelines here.

Appeal. Any author whose article has been rejected is given the right to appeal the decision. The appeal must be submitted through an email to the editor-in-chief or the publisher. The author needs to explain reasons for the wrong decision. The editorial board forms an ad hoc committee to hear the appeal. The decision of the committee shall be final and executory, which should be communicated to the author.

Complaints. Any complaints against the journal should be filed directly to the publisher in the first instance. The publisher forms an ethics ad hoc committee to hear the case. IIARI adheres to ethical standards that any misconduct by any staff shall be dealt with accordingly.

Corrections. The author receives a draft copy of the manuscript prior to the publication for final checking and verification. If errors are found after the publication, the same are corrected through an erratum, retraction of the article or in-line correction. Any errors found should be communicated to the editor-in-chief who shall investigate the matter to be communicated to the author. For any plagiarism, material misstatement or academic dishonesty found, the article shall be retracted.

Independence. The editorial board has the sole right to accept and/or reject articles for publication without interference from the publisher and/or external bodies. However, the board must ensure that decisions are impartial and free from any bias.

Confidentiality. The journal editors must treat all submissions with strict confidentiality. There should not be disclosure of any article contents and should not be used for personal gain or advantage.

Timeliness. The editors must take actions in a timely manner. They must ensure that any issue is acted upon promptly.

Conflict of Interest. Any conflict of interest must be formally declared. For authors, any conflict of interest must be specifically written in the article and communicated to the editor. For reviewers, any conflict of interest that may have affected their review must be declared and communicated to the editor-in-chief.

Misconduct. Any form of academic misconduct shall be dealt with accordingly by the publisher and journal editor-in-chief. The IIARI has a standing ethics committee to deal and hear cases of misconduct involving authors, reviewers and editors. The alleged violators shall be called for the hearing process. Any proven misconduct of authors involving falsification and plagiarism shall be equivalent to rejection or retraction of the article. Meanwhile, misconduct of editors and reviewers on confidentiality bears administrative sanctions including removal from the board.

The IIARI respects and protects the privacy of its users. It does not sell or give any information to any external bodies. This website does not use tracking cookies except the requirement for online payments. This website is protected with Secure Socket Layer (SSL).

Any information collected from authors are protected and stored in a database and shall be used only for the purposes of dealing with the article publication. If you have any concerns on Privacy Policy, contact us at support@iiari.org.