ICTACT Journals follow the Open Access model, allowing ICTACT Journals to make valuable published materials freely available to all interested online visitors, particularly researchers and young scholars from developing countries.
ICTACT Journals is double blind peer reviewed online journal which is published by ICT Academy. It is a direct reflection of the quality of the work of the authors and the institutions that support them. Peer-reviewed articles support and embody the scientific method. It is therefore important to agree upon standards of expected ethical behavior for all parties involved in the act of publishing: the author, the journal editor, the peer reviewer, the publisher and the society of society-owned or sponsored journals.
ICTACT Journals takes its duties of guardianship over all stages of publishing extremely seriously and we recognize our ethical and other responsibilities. ICTACT Journals committed to ensuring that advertising, reprint or other commercial revenue has no impact or influence on editorial decisions. In addition, Editorial Board will assist in communications with other journals and/or publishers where this is useful to editors.
Peer Review
Reviewers are responsible for deciding on the acceptance of the article for publication. All articles undergo double blind peer review process. Reviewers follow the review guidelines and decide on the articles on the grounds of originality, novelty and plagiarism. Author identity is kept confidential and not revealed to the reviewers. Also reviewers’ comments are confidential and will be made anonymous before passing to the authors.
Prompt Review
Reviewers on acceptance of reviewing the articles are requested to send their review comments promptly to enable the article publication without any delay. Also, if the reviewer feels he/she is unable to provide a prompt review or the subject of the article is beyond his/her scope, can inform the Editorial Committee and excuse himself / herself from the review process.
Confidentiality
Information, novel ideas or content obtained through double blind peer review are kept confidential and should not used for personal advantage.
Standards of Objectivity
Reviews are conducted objectively and comments are posted with supporting arguments. There shall be no personal criticism of the author.
Acknowledgment of Sources
Relevant published work that has not been cited by the author(s) is identified by the reviewers. Any statement that had been previously reported elsewhere should be accompanied by the relevant citation. A reviewer should also bring to the Editorial Committee’s attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the article under consideration and any other published work of which they have personal knowledge.
Conflict of Interest
Reviewers should not review manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.
Article Standard
Authors should submit an accurate account of their original research as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data should be represented accurately in the paper. A paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fabrication of results or knowingly inaccurate statements constitutes unethical behavior and is unacceptable.
Plagiarism
Authors are required to declare that the work is their own, not been plagiarized and not violating the copyrights. Taking the ideas and work of others without giving them credit is unfair and dishonest. Copying from someone else’s manuscript or even one of your own that has previously been published, without proper citation is considered plagiarism.
Redundant Publication
Author should not publish the same article in multiple journals or publication venues. Such redundant publication is generally considered to constitute unethical publishing behavior, and if discovered may result in a manuscript under consideration being rejected.
Acknowledgment of Sources
Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given. Authors should cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work.
The Corresponding Author
The Corresponding Author is the author responsible for all communications pertaining to journal for publication. The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors are included in the paper, and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and agreed to proceed for publication.
Image Manipulation
Images in the articles accepted for publication will be thoroughly analyzed for any indication of manipulation. Hence, authors are always requested to supply the original image data in an editable format right at the beginning itself.
Disclosure and Conflicts Of Interest
If the project is financially supported by institution or organization, the authors should disclose the details in their manuscript.
Fundamental Errors In Published Works
Any significant error or inaccuracy discovered by the author in his/her own published work should be promptly notified to the Editorial Committee.
Role
The Editorial Committee of ICTACT Journals is responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the journal should be published. The Editorial Committee abides by certain policies formed by the Editorial Board and shall then be in force regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism. The Committee’s decision may confer with other editors or reviewers in making this decision. The Editorial Committee of ICTACT Journals may choose to publish special issues from subject experts.
Fair Play
Editorial decisions should be objective, autonomous and non-discriminatory against the geographical origins of the manuscript including the nationality, ethnicity, political beliefs, race, or religion of the authors.
Confidentiality
Editorial staff must not disclose any information related to a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers and other editorial staff. Also they should ensure that any unpublished material disclosed in a manuscript not be used by anyone who can access the manuscript.
Handling of unethical publishing behavior
In cases of alleged or proven scientific misconduct, fraudulent publication or plagiarism, the publisher, in close collaboration with the editors, will take all appropriate measures to clarify the situation and to amend the article in question. This includes the prompt publication of an erratum, clarification or, in the most severe case, the retraction of the affected work. The publisher, together with the editors, shall take reasonable steps to identify and prevent the publication of papers where research misconduct has occurred, and under no circumstances encourage such misconduct or knowingly allow such misconduct to take place.
Access to journal content
The publisher is committed to the permanent availability and preservation of scholarly research and ensures accessibility by partnering with organizations and maintaining our own digital archive.
Print and online corrections
The version of an article which is published online is considered the final and complete version. Even though it is possible to correct this version, our policy (in common with other publishers) is not to do so, except in very limited circumstances.
We are only able to correct typographical errors in the following: author names, affiliations, articles titles, and abstracts and keywords. In such cases, an erratum or corrigendum would be necessary as well (see below), so that there is a record to explain the difference between the online and print versions.
We can publish a correction to your article if there is a serious error, for example with regard to scientific accuracy, or if your reputation or that of the journal would be affected. We do not publish corrections that do not affect the contribution in a material way or significantly impair the reader's understanding of the contribution (such as a spelling mistake or a grammatical error).
Please send an email to ictacademy.journal@ictacademy.in if you need any changes to be effected.
Errata
An erratum will be used if an important error has been introduced during the production of the journal article (one that affects the publication record, the scientific integrity of the paper, the reputation of the authors or of the journal), including errors of omission such as failure to make factual proof corrections requested by authors within the deadline provided by the journal and within journal policy.
We do not publish errata for typing errors except where an apparently simple error is significant (for example: an incorrect unit). A significant error in a figure or table is corrected by publication of a new corrected figure or table as an erratum. The figure or table is republished only if the editor considers it necessary.
Corrigenda
A corrigendum is a notification of an important error made by the authors of the article. All authors must sign corrigenda submitted for publication.
In cases where co-authors disagree, the editors will take advice from independent peer-reviewers and impose the appropriate amendment, noting the dissenting author(s) in the text of the published version.
Addenda
An addendum is a notification of a peer-reviewed addition of information to a paper, for example in response to a reader's request for clarification. Addenda do not contradict the original publication, but if the author inadvertently omitted significant information available at the time, this material can be published as an addendum after peer review.
Addenda are published only rarely and only when the editors decide that the addendum is crucial to the reader's understanding of a significant part of the published contribution.
Only used for Articles in Press which represent early versions of articles and sometimes contain errors, or may have been accidentally submitted twice. Occasionally, but less frequently, the articles may represent infringements of professional ethical codes, such as multiple submission, bogus claims of authorship, plagiarism, fraudulent use of data or the like. Articles in Press (articles that have been accepted for publication but which have not been formally published and will not yet have the complete volume/issue/page information) that include errors, or are discovered to be accidental duplicates of other published article(s), or are determined to violate our journal publishing ethics guidelines in the view of the editors (such as multiple submission, bogus claims of authorship, plagiarism, fraudulent use of data or the like), may be “Withdrawn”. Withdrawn means that the article content (PDF) is removed and replaced with a PDF simply stating that the article has been withdrawn according to the ICTACT Journals Policy on Article in Press Withdrawal with a link to the current policy document.
Infringements of professional ethical codes, such as multiple submission, bogus claims of authorship, plagiarism, fraudulent use of data or the like. Occasionally a retraction will be used to correct errors in submission or publication. The retraction of an article by its authors or the editor under the advice of members of the scholarly community has long been an occasional feature of the learned world. Standards for dealing with retractions have been developed by a number of library and scholarly bodies, and this best practice is adopted for article retraction by ICTACT Journals:
- A retraction note titled “Retraction: [article title]” signed by the authors and/or the editor is published in the paginated part of a subsequent issue of the journal and listed in the contents list.
- In the electronic version, a link is made to the original article.
- The online article is preceded by a screen containing the retraction note. It is to this screen that the link resolves; the reader can then proceed to the article itself.
- The original article is retained unchanged save for a watermark on the .pdf indicating on each page that it is “retracted.”