Journal Policies

Review and Publication Process


1. The editorial committee checks each submitted article or invites relevant co-Editor to assess:

       a. relevancy of the article to the scope of B&ER

       b. that the article is free of gross grammatical and conceptual mistakes

       c. that the article makes enough contribution to the literature

       d. that the topic is interesting, and is highly relevant to practice

       e. that the methods applied are appropriate

 2. If an article fails to qualify the criteria mentioned in 1(a-e), the editorial committee will send a rejection email to authors within 15 working days of the submission.

3. After the successful desk review, each paper will be sent first to a local reviewer and if the reviewer recommends publication, the paper is then sent to a foreign reviewer. 

4. Authors who have immediate publication needs can pay the reviewing fee (Rs. 5000 to local, plus $100 (or equivalent) to the foreign reviewer) to the journal to avail simultaneous reviews from all the reviewers. Paying this fee does not guarantee publication. This fee is paid to the reviewers.

5. A paper is accepted for publication only if the majority of the reviewers recommend the paper for publication. Without simultaneous reviews, it is normal for the review process to take up to 6 months.

6. Each article is checked for a similarity index using Turnitin®. An article having a similarity index of 14% in total and/or 4% with a single source will be rejected.

7. The editor might ask authors to submit datasets in case enough doubt is expressed by a reviewer on the validity of the results.

8. Authors cannot use self-citations more than 5 times in a single paper.

9. In the case of grammatical mistakes, the authors may be asked to get the paper proofread by a professional, along with a proofreading certificate.

10. In a single issue, an author cannot publish two papers, regardless of whether the author is the principal or a co-author.

11. Publication fee: The journal charges a publication fee of Rs. 4000 per article. In return, the Editor will send a free copy of the journal to each author. There is no publication fee for authors outside Pakistan.

 

Open Access Policy


The Business & Economic Review maintains an open access policy for the online records of all published articles on its website. It also supports wide dissemination of the researches it publishes. Authors are free to post copies of the final published version on any online repositories or other web sites.

 

Copyrights & Licensing


Authors retain the rights to the content of the published articles. All articles are published under Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0. This license gives permission to others to distribute, edit, correct and adapt your work, even commercially, for any lawful purpose as long as they acknowledge writer’s work. The authors have right to post the published article on author’s institutions or website or repositories of their institutions.

In case of exceptions, different licenses can be granted. For instance, in case of a specific condition (linked to funding), which retains such kind of licensing, author needs to mention such condition to the Editorial Office of the Journal at the time of submission. Chief Editor has the discretion to accept or reject the exceptions.

Permission is required for previously published work prior to submission. The authors need to obtain consent to reproduce any published material that does not come into public domain.

 

Article Retraction / Correction Policies


The journal editors will retract a paper if:

  • they have clear evidence that the findings are unreliable, either as a result of misconduct (e.g. data fabrication) or honest error (e.g. miscalculation or experimental error).
  • its findings have previously been published elsewhere without proper crossreferencing, permission or justification
  • it constitutes plagiarism
  • it reports unethical research

Journal editors will issue an expression of concern if:

  • they receive insufficient or inconclusive evidence of research or publication misconduct on part of the authors
  • there is evidence that the findings are unreliable but the authors’ institution will not investigate the case

Journal editors will consider issuing a correction certificate if:

  • a small portion of an otherwise reliable publication proves to be misleading (especially because of honest error)
  • the author/contributor list is incorrect (i.e. a deserving author has been omitted or somebody who does not meet authorship criteria has been included)

Retractions are not appropriate if:

  • a change of authorship is required but there is no reason to doubt the validity of the findings

Notices of retraction would:

  • be linked to the retracted article wherever possible (i.e. in all electronic versions)
  • clearly identify the retracted article (e.g. by including the title and authors in the retraction heading)
  • be clearly identified as a retraction (i.e. distinct from other types of correction or comment)
  • be published promptly to minimize harmful effects from misleading publications
  • be freely available to all readers (i.e. not behind access barriers or available only to subscribers)
  • state who is retracting the article
  • state the reason(s) for retraction (to distinguish misconduct from honest error)
  • avoid statements that are potentially defamatory or libelous