Plagiarism Policy

Zeal Press highly condemns and never accepts plagiarism in any sort of submission to its journals.

This unethical practice includes but is not limited to the:

• Deliberate copying and presenting someone else work word for word, wholly or partly, without permission and due acknowledgment of the original source.
• Though not copying word for word but, reproducing others’ ideas without prior permission or original source acknowledgment; the practice of paraphrasing.
• Text-recycling Reproducing some portions of own work and submitting it as a new publication without properly citing the previous work falls in the definition of Text-recycling, and is considered a malpractice; creating duplication of the data in the academic literature.
• Using images from a website or other copy righted-articles without permission.

For dealing with plagiarism whether detected before or after publishing of an article COPE guidelines are followed by Zeal Press . For complete understanding and details below flowcharts by COPE may be viewed:

https://publicationethics.org/files/plagiarism%20B.pdf & https://publicationethics.org/files/plagiarism%20A.pdf.

Zeal Press holds the right to reject or retract the manuscripts if plagiarism detected before or after publishing of the manuscripts, respectively; and to contact or inform the authors’ institutions about the detected plagiarism.

Preventing plagiarism:

• Referencing the source and putting quotation marks around the word-for-word copied text if literal copying is direly needed, and seeking appropriate permission where applied.
• Keeping a good record of used sources while researching and the places where these are used it in your manuscript.
• fully acknowledging and properly citing the original source of material in your submitted manuscript
• Paraphrasing is only acceptable if proper reference of the source has been provided and the intended meaning are retained, even after changing of words by the author.
• To refrain from text-recycling, proper mentioning of previously published paper should be made, even if you are reusing something in your own new words; also the authors should avoid excessive self-citation of their own work.
• Make certain of not citing advertisements or advertorial material.

 

Authorship Principles:

The significant contributors to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study should be included as authors of the manuscript. Zeal Press takes no responsibility regarding the authorship matters including their names or the order of the authors’ list. In case of articles where we find firm evidence of dispute regarding any authorship matter, Zeal Press reserves the right of not publishing that article until complete resolution of the dispute and provision of a written agreement by all authors to that settlement. The participants, who have contributed in certain substantive aspects of the research project, should be acknowledged or listed as contributors. In case of manuscript submission by a group of researchers, at least one of them should be identified by name as the corresponding author and for being responsible for communications related to manuscript publication and responding to inquiries, if any, about the published article.

Corresponding Authorship

The corresponding author is the author responsible for communicating with the journal for publication related matters. Being a corresponding author means to ensure that all authors agree to be the co-authors, accept their order of names as listed in the submitted article and agree on the content of the article and its submission for publication and have approved the final version of the paper.

Conflict of interest

A conflict of interest may arise when the author or author’s institution may have a financial, non-financial, and personal or any other association with the publisher or the people involved in the publishing process, which may influence integrity of the author’s work. They should declare any conflict of interest at the time of submission of manuscript or at the earliest possible stage.

The conflicts should be included at the end of the manuscript, before the references, under the heading of “Conflict of Interest”. Examples of potential conflicts of interest which should be disclosed include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, and allowances, paid expert testimony, past and present affiliations or other funding.

If any conflict of interest is suspected, it should be reported to the Zeal Press or Editor.
The mention of such interests does not make the manuscripts unethical but they should be acknowledged. In case of no conflict, the authors are required to include this in their manuscripts as well stating, “The authors declare no conflict of interest”.

Disclaimer

Zeal Press clearly mentions that the data and opinions appearing in the articles and advertisements in its journals are the sole responsibility of the contributor or advertiser concerned. The Society’s officers, agents, Editors, and the Editorial Board accept no responsibility or liability for the consequences of any such inaccurate or misleading data, opinion, or statement. Though we try our best to make sure that no inaccurate/misleading data or statements are published in our journals, any use of the published content is at users’ own risk and Zeal Press is not supposed to accept any liability arising from such use.

Peer Review Policy

 Zeal Press makes it mandatory that all submissions to its journals undergo the peer review process. At least two independent and expert reviewers from the relevant field will be involved in this review.

First of all, the submissions are reviewed by the journals’ staff for their completeness and then are sent to a member of editorial board to assess its suitability for the journal and further peer review. The editorial members for this early assessment are chosen based on the absence of any conflict of interest.

Editors are expected to select the reviewers for an article based on their expertise, previous performance, repute in the field and conflict of interest with the submission. A speedy yet diligent and rational review is highly regarded and always expected for all the submissions. In case of reviewers’ names suggestion by the authors the editorial member will independently verify the conflict of interest and suitability of the reviewer for the article. Every article is reviewed by at least one reviewer, not recommended by the authors. The authors sometime may request to include/exclude specific reviewers for the peer review of their articles. Such request may be considered by the journals’ editorial board however, the editors hold the final authority to take decisions on the choice of peer reviewers for assessing the manuscript.

Zeal Press believes that diversity of reviewers brings forth best possible constructive critique therefore, gender, race and geography of reviewers is considered while choosing a reviewer for a submission.

To ensure the high quality of review process, all articles go through a double-blind peer review where identities of both authors and reviewers are hidden from each other. Also, as the communication between editors and peer reviewers may contain confidential information these are not shared with third parties.

Acknowledgment of Financial support

In case of funding provided by the institutional or government authorities for the research reported in the article, all such sources of funding should be duly acknowledged and disclosed at the end of the article. If funding sponsors had any role in the design of the study, in the collection, analyses or interpretation of data, in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results; it must be declared in this section.

Digital Data Preservation

Zeal Press takes full responsibility for the online presence of each published article. To ensure the fulfillment of our commitment in cases of unforeseen events, the content of all journals has been deposited and archived in LOCKSS through the PKP Preservation Network.