AUTHOR GUIDELINES:

Copyright Notice:

We consider that submission of a manuscript to IJCS itself denotes that all authors have read and agreed to the content of the Cover Letter, and the Terms and Conditions of granting copyright to Lifescience Global Canada Inc. By that means authors agree that the manuscripts submitted to IJCS have not been published; and will not be simultaneously submitted or published elsewhere.

All articles by Lifescience Global are published under the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode), which means that the Licensor

(Lifescience Global) grants author(s) a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, and non-commercial perpetual license to exercise below rights in the published article.

• free distribution and reproduction at any platform, provided that the work is properly cited;
• retain the copyright of their published article;
• incorporate the article into one or more collective works;
• Create Derivative Works for educational purposes.

Please note that under this license the right for any commercial application of the work, with prior agreement by the author, is exclusively granted to Lifescience Global Canada Inc. 

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MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION:

An online submission and tracking service at Lifescience Global via the Internet facilitates a speedy and cost-effective submission of manuscripts. The full manuscript has to be submitted online via Lifescience Global, Canada Inc. Publication Management System (PMS) https://www.lifescienceglobal.com/pms/.

Please submit your paper in MS Word (.doc or .docx /LaTeX) file format according to the detailed Manuscript Preparation Guide given below. To ensure rapid review and publication, kindly adhere to these guidelines.

The number of pages is at the authors' discretion; on an average, papers are 10-25 pages long. When developing your article for publication, we firmly advise you to pay particular attention to your research methods, key results, and language.

It is imperative that before submission, authors should carefully proofread the files for special characters, mathematical symbols, Greek letters, equations, tables, and images, to ensure that they emerge in the proper format.

References, figures, tables, etc., should be double checked before submission of the manuscript. The author also should ensure that legends/captions are present for all figures in their manuscript.

Originality:

Submissions must be original work, the copyright to which is not earlier published elsewhere. Originality, creativity, and a cross-disciplinary method or perspectives are greatly encouraged. Translated duplication of papers is not allowed. For detailed please visit: PUBLISHING ETHICS AND INTEGRITY

Cover letter:

A written statement by the corresponding author should accompany the submitted article/manuscript that the manuscript, completely or partially, has not been and will not be published in or submitted to any other journal, simultaneously.

Manuscript Preparation Guide:

Title Page:

The first page of the manuscript submitted to IJCS should be the title page that will be comprised of article’s title; author (s) full name, affiliation and e-mail address; corresponding author(s) name, institutional affiliation/address, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail address; as well as a short 'running title' of the manuscript and keywords (same as shown in the original manuscript).

Manuscript:

For preparing and general formatting of your manuscript for IJCS follow the ASA Style Guide which specifies a particular style of writing for presenting sociological work. Below given guidelines will help authors to draft their manuscript according to IJCS requirements.

General instructions:

Manuscripts containing language inconsistencies will not be published. Articles written only in English are published by IJCS. If the author is not a native English speaker, we recommend proofreading the article for language efficiency. Language-editing services are also provided by IJCS on payment. Generally, avoid writing in the first person. Use clear yet simple language, avoiding jargon, superlatives, wordy phrases and common expressions. Pay close attention to essential grammatical issues such as consistent use of verb tenses; and accuracy in spelling, punctuation, sentence construction, and general outline. Use the past tense to explain methods used in the research. When numbering a series of items in a list, use the convention (1), (2), (3) rather than 1. or 1).

‘The study finds that three variables are important predictors of openness to outside groups: (1) endorsement of the group, (2) political climate, and (3) cultural compatibility.’

Spell out words such as percent, chi-square and versus, rather than using their abbreviations (except when presenting data in tables or graphs).

All acronyms should be accompanied by the full name (with the acronym in parenthesis) where they appear first in the article. Afterward, only the acronyms may be used.

Greek Symbols and Special Characters: Greek symbols and special characters often undergo formatting changes and get corrupted or lost while preparing a manuscript for publication. Authors are advised to thoroughly check for these characters while submitting and later on during galley proof of their articles.

Frame work of the manuscript:

The structure of the manuscript submitted to IJCS should be in following order:

• MAIN TEXT

• Title
• Authors names and affiliations
• Abstract
• Keywords
• text of the article(with subsections according to the type of article)
• Conclusion
• List of Abbreviations (if any)
• Funding
• Conflict of Interest
• Acknowledgments(if any)
• Use of artificial intelligence (AI)
• Appendices (if any)
• Supportive/Supplementary Material (if any)
• References
• Figures/Illustrations (if any)
• Tables (if any)

MAIN TEXT

The main text should begin on a separate page and split into below sections:

• Title:

The title should be specific, appropriately projecting the focus of the study yet concise; it must not contain more than 15 words. 

• Authors:

All co-authors and their current affiliations must be present after the title. The corresponding author(s) should be identified with an asterisk and his/her details should be provided in footnote.

The corresponding author is responsible to ensure that all individuals listed as authors have devoted substantially to the conception/execution/analysis/scholarly presentation of the work; their particular contribution should be indicated in title page accompanying the article. All authors should also approve the submitted and the final version of the article to be published. All listed authors are considered to be accountable for their respective contribution in the article.

• Abstract:

An article's abstract should be a clear, concise, and precise summary of the work presented in the article. Abstract should not contain more than 250 words, and must be devoid of any sub-headings and references. 

The abstract must concisely state purpose of the study, method of the work, principal results and conclusion.

• Keywords:

The author must provide 6 to 8 keywords relevant to their work submitted to IJCS. The words that appear in the abstract and title should be used as ‘key words’, and frequently used in the main text of the article. However, avoid general/plural terms and multiple concepts (for example, 'and', 'of'). If authors use abbreviations as keywords, they should only include those that are firmly established in the field.

• Text of the article:

The text may be subdivided further according to the type of the article (Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, and Discussion—for research articles; Introduction/Background and Discussion—for review articles.).

For Research Articles, the manuscript should begin with the title page and abstract followed by the key words and main text which needs to be structured into separate sections of Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, Ethics Approval, Conflict of Interest, Acknowledgements(if any), and References.

For Review Articles, authors are free to further partition the text in appropriate subheadings according to the fields to be explained. The review articles should start with the general background of the field and then broadly discussing notable previous and current reviews in the area. Subsequently, it should discuss the remarkable features of recent developments. Authors should avoid presenting material already declared in a former review rather, they are advised to show and discuss their own observations.

All articles are required to be accompanied by the Conclusion and Reference sections at the end of the article.

Non-assimilated terms from Latin or other languages should be italicized (e.g., per se, et al., etc.).

All references included in any section of the text must be in presented in round brackets (in case of single authored reference, mention author’s name with the year of publication; if two authors, mention authors’ names with the year of publication ; If more than two authors, mention first author’s name and then at et.al with the year of publication).

Introduction:

The Introduction section should comprehensively include the background and aims of the research. Abbreviations should always be accompanied by their full term where they appear for the first time in the article (except when it is a standard unit of measurement). In subsequently sections, using abbreviations alone will suffice. The length of the introduction must be reasonably appropriate in comparison to the discussion section; avoid making it overly-short or -long. Authors must ensure that all references are numbered consecutively.

If Illustrations are provided at the end of the article or as separate files, their appropriate placement should be clearly indicated within the text. The author may also submit illustrations embedded appropriately in the manuscript at the time of submission.

• Materials and Methods:

This section provides details of the methodology used, along with information on any previous efforts with corresponding references. The author should include details for further modifications and research. Sufficient information should be provided to the reader about the original data source to enable the analysis, appropriateness, and verification of the results reported in the study.

The Method Section needs to be sufficiently detailed regarding the data presented and the results produced from it. This section should include all the materials, information and protocol gathered for the study. Tools/equipment used in the study should be fully mentioned (including their model’s and manufacturers’ brief details). If materials used in the study had been supplied by some organization/company the name(s) and location of supplier(s) (town, state/county) should be included in this section. Types of statistical methods, and software must be satisfactorily stated. Methods must be result-oriented

If the submitted work presents studies involving human participants, the statement regarding the approval by an independent review committee (local, regional or national e.g., the ethics committee or institutional review board) should be a part of this section including the name and location of relevant Ethics Review Committee/ institutional review board. Description of demographic characteristics of participants should be considered. Satisfactory rational must be provided for selection of specific groups in the study. The place and time period of the study is mandatory to be described in this section. A clear statement of obtaining written or verbal consent of participants to participate in and later publish the study should always be a part of this section.

Results:

Results of the study should always be presented appropriately with the essential and main findings of the research coming first in the Results Section. The tables, figures, and references should be given in sequence to emphasize the vital information or observations related to the research. The author should avoid the repetition of data presented in tables/figures however, these should be sufficiently explained under this section. If the research yields some negative/unsupportive results, authors should ethically also mention these in this section. However, presenting studies with negative results only is discouraged, although permitted.

Only SI units are allowed to be used in articles. If other units are necessary, include the conversion factor and add the non-standard unit in parenthesis.

• Discussion:

In this section the results of the study should be interpreted and their significance should be explored in the light of previously published literature on the subject matter. Proper reference of the previous studies must be provided. Important/new findings of the study should be specially discussed. Information already presented in the introduction/results section should not be repeated in detail in this section. Results should be compatible with the objective of the study. Possible reasons for unexpected findings should be provided however, extensive discussion of previously published studies must be avoided.

This section may be presented separately, or combined with previous section under a single heading (Results and Discussion).

• Conclusion:

All manuscripts should contain a Conclusion section at the end of the article in which author must give a small paragraph summarizing the article's contents and research outcome. Real world impact of the research and future recommendations for propagating further research on the subject of the article may also be included in this section.

• List of Abbreviations (if any):

If abbreviations are used in the text, either they should either be specified in the text where first used or the author should provide a complete list of abbreviations after the Main text.

• Funding Statement:

If the work presented in the submitted article had received any funding, authors should clearly declare the source(s) of funding (e.g., institutional/private/corporate financial support). The funding statement should contain the name of the funding organization(s) along with the grant number, mentioned in round brackets, such as:

"This work was financially supported by [name of the funding agency] (Grant number XXX).

Multiple grant numbers or funding from more than one agency should also be clearly mentioned.

If the work was not supported by any financial funding, this should also be specified and authors may appropriately mention that the research received no specific grant from any funding agency whether in public, commercial, or not-for-profit segments.

• Declaration of Conflict of Interest:

Conflict of interest includes any direct/indirect concern that may have an influence on the conducting/assessment/reading of the research presented in the article.

Following COPE guidance on declaration of conflict of interest we make it mandatory that authors submitting their work to IJCS must acknowledge any possible conflict of interest (financial/non-financial) under the heading 'Conflict of Interest' before REFERENCES. This will help our editors and reviewers to fairly judge any potential bias in the submitted work. 

The interests that may be considered as potential conflicts are listed below (the list is not exhaustive, however.) and, if present, should be clearly declared in articles submitted to IJCS: 

• Financial Interests

• Receiving of Grants from any funding agency or commercial body;
• any type of payment(consulting fees, reimbursement etc.) that authors received from organizations/institutions/individuals for conducting the research, that/who may be possibly considered to gain financial benefit from the research; 
• any form of financial holdings(stocks, shares etc.) that may seem to be benefitted from the publication/dissemination of the research;  
• any Employment relation with or affiliation to an organization that may be possibly considered to have an interest in the research and/or may gain benefit from its publication/dissemination; 
• Close (family/work)relatives who may likely be considered for gaining financial benefits from the research and its publication.

• Non-financial interests

• Any association or affiliation (including honorary) to an organization as members of advisory board/committees that may have an interest in the results of the research work.
• Authors’ membership of social organizations or societies that carry out sponsorship work 
• Political engagement, activism or other advocacy work related to the research  
• Present close working relationships with editorial board members of IJCS
• Editorial responsibilities or membership of the editorial board of the journal 

Even if authors are confident that they have no conflict of interest to declare, they should explicitly disclose this as, “the author(s) declare no conflict of interest regarding the research/authorship/ publication of this article’”

Notably, all submissions to IJCS are evaluated fairly irrespective to whether authors have declared the presence or absence of conflicting interests. However, if a potential conflict of interest (not clearly declared by authors) is discovered during the peer review or publishing process, the handling Editor/EiC reserves the right to reject the submission right away. In rare cases of discovering any potential conflict after the publication of the article IJCS will follow COPE’s post-publication guidelines.

Acknowledgments:

Acknowledging anyone (individual/company/institution) who has considerably contributed to studying important intellectual content or was involved in drafting the manuscript- but could not be listed as author- is an ethical responsibility of authors and IJCS encourages that they must be mentioned properly at the end of the article.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) by authors:

Authors who employ AI-assisted tools—such as software that refines language, grammar, or writing flow—should restrict their use to correcting spelling and grammatical issues or enhancing readability. They must also remain alert to any risk of plagiarism that may arise from such assistance. The type of tool used and the purpose for which it was applied should be clearly stated in the manuscript, either in the Methods section or in the Acknowledgements, depending on what is appropriate.

The IJCS does not encourage the use of generative AI for creating or drafting any part of a manuscript. If generative AI has nonetheless been used during the manuscript preparation process, this must be explicitly disclosed to the editor upon submission. Authors are responsible for checking and validating all statements and claims included in their submission, as they remain fully accountable for any material generated with AI support. Citations in the reference list must point to original scholarly sources rather than to AI tools.

This policy may be updated in the future as the role of AI in academic publishing continues to evolve.

Please note that manuscripts will not be rejected solely because authors declare the use of generative AI. However, if editors or reviewers detect undisclosed or improper use of AI at any point during the evaluation or publication process, the Editor-in-Chief reserves the right to reject the submission. Producing inaccurate text, plagiarized material, or improper attribution through generative AI constitutes inappropriate use.

Appendixes:

If there is a need to present lengthy but essential methodological details, or an extensive list of symbols, authors may use appendices, which can be a part of the article. A single appendix should be titled as APPENDIX, while more than one can be titled APPENDIX A, APPENDIX B, and so on.

Supportive/Supplementary Material (if any):

Supportive/Supplementary material intended for publication must be numbered and referred to in the manuscript, but should not be a part of the submitted paper. The author should provide In-text citations and a section with the heading "Supportive/Supplementary Material" before the "References" section. 

References:

References follow the text in a section headed REFERENCES (use first-level head format identified earlier).

All references should be double-spaced and use a hanging indent.

Use title case for all titles (capitalize all words except prepositions e.g., of, between, through; articles i.e., a, an, and the; and conjunctions e.g., but, and, or; however, capitalize these if they begin the title or the subtitle).

Capitalize only the first word in hyphenated compound words, unless the second word is a proper noun or adjective (for example, don’t capitalize it in The Issue of Self-preservation for Women, but do capitalize it in Terrorist Rhetoric: The Anti-American Sentiment).

All references should be in alphabetical order according to the first author’s last name.

Include first names for all authors, rather than initials, but use first-name and middle-name initials if an author used initials in the original publication.

List all authors. It is not acceptable to use et al. in the References section unless the work was authored by a committee.

For repeated authors or editors, include the full name in all references (note: this is a change from the third edition of the ASA Style Guide). Arrange references for the same author in chronological order, beginning with the oldest e.g.,

Baltzell, E. Digby. 1958. Philadelphia Gentlemen. Glencoe, IL: Free Press

Baltzell, E. Digby. 1964. The Protestant Establishment. New York: Random House.

Baltzell, E. Digby. 1976. “The Protestant Establishment Revisited.” American Scholar 45:499-519.

When an author appears in both single-authored references and as the first author in a multiple-authored reference, place all of the single-authored references first, even though they may not be in the proper chronological order.

Hoge Dean R., 1979. "A Test of Theories of Denominational Growth and Decline." Pp. 179-197 in Understanding Church Growth and Decline 1950-1978, edited by D. R. Hoge and D. A. Roozen. New York and Philadelphia: Pilgrim Press.

Hoge Dean R., Benton Johnson, and Donald A. Luidens. 1994. Vanishing Boundaries: The Religion of Mainline Baby Boomers. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press.

When the same first author appears in multiple references, arrange them alphabetically by the last name of the second author.

Alba, Richard and Philip Kasinitz, 2006. “Sophisticated Television, Sophisticated Stereotypes.” Contexts 5(4):74-77.

Alba, Richard, John R. Logan, and Brian J. Stults. 2000. “The Changing Neighborhood Contexts of the Immigrant Metropolis.” Social Forces 79(2):587-621.

When including more than one work by the same author(s) from the same year, add letters to the year (2010a, 2010b, 2010c) and then list the references for that author and year alphabetically by title.

Fyfe, James J. 1982a. “Blind Justice: Police Shootings in Memphis.” The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 73(2):707-22.

Fyfe, James J. 1982b. “Race and Extreme Police-Citizen Violence.” Pp. 173-94 in Readings on Police Use of Deadly Force, edited by J. J. Fyfe. New York: Police Foundation.

Reference Examples

• Book with One Author

Author's full name, inverted so that last name appears first. Year. Book Title in Title Caps and Italicized. Publishing City: Publisher.

Note that the two-letter state abbreviation should be given only if needed to identify the city. For a publisher located in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, or Boston, for example, it would not be necessary to include the state abbreviation.

Note that the word "volume" is capitalized and abbreviated but not italicized.

Gurr, Ted Robert, ed. 1989. Violence in America. Vol. 1, The History of Crime. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

Mason, Karen. 1974. Women's Labor Force Participation. Research Triangle Park, NC: National Institutes of Health.

• Book with Two or More Authors

Same as with one author, but do not invert authors’ names after the first author. Separate authors’ names with a comma (unless there are only two authors), and include the word ‘and’ before the final author.

Note that the word “edition” is abbreviated, and not italicized or capitalized.

Corbin, Juliet, and Anselm Strauss. 2008. Basics of Qualitative Research. 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

 Edited Volume (when citing the entire volume)

 Same as book reference but add "eds." to denote book editor'(s') name(s).

 Hagan, John and Ruth D. Peterson, eds. 1995. Crime and Inequality. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

• Chapter in an Edited Volume

Put the chapter title in quotes.

Use Pp. and page numbers to designate where the chapter is found in the volume.

Italicize the book title, then give the book editor’(s’) name(s).

Do not invert editor'(s)' name(s).

Use initials instead of first and middle names for editor(s).

Clausen, John. 1972. "The Life Course of Individuals." Pp. 457-514 in Aging and Society. Vol. 3, A Sociology of Stratification, edited by M.W. Riley, M. Johnson, and A. Foner. New York: Russell Sage.

• Scholarly Journal Article

Author's full name (inverted so that last name appears first). Year. “Article Title in Title Caps and in Quotes.”, Journal Title in Title Caps and Italicized Volume Number (Issue Number):page numbers of article.

Note that there is no space after the colon preceding page numbers.

For multiple authors, invert last name of first author only. Separate authors’ names with commas, unless there are only two author. Use and between last two authors.

Conger Rand. 1997. "The Effects of Positive Feedback on Direction and Amount of Verbalization in a Social Setting." American Journal of Sociology 79:1179-259.

Coe Deborah L. and James D. Davidson. 2011. “The Origins of Legacy Admissions: A Sociological Explanation.” Review of Religious Research 52(3):233-47.

• Magazine or Newspaper Article

Ziff, Larzer. 1995. "The Other Lost Generation," Saturday Review, February 20, pp. 15-18.

Newspaper Article (author unknown) Lafayette Journal & Courier. 1998. Newspaper editorial. December 12, p. A-6.

• Public Documents:

 Because the nature of public documents is so varied, the form of entry for documentation cannot be standardized. The essential rule is to provide sufficient information so that the reader can locate the reference easily.

• Reports, Constitutions, Laws, and Ordinances

New York State Department of Labor. 1997. Annual Labor Area Report: New York City, Fiscal Year 1996 (BLMI Report, No. 28). Albany: New York State Department of Labor.

Ohio Revised Code Annotated, Section 3566 (West 2000).

Telecommunications Act of 1996, Public Law 104-014, 110 U.S. Statutes at Large 56 (1996).

U.S. Bureau of the Census. 1990. Characteristics of Population. Vol. 1. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

U.S. Constitution, Article 1, Section 4.

• Legislation Examples

Court cases and legislative acts follow a format stipulated by legal publishers.

The act or case is listed first, followed by volume number, abbreviated title, and the date of the work in which the act or case is found.

The volume number is given in Arabic numerals, and the date is parenthesized.

Court cases are italicized, but acts are not.

Case names, including v., are italicized.

Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954).

If retrieved from an online database, such as LexisNexis or HeinOnline, provide access information.

Ohio v. Vincer (Ohio App. Lexis 4356 [1999]).

U.S. Congress. House of Representatives. Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007. H.R. 2. 110th Congress, 1st Session, 2007. Retrieved July 11, 2010  (http://loc.gov).

• Unpublished Materials

Name of author. Year. Title of Presentation. Location where the article was presented or is available or has been accepted for publication but has not yet been published.

Conger, Rand D. Forthcoming. “The Effects of Positive Feedback on Direction and Amount of Verbalization in a Social Setting.” Sociological Perspectives.

Smith, Tom. 2003. “General Social Survey.” Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, August 16, Atlanta, GA.

• Dissertation or Thesis

King, Andrew J. 1976. “Law and Land Use in Chicago: A Pre-history of Modern Zoning.” PhD dissertation, Department of Sociology, University of Wisconsin, Madison. 

• Print Edition of a Book Accessed through an Online Library

Daniels, John. 2010. Apathetic College Students in America. Middletown, IL: University of Middletown Press. Retrieved April 6, 2011 (give complete link of the reference).

• Archival Sources

Meany Archives, LRF, Box 6, March 18, 1970. File 20. Memo, conference with Gloster Current, Director of Organization, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

• Electronic Sources

 For electronic references, follow the same guidelines as for print references, adding information about the medium, such as the URL and date of access.

For online periodicals (journals, magazines, and newspapers), use the same format as for printed periodicals, unless they are available ONLY in online form. In that case, simply add the date viewed and the URL for retrieving the article.

• Figures/Illustrations:

 

• The authors are expected to submit good-quality figure(s) in PDF, PPT, MS Word, TIFF, or JPEG versions.
• All figures should be in vector scale (except half tone, photograph.)

• Photographs, charts, and diagrams are all to be referred to as "Figure(s)" and these should appear consecutively in manuscript. All illustrations should be clearly numbered according to their sequencing order in the text. Figures are required to have a caption.
• If text is needed to be embedded in the illustrations, it should be kept at a minimum but, explained in the caption.

Requirement

• Width = 8.5 inches (In-between the required size)
• Height = 11 inches (In-between the required size)

• Tables:

Data Tables should be submitted in Microsoft Word or Excel format.

Tables should be numbered consecutively in Arabic numerals as they are cited in the body of the text. Each table should include a title/caption explaining the details discussed in the table. Detailed legends may then follow. Tables should be clearly arranged and each column of the table should bear a heading. Footnotes to tables should be present below the tables and referred to by superscript lowercase letters. All arithmetic (percentages, totals, differences) should be accurate. Any abbreviation used in the table must be explained in the footnote. Tables should not duplicate the results presented elsewhere in the manuscript (e.g. in the graph). All symbols used in tables should be defined in text. If there is an extensive list of symbols, these should be placed in the appendix at the end of the manuscript. In case of mathematical numbers’ presentation, be careful for punctuation (percentages, decimals etc.).

PEER REVIEW:

All submissions to IJCS are subject to a double-blind peer review process by field experts. For further details see, peer- review policy.

PROOF CORRECTIONS:

Authors are required to proofread the PDF versions of their manuscripts before submission. To avoid delays in publication, proofs should be checked immediately for typographical errors and returned within 48 hours. Authors should seek professional assistance for correcting grammatical and typographical errors before submitting the revised version of the article for publication. 

The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that the revised manuscript, including all proposed amendments, is endorsed by all authors.

Research Ethics and Policies

Conflict of Interest:

The author must acknowledge financial contributions and any possible conflict of interest under the heading 'Conflict of Interest'. In case of no conflict of interest it should also be declared in words.

Acknowledgments:

Acknowledging anyone (individual/company/institution) who has considerably contributed to studying important intellectual content or was involved in drafting the manuscript- but could not be listed as author- is an ethical responsibility of authors and IJCS encourages that they must be mentioned properly at the end of the article.

Consent for Publication and participants anonymity:

If the manuscript has human individuals' data, such as personal details, audio-video material, etc., the individuals' consent to publish the data should be taken by the author. In children's cases, such permission should be obtained from the parent or the legal guardian of the child. Authors should make sure that every possible steps have been taken to conceal the participants’ identity. A clear statement about obtaining written or verbal consent of participants to participate in, and later publish the study should always be a part of articles involving human participants.

Ethics Committee Approval:

If the submitted work presents studies involving human participants, a statement regarding the approval by an independent review committee (local, regional or national e.g., the ethics committee or institutional review board) should be included in the article’s method section including the name and location of relevant Ethics Review Committee/institutional review board.

Gender, Race and Ethnicity:

Unless gendered terms are important to the analysis or demographics, non-gendered terms should be used wherever possible (i.e., use person, people, individual, or humankind in place of man, men, or mankind). Authors should as long avoid specific racial and ethnical labeling as possible; Avoid using the terms Negro, Afro-American, Oriental etc.; rather use African-American, Asian, Asian-American etc.

Plagiarism prevention policy:

Whenever authors use data that someone else collected; or refer to that data; or use another person’s ideas (whether published, or available electronically) proper citation to the author(s) of that data/work should be provided. This also applies if authors quote their work precisely or paraphrase it.

All articles submitted to IJCS go through a plagiarism checking system by which our team detects any piece of overlapping or similar text in submitted manuscripts by using an up-to-date software. This software controls submitted content against a database of periodicals, the Internet, and an extensive article database. It generates a similarity report, highlighting the percentage overlap between the uploaded article and the published material. Less than 19% similarity is permissible in articles submitted to IJCS. For further details please see editorial policies.

Permission for Reproduction:

Authors are prohibited to include any published/reproduced material unless an appropriate written permission has been obtained from the copyright holder; editors of IJCS should be informed about it in the cover letter accompanying the submission.

For obtaining permission for reproducing any material published in an article by Lifescience Global Canada Inc. authors may contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS:

For proposals to publish conference proceedings in this journal, please contact us at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Below are the essentials of International Journal of Criminology and Sociology (IJCS)’s publishing ethics for all groups involved in its publishing process:

Authors' Ethical Responsibilities:

• Originality: Authors have the responsibility of ensuring that all works in the manuscript are original and free from any kind of plagiarism.
• Ethical Approval: If the work involves human participants, taking approval from relevant ethical committee must be mentioned in the article.
• Informed consent: A statement about obtaining participants’ consent to participate, and later publish the work should always be a part of the articles which involve studies on human participants. Authors must ensure that participants have been de-identified appropriately, and anonymity has been maintained while publishing the research. If the study is waived by the ethics committee/review board for such consent, this should also be explicitly mentioned in the article.
• Duplicate publication: The work should not have been published elsewhere (including in any other language) or submitted to any other journal(s) at the time of submission to International Journal of Criminology and Sociology (IJCS).
• Racism: Unnecessary ethnic/racial labelling has been avoided.
• Conflict of Interest: Any possible conflict of interest needs to be acknowledged.
• Acknowledgement and Permission: Proper acknowledgments to others’ work must be provided (of any individual, company, or institution).If some content of the article has been used from other sources, adequate permission must be obtained and clearly mentioned in the article.
• Authorship: Only those who have made any substantial contribution to the presentation or organization of the submitted work should be listed as 'Authors.' At the same time, other contributors should be acknowledged. At least one of the authors should be designated as the corresponding author.
• Post-publication complaints: If authors detect some significant error in their published manuscript by International Journal of Criminology and Sociology (IJCS), it is their responsibility to immediately contact the journals team at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. The assigned editor will then handle the authors’ concerns and resolve the issue.

Editors' Ethical Responsibilities:

• Editors-in-Chief of International Journal of Criminology and Sociology (IJCS) are responsible for making critical editorial decisions on all peer-reviewed articles submitted in their journals.
• Although every effort is made to ensure that all published content by International Journal of Criminology and Sociology (IJCS) is final and reliable to cite, we held our editors responsible for maintaining the transparency of the academic research and record. Therefore, if any case of retraction, rectification, and erratum arises, editors should give special attention to publish the respective note.
• The editor should exclude every sort of conflict of interest (financial/non-financial) for the article that they handle. They are ethically required to declare any conflict of interest that may impact decision- making process and refrain themselves from handling such article. An alternate editorial board member will be given the task to handle the article where any conflict arises. Assessing manuscripts for their scientific quality and intellectual content is their major responsibility. They are ethically required to make unbiased decisions free from any discrimination of race, gender, geographical origin, or religion of the author(s).
• The editor should evaluate all manuscripts factually based on their academic merit and free of any commercial or self-interests.
• The editors should maintain the confidentiality of every submission, and not disclose any information regarding submitted manuscripts before their final publication.
• Promoting research righteousness must be preserved.
• If an editor suspects any misconduct in research, he/she should start its prompt and detailed investigation with respective authority. Editor must follow up the case asking relevant editorial staff till final resolution of the issue.
• Any suspicious activity during peer-review should also be resolved with diligence. Editors are encouraged to contact EiC of IJCS regarding any issue that arises during peer review process. EiC will then seek guidance from COPE guidelines regarding the matter.
• International Journal of Criminology and Sociology (IJCS) editors are advised to manage any Competing interest issues during handling of an article according to COPE’s directives. 
• Editorial board members or editors of IJCS must declare their involvement with the journal if they wish to submit their own article to the journal. To handle such submissions the Journal Editor will appoint another member of the Editorial board considering the least chances of competing interest.
• Guest Editors’ own research to a special issue that they are leading is permissible however, they should clearly declare a conflict of interest upon submission. Such submissions will be handled by an alternate member of the editorial board or the Journal Editor.
• Editors of IJCS are not allowed to use Generative AI to generate decision letters, or summaries of unpublished research.

Reviewers' Ethical Responsibilities:

• Reviewers of International Journal of Criminology and Sociology (IJCS) are responsible to provide a timely, detailed, constructive, and unbiased evaluation of all manuscripts that they review.
• They must include in their reports whether the manuscript’s writing is relevant, and appropriately concise but clear.
• All reviewers must maintain the confidentiality of the complete review process.
• Reviewers should immediately notify the handling editor of the manuscript about any financial or personal conflict of interest. They may decline to review the manuscript where such a conflict exists.
• Reviewers should pay attention to ethical concerns while reviewing the. In case of suspected unethical publishing practices, such as any ethical violation of participants of the study, or any considerable similarity between a previously published article and the manuscript under review should be immediately reported to the handling editor.
• All reviewers are instructed to follow COPE guidelines while reviewing the articles.
• Reviewers inappropriately using Generative AI tools to generate review reports are not generally invited to review for the journal, however if editors discover such use after reviewers have completed the review process, such review reports will not be considered for taking final decision of the manuscript.

Publisher's Ethical Responsibilities:

International Journal of Criminology and Sociology(IJCS) is dedicated to work with journal editors, defining clearly their relevant roles to ensure appropriate decisions regarding publication procedures and maintaining the transparency of editorial decisions.

International Journal of Criminology and Sociology (IJCS) ensures the integrity, autonomy, and originality of each published article concerning:

• Publication ethics and honesty
• Conflict of interests
• Confidentiality
• Timely publication of content

Peer-Review Policy

International Journal of Criminology and Sociology (IJCS) follows the double-blind peer-review policy for all articles/ scholarly work submitted to its journals. This kind of peer-review does not reveal the identities of authors and the reviewers to each other. The policy is adopted to maximize the unbiased peer review.

All submitted articles are subject to an extensive peer-review in consultation with the Journal's Editorial Board members and independent external referees. All manuscripts are evaluated on the basis of their intellectual quality, with in a structured time frame (usually 6 weeks from the date of submission), and the final decision taken by the Journal's Editor-in-Chief, based on the peer-reviewers' reports, is then communicated to the author(s). Reviewers are selected by the handling editors on the basis of their field expertise and practical relevance to the content of the articles to be reviewed by them.

Submissions from the Editor-in-Chief and Editorial Board Members are no exceptions from our peer review policy. However, external reviewers and decision making bodies are consulted to evaluate their articles and any conflict of interest is thereby excluded.

Peer Review Process:

 

All submissions to IJCS are subject to a double-blinded (authors and reviewers are kept unknown to each other) peer review process.

All articles right after their submission go through an initial evaluation by an editorial board member (in case the submission is from a member of the editorial board an external expert of the field is contacted to perform this task). This handling editor decides about whether the article qualifies for a peer review or is to be returned to the author/declined based on the unsuitability/incompleteness of the article. Editorials or letters, however, may be accepted by the handling editor at this stage. This initial review is planned to be completed within 1 week of submission.

The submissions eligible for a double-blinded peer review process will be forwarded to at least 2 peer reviewers based on their relevance and expertise in the field which the manuscript talks about. These reviewers may be a member of the internal board of the journal or an external referee. The double-blinded peer review policy helps International Journal of Criminology and Sociology (IJCS) keep its review process unbiased to the maximum. However, articles which are self-revealing (e.g., authors giving references to their prior publication) may turn to have a single-blinded review (here reviewer will remain unknown to the author) and it is the ethical responsibility of reviewers to inform the handling editor if he/she finds some conflict of interest reviewing such article.

Usually peer review takes 4 weeks however, sometime a period of 6 weeks is acceptable owing to some justifiable reason. Based on the reviewers’ reports the handling editor/ EIC/ external editor, appropriately, will decide about acceptance/ revision by the authors/rejection of the article.

Thus, the reviewer's comments may be categorized as:

• Requires minor changes;
• Requires major changes;
• Rejected, but may be resubmitted;
• Rejected with no resubmission.

The authors are usually requested to resubmit the revised paper within 5-7 days. The revised articles will be reviewed by the handling editor who may accept these or consult the relevant reviewer for making a decision of acceptance/ rejection/ further revision(maximum 2 rounds of revision may be allowed). The average time to publish an article is 8-10 weeks from its submission date, provided that revisions are made by authors within the specified time period.

Editors of International Journal of Criminology and Sociology (IJCS) are allowed to submit their own articles in their journals however, no board member will be involved in the evaluation of their articles and no comments will be shared. These submission are dealt and evaluated by external field experts and reviewers at all stages of publication. The Editor-in-Chief of the journal is responsible for final acceptance/ rejection of these articles on the basis of external reviewers’ reports but, a third party expert opinion is also sought in this regard, as appropriate.

The Guest Editors of special issue focusing on a particular topic, may perform the duties of peer reviewing of some related submissions to his/her special issue which have qualified the initial round of review. However, special consideration is given to avoid any conflict of interest in these circumstances.

The use of electronic submission and peer-review system of International Journal of Criminology and Sociology (IJCS) facilitates editors and reviewers during peer review process.

OPEN ACCESS PUBLISHING POLICY:

All articles published by International Journal of Criminology and Sociology(IJCS) are readily available and immediately accessible online upon publication and readers can read, download and/or print OPEN access articles without any charges.

All articles are licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode), which allows the open distribution and reproduction in any means, provided that the work is perfectly cited.

Authors have the flexibility to publish a wide range of articles in International Journal of Criminology and Sociology (IJCS), e.g., short communications, full-length research and review articles, as well as supplements, conference proceedings, and case studies.

Authorship acknowledgments:

All individuals listed as authors must have devoted substantially to the conception, execution, analysis, or summarizing of the work and are required to indicate their particular contribution. The names and order of author’s list must be finalized before submission to the journal and no responsibility lies on International Journal of Criminology and Sociology (IJCS) regarding authorship matters. Changes in the order of list of authors is not permissible once article has been submitted to IJCS until and unless a written request duly signed by all co-authors mentioning the appropriate reasons of such change is submitted to the journal. The responsibility of any change in the name will lie on Corresponding author of the manuscript. Any article with disputed authorship may not be published by International Journal of Criminology and Sociology (IJCS) until complete resolution of the issue and a written consent provided to the editor by corresponding author. Granting Guest or honorary authorship to some individual due to his/her position only (e.g., research supervisor, departmental head) is highly discouraged.

In addition to authors of the article, individual/company/institution who has substantially contributed to studying important intellectual content or was involved in drafting or revising the manuscript may be acknowledged at the end of the article before the References.

Mentioning of corresponding author(s) is mandatory for all submissions. Only corresponding author will communicate with journal regarding all article-publication matters. Being a corresponding author doesn’t renders seniority to an author rather, it is required for managerial responsibilities only.

Copyrights: Authors who publish in International Journal of Criminology and Sociology (IJCS) retain copyright to their work. Submission of a manuscript to the respective journals implies that all authors have read and agreed to the content of the Covering Letter or the Terms and Conditions.

All articles by International Journal of Criminology and Sociology (IJCS)are published under the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode), which permits free distribution and reproduction of published content in any medium provided that the work is properly cited. International Journal of Criminology and Sociology(IJCS)(Licensor) grants the author(s) a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, and non-commercial perpetual license to exercise the below rights of their published article.

• The authors retain the copyright of their published article. They will also have the right to reproduce the article, to incorporate the article into one or more collective works, and to reproduce the article as incorporated in collective works;
• Create and reproduce Derivative Works for educational purposes;
• Distribute Copies;
• Any commercial application of the work, with prior agreement by the author, is however, exclusively granted to Lifescience Global.

Plagiarism Prevention: International Journal of Criminology and Sociology (IJCS) uses the iThenticate software to detect instances of overlapping and similar text in submitted manuscripts. iThenticate software checks the content against a database of periodicals, the Internet, and a comprehensive article database. It generates a similarity report, highlighting the percentage overlap between the uploaded article and the published material. Any instance of content overlap is further examined for suspected plagiarism according to the publisher's Editorial Policies. International Journal of Criminology and Sociology (IJCS) allows an overall similarity of 20% for a manuscript to be acknowledged for publication. The similarity percentage is further checked keeping the following important points in view:

Low Text Similarity: The text of every submitted manuscript is examined using the Content Tracking mode in iThenticate. This mode ensures that manuscripts with an overall low percentage similarity (but which may have a higher similarity from a single source) are not neglected. The acceptable limit for similarity of text from a single source is 5%. Suppose the similarity level is above 5%. In that case, the manuscript is returned to the author for paraphrasing the text and citing the source of the copied material.

It is essential to mention that the text taken from different sources with an overall low similarity percentage will be considered plagiarized content if most of the article is a combination of copied material.

High Text Similarity: There may be some manuscripts with an overall low similarity percentage but a higher percentage from a single source. A manuscript may have less than 20% overall similarity, but 15 % similar text is taken from a single article. The similarity index in such cases is higher than the approved limit for a single source. Authors are encouraged to thoroughly rephrase similar text and properly cite the original quote to bypass plagiarism and copyright violation.

Types of Plagiarism: We all understand that scholarly manuscripts are drafted after a careful review of previously published articles. It is therefore not easy to draw a clear boundary between legitimate representation and plagiarism. However, the following important features can assist in identifying different kinds of plagiarized content. These are:

• Reproduction of others' words, sentences, ideas, or findings as one's own without proper acknowledgment.
• Text recycling, also known as self-plagiarism. The author practices a former publication in different paper without proper citation and acknowledgment of the original source.
• Poor paraphrasing, copying complete paragraphs, and modifying a few words without changing the structure of original sentences or changing the sentence structure but not the words.
• Verbatim copying of text without placing quotation marks and not acknowledging the work of the original author.
• They are correctly citing a work but poorly paraphrasing the original text is considered unintentional plagiarism. Similarly, manuscripts with language between paraphrasing and quoting are not acceptable. Authors should either paraphrase properly or quote and, in both cases, cite the original source.
• Higher similarity in the abstract, introduction, materials and methods, and discussion and conclusion sections indicates that the manuscript may contain plagiarized text. Authors can easily explain these parts of the manuscript in many ways. However, author technical terms and sometimes standard methods cannot be rephrased; therefore, Editors must carefully review these sections before deciding.

Plagiarism in Published Manuscripts:

In rare cases where published manuscripts are discovered to be plagiarized (including translations of an article previously published in another language) after its publishing by IJCS, it is subject to retraction from the journal website after careful investigation and approval by the Journal's Editor-in-Chief. Authors are notified about EiC decision and a 'Retraction Note' is published on the title of plagiarized manuscript's electronic version, along with a link to the original study.

Article Publication Charges Policy: 

International Journal of Criminology and Sociology (IJCS) is committed to disseminate research and scholarly publications as widely as possible. It supports the principle that the results of publicly funded studies should be freely accessible in the public domain. Therefore, it adopts the policy of publishing through Open Access (OA).

However, open access publishing is not without costs. International Journal of Criminology and Sociology(IJCS)pays various expenses of journal production, its online hosting, and archiving in different databases by charging publication fee from authors and their research supporters for each article they publish in IJCS.

Data Fabrication and Manipulation:

International Journal of Criminology and Sociology (IJCS) does not support any makeup of research findings/data to give a false impression. Manipulating images, removing unsupportive results, changing/adding/deleting data points etc. are all included in data fabrication and not allowed in submitted articles. However, proper technical manipulation of a complete image may be allowed for readability. Any type of such technical manipulation must be clearly mentioned in cover letter while submitting the article to the journal. Improper manipulation involving parts of the image is strictly forbidden. COPE guidelines are followed by all our editors to handle such falsifications discovered during, or after the publishing process.

Concurrent Publication/Simultaneous Submission:

It is a condition of publication that manuscripts submitted to the International Journal of Criminology and Sociology (IJCS) have not been published and will not be simultaneously submitted or published elsewhere. Plagiarism is strictly forbidden, and by submitting the article for publication, the authors agree that the publishers have the legal right to take appropriate action against the authors if plagiarism or fabricated information is discovered.

Abstracts and posters of conferences, results presented at meetings (for example, to inform investigators or participants about findings), results from databases (data without interpretation, discussion, context, or conclusions in the form of tables and text to describe data/information where this is not easily presented in tabular form) are not considered before publication.

Authors who wish to publish translations of the articles that have been published elsewhere should ensure that they have appropriate permission(s), indicate clearly that the material has been translated and re-published, and show the primary source of the material. The Editor-in-Chief may request the related publications if he/she is concerned about overlap and possible redundancy.

Allegations of misconduct:

International Journal of Criminology and Sociology (IJCS) will investigate if any form of misconduct is suspected in a submitted article. Editorial members/ editorial staff, as appropriate will be responsible for following up of such cases. Such articles are not only rejected but the submitting author is contacted first, for questions regarding any unfair actions. In case of no/unsatisfactory reply from authors International Journal of Criminology and Sociology (IJCS) has the authority to contact their employers, institutions/organizations, or relevant regulatory body for investigating and resolving the issue. All steps are taken in the light of COPE’s directives.

All cases of misconduct are followed up till final settling of the issue. In rare situations of any allegation of ethical misconduct discovered and evidently proved in a post-published article by International Journal of Criminology and Sociology (IJCS), investigation will be carried out and appropriate action may be taken by handling editor of the article, in consultation with EiC, which may include retraction/removal of the article from the journal’s website. The editorial staff bears the responsibility to follow up the cases of misconduct till final solution of the issue is achieved. The extremely unusual cases of evident misconduct may be directed to COPE team by EiC, in case that no guiding rules/flowcharts by COPE are available regarding such issues.

Disclaimer:

Responsibility for the content published by International Journal of Criminology and Sociology (IJCS), including any opinions expressed therein, rests exclusively with the author(s) of such content. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, International Journal of Criminology and Sociology (IJCS)(on its behalf and behalf of its staff and members of its editorial board) disclaims responsibility for any injury and/or damage (whether financial or otherwise) to persons or property, resulting directly or indirectly from any ideas, methods, instructions, or products (including errors in the same) referred to in any content of International Journal of Criminology and Sociology(IJCS).

Article Withdrawal:

Only in rare cases where an article has significant errors which are compelling and unavoidable; or has been accidently submitted multiple times, withdrawal of an unpublished article by authors is permissible.

An "Article withdrawal Form” (available from editorial office of the journal) mentioning the reason for withdrawal; and signed by all co-authors will be needed for such request. As per policy, if the withdrawal of article is requested within the 48 hours of submission, no withdrawal penalty will be charged, however, if authors withdraw manuscripts during/after review; and acceptance, a withdrawal penalty will be applicable as the article may have caused the time waste of the editors, reviewers, and the editorial staff. Withdrawal will only be allowed after withdrawal penalty has been fully paid to the journal.

The Editor-in-Chief of the journal is highest authority solely responsible to take decisions on withdrawal policies.

Only if a manuscript has taken more than six months for review process, the authors have the right to withdraw their manuscript without paying any charges. Authors may not assume that their manuscript has been withdrawn until they have received a formal letter notifying about the Manuscript Withdrawal from the editorial office.

To avoid time-waste of our publishing team, and the withdrawal penalties by authors we suggest our authors to be certain that the data and facts presented in the article are error free, and best practices in the publication ethics have been complied before submission to the journal.

Post-publication policies:

Errata, Corrigenda, and Corrections in Published Articles:

Authors and readers are advised to notify the Editor-in-Chief if they discover errors in published content, author's names, and affiliations or if they have reasons for concern over the legitimacy of a publication. In such cases, International Journal of Criminology and Sociology (IJCS) will publish an ERRATUM or a CORRIGENDUM, in discussion with the Editor-in-Chief and authors of the article, and/or substitute or retract the article.


Article Retraction:

If manuscripts are published, having assigned certain information of volume/issue/page number, and it is found that there are infringements of professional ethical codes in their content, such as plagiarism, excess similarity with some other article, fraudulent use of data, etc., then such manuscripts are considered for retraction by relevant editors of IJCS.

A retraction note entitled "Retraction: [article title]" is published in the paginated part of the next scheduled issue of the journal and is also listed in the table of contents.

Editors may consider retracting a publication' if:

• They have clear evidence that the findings are unreliable, either as a result of major error (e.g., miscalculation or experimental error), or as a result of fabrication (e.g., of data) or falsification (e.g., image manipulation)
• It constitutes plagiarism
• The findings have previously been published elsewhere without proper attribution to previous sources or disclosure to the editor, permission to republish, or justification (i.e., cases of redundant publication)
• It contains material or data without authorization for use
• Copyright has been infringed or there is some other serious legal issue (e.g., libel, privacy)
• It reports unethical research
• It has been published solely on the basis of a compromised or manipulated peer review process
• The author(s) failed to disclose a major competing interest (aka, conflict of interest) that, in view of the editor, would have unduly affected interpretations of the work or recommendations by editors and peer reviewers.

Removal of Published Content:

In exceptional circumstances, if International Journal of Criminology and Sociology (IJCS) finds that a published content is defamatory, breaches a third party’s legal rights, or is unlawful otherwise; if acted upon ,would be seriously risky to health; or receives a government/court order to remove the published content; it reserves the right to temporarily or permanently remove such article. Bibliography (title and authors’ names) will be retained and will be accompanied by a declaration briefly explaining the reasons for removal of the content.

Appeals and Complaints:

Generally, the editorial decisions are not reverted. However, authors who consider that their manuscript was rejected due to a misunderstanding or mistake may seek an explanation for the decision. Appeals must give sound reasoning and compelling evidence against the criticism raised in the rejection letter. A difference of opinion as to the interest, novelty, or suitability of the manuscript for the journal will not be considered an appeal. The EIC and other relevant editors will consider the request and their decision afterwards will be deemed final.

Acceptance of the manuscript for publishing is not guaranteed even if the journals’ concerned personals agree to reconsider the manuscript. The reconsideration process may involve previous or new reviewers or editors and substantive revision.

Authors who wish to make a complaint should refer them to the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal concerned. All appeals and complaints must be sent to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..