Peer Review Policy: All manuscripts are subjected to internal scrutiny and assessment before peer review by a panel of national and/or international referees. Acceptance of manuscripts depends on their quality, originality, and relevance to the IJASD’s scope. Content published in IJASD is peer-reviewed (Double Blind) to prevent bias and ensure the highest quality of evaluation. Hence, all submissions to IJASD undergo various steps of the rigorous double-blind peer-review process by which both the reviewer’s and author’s identity is not disclosed to each other to ensure independent review and avoid any potential conflict of interest.

Publication Ethics: The International Journal of Advances in Sustainable Development (IJASD) is committed to maintaining high standards through blind peer review together with a stern code of conduct and strict ethical policies for the integrity of the review process. Any infringements of professional ethical codes, such as plagiarism, fraudulent use of data, or bogus claims of authorship, should be taken very seriously by the editors with zero tolerance. The Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan’s ethical guidelines are followed in this journal to establish and maintain professional standards.  IJASD also follows the Code of Conduct of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and integrity of the submissions, and the process.

Plagiarism: The journal adheres to its principles on how to deal with acts of misconduct thereby committing to investigate allegations of misconduct to ensure the integrity of research. The journal may use plagiarism detection software to screen the submissions. If plagiarism is identified, the ethical guidelines on plagiarism will be followed. The guidelines provided by the HEC regarding plagiarism (link below) are followed.

https://www.hec.gov.pk/english/services/faculty/Documents/Plagiarism/Plagiarism%20Policy.pdf

Artificial Intelligence use: AI and AI-assisted tools do not qualify for authorship under IJASD's authorship policy. Authors who use AI or AI-assisted tools during the manuscript writing process are asked to disclose their use in a separate section of the manuscript. IJASD' will monitor the trend in AI use and applications and modify the policy if necessary.

Authorship Policy

IJASD follows authorship criteria based on the following four criteria:

Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND

Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND

Final approval of the version to be published; AND

Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Authors’ responsibility

The authors of each manuscript are asked to confirm that:

1) The manuscript has not been previously published or submitted elsewhere;

2) They made a significant contribution to the work and approved the final version of the manuscript;

3) Their work complies with ethical standards;

4) They are accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved;

5) They have obtained all necessary permissions to publish any figures or tables in the manuscript.

Author contributions

This section is only required for original articles, review articles, systematic reviews, and meta-analysis articles. It describes the contribution made by each author to the manuscript. Authorship credit should be based on:

1) Substantial contributions to the conception and design of the study, the acquisition of the data, or the analysis and interpretation of the data;

2) Drafting the article or critically revising it for important intellectual content; and

3) The final approval of the final version to be published.

Authors should meet all three of these conditions.

Note: the acquisition of funding, collection of data, language editing, or general supervision of the research group alone do not constitute authorship.

 

 Changes to authorship or contributorship

If there is any change in authorship and/or contributorship after the initial submission, approval from all authors must be presented. This applies to additions, deletions, change of order to the authors, or contributions being attributed differently. Any change must be explained to the Editor. The Editor may seek ascertainment from any of the authors/contributors regarding whether they have agreed to any change.

When disagreements among authors arise, IJASD follows the guidance of the Committee on Publication Ethics

 

• The journal does not charge any Article Processing Charges (APCs)/fee for publication and/or submission of the articles.

Information we collect

We collect personal information when you register as an author, reviewer, or editor, submit a manuscript for consideration, or subscribe to our newsletter. This information may include your name, email address, institutional affiliation, and other relevant details.

We also collect non-personal information when you visit our website, such as your IP address, browser type, and operating system.

How we use your information

We use the personal information we collect to facilitate the editorial process, including processing manuscript submissions, communicating with authors and reviewers, and managing subscriptions. We may also use this information to send you updates about the journal, including calls for papers and announcements of new issues.

We may use non-personal information to improve our website and services, to analyze trends, and to track user activity.

How we protect your information

We take the security of your personal information seriously and employ industry-standard measures to protect it against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. We use secure servers to store your information and restrict access to authorized personnel only.

We do not share your personal information with third parties except as necessary to facilitate the editorial process, to comply with legal requirements, or with your explicit consent.

Your rights

You have the right to access, correct, or delete any personal information that we hold about you. You may also opt-out of receiving marketing communications from us at any time.

If you have any questions or concerns about our privacy practices, please contact us at rab.nawaz@envs.uol.edu.pk.

Updates to this privacy statement

We may update this privacy statement from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or applicable laws. We encourage you to review this statement periodically for any updates.

Copyrights reserved with the IJASD, The University of Lahore (UoL) policies.

Privacy Statement

At IJASD, we are committed to protecting the privacy of our users and ensuring the security of any personal information that we collect. This privacy statement outlines the types of personal information we collect, how we use it, and the steps we take to safeguard your privacy.

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal. They will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.