Publication Ethics

KJHSS is a quarterly, open access, peer-reviewed journal. All persons involved in the working of the journal in one capacity of the other are expected to follow proper ethical procedures and malpractice is strongly discouraged.

Decision on Acceptance/ Rejecting of papers: The decision to either accept or reject the paper depends on the decision of the editor-in-chief and co-editor, who are guided by the policies of the journal's editorial board and constrained by such legal requirements as shall then be in force regarding label, copyright infringement and plagiarism. All manuscripts are initially screened by our licensed plagiarism software (Strike). Users are duly notified by e-mail regarding the status of their manuscript and can check themselves on the online journal management system from time-to time. 

However, sending the manuscript for peer-review does not guarantee acceptance. The peer-reviewers’ comments play an important role in acceptance of the paper. 

Time taken for editorial decision: Since inception, it has been a policy of journal to provide speedy decisions on the editorial decision without compromising on the quality of the journal. The decision depends of unavailability of internet services, natural calamity, high number of  papers submitted etc. beyond the control of the editorial board. 

Fair, unbiased decision: The editor-in-chief, editorial board and the technical team at journal evaluates manuscripts for their intellectual content without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors.

Academic Ethics Policy

The Editorial Board strictly follows all guidelines and recommendations issued by COPE - Committee on Publication Ethics.

 The journal and the publisher expect that authors, peer reviewers and editors follow best practices of ethical behavior contained therein. Most important points are presented below, but it is advisable to refer to original documents above. 

More specifically, we would like to emphasize the attention of all authors (current and prospective), all reviewers, in-house and guest editors to the following provisions under COPE which we treat as the most essential for our work:

  • All editors - in-house, acting, managing and guest - are responsible for maintaining the balance of high-quality materials published, freedom of expression and academic integrity.
  • High standards of research conduct and academic publishing shall always go first, prior to commercial interests and needs of the editorial team and publishers of the journal.
  • The Editorial Board does not accept articles published or accepted for publication elsewhere. Articles and other material published in the Khazar Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences represent the opinions of the author(s). A paper must be substantial and original.
  • The authors should not be considered to reflect the views of the Editorial Board. All   published research articles in this journal have undergone rigorous peer review, based on initial editor screening, anonymous reviewing by independent expert reviewers.
  • Editors of the journal are responsible for determining whether the text fits the journal’s scope and general framework. The decision that the text does not fit either of them or both should be provided to the author(s) along with the explanation why so and (optional) recommendation on alternative publication options.
  • Editors of the journal are responsible for explaining the details on the double-blind peer-review procedures to both the authors and the reviewers. Every time the reviewer gets the text for a blind review, they also get a reminder on rules and procedures accepted by the editorial team.
  • Editors of the journal are responsible for revision of academic publishing rules and double-blind peer-review standards on the annual basis.
  • All editorial rules and academic standards imposed and followed by the Editorial Board are similarly applicable to both published and unpublished (still under consideration) texts.
  • In case plagiarism or other misconduct have been reported externally, the editors are expected to fully cooperate on the case and provide all evidence they have on the case, apart from the identity of the involved reviewers.
  • After a plagiarism check and an initial screening for acceptability, submitted articles are distributed for double-blind peer review. Two reviewers write their comments on each article along with recommendations to publish the article, to publish with revisions, or to decline the article.
  • Editors and publishers of this journal are expected to communicate following the principles of editorial independence. Despite the fact that editors are officially hired to work in the editorial team, all decisions made by the editors are expected to be based solely on the quality and content of the provided texts and be independent from economic relations within the office or current political situation in the country/region.
  • The journal prefers to restrain from any sort of advertising activities as such and concentrate on academic publishing solely. In exceptional cases advertisement still can be published. The decision on advertisement publication shall belong to publishers, not editors of the journal. Published advertisement shall be directly related to the fields of academic research, higher education and conferences within the scope and topics of the journal itself.

All situations presented as the conflict of interests shall be resolved according to COPE regulations. In such situations editors and/or publishers are expected to find a relevant case among those described on the COPE site and take action accordingly.