Ethics & Policies
Journal of Applied Social Sciences and Humanities
Publisher: Krrish Scientific Publications
Peer Review Model: Single-blind peer review
The Journal of Applied Social Sciences and Humanities (JASSH) is committed to maintaining high standards of academic integrity, transparency, fairness, accountability, inclusivity, and responsible scholarly communication. The journal seeks to ensure that manuscripts are evaluated and published in accordance with recognized principles of research integrity and ethical scholarly publishing across the social sciences, humanities, and interdisciplinary fields.
These policies apply to authors, reviewers, editors, editorial board members, guest editors, and all other participants involved in the editorial and publication process. They are informed by internationally recognized good practices, including guidance issued by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
The following policies describe the responsibilities of the parties involved in scholarly publishing, the principles governing editorial decisions, and the procedures for addressing potential ethical concerns.
Policy Contents
A. Editorial Governance and Peer Review
- Purpose and Scope
- Editorial Independence and Governance
- Peer Review Policy
- Responsibilities of Reviewers
- Responsibilities of Editors
B. Authorship and Research Integrity
- Authorship and Contributions
- Changes in Authorship
- Conflicts of Interest and Competing Interests
- Funding Disclosure
- Originality, Plagiarism and Duplicate Publication
- Research Integrity and Scientific Misconduct
- Research Data, Transparency and Reproducibility
- Ethical Approval for Human Research
- Ethical Approval for Animal Research
- Generative Artificial Intelligence Policy
- Image and Data Manipulation
C. Post-Publication Integrity
- Corrections, Retractions and Expressions of Concern
- Complaints and Appeals
D. Access, Copyright and Preservation
- Copyright and Licensing
- Open Access Policy
- Article Processing and Publication Charges
- Preprints
- Author Self-Archiving
- Digital Preservation and Archiving
- Third-Party Copyrighted Material
E. Additional Editorial and Publishing Policies
- Citation Ethics
- Confidentiality
- Special Issues and Guest Editors
- Advertising, Sponsorship and Commercial Influence
- Publication Schedule and Continuity
- Privacy and Personal Information
- Allegations of Misconduct
- Policy Updates
- Contact for Ethical and Editorial Concerns
1. Purpose and Scope
The Journal of Applied Social Sciences and Humanities (JASSH) promotes the responsible dissemination of original research, scholarly reviews, case studies, policy analyses, conceptual studies, and other academic contributions across the social sciences, humanities, and interdisciplinary fields.
The journal particularly welcomes high-quality research related to, but not limited to, the following areas:
- Sociology, Social Work, and Community Studies.
- Psychology, Behavioural Sciences, and Human Development.
- Education, Teaching, Learning, and Higher Education Studies.
- Economics, Development Studies, and Public Policy.
- Political Science, Governance, and Public Administration.
- Communication, Journalism, Media, and Digital Society.
- Anthropology, Cultural Studies, Gender Studies, and Social Inclusion.
- Human Geography, Urban Studies, Migration, and Regional Development.
- History, Heritage, Philosophy, Ethics, Religion, Languages, Linguistics, and Literature.
- Arts, Humanities, and interdisciplinary studies addressing society, culture, education, technology, sustainability, and human-centred development.
- Applied social-science and humanities research using qualitative, quantitative, mixed-methods, computational, or data-driven approaches where the principal contribution addresses a social, cultural, educational, policy, behavioural, or human-centred research question.
JASSH encourages manuscripts that present a clear scholarly contribution, sound methodology, transparent and adequately described procedures, appropriate analysis, and findings that advance knowledge, policy, professional practice, education, culture, or social understanding within the journal's scope.
The journal is committed to ethical publication practices and endeavors to ensure that published content satisfies appropriate standards of originality, methodological soundness, scholarly quality, transparency, and academic relevance.
Editorial decisions are based on the scholarly merits of submitted manuscripts, including their originality, contribution to knowledge, methodological rigor, ethical compliance, relevance to the journal's scope, and clarity of presentation.
The journal's publication policies are informed by established principles of research integrity and internationally recognized guidance on publication ethics.
These policies are intended to protect the interests of authors, reviewers, editors, research participants, readers, and the wider scholarly community while preserving the accuracy and credibility of the academic record.
2. Editorial Independence and Governance
The editorial activities of JASSH are conducted independently of inappropriate commercial, institutional, financial, personal, or other external influence.
The Editor-in-Chief has overall responsibility for maintaining the academic quality and integrity of the journal and for overseeing editorial decision-making.
Associate Editors, Editorial Board Members, and other designated editors may assist with manuscript screening, reviewer selection, evaluation of reviewer reports, and editorial recommendations according to their relevant expertise.
Editorial decisions must be based on academic merit, relevance to the journal's scope, methodological quality, ethical compliance, and the contribution of the manuscript to scholarly knowledge, policy, professional practice, or social understanding.
Decisions must not be influenced by an author's nationality, institutional affiliation, gender, personal beliefs, professional status, or other irrelevant characteristics.
The publisher, Krrish Scientific Publications, provides administrative, publishing, and technical support while respecting the editorial independence of the journal.
Publication charges, financial sponsorship, advertisements, personal relationships, and other commercial considerations must not determine whether a manuscript is accepted or rejected.
Editors are required to disclose and appropriately manage potential conflicts of interest. Where impartiality may be compromised, editorial responsibility should be assigned to another qualified editor.
3. Peer Review Policy
JASSH considers peer review an essential part of ensuring the originality, reliability, relevance, and academic quality of published research.
3.1 Initial Editorial Screening
Submitted manuscripts undergo an initial editorial assessment to determine whether they satisfy the journal's basic requirements.
The screening process considers:
- Relevance to the journal's aims and scope.
- Originality and potential scholarly contribution.
- Methodological and analytical soundness.
- Clarity and completeness of the manuscript.
- Appropriate use of references and supporting evidence.
- Compliance with author guidelines and submission requirements.
- Compliance with relevant research and publication ethics.
- Potential plagiarism, duplicate submission, or other research-integrity concerns.
Manuscripts that clearly fail to meet the journal's requirements may be rejected during editorial screening without proceeding to external peer review.
3.2 External Peer Review
Manuscripts that pass initial screening are normally assessed by at least two appropriately qualified and independent reviewers with expertise relevant to the subject of the manuscript.
JASSH follows a single-blind peer-review model. Under this model, reviewers are informed of the identities and affiliations of the authors, while the identities of the reviewers remain confidential and are not disclosed to the authors. Authors are therefore not required to anonymize their manuscripts for peer review.
Reviewers evaluate manuscripts according to originality, significance, methodological appropriateness, analytical quality, clarity, interpretation of findings, ethical compliance, and scholarly contribution.
Reviewers are expected to provide objective, constructive, evidence-based recommendations that assist authors in improving their manuscripts and editors in making informed decisions.
3.3 Editorial Decisions
Possible editorial decisions include:
- Accept.
- Minor Revision.
- Major Revision.
- Resubmit for Review.
- Reject.
Authors requested to revise their manuscripts should submit a revised version together with a point-by-point response explaining how the comments of reviewers and editors have been addressed.
Where reviewer recommendations differ substantially, the responsible editor may obtain an additional independent assessment.
The final publication decision rests with the Editor-in-Chief or an appropriately designated editor and is based on the reviewers' recommendations, the authors' responses, editorial assessment, and the overall academic suitability of the manuscript.
3.4 Confidentiality
All manuscripts, reviewer reports, editorial correspondence, and related documents are treated as confidential materials during manuscript evaluation.
Information obtained through peer review must not be disclosed or used for unauthorized personal, professional, or commercial purposes.
4. Responsibilities of Reviewers
Reviewers are expected to contribute to the scholarly quality and integrity of JASSH through fair, objective, and constructive manuscript assessments.
Reviewers should:
- Accept review assignments only when they possess appropriate expertise.
- Provide impartial, constructive, and evidence-based evaluations.
- Complete reviews within the agreed timeframe whenever possible.
- Maintain the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts.
- Disclose actual or potential conflicts of interest.
- Avoid discriminatory, hostile, or inappropriate personal comments.
- Identify relevant published literature that may have been overlooked.
- Report suspected plagiarism, duplicate publication, manipulation, or other possible misconduct.
- Refrain from using unpublished material for personal research or professional advantage.
- Avoid requesting irrelevant citations intended to increase citation counts.
Reviewers must not distribute manuscripts or disclose confidential information without authorization from the editorial office.
Where a reviewer identifies a conflict of interest or is unable to provide a timely and objective assessment, the editor should be informed promptly.
5. Responsibilities of Editors
Editors are responsible for maintaining the journal's academic standards, ensuring fairness in editorial decisions, and protecting the integrity of the peer-review and publication processes.
Editors should:
- Evaluate manuscripts solely on scholarly merit and suitability.
- Appoint competent and independent reviewers.
- Protect the confidentiality of submissions and reviews.
- Identify and manage potential conflicts of interest.
- Ensure that reviewer recommendations are considered fairly.
- Investigate credible allegations of unethical conduct.
- Provide authors with appropriate editorial communication.
- Support corrections and retractions when justified.
- Preserve the accuracy and credibility of the scholarly record.
Editors must not use unpublished research information obtained during manuscript handling for their own benefit without appropriate authorization.
Editors with significant competing interests must withdraw from handling the affected manuscript and arrange for an independent editor to oversee the process.
6. Authorship and Contributions
Authorship should be assigned only to individuals who have made substantial intellectual or scholarly contributions to the reported work and who accept responsibility for its content.
All listed authors must approve the final submitted version and agree to the submission and publication of the manuscript.
Contributions may include conceptualization, methodology, investigation, data curation, formal analysis, investigation, methodology, software where applicable, validation, visualization, manuscript preparation, critical revision, supervision, or other substantial scholarly activities.
JASSH encourages transparent reporting of individual author contributions using the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT), where appropriate.
The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that:
- All eligible contributors are appropriately acknowledged.
- No inappropriate authors have been included.
- All co-authors approve the manuscript.
- The author order has been agreed upon.
- Required declarations have been provided.
- Important editorial communications are shared with co-authors when necessary.
Gift authorship, honorary authorship, ghost authorship, and other misleading authorship practices are unacceptable.
Individuals who contributed to the work but do not qualify for authorship may be acknowledged with their permission.
Generative artificial intelligence tools cannot be listed as authors or co-authors.
7. Changes in Authorship
Requests to add, remove, or rearrange authors after initial manuscript submission must be supported by a clear explanation.
Such requests should ordinarily include agreement from all authors affected by the proposed change.
Changes requested after manuscript acceptance will be considered only where a satisfactory justification is provided.
Following publication, authorship changes may require a formal correction to the scholarly record.
JASSH may request supporting documentation or refer unresolved authorship disputes to the relevant institutions where appropriate.
8. Conflicts of Interest and Competing Interests
Authors, reviewers, and editors must disclose any relationships or circumstances that could influence, or could reasonably be perceived to influence, their professional judgment.
Competing interests may include:
- Financial relationships.
- Employment or consultancy arrangements.
- Patent or intellectual-property interests.
- Institutional relationships.
- Research funding or sponsorship.
- Personal or professional relationships.
- Academic competition.
- Other circumstances that could introduce bias.
Authors should include an appropriate competing-interests declaration in their manuscript.
Where no competing interests exist, authors should explicitly state that they have no competing interests to declare.
Reviewers and editors must decline or withdraw from assignments when a conflict may compromise their independence or impartiality.
Disclosure of a potential conflict does not automatically disqualify a manuscript; appropriate assessment and management of the conflict are essential.
9. Funding Disclosure
Authors must disclose financial or material support received for the research and preparation of the manuscript.
Where applicable, funding declarations should identify the funding organization, grant number, and the role of the funder in the research or publication process.
Any influence of funders on study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, manuscript preparation, or publication decisions should be disclosed.
Where no external funding was received, authors may include the following declaration:
Funding: This research received no external funding.
Funding disclosures are intended to promote transparency and do not determine editorial acceptance or rejection.
10. Originality, Plagiarism and Duplicate Publication
Manuscripts submitted to JASSH must represent original scholarly work and must not be under consideration for publication elsewhere.
The journal does not accept plagiarism, inappropriate textual reuse, duplicate publication, fabrication, falsification, or other forms of research and publication misconduct.
Unacceptable practices include:
- Presenting another person's work as one's own.
- Copying text, figures, tables, or ideas without appropriate acknowledgment.
- Inappropriate reuse of previously published material.
- Submitting substantially the same manuscript to multiple journals simultaneously.
- Publishing redundant material without adequate disclosure.
- Fabricating or falsifying research findings.
- Manipulating references or citations.
- Concealing relevant prior publication.
JASSH may undertake similarity and originality checks during editorial assessment.
Similarity assessment considers the context, extent, and significance of overlapping material rather than relying exclusively on a numerical similarity percentage.
Editors may request clarification, corrections, supporting documents, or original source material where concerns arise.
Serious breaches may result in manuscript rejection, publication withdrawal, correction, retraction, or referral to relevant institutions.
11. Research Integrity and Scientific Misconduct
JASSH expects authors to conduct and report research honestly, accurately, responsibly, and transparently.
Scientific misconduct may include:
- Fabrication of data, observations, or results.
- Falsification of qualitative, quantitative, experimental, computational, archival, survey, interview, or other research findings.
- Misrepresentation of research methods.
- Manipulation of figures, images, or datasets.
- Selective reporting intended to mislead readers.
- Fraudulent authorship or contributions.
- Peer-review manipulation.
- Citation manipulation.
- Submission of fabricated or paper-mill manuscripts.
When concerns are raised, the journal may request original or supporting data, coding or analytical files where applicable, interview or survey documentation, raw figures, methodological records, consent or ethics documentation, or other relevant supporting materials.
Suspected misconduct will be assessed fairly, with an appropriate opportunity for the relevant individuals to respond.
Where a formal investigation is necessary, JASSH may communicate with the authors' institutions or other responsible research-integrity bodies.
12. Research Data, Transparency and Reproducibility
JASSH supports the principles of research transparency, reproducibility, and responsible data management.
Authors should provide sufficient detail concerning research design, data sources, sampling or participant selection, methods, instruments, analytical procedures, theoretical or interpretive frameworks, and evaluation criteria, as applicable, to enable readers to understand and assess the reported findings.
Authors are encouraged to preserve relevant data, code where applicable, coding frameworks, instruments, protocols, transcripts or field documentation where ethically permissible, and other supporting materials.
Where ethically and legally permissible, authors are encouraged to share research data, instruments, code, and other reusable research materials through appropriate repositories.
Manuscripts should include a Data Availability Statement where relevant.
Supporting data may be:
- Publicly available in a recognized repository.
- Included within the article or supplementary material.
- Available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
- Restricted for legitimate ethical, legal, privacy, contractual, or confidentiality reasons.
Authors must not disclose confidential, proprietary, or personally identifiable data without appropriate authorization.
Data availability, transparency, and reproducibility or interpretive traceability should be evaluated in a manner appropriate to the nature of the research, including qualitative, quantitative, mixed-methods, historical, archival, theoretical, and humanities scholarship.
13. Ethical Approval for Human Research
Research involving human participants, interviews, surveys, personal data, vulnerable groups, or other ethically sensitive human-subject methods must comply with applicable national regulations, institutional requirements, and recognized ethical principles.
Where required, authors must obtain prior approval from an appropriate Institutional Ethics Committee, Institutional Review Board, or equivalent authority.
The manuscript should identify the approving body and the approval or reference number, where applicable.
Where ethical approval is not required under applicable regulations, authors should provide an appropriate explanation when requested.
Informed consent must be obtained from participants where required.
Authors must protect participant privacy and confidentiality. Identifiable personal information should not be published without appropriate consent and a legitimate scholarly justification.
Additional safeguards should be applied where research involves vulnerable participants or sensitive personal information.
14. Ethical Approval for Animal Research
Where a submission includes research involving animals, such research must comply with applicable animal-welfare laws, institutional requirements, and recognized ethical standards.
Where required, authors must obtain prior approval from an appropriate animal ethics committee or other competent authority.
The manuscript should provide relevant approval information and describe measures taken to minimize unnecessary pain, distress, or harm.
The journal may request supporting documents or clarification when questions arise concerning animal-research ethics.
15. Generative Artificial Intelligence Policy
JASSH recognizes that artificial intelligence and AI-assisted tools may support research, analysis, teaching-related scholarship, translation, and scholarly communication. Their use must nevertheless comply with principles of transparency, accountability, accuracy, originality, confidentiality, and research integrity.
15.1 Use of AI by Authors
Authors remain fully responsible for all content submitted to JASSH, including material prepared or modified with AI-assisted technologies.
Generative AI systems cannot be listed as authors because they cannot assume responsibility for the work, approve the final manuscript, or respond to questions concerning its integrity.
Where generative AI has been used substantially in preparing manuscripts, generating code, producing analytical content, creating images, translating material, or supporting research procedures, authors should provide an appropriate disclosure.
Such disclosures should explain the purpose and extent of the AI assistance and identify the relevant tools where appropriate.
Authors must independently verify AI-assisted content, including claims, citations, equations, code, data interpretations, and factual statements.
15.2 Prohibited Uses
AI-assisted tools must not be used to:
- Fabricate research data or experimental findings.
- Generate fictitious references or citations.
- Misrepresent the originality of scholarly contributions.
- Conceal plagiarism or inappropriate textual reuse.
- Create misleading figures, images, data, quotations, interpretations, or other forms of scholarly evidence.
- Generate fraudulent or manipulated research reports.
- Circumvent applicable ethical or legal requirements.
15.3 Routine Language Assistance
Routine spelling, grammar, formatting, and language-editing assistance does not constitute authorship. Authors remain responsible for checking all changes and ensuring the accuracy of the final manuscript.
15.4 Use of AI by Reviewers and Editors
Submitted manuscripts and related editorial materials are confidential.
Reviewers and editors must not upload confidential manuscripts, unpublished research data, reviewer reports, or editorial correspondence into third-party AI systems where doing so could compromise confidentiality, privacy, copyright, intellectual property, or research integrity.
AI-generated assessments must not replace independent scholarly judgment.
Reviewers and editors remain personally responsible for the accuracy, fairness, and integrity of their evaluations and decisions.
16. Image and Data Manipulation
Figures, graphs, photographs, images, tables, quotations, transcripts, archival materials, and datasets submitted to JASSH must accurately represent the underlying research and source material.
Adjustments to images may be acceptable when they improve clarity without altering the scientific meaning or concealing relevant information.
Unacceptable practices include:
- Introducing or removing image features in a misleading manner.
- Inappropriately duplicating regions of images.
- Selectively modifying or omitting research results, participant responses, quotations, or source material in a misleading manner.
- Misrepresenting synthetic data as genuine observations.
- Omitting relevant data in a manner that distorts conclusions.
- Creating manipulated evidence that misleads readers.
Editors may request original image files, raw or supporting research records, source documentation, transcripts where appropriate, or unprocessed datasets when concerns arise.
Appropriately disclosed visualization, modelling, computational methods, and synthetic-data generation are permitted where their use is methodologically justified, ethically appropriate, and clearly described.
17. Corrections, Retractions and Expressions of Concern
JASSH is committed to maintaining an accurate, reliable, and transparent scholarly record.
When significant errors or ethical concerns are identified after publication, the journal may issue a correction, retraction, or Expression of Concern as appropriate.
17.1 Corrections
A correction may be published when an error affects part of an article but does not invalidate its principal findings or conclusions.
Correction notices should identify the affected article and explain the correction clearly.
17.2 Retractions
A published article may be retracted where there is reliable evidence that its findings are seriously unreliable or where substantial breaches of research or publication ethics have occurred.
Grounds for retraction may include fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, serious methodological or interpretive errors, unethical research, duplicate publication, or other significant misconduct.
Retracted articles should normally remain accessible as part of the scholarly record but should be clearly identified as retracted.
A retraction notice should explain the reason for retraction and be linked to the affected article.
17.3 Expressions of Concern
An Expression of Concern may be issued where credible and serious concerns have been raised but the available evidence or investigation has not yet produced a definitive conclusion.
JASSH seeks to follow recognized publication-ethics guidance when evaluating post-publication concerns and determining suitable corrective actions.
18. Complaints and Appeals
JASSH recognizes the right of authors, reviewers, readers, and other stakeholders to raise legitimate concerns concerning editorial procedures, publication ethics, journal conduct, or published content.
18.1 Complaints
Complaints may concern:
- Editorial procedures or communication.
- Unreasonable or unexplained publication delays.
- Reviewer or editor conduct.
- Potential ethical violations.
- Errors in published articles.
- Suspected research or publication misconduct.
Complaints should be submitted to the editorial office with sufficient information and supporting documentation to enable an appropriate assessment.
18.2 Appeals Against Editorial Decisions
Authors may appeal an editorial decision where there is a reasonable basis to believe that a significant factual misunderstanding, procedural error, unmanaged conflict of interest, or demonstrable bias affected the decision.
An appeal should contain a clear academic justification and relevant supporting evidence.
Disagreement with a reviewer's opinion, without further substantive grounds, does not automatically justify reconsideration.
18.3 Handling of Complaints and Appeals
Complaints and appeals will be considered fairly and, where practicable, reviewed by an editor who was not directly responsible for the disputed matter.
The journal may request further information from the parties involved before reaching a determination.
The outcome will be communicated to the concerned party through appropriate editorial channels.
19. Copyright and Licensing
Authors retain copyright in their published work, subject to the publication and licensing arrangements applicable to JASSH.
Articles published in JASSH are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).
Under this license, readers may share and adapt published material for non-commercial purposes, provided that:
- Appropriate credit is given to the original author or authors.
- The original source is acknowledged.
- A link to the applicable license is provided.
- Changes to the material are indicated where applicable.
Commercial use is not permitted under CC BY-NC 4.0 without additional authorization from the relevant rights holder.
License conditions apply to the material covered by the license. Third-party material identified as excluded from the article's Creative Commons license may require separate permission.
Further details of the license are available at:
Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial 4.0 International.
20. Open Access Policy
The Journal of Applied Social Sciences and Humanities is an open-access scholarly journal.
Published articles are made freely accessible online without subscription or reader-access charges.
The journal supports broad dissemination of social-science, humanities, educational, cultural, policy, and interdisciplinary research by enabling researchers, students, educators, practitioners, policymakers, institutions, and the general public to access published scholarly content.
Readers may access, share, and reuse published material in accordance with the applicable article license.
JASSH's open-access policy is intended to promote accessibility, scholarly communication, transparency, and dissemination of research findings.
21. Article Processing and Publication Charges
JASSH does not charge Article Processing Charges (APCs) or publication fees for standard journal publication.
Authors are not required to pay fees for manuscript submission, editorial screening, peer review, or publication.
The absence of publication charges does not influence the journal's academic standards or editorial decisions.
All manuscripts are assessed according to scholarly merit, originality, relevance, methodological quality, ethical compliance, and suitability for publication.
The journal is committed to transparent communication concerning its publication-charge policy.
22. Preprints
JASSH recognizes the role of legitimate preprint repositories in the early dissemination of scholarly research.
A manuscript previously deposited on an appropriate preprint platform is not automatically considered to have undergone formal journal publication.
Authors should disclose relevant preprints when submitting manuscripts and provide the corresponding preprint links or identifiers where available.
Authors remain responsible for ensuring that the submitted work satisfies the journal's originality requirements and applicable copyright conditions.
Following publication in JASSH, authors are encouraged to update the preprint record with the bibliographic citation and DOI of the published article, where permitted by the preprint platform.
23. Author Self-Archiving
JASSH supports the responsible dissemination and preservation of scholarly research through appropriate non-commercial repositories and academic platforms.
Authors may deposit permitted versions of their articles in institutional repositories, subject repositories, personal academic webpages, or other non-commercial scholarly repositories, in accordance with applicable copyright and licensing conditions.
When authors deposit a published article, they are encouraged to include a complete bibliographic citation and a link to the final version of record.
The DOI should be included where one has been assigned.
Authors must ensure that any deposited material complies with third-party copyright restrictions and applicable licensing conditions.
24. Digital Preservation and Archiving
JASSH recognizes the importance of long-term access to published scholarly content and the preservation of the academic record.
The journal uses the Open Journal Systems (OJS) publishing platform to manage and make available its published articles, issues, and associated metadata.
Journal records and publication files are maintained within the publisher's digital publishing infrastructure.
The publisher seeks to maintain appropriate operational safeguards, including data-backup and recovery arrangements, to reduce the risk of accidental loss of journal content.
These operational measures support continuity of access but should not be considered equivalent to an independently verified third-party long-term preservation service.
Where formal digital-preservation arrangements are established, JASSH will identify the relevant preservation service and describe the applicable arrangements on its website.
The journal aims to support persistent scholarly access through stable article webpages, publication metadata, and DOI links where assigned.
25. Third-Party Copyrighted Material
Authors are responsible for obtaining the permissions necessary to reproduce material that is protected by third-party copyright.
Such material may include:
- Figures and illustrations.
- Photographs and diagrams.
- Tables and charts.
- Maps and questionnaires.
- Substantial extracts from previously published text.
- Other protected scholarly or creative materials.
Where permission is required, authors should obtain it before publication and provide appropriate acknowledgment.
The journal may request documentary evidence of permission.
Authors remain responsible for ensuring that the publication and subsequent distribution of reused material comply with applicable copyright requirements.
26. Citation Ethics
References must be selected according to their scholarly relevance and contribution to the research.
Authors should cite relevant prior studies accurately and appropriately, recognizing the intellectual contributions of other researchers.
The journal does not support:
- Artificial inflation of citation counts.
- Irrelevant citations added solely to improve journal metrics.
- Coercive citation practices.
- Misleading reference lists.
- Coordinated citation manipulation.
- Inappropriate citation exchanges.
Editors and reviewers must not require authors to cite their own work or publications from JASSH unless those references are genuinely relevant to strengthening the manuscript.
Suspected citation manipulation may be investigated as a publication-integrity concern.
27. Confidentiality
Submitted manuscripts and related editorial communications must be handled confidentially.
Editors, reviewers, editorial staff, and others involved in manuscript processing must not disclose unpublished material except where necessary for legitimate editorial or ethical procedures.
Confidential information must not be used for unauthorized research, financial gain, competitive advantage, or other inappropriate purposes.
Reviewers should not share a manuscript with other individuals without prior editorial authorization.
Disclosure of confidential information may be necessary in limited circumstances involving credible ethical concerns, institutional investigations, or applicable legal obligations.
Such disclosures should be managed responsibly and proportionately.
28. Special Issues and Guest Editors
Special issues, where organized, must meet the same academic and ethical standards applied to regular issues of JASSH.
Proposed special issues should be assessed according to their relevance to the journal's aims and scope, scholarly significance, thematic focus, methodological appropriateness, and potential academic contribution.
Guest Editors should possess appropriate subject expertise and should disclose any actual or potential conflicts of interest.
Guest Editors may coordinate manuscript evaluation and provide editorial recommendations but remain subject to the journal's editorial governance and ethics policies.
Special-issue submissions must undergo appropriate editorial screening and peer review.
Invitation to submit to a special issue does not guarantee acceptance.
Manuscripts involving a Guest Editor or another person with a direct conflict of interest must be handled by an independent qualified editor.
Final editorial oversight remains with JASSH.
29. Advertising, Sponsorship and Commercial Influence
JASSH maintains a clear separation between editorial decision-making and commercial or promotional activities.
Advertising, sponsorship, institutional relationships, and financial support must not influence:
- Manuscript acceptance or rejection.
- Reviewer appointments.
- Editorial recommendations.
- Publication priority.
- Interpretation of research results.
Any commercial or promotional material associated with the journal should be clearly distinguishable from peer-reviewed scholarly content.
The journal may decline promotional material that is inconsistent with its academic objectives or ethical standards.
30. Publication Schedule and Continuity
JASSH is committed to maintaining a transparent and consistent publication schedule.
The journal aims to publish issues according to the publication frequency stated on its official website.
The editorial office seeks to avoid unnecessary publication delays and unexplained interruptions in journal continuity.
Any significant change in the publication schedule or frequency should be communicated transparently to authors and readers.
The journal's issue archive provides a record of its publication history.
Publishing regularity and continuity are important aspects of responsible scholarly communication and journal quality.
31. Privacy and Personal Information
JASSH collects and processes personal information necessary for manuscript submission, peer review, editorial communication, publication, indexing, and journal administration.
Such information may include names, email addresses, institutional affiliations, contact details, professional profiles, and other information relevant to scholarly publishing.
Personal information should be handled responsibly and used for legitimate journal-management and publication-related purposes.
The journal seeks to protect confidential information from inappropriate disclosure, unauthorized access, or misuse.
Personal information must not knowingly be used for unrelated commercial purposes without an appropriate lawful basis.
Users are encouraged to consult the journal's Privacy Statement for additional information regarding the handling of personal data.
32. Allegations of Misconduct
JASSH takes credible concerns regarding research and publication misconduct seriously.
Authors, reviewers, readers, institutions, and other concerned parties may report suspected misconduct involving submitted or published work.
Reports should identify the manuscript or published article concerned and provide relevant supporting information where possible.
The journal seeks to follow a fair and proportionate process that may include:
- Initial assessment of the allegation.
- Review of available documentation.
- Protection of confidentiality where reasonably possible.
- Requests for clarification or supporting evidence.
- Opportunity for relevant parties to respond.
- Consultation with experts or institutions where appropriate.
- Determination of necessary editorial or corrective action.
Possible actions may include manuscript rejection, requests for correction, publication of a correction or retraction, or referral to the appropriate institution.
JASSH does not replace the investigative authority of universities, research organizations, or other competent research-integrity bodies.
Cases requiring formal institutional investigation may be referred to the relevant authorities.
33. Policy Updates
JASSH may review and revise its editorial and publication policies periodically to reflect developments in research ethics, scholarly publishing, technology, legal requirements, and recognized international good practices.
Significant revisions should be communicated through the journal website where appropriate.
The current version of these policies will be made available through the official JASSH website.
Authors, reviewers, editors, and readers are encouraged to consult the latest published policies when participating in journal activities.
34. Contact for Ethical and Editorial Concerns
Questions, complaints, appeals, requests for corrections, reports of suspected misconduct, and inquiries concerning journal policies may be directed to the editorial office.
Editorial Office
Journal of Applied Social Sciences and Humanities (JASSH)
Krrish Scientific Publications
Editorial Email: editor.jassh@krrishpub.com
Support Email: support@krrishpub.com
Correspondence should clearly identify the relevant manuscript or published article, where applicable, and provide sufficient details to facilitate an appropriate assessment.
The journal seeks to consider ethical and editorial concerns fairly, confidentially, and in accordance with applicable publication policies.
Journal of Applied Social Sciences and Humanities (JASSH)
Krrish Scientific Publications
Committed to ethical, transparent, independent, inclusive, and accessible scholarly publishing in the social sciences and humanities.
Useful External Reference: Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)
DOI prefix: 10.71426
