Editorial and Ethics Policies

AJIR follows the ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors) recommendations for authorship. All listed authors must meet all four of the following 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.

Those who do not meet all four criteria should be acknowledged in the acknowledgements section. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all co-authors have approved the final manuscript and the order of authors.

AJIR uses a double-blind peer review process to ensure impartiality and scientific rigor. Each manuscript is reviewed by at least two independent reviewers who are experts in the relevant field. Reviewers are selected based on their expertise, publication record, and absence of conflicts of interest.

The editorial decision can be: Accept as is, Minor Revision, Major Revision, or Reject. Authors of revised manuscripts are given appropriate time to respond to reviewer comments.

All submitted manuscripts are treated as confidential documents. Reviewers must not share, discuss, or disclose any information about a manuscript under review without explicit consent from the editors. Editors must not share information about a submitted manuscript with anyone other than the authors, reviewers, and editorial staff, as appropriate.

AJIR strongly encourages authors to make all data, program code, and other methods used in their research openly available to the extent permitted by law and ethical guidelines. Authors should include a data availability statement in their manuscript.

AJIR is committed to ensuring ethical standards in publishing. Research involving human subjects must be conducted in accordance with the Belmont Report and UNESCO Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights. Authors must declare all ethical approvals obtained. Research on vulnerable populations requires additional ethical justification.

Clinical trials must comply with the Declaration of Helsinki, be registered in a recognized trial registry, and follow CONSORT reporting guidelines.

AJIR has a zero-tolerance policy for plagiarism. All submissions are screened using iThenticate. Manuscripts with a similarity index exceeding 15% (excluding references and quoted material) will be returned to authors before entering review.

Image manipulation, fabrication of data, and selective reporting of results are considered forms of research misconduct and will lead to immediate rejection or retraction, as well as notification of the authors' institutions.

AJIR follows COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) guidelines for handling corrections and retractions. Corrections are published when an honest error significantly affects the interpretation of a published article. Retractions are issued when findings are unreliable due to misconduct or honest error, or when findings have been published elsewhere.

All authors, editors, and reviewers must disclose any financial, personal, or professional relationships that could be perceived as influencing their work. Authors must include a conflict of interest statement in all submissions. Editors recuse themselves from handling manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest.

Authors should acknowledge individuals who contributed to the research but do not qualify as authors (e.g., technical assistance, language editing, statistical consultation). Funding sources must also be acknowledged.

The Article Processing Charge (APC) for accepted manuscripts is $900 USD. There are no submission fees. The APC is payable only after formal acceptance. Read the full APC policy →

Authors must disclose the use of AI or AI-assisted tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Copilot) in manuscript preparation. AI tools cannot be listed as authors. The use of AI-generated images must be explicitly stated. Reviewers must not input manuscript content into AI systems. Read the full AI Usage Policy →

AJIR is a fully open-access journal. All articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license. Authors retain copyright. Readers are free to share, adapt, and redistribute the material for any purpose, provided appropriate credit is given.

Published articles are archived in Portico, J-Gate, and the Keepers Registry to ensure long-term digital preservation. Authors may post the final published version (Version of Record) to any repository immediately upon publication.

AJIR does not accept commercial advertising. The journal does not permit the placement of paid promotional content on its website or in its publications. All editorial content is independent of any commercial considerations.

Complaints regarding editorial decisions, reviewer conduct, or publication ethics should be directed to support@asianresassoc.org. AJIR aims to resolve all complaints within three weeks. Unresolved complaints may be escalated to COPE.

AJIR is owned and published by Asian Research Association (A Non-Profit Educational Trust, Regd. No: R/PN/BK-4/71/2021 under Indian Trust Act 1982, PAN: AAITA6320M). Revenue is derived primarily from Article Processing Charges. The journal does not receive funding from commercial advertisers or sponsors. Editorial decisions are made independently of financial considerations.

Contact: 5/342, Angalamman Street, Naickenpalayam, Coimbatore-641020, Tamil Nadu, India. Tel: +91 422 299 5626. Email: contact@asianresassoc.org