Policies - ARJST

1. Editorial Policies

Heading: Editorial Perspective and Management

Peer Review Policy: ARJST utilizes a double-blind peer-review system. Neither the reviewers nor the authors know each other’s identities. Every manuscript is reviewed by at least two external experts.
Editor Independence: The Editor-in-Chief has full authority over the editorial content of the journal and the timing of publication.
Correction and Retraction Policy: ARJST is committed to maintaining the integrity of the scholarly record. If an error is discovered in a published article, a formal Correction or Erratum will be issued. In cases of plagiarism, unethical research, or invalid data, the journal reserves the right to issue a Retraction.

Heading: Commitment to Academic Integrity

ARJST follows the best practices defined by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Duties of Authors: Authors must ensure that their work is entirely original. Data should be represented accurately, and the study should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work.
Duties of Reviewers: Reviewers must treat manuscripts as confidential documents. They must provide objective, constructive feedback and alert the editor to any substantial similarity between the manuscript and any published paper they are aware of.
Plagiarism Zero-Tolerance: We define plagiarism as the unreferenced use of others’ published and unpublished ideas. ARJST uses Plagiarism Checker X to verify originality. Any manuscript exceeding a 15-20% similarity index (excluding references) will be subject to immediate rejection.

Heading: Access and Preservation

Open Access Model: ARJST is a Diamond Open Access journal. This means there are no fees for authors (No APCs) and no fees for readers. This is in full alignment with the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI).
Self-Archiving (Green Open Access): Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their personal website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.
Digital Preservation: To ensure the long-term availability of research, ARJST is committed to digital archiving. Articles are preserved via the Nallamuthu Gounder Mahalingam College Digital Repository.

Heading: Ethical Oversight

Human Rights: When reporting experiments on human subjects, authors should indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation.
Informed Consent: All research involving human participants must have obtained Informed Consent. Identifying information (including names, initials, or hospital numbers) should not be published in written descriptions or photographs unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the participant gives written informed consent for publication.
Conflict of Interest: As specified in our submission guidelines, all authors must disclose any financial or personal interests that could influence their research.