The PUSHPA PUBLISHING HOUSE has set certain ethical standards to ensure the publication of high-quality original scientific research having public trust. The Advances and Applications in Discrete Mathematics remains constrained by requirements such as the copyright, infringement and plagiarism following the norms prescribed by the COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) to support publication ethics. The Advances and Applications in Discrete Mathematics shall be responsible for keeping all correspondences secret and under no circumstance shall disclose anything that goes against the interest of authors, referees and editors of the journal. 

Parties including the authors, reviewers and Editors in publication of the Advances and Applications in Discrete Mathematics are supposed to carefully follow the publication ethics described below to check and discourage publication malpractices of any kind.

Editors are responsible for deciding the publication or otherwise of a submitted paper. They may depend on the opinion of referees in ensuring the originality and correctness of intellectual content in the manuscript. They may follow our ‘Guidelines’ for Editors. The Editor may consult with other members in the editorial board of the journal concerned at necessity to arrive at the decision fast. Editors must maintain the confidentiality of the manuscripts until their publication. Editors should avoid considering manuscripts wherein they have conflict of interest of any nature. Editorial office at Prayagraj should hold the responsibility of keeping the records of manuscripts strictly confidential.

Guidance for Editors: research, audit and service evaluations

Editing peer reviews

Peer review manipulation suspected after publication

Reviewers are expected to assist Editors to arrive at the decision of publication of a submitted article. The role of reviewers is of great importance as both the authors and the Editors expect a lot from them. A review report containing constructive comments related to the presentation and improvement of intellectual content in the paper can substantially enrich the manuscript. Reviewers are supposed to maintain the confidentiality of the manuscript papers under review. No reviewer is expected to disclose the article or any of its part to anyone except when necessary to the Editor concerned or the Editorial office at Prayagraj. Reviewers should refrain from considering manuscripts wherein they have conflict of interest of any nature. Information or ideas received through peer review must not be used for personal or anyone’s advantage.

Ethical guidelines for peer reviewers

Editing peer reviews

Peer review manipulation suspected after publication

Authors should submit only original articles for consideration of possible publication in the Advances and Applications in Discrete Mathematics. They should be sure that the manuscript or any of its part is neither published in a journal nor is under consideration for publication in any other journal. The abstract should describe in brief the substance of the paper. Accurate account of work done along with the motivation and the significance of the findings be highlighted. Available material used in the paper should be properly referred to with appropriate citations within the manuscript. Literature and the publications that influenced the work must be cited and referred. However, irrelevant references to increase the list be avoided.  Only those who have significant contribution providing concepts, formulation of the problem(s), execution, solution and interpretation be among the authors and others who have helped during discussion and preparation of the draft manuscript be acknowledged. Funding agency, if any, which supported the research be duly acknowledged. Before submitting an article, authors must be sure that the final outcome is not just an outcome from several published articles leading to a redundant work. Also, they should not indulge into manipulating images and data. Authors must ensure that the submitted work is essentially original. The submitted paper should not contain similar work already available in literature or in a recent publication. The final version of the paper should be checked by all the co-authors and submission should be made only when they unanimously agree and do not have conflict of interest. The corresponding author will be responsible for all ethical requirements of the submission. Furthermore, in the event an author discovers a significant inaccuracy or error(s) in the paper, the Editors and the publisher be approached at the earliest which may result into publication of a ‘Corrigendum’ or even the retraction/withdrawal of the paper. 

Anything against above will fall within the domain of unethical behaviour which cannot be accepted.

The Advances and Applications in Discrete Mathematics immediately rejects papers leading to plagiarism or self-plagiarism. Every article is subject to crosscheck against plagiarism using iThenticate: Plagiarism Detection Software and peer-review. The Advances and Applications in Discrete Mathematics follows strict discipline for accepting manuscripts below 30% overlap excluding references to detect submissions that overlap with published and submitted manuscripts. Plagiarism includes copying text, ideas, images, or data from another source, even from own publications, without giving credit to the original source. 

• If plagiarism is detected during the peer review process, the manuscript is rejected. If plagiarism is detected after publication, an investigation is made and an appropriate action is initiated. If irregular image manipulation is identified and confirmed during the peer review process, the manuscript may be rejected. If irregular image manipulation is identified and confirmed after publication, the paper may be corrected/retracted.

COPE's guidelines for Plagiarism in a submitted manuscript

Manuscripts submitted to publications must not be submitted elsewhere while under consideration and must be withdrawn before being submitted elsewhere. Authors whose articles are found to have been simultaneously submitted elsewhere may incur blacklisted for a period of at least two years.

COPE's guidelines for Duplicate submission

COPE's guidelines - Whose responsibility is duplicate submission?

Author(s) whose submitted manuscripts are found to include citations only for the purpose to increase the number of citations of a given author’s work, or to articles published in a particular journal, may incur sanctions. Editors and reviewers must not ask authors to include references merely to increase citations to their own or an associate’s work, to the journal, or to another journal they are associated with.

• In accordance with COPE guidelines, we expect that “original wording taken directly from publications by other researchers should appear in quotation marks with the appropriate citations”. This condition also applies to author’s own work.

COPE's guidelines - Citation manipulation

A conflict of interest exists when judgement regarding the research is influenced by factors such as financial gain or personal relationships. All authors are required to disclose financial, affiliations, property ideology, academic, personal or other such associations that may influence or be perceived to influence their work. If conflicts of interest are found after publication, this may be embarrassing for the authors, the Editors and the journal and it ay warrant publication of a corrigendum.

• Authors must declare all potential interests in a ‘Conflicts of Interest’, which should explain why the interest may be a conflict. Declared conflicts of interest will be considered by the Editor and reviewers and may be included in the article.

COPE's guidelines - Undisclosed conflict of interest in a submitted manuscript

Errors by the authors may be corrected by a corrigendum and errors by the publisher by an erratum. All authors will be asked to agree to the content of the notice.

A submitted article may be withdrawn following the deep assessment and analysis of the situations, on a case by case basis. The withdrawal will solely depend on the Editor’s discretion. The decision of the Editor regarding the withdrawal of a paper will be final.

Infringements of professional ethical codes, such as multiple submissions, same claims of authorship, plagiarism, fraudulent use of data and similar claims will lead to the retraction of an article. 

COPE's Retraction guidelines

Authors may appeal if they feel that the decision to reject was based on either a major misunderstanding over a technical aspect of the manuscript, or a failure in understanding the scientific advancement shown in the manuscript. Appeal requesting a second opinion without sufficient justification will not be entertained. To lodge an appeal, the journal’s administration may be contacted by email, quoting manuscript’s reference number. Appeal can only be made by the submitting author.

If Advances and Applications in Discrete Mathematics becomes aware of breaches of publication ethics policies, whether or not the breach occurred in a journal published by Pushpa Publishing House, the following sanctions may be applied across our publications:

• A submitted manuscript or published article that is found to have fabricated or falsified results, including the data fabrication and image manipulation will be rejected/retracted and the authors may be debarred for a period of at least two years. Such authors will not be considered as a reviewer/Editor of any of our journals.