AJIDS has the following editorial policy. This policy describes guidelines in the publication process of our journals.
An author is an individual who has significantly contributed to the development of a manuscript. AJIDS recommends that authorship be based on the following four criteria: I. substantial contributions to the conception/design of the work II. acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data for the work II. drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content, and IV. final approval of the version to be published.
Individuals who participate in the development of the manuscript but do not qualify as an author should be acknowledged. Organizations that provided support in terms of funding and/or other resources (if any) should also be acknowledged.
Authors should read the "Instruction for Authors" section of this guideline before making a submission. Manuscript should be prepared according to the style and specifications of the journal's policy. Submission should be electronic, provided that the text, tables, and figures are included in a single Microsoft Word file in Times New Roman font. A cover letter that contains the corresponding author's full address, i.e. telephone/fax numbers, should be sent to the editor as an attachment with the file name that begins with the first author's surname. The author(s) may also suggest three to five reviewers for the manuscript, however, AJIDS may designate other reviewers. The submitting (corresponding) author is responsible for ensuring that the article's publication has been approved by all the other coauthors. It is also the author's responsibility to ensure that the articles emanating from a particular institution re submitted with the approval of the necessary institution. Authors listed on the manuscript should meet the requirements for authorship specified above. The contribution of each of the authors shall be specified. All authors should approve the final version of the manuscript prior to submission. Once a manuscript is submitted, it is therefore assumed that all authors have read and given their approval for its submission. Only an acknowledgement from the editorial office officially establishes the date of receipt. In this regard, a manuscript number will be mailed to the corresponding author within two days. Further correspondence and proofs will be sent to the corresponding author before publication unless indicated otherwise.
Authors should disclose all financial/relevant interest that may have influenced the development of the manuscript. Reviewers should disclose any conflict of interest and if necessary, decline the review of any manuscript they perceive to have a conflict of interest. Editors should also decline from considering any manuscript that may have conflict of interest. Such manuscripts will be re- assigned to other editors/reviewers.
A submitted manuscript is a confidential material. AJIDS management body will not disclose submitted manuscript to anyone except for editorial staff, potential reviewers, actual reviewers and editors (individuals who partake in the processing and preparation of the manuscript for publication) . However, in suspected cases of misconduct, a manuscript may be revealed to members of AJIDS ethics committee and institutions/organizations that may require it for the resolution of the misconduct.
AJIDS operates a double blind review process that is an important aspect of the publication of an article. It helps an editor in making decision on an article and also enables the author to improve the manuscript. Author(s) identity is removed from the manuscript and is hidden from the reviewers during the review process. The reviewer is left with only the manuscript without any information that might enable him/her uncover the identity of the author(s). Information such as name, address/affiliation, country, phone/fax number and email of the author(s) is removed. Any information in the acknowledgement and declaration of conflict of interest that may lead to the uncovering of the identity of the author is also removed from the manuscript prior to sending it to reviewers. Manuscripts are assigned to two or more qualified reviewers. Reviewers make one of the following recommendations: Accept as is, requires minor corrections, requires moderate revision, requires major revision, or reject. A Review Certificate is issued to reviewers after they review of the manuscript and the review reports will be sent to the author(s) without the identity of the reviewers' identity. A minimum of two review reports (one internal and one external) are required per manuscript. On receipt of the author(s) revised manuscript, the original one attached with the revised one and the review reports are sent to the editor. The editor makes one of the following decisions: accept, the manuscript requires improvement, or reject. The editor has the authority to "Accept" or "Reject" a manuscript. If it is accepted, an Acceptance Certificate is issued to the author(s), and the manuscripts are processed for publication. If it is rejected, the author(s) are informed about the decision and no further processing is done on the manuscript. If it requires improvement, it is sent to the author(s) with the editor's recommendation for further revision. The editor makes a final decision on the revised one to "Accept" or "Reject" it.
Misconduct constitutes violation of this editorial policy, journal policies, publication ethics, or any applicable guidelines/policies. Any other activities that threaten/compromise the integrity of the research/publication process are potential misconducts. Suspected cases of misconduct will be investigated according to Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines.
Whenever there is a need to make changes in the authorship of the manuscript or a published article, it will be implemented according to COPE's specification. Only corresponding authors can make request for a change in authorship. Request should be made to the editor.
Corrections may be made to a published article with the authorization of the editor of the journal. Editors will decide the magnitude of the corrections. Minor corrections are made directly to the original article. However, in cases of major corrections, the original article will remain unchanged, while the corrected version is published. Both of the two versions are published together with a statement indicating the reason for the major change to the article. When necessary, retraction of articles is done according to COPE retraction guidelines.
Submission of an article to AJIDS implies that the paper has not been published previously (except in the form of proceedings, an abstract or as part of an academic thesis) or is not under review for publication elsewhere. Material which has been previously copyrighted, published, or accepted for publication will not be considered for publication in this journal. Submission of a manuscript is interpreted as a statement of certification that no part of the manuscript is copyrighted by any other publisher nor is under review by any other formal publication. Responsibility for opinions expressed rest solely with the author(s) and their organizations and is not the responsibility of the AJIDS or its Editorial Board. The corresponding author is responsible to obtain all necessary copyright release permissions for the use of any copyrighted materials in the manuscript prior to the submission. The Editors reserve the right to edit or otherwise alter all contributions, but authors will receive proofs for approval before publication. The journal is not responsible for subsequent uses of the work. It is the author's responsibility to bring an infringement action if so desired by the author.
Plagiarism refers to the presentation or submission of the work of another party without citation or credits as one's own work. AJIDS does not allow any form of plagiarism, as it consider it a serious breach of scientific ethics. If the editorial board/author/readers/ find plagiarism in a manuscript already published in AJIDS, the journal's executive board will take appropriate action accordingly. Such an action could include disclosure of the report or conclusions of the evaluation committee in the journal, expelling the author from AJIDS, barring the author (black listing) not to publish in the journal again or any other appropriate sanctions are made on the author. In addition, the published article is withdrawn from the website with a note of "Plagiarized" along with the published title. Authors are also be marked the same. On the web page, the link to the full text article will be disabled.