Standard Operating Procedures

  1. PURPOSE
    • To define the system of activities to publish bi-annual Pakistan Journal of American Studies.
  2. SCOPE
    • This procedure is applicable to the Publication Division of the University to serve the above purpose.
  3. OPERATING PROCEDURE
    1. Authors
      • Author(s) submit the research paper(s) through the online system of the journal or email to the Associate Editor / Publication Coordinator. Before submission of paper, the author(s) require(s) to follow the approved instructions for authors and must sign a declaration that the material presented is original, not submitted or under consideration elsewhere, and not plagiarized.
    2. HEC
      • It is the responsibility of each author, including the co-authors, to ensure that the paper submitted for publication should attain all ethical standards as outlined by HEC available online at HEC Website.
    3. Publication
      • The Publication coordinator will make necessary arrangements to scan it for finding the authenticity of the research paper through HEC approved software for plagiarism. The outcome of this step will be a scanning report containing a similarity index available to the Publication Coordinator and Associate Editor.
    4. Plagiarized
      • As per the scanning report, if the similarity index of the plagiarized text of the research paper is found beyond the acceptable limits (Acceptable Similarity Index for Turnitin Software is less than or equal to 15% subject to no link contains similarity greater than 5%), the Publication Coordinator will return the same to the corresponding author for modification/refinement. It should be noted that the database of the software as well as internet material updates from time to time, therefore the similarity index may fluctuate with the number of times the document is scanned.
    5. Re-Submission
      • After re-submission, the same process will be followed as per the above steps till the paper is found free of plagiarism. (i.e. within the permissible range of similarity index)
    6. Chief Editor/Editor
      • Chief Editor / Editor will send the authentic paper to the two to three experts for their technical comments and evaluation. This Journal follows Blind Peer Review Process.
    7. Outcome
      • The outcome of this round of review may be “Accept”, “Minor Revision”, “Major Revision” or “Rejection”. Two positive reviews are required to finally accept the paper. However, the final decision regarding the manuscript acceptance or rejection lies with the Chief Editor/Editor of the Journal. The Editor will notify the author(s) of the outcome of the peer-review process through e-mail. The Editor will also notify the author(s) of the date for the submission of a revised copy of a manuscript.
    8. Revised
      • The revised copy submitted by the author(s) is again sent to the same experts for final comments.
    9. Reviewer Comments
      • In the light of final review comments, the Editor makes a final decision of “accept” or “decline. This final decision will depend on how well the reviewer’s comments were addressed. The manuscript is returned to the author for further revisions if the Editor thinks that the author(s) did not provide enough revisions to satisfy the Editor/reviewers.
    10. Publication
      • Publication Coordinator/ Associate Editor issues Acceptance or rejection letter.
  • This procedure is applicable to the Publication Division of the University to serve the above purpose.