Journal Policy

The Journal of Social Research Dynamics (JSRD) is committed to maintaining high standards of academic publishing in the social sciences. The journal adheres to internationally recognised principles of publication ethics and best practices, including the COPE Core Practices and established guidelines for responsible scholarly communication.

1. Manuscript Submission Policy

Authors submitting to JSRD must adhere to the following:

  • The work must be original, unpublished, and not under review elsewhere.
  • All co-authors must have approved the submission and agree with the order of authorship.
  • Submissions must be made exclusively through the journal’s online submission system.
  • Authors must confirm compliance with the journal’s ethical and formatting standards and submit all required declarations.

2. Advisory Board

JSRD is guided by a qualified Advisory Board, which includes:

  • A mix of national and international scholars, all with doctoral degrees.
  • Individuals selected for their research excellence, editorial experience, and disciplinary alignment.
  • Members who have formally agreed to serve and are eligible to be invited as reviewers when necessary.

3. Peer Review Process

JSRD utilizes a double-blind peer review system to ensure fairness, objectivity, and scholarly quality:

  • Submissions undergo an initial editorial screening to verify scope, quality, and compliance with submission guidelines.
  • Suitable manuscripts are sent to two independent reviewers with expertise in the relevant discipline.
  • A third reviewer may be consulted in the event of contradictory evaluations.
  • Reviewers are selected with strict attention to avoiding personal or institutional conflicts of interest.
  • The average review timeline is 8–12 weeks.

4. Reviewer Responsibilities

JSRD reviewers are expected to:

  • Provide impartial, well-reasoned, and constructive feedback.
  • Evaluate submissions based on their originality, methodology, relevance, and ethical standards.
  • Maintain confidentiality and refrain from using or sharing any part of the manuscript.
  • Disclose any real or perceived conflicts of interest before accepting a review assignment.

Scholars interested in becoming reviewers may apply through the journal portal with an updated CV.

5. Publication Ethics and Misconduct Policy

JSRD maintains strict ethical standards in accordance with COPE guidelines and best practices. The journal prohibits:

  • Plagiarism, including self-plagiarism
  • Data falsification or fabrication
  • Improper authorship, such as gift or ghost authorship
  • Simultaneous submission to other publications
  • Undisclosed conflicts of interest

Allegations of misconduct are taken seriously, investigated, and may result in rejection, retraction, or notification to institutions.

6. Authorship Guidelines

JSRD recognizes authorship based on significant intellectual contributions. Authorship must include those involved in:

  • Study conception, design, or analysis
  • Drafting or revising the manuscript
  • Final approval of the version to be published
  • Responsibility for the integrity of the entire work

The Corresponding Author handles submissions and communications. JSRD prefers no more than three authors per article unless justified.

7. Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy

Authors: AI tools may be used only to improve language and readability, under human oversight, and this use must be disclosed in the Declarations. AI must not be used to generate text, analysis, data, images, references, findings or conclusions. AI tools cannot be credited as authors. Authors are fully responsible for the content of their work.

Reviewers: reviewers must not upload manuscripts or any part of them to generative AI tools, as this breaches confidentiality, and must not use AI to write review reports.

Editors: editors must not upload submissions or reviews to generative AI tools. Automated tools (such as similarity checking) are used only to support, not replace, human editorial judgement.

8. Plagiarism Screening

All submissions are screened with similarity-detection software (Turnitin) before peer review. Similarity reports are assessed by the editors in context rather than on a percentage alone, taking into account the nature of any overlap (e.g. properly quoted and cited material, methods descriptions, references). Manuscripts with substantial unattributed overlap, or evidence of plagiarism or self-plagiarism, will be rejected and handled in accordance with COPE guidance. Authors confirm the originality of their work in the submission checklist and in the signed Author Agreement completed after acceptance.

9. Research Involving Human Participants

Research involving human participants must have been approved by an appropriate ethics committee or institutional review board, and the committee name and reference number must be stated. Informed consent must be obtained from all participants (and from parents or guardians for minors), and participants' privacy and anonymity must be protected. Where formal approval was not required, authors must explain why.

10. Data Sharing and Reproducibility

Authors are encouraged to make the data supporting their findings available in a public repository, or on reasonable request, and must include a Data Availability Statement. Methods should be described in enough detail to allow replication.

11. Confidentiality Policy

JSRD ensures full confidentiality of manuscripts:

  • Access is limited to editors, reviewers, and corresponding authors.
  • Author and reviewer identities remain anonymous during peer review.
  • Reviewers may not share or use manuscript content.

12. Data Privacy and Protection

The journal protects author and reviewer data by:

  • Securing all communication and file storage
  • Restricting access to authorized editorial members
  • Using submission systems with privacy safeguards

Personal data are processed in line with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and used only for the journal's stated purposes. Full details are given in the journal's Privacy Statement.

13. Conflict of Interest Disclosure

All parties must disclose potential conflicts, including:

  • Financial
  • Institutional
  • Personal or ideological

Non-disclosure may lead to rejection, retraction, or formal investigation.

14. Corrections, Retractions and Post-Publication Discussion

JSRD follows COPE's Retraction Guidelines. Honest errors that affect the article are corrected through a published correction. Articles with seriously unreliable findings or evidence of misconduct are retracted; the retracted article remains online, clearly marked, with a retraction notice explaining the reason. Where an investigation is ongoing, an expression of concern may be published. Readers may raise concerns about published articles by contacting the Editorial Office.

15. Complaints and Appeals

Authors may appeal an editorial decision by writing to the Editorial Office within 30 days, explaining clearly why they believe the decision was wrong. Appeals are considered by a Co-Editor-in-Chief, or by another editor not involved in the original decision, and the outcome is final. Complaints about the journal's processes, staff or published content can be sent to the Editorial Office and will be acknowledged within 7 working days and handled following COPE guidance.

16. Open Access, Licensing and Copyright

JSRD is a fully open-access journal. All articles are freely available to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search and link to immediately upon publication, without embargo, registration or charge, in accordance with the Budapest Open Access Initiative definition of open access.

  • Licence: all articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY 4.0), which permits anyone to share and adapt the work for any purpose, including commercial use, provided appropriate credit is given to the authors and the journal.
  • Copyright: authors retain copyright of their articles and grant the Journal of Social Research Dynamics a licence to publish them and to be identified as the original publisher. This does not restrict the rights granted to readers and authors under the CC BY 4.0 licence.
  • Fees: there are no submission fees and no article processing charges (APCs).

17. Indexing and Archiving

Articles are assigned DOIs registered with Crossref and indexed in Google Scholar, and ROAD (ISSN 2978-4352). All published content is preserved through the PKP Preservation Network (PKP PN), a community-based dark archive operated by the Public Knowledge Project, ensuring long-term preservation and continued access should the journal cease to publish. Content is also stored on the journal's own servers and backed up regularly.

18. Repository Policy

Authors may deposit the preprint, accepted manuscript, and published version of their articles in institutional or subject repositories, provided that the original publication in the Journal of Social Research Dynamics (JSRD) is properly cited.

19. Editorial Independence and Journal Management

Editorial decisions are made independently by the Co-Editors-in-Chief and the editorial team, free from interference by the publisher, owner or funders. The journal is owned and published by the International Association for Social Research Dynamics (IASRD), a UK-registered charity (No. 1217292).

20. Advertising and Direct Marketing

JSRD does not display advertising. Any communication promoting the journal is accurate and not misleading, and the journal does not send unsolicited bulk emails to researchers.

21. Editorial Appointments: Reviewers and Editors

The Journal of Social Research Dynamics (JSRD) appoints reviewers and editors on the basis of qualifications, subject expertise and demonstrated commitment to the journal, through a transparent process overseen by the Co-Editors-in-Chief. No one is appointed or listed without their written consent.

Reviewers

  • Eligibility: a completed postgraduate degree (MPhil/MS or above), current doctoral study, or substantial research or professional experience in a relevant field.
  • Selection: reviewers are invited by the editors or may volunteer by registering on the journal website. Volunteers are added to the reviewer pool only after the editors have verified their qualifications and expertise.
  • Public listing: reviewers are listed on the website only with their consent, and normally after completing at least one review for the journal.
  • Review: reviewers who repeatedly decline without response, miss deadlines, or do not follow the journal's ethical guidelines may be removed from the reviewer pool.

Editorial and Advisory Board members

  • Eligibility: a doctoral degree (PhD or equivalent), a relevant publication record and an institutional or professional affiliation. In line with the journal's policy, the Advisory Board aims for a balance of national and international members.
  • Term: members are appointed for a three-year term, renewable by mutual agreement.
  • Activity: members are expected to review manuscripts, advise on the journal's development and promote the journal. Membership is reviewed annually, and inactive members may be thanked and retired from the board.

Associate and Section Editors

  • Normally appointed from among board members or reviewers who have worked with the journal for at least six to twelve months and have completed several high-quality, timely reviews.
  • Appointed for a renewable three-year term by the Co-Editors-in-Chief.

Co-Editors-in-Chief

  • Each Co-Editor-in-Chief must hold a doctoral degree, have a recognised publication record and editorial experience, and normally have served the journal in an editorial role.
  • Appointed by the publisher, IASRD, following consultation with the editorial board, for a renewable term of three years. Changes to the editorial leadership are announced publicly on the journal website.
  • Editorial decisions remain independent of the publisher.

Conflicts of interest and records

  • Editors and reviewers must declare any conflict of interest and may not handle manuscripts in which they have a conflict. Manuscripts submitted by an editor are handled by another editor.
  • The journal keeps records of review activity, which are used when renewing or changing appointments.