Policies

The following policies apply to all journals of Author Gate Publications

OPEN ACCESS
EDITORIAL PROCESS
MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION
PUBLICATION ETHICS
AUTHORSHIP CRITERIA
PEER REVIEW POLICY
COPYRIGHT POLICY
ARCHIVING
PLAGIARISM
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
DATA SHARING POLICY

OPEN ACCESS
All open-access publications are freely available for anyone to access, view, and download throughout the globe in both HTML and PDF versions. Author Gate Publications open access journals serve the authors and the wider community of scientists by publishing high-quality, double-blinded peer-reviewed open-access content.
All open-access publications are published under various Creative Commons Licenses.

EDITORIAL PROCESS
1. Author Gate Publications developed its manuscript management system called ‘author-gate’ (https://www.author-gate.com).
2. The ‘author-gate’ is an online manuscript management and processing system that allows you to submit articles online and track their status up to the publication stage.
3. This is a secure and easy-to-use service for the uploading, reviewing, and editing of manuscripts. ‘author-gate’ enables manuscripts to be received and processed remotely by editors and reviewers from any place and computer at any time, with built-in mobile and email alerts as well as plagiarism checking tools.
4. The ‘author-gate’ drastically decreases the time spent on processing and peer-reviewing submitted manuscripts.
5. After plagiarism check by iThenticate, manuscripts that are found suitable for publication are sent to two or more expert reviewers by the editor.
6. During submission, the author is asked to provide names of two or three reviewers who have experience in the subject of the submitted manuscript area. This step is optional.
7. The reviewers should not be affiliated with the same institutes as the contributor/s authors.
8. The journal follows a double-blind review process, wherein the reviewers and authors are unaware of each other’s identity.
9. The comments and suggestions (acceptance/ rejection/ revision in manuscript) received from reviewers are conveyed to the corresponding author. If required, the author is requested to provide a point-by-point response to reviewers’ comments and submit a revised version of the manuscript. This process is repeated till reviewers and editors are satisfied with the manuscript.
10. Manuscripts accepted for publication are copy-edited for grammar, punctuation, print style, and format. Page proofs are sent to the corresponding author.
11. The corresponding author is expected to return the corrected proofs within three days. It may not be possible to incorporate corrections received after that period. The whole process of submission of the manuscript to a final decision and sending and receiving proofs is completed online via the ‘author-gate’ platform.

MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION
1. Authors need to submit their manuscripts through the online submission platform available at https://author-gate.com/login.
2. The first-time users need to register themselves. Registration is free.
3. Once registered, authors can use their username and password to submit and keep track of their articles.
4. In case of any technical issues, the author can contact technical assistance at info@author-gate.com
5. Articles submitted via email are not accepted.

PUBLICATION ETHICS
Author Gate Publications follows the publication ethics, comprehensive guidelines, and advice approved by the following agencies:

• Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE https://publicationethics.org/)
• World Association of Medical Editors (WAME https://www.wame.org/)
• International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE https://www.icmje.org)
• Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/consort/) (for protocols, see the SPIRIT guidance)
• Systematic reviews and meta-analyses: PRISMA guidelines (for protocols, see the PRISMA-P guidelines)
• Case reports: The CARE case report guidelines
• Animal studies: ARRIVEand Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals

In addition to this Author Gate Publications editorial team has developed in-house publication ethics to avoid malpractice, These include:
1. The author must ensure that submitted manuscripts are not currently under consideration for publication by another journal and have not been published elsewhere.
2. The author must obtain permission to reproduce any content from other sources.
3. The author must follow national, local, and institutional laws and requirements of the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki as revised in the 2013, Guidelines of Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP) Human Subject Protections, NIH Policy on Use of Laboratory Animals, National Research Council Guide For studies involving human or animal subjects.
4. The author must obtain appropriate ethical permission from the Institutional Review Board.
5. The author must declare any conflicts of interest at any stage during the publication process.

6. Studies conducted must be according to the Code of Ethics of the World Medical Association (Declaration of Helsinki) for the experiments involving humans. According to the Federal Research Misconduct Policy scientific misconduct includes:
7. Plagiarism is the use of other’s published and unpublished ideas or words (or other intellectual property) without attribution or permission, and presenting them as new and original rather than derived from an existing source.
8. Data falsification: Fabrication, deceptive and selective reporting of findings, suppression of data and/or distortion of data, incorrect authorship, Misappropriation of the ideas of others, Material failure to comply with legislative and regulatory requirements affecting research, Violation of generally accepted research practices, any form of unethical behavior is strictly discouraged and will result in the submitting author and his group from being banned from submitting material to the journal for a time frame depending on the severity of malpractice.
9. All submitted manuscripts to our Author Gate Publications are evaluated before acceptance by similarity check services by iThenticate (Turnitin) to maintain the quality of published works.

AUTHORSHIP CRITERIA
The Author Gate Publications follows the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) criteria for Authorship, this is represented below :
The ICMJE recommends that authorship is based on the following 4 criteria:
1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work;
2. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content;
3. Final approval of the version to be published;
4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

PEER REVIEW POLICY
1. The practice of peer review is intended to ensure that only good manuscripts are published and excellence in scholarly publishing.
2. The Author Gate Publications uses ‘double blind’ reviewing, in which the referees remain anonymous to the author(s) throughout and following the refereeing process, whilst the identity of the author(s) is likewise unknown to the reviewers.
3. The Chief Editors first evaluates all submitted manuscripts. Manuscripts rejected at this stage are insufficiently original, have serious scientific flaws, have plagiarized content, have poor grammar or English language, or are outside the aims and scope of the journal.
4. Those that meet the minimum criteria are normally passed on to at least two expert referees for review.
5. Authors of manuscripts rejected at this stage will usually be informed within two weeks of receipt.
6. Language correction is not part of the peer review process, but referees are encouraged to suggest corrections of language and style to the manuscript.
7. Reviewer should not discuss the manuscripts with their authors either during or after the review process.

How the referee is selected?
1. The ‘author-gate’ manuscripts management system has a database of reviewers.
2. Our reviewer database is constantly being updated.
3. The referees are matched to the Manuscripts according to their expertise.
4. Author Gate Publications does not select the reviewer from the same institutions of authors.

Referee reports
Referees are asked to evaluate whether the manuscript:
• Is original as to thought and method (including data)
• Is methodologically sound
• Has results which are presented and support the conclusions
• Correctly and exhaustively references previous relevant work
• Follows appropriate ethical guidelines.
• Adds to the knowledge and development of the field

How long does the review process take?
1. The time required for the review process is dependent on the response of the referees. (Maximum 4-6 weeks).
2. The referees’ reports contradict one another, or if a report is unnecessarily delayed, a further expert opinion may be sought.
3. Revised manuscripts are sent to the initial referees for checking; these may then request further revision.

The final report and the Chief Editor’s decision are the final
1. A final decision to accept or reject the manuscript will be sent to the author along with the recommendations made by the referees.
2. Referees advise the Chief Editor, who is responsible for the final decision to accept or reject the article.
3. All process of peer review is online via the ‘author-gate’ manuscripts management system.

COPYRIGHT POLICY
1. During the submission of a manuscript to Author Gate Publications, all authors agree that all copyrights of all materials included in the submitted manuscript will be exclusively transferred to Author Gate Publications once the manuscript is accepted.
2. Once the paper is published, the copyright will be released by the publisher under the Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0), enabling the unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction of the published article in any medium, provided that the original work is properly cited.
3. If the manuscript contains a figure or table reproduced from a book or another journal article, the authors should obtain permission from the copyright holder before submitting the manuscript, and be fully responsible for any legal and/or financial consequences if such permissions are not obtained.

ARCHIVING
1. All published versions are preserved by using the long-term preservation services. Our Journal uses the Internet Archive policy and hosting server of the publisher at https://authorgatepublications.com/

2. Author Gate Publications is included in the Sherpa Romeo, it helps authors determine the copyright status of their published articles and open-access archiving policies. https://beta.sherpa.ac.uk/publisher/64538

PLAGIARISM
1. All submitted manuscripts to Author Gate Publications are evaluated before acceptance by similarity check services by iThenticate (Turnitin) to maintain the quality of published works.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

Conflicts of Interest/ Competing Interests
1. All Authors must disclose any conflicts of interest related to the manuscript and its outcomes or any institution or product that is mentioned in the manuscript.

Institutional Review Board Approval and Informed Consent
1. All animal studies must have an appropriate institutional review board (IRB)or animal care committee approval.
2. All human studies must have appropriate institutional review board approval and signed informed consent from all human participants is required.
3. Compliance with these rules must be stated in the text, including waiver of consent by the IRB, if applicable. Manuscripts that do not comply with these rules will not be accepted for publication.
4. Patient consent and/or Ethical approval statements along with Protocol number and date must be included in all research articles.

DATA SHARING POLICY

1. Author Gate Publications encourages authors to share the data and other materials supporting the results in the paper by archiving it in an appropriate public repository.
2. Author Gate Publications encourages authors of articles published in the journals of Author Gate Publications to share their research data including, but not limited to raw data, processed data, software, algorithms, protocols, methods, and materials.
3. Authors may provide a data availability statement, including a link to the repository they have used so that this statement can be published in their paper.
4. All accepted manuscripts may elect to publish a data availability statement to confirm the presence or absence of shared data.
5. If you have shared data, this statement will describe how the data can be accessed and include a persistent identifier (e.g., a DOI for the data, or an accession number) from the repository where you shared the data.