Publishing Policies
In order to maintain high standards and consensus for all authors, ResearchersLinks adapts following policies:
Copyright and Licensing Policies
Concerns, Corrections and Retractions
We strictly follow “Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing” available at the DOAJ Website.
Following World Association of Medical Editors, our Editorial Policy is as follow:
Editorship: Editors (chief editor, associate editor or member of the editorial board) are expert in the field and play central roles in the peer-review process. Editors are selected based on their excellent scientific qualification, and reputation in the field. They are expected to strictly follow guidelines to not only maintain quality of publications but also to ensure best possible publication ethics.
Confidentiality: Editors shall only access the submitted manuscripts for evaluation of quality and peer-review process. They shall not disclose any contents (full or partial) in any media (electronic or print) before the publication of the material or without prior written consent of the authors. Any idea or concept generated through the submitted manuscript shall not be used for personal benefits or financial gain.
Assessment of Manuscripts: Editors shall evaluate contents purely based on the scientific quality and advancement in the existing understanding. Decisions shall not be based on race, gender, geographical origin, religion, and ethnicity and on any other personal or commercial interests.
Influence: Any packaging or combined offering of the publisher does not affect the independence of editorial decision or influence the editorial vision for the journal. Additionally, editorial decisions are free of commercial and organizational influences. All authors and editors operate without conflict of interest and all potential conflicts are disclosed (please also see Conflict of Interest Policy).
Flexibility and Cooperation: Editors are required to suggest and support the ethical standards, be willing to consider retractions, rectifications, and erratum and cooperate with authors to improve the quality of publications.
Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest: Editors shall not consider any submitted manuscript for the review process himself/herself where there is conflict of interests. In such situations, an alternative associate editor or member of the editorial board shall be considered.
Mutual Entity: In order to operate a journal, Editorial board actively seeks input from editorial board members, internal editorial staff, and readers. We ensure that contents are judged the most transparent ways possible and a fair play for stakeholders of the journal including authors, editors, publishers and reviewers.
Accountabilities: In case publisher suspect any form of misconduct, malpractice or unethical act, the matter shall be investigated promptly in agreement with authors and would be solved with diligence.
Reviewership: reviewers are essential part of the peer-review process and are important benchmarks for quality publications. Although sometimes tedious and time consuming, reviewing a manuscript is also a privilege.
Type of Peer Review: We generally follow single blind reviewing except for the journals where we employ double-blinded approach. In these cases, it is clearly mentioned in the Author’s guidelines.
Selection of Reviewers: reviewers are selected based on their best-matched expertise to the contents being reviewed. Occasionally, author’s recommendations are considered, however, rarely decisions are based solely on these recommendations.
Pre-acceptance Obligations: Reviewers are expected to only accept to review the manuscript when the scope of the research/study falls within his/her areas of expertise and that they have sufficient time to submit the report timely.
Conflict of Interest and Willingness: Reviewers shall decline to review the manuscript if there is any conflict of interest, the study is beyond the ken of knowledge or they are unable to submit the evaluation in time. They shall notify the editors at their earliest convenience and can/shall suggestive alternative reviewers.
Confidentiality: The journal follow single-blinded review in which names of the reviewers are not disclosed to authors, however, reviewers are aware of authors and their affiliations. Reviewers shall only access the submitted manuscripts for evaluation of quality and peer-review process. They shall not disclose any contents (full or partial) in any media (electronic or print) before the publication of the material or without prior written consent of the authors. Any idea or concept generated through the submitted manuscript shall not be used for personal benefits or financial gain.
Objectivity: Reviewers are requested to comments on scientific contents, appropriateness of the study and value of the outcome. They are requested to not to assess the manuscripts based on race, gender, geographical origin, religion, and ethnicity and on any other personal or commercial interests.
Meeting Standards: Reviewers shall adhere to the criteria set by the journal in the online portal. Any comments on competing interests, duplication of publication, unethical practice or dubious act shall be conducted to the editor in the “confidential comments to the Editor” section in the online submission system.
Reviewer’s Reports: Reviewers are requested to evaluate manuscripts based upon:
Originally and novelty of the work
Sound methodology
Adherence to ethical guidelines
Results presentation
Collegiality between results and conclusions
Citation of appropriate previous work
Clarity and language standards
Duration of Review Process: The decision of the editor is based on the reviewer’s recommendation. Occasionally, contradictive reviewer's reports require additionally feedback and thus cause delay in editor’s decision.
Editorial Decision: Editor’s decision include comments from reviewers, editorial concerns, editor’s comments and instructions to submit revisions if applied. The interested reviewers are then sent the revised manuscripts to approve or reject the revision made by the author.
We follow the Conflict of Interest in Peer-Reviewed Medical Journals, which is prepared by WAME Editorial Policy and Publication Ethics Committees.
Articles would only be published at the ResearchersLinks platform displaying statements or supporting documents on:
• Any existing Authors’ conflicts of interest; and
• Funding Agencies (if any), which have supported the work. Authors are required to provide information on the names, titles and project cods if applicable. It is also requested to define the role of funding agencies whether those we involved in the design of study, have supported data analysis and interpretation, writing of the manuscript or has played any roles in the media of publication.
• Authors should also declare if they have access to the study data and if so, what is the nature and scope of this access.
In order to ensure full compliance and to disclose any existing conflict of interests, our Editorial Office or Editors may request authors to declare roles of sponsors and funding agencies by providing a statement for example “I had full access to all of the data in this study and I take complete responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.”
Authors are requested to observe high standards on publication ethics as set out by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and ICMJE recommendations for reporting about patients, animal use, human participation and laboratory animal experimentation. Find more information at: HUMAN AND ANIMAL RIGHTS
Human objects have a right to maintain privacy and no information to be written without prior informed consent. Photographs and pedigrees should be omitted unless it is essential for scientific purposes. However, the patient (or parent or guardian) should provide written informed consent prior to publication.
Details that help others to identify patients shall be omitted, however, the data shall not be altered, modified or falsified to attain anonymity. In cases, where anonymity is difficult to achieve, serious and possible efforts are considered sufficient for example masking the eye areas in photographs is inadequate protection of anonymity.
In case human objects are used in the presented research, authors are required to include a statement from the objects/guardian under the caption of ‘Consent’. Informed consent also include that patient has seen the manuscript that is being presented for publication.
We demand full research compliance within our pre-defined ethical framework. In case of deviation from this framework (either before publication, during processing or post-publication), the editorial team will take necessary actions to stop this happening according to our Misconduct Policy and Plagiarism Policy.
Text plagiarism is defined as the copying of text, data and other creative work (e.g. tables, figures and graphs) and submission as original research without proper or prior acknowledgement to the original research. Being member of iThenticate/Cross-Check and Turintin, we assess the text plagiarism upon submission of every document. Any document containing text identity more than 15% (as defined by several scholarly associations), the manuscript is returned to authors along with plagiarism report. Authors are given opportunity to revise the document and resubmit the manuscript.
Stealing of ideas and use of figures, tables and arte work is considered misconduct. The Editorial Office strictly monitor any obvious fraudulent data prior to the review process and if plagiarism is detected at this stage or later, the manuscript will be rejected and will not be reconsidered in any journal published independently or in association with ResearchersLinks, UK. Depending upon the severity of misconduct, the publisher may contact the author(s)’ institution or refereed ethics committee. On rare occasions, if the Editor has serious concerns about the ethics of a study, the manuscript may be rejected on ethical grounds, even if approval from an ethics committee has been obtained. If the authors want to retract the article, the editorial office should be informed on their decision. By all means, articles are accepted not on business or political gain but on the intellectual and ethical standards.
This privacy policy outlines approached we, ResearchersLinks, UK, may collect and use your personal data acquired through submission of manuscript via Manuscript Handler.
Potential information to be collected
We collect information that you have provided during registration and submission of the manuscript as author, editorial board members, associate editors, and reviewers. During this process, several level information such as your name, password, address, email address, phone number, and areas of expertise are collated.
We may also record your information upon your contact for assistance and help.
Occasionally, we collect information related to user’s website and devices including IP address, geographical location, device information, browser type, and number of page views through third-party analytics service.
Usage of the Information
We use this information for publication of articles in our journals, launch of new journals or special issues that we believe may interest you, or for customer service and support. We may occasionally use this information to invite you in surveys to improve our services. All invited participants are given opportunities to unsubscribe and their decisions are fully respected.
We treat all these information strictly private and are not passed to any third party. While we are based in European Economic Area (EEA), we involve third parties to provide web-hosting, cloud back up, IT services and journal production services. In events of need to use your information outside the EEA, we will make every effort to protect the information through cross-border transfer solutions such as the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses.
Cookies Policy
To ensure best services to unique users, we employ cookies, which are small text files that store your information on the device you use. These cookies help user to smoothly browse information and facilitate their research on intended websites. If you are concerned about the information to be collected through our cookies, you may like to change the settings on your browser or device to reject cookies.
Rights to Change Information
You hold rights to change information through updating the information in the Manuscript Handler, which is the main source for information collection for all users. You are also entitled to request to not to use your personal information for marketing purposes. However, please note that we have to retain some of your personal information such as email addresses to communicate manuscript processing and decisions.
Should you have any concerns on this policy or interested to know more about how your information is stored or used, please contact us by email at [email protected] and write “Privacy Policy” in the subject line.
COPYRIGHT AND LICENSING POLICIES
Authors retain copyright of all scholarly articles published in ResearchersLinks, Ltd and these articles are licensed under an open access Creative Commons CC BY license. This mean that anyone can download and read the paper without paying the fee. Additionally, the article may be reused and quoted provided that the original published version is properly cited. These conditions allow for maximum use and exposure of the work, while ensuring that the authors receive proper and full credit for their original work.
Reproducing Published Material
Before reproducing any published contents (including but not limited to figures, schemes, tables, or text extracts), authors must obtain appropriate permissions to re-use the contents. This permission must be sought from copyright holder which could be either publisher or inventor/authors (please consult imprints of the individual publications to identify the copyright holder).
Specifically, prior permission is required even for your previously published work for which you do not hold copyright. Also, reuse of contents and significant extracts from other’s works or a series of works will require permission. When you use tables, figures, charts, schemes or any other contents, a prior permission is essentially required. You also need permission for any monograms and photographs for which you do not hold copyright.
Prior permission is not required for your own pre-published tables which you have reconstructed and restructured to tailer make for new publication. However, you are still required to refer it as “Table adapted from..” (cite the source of the data). As part of fair use, short quotes do not require permission. However, paraphrasing may be required for longer contents. Contents (figures, charts, schemes) which have been completely and substantially redrawn and constructed making them impossible to identify similar or identical do not require permission.
Seeking Permission
It is author’s responsibility to obtain permission from copyright holders (publisher or individual) and the permission must be sought in advance. ResearcherLinks is unable to publish material for which permission is not granted. All such material must accompany with a statement e.g., "Reproduced with permission from [author], [book/journal title]; published by [publisher], [year].' at the end of the reproduced content.
All research and scholarly publications published by the ResearchersLinks are Open Access and are distributed through a Creative Commons (CC BY) License. 
This means:
• ResearchersLinks permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
• Unrestricted access to research and scholarly publications on worldwide web.
• Timely and fast access to research and scholarly publications without any embargo time and delays.
• Authors retain all copyright of their original research.
• Authors' affiliated institutes or research-funding agencies financially support Article Processing Charges (APC) for accepted articles, which are placed at competitive levels by ResearchersLinks independently or in agreement with sponsoring institutions or societies.
Additional Open Access Resources and Information
ResearchersLinks is a RoMEO green publisher — RoMEO is a database of Publishers' copyright and self-archiving policies hosted by the University of Nottingham.
Following resources have been collated for those who are new to this concept or requiring more information on this model:
Wikipedia article on 'Open Access'
Peter Suber's 'Open Access Overview'
Information Platform Open Access [in English, in German ]
SHERPA's 'Authors and Open Access'
Defining Open Access
The concept of Open Access is explained in this short video on YouTube.
Advantages of Open Access for Authors
The Open Access model of publication offers several advantages to both authors and readers and few of these are briefly outlined here:
Accessibility and Reflectiveness: Due to unrestricted access to contents under open access umbrella, the research outcome reaches to audience without any barriers and covers broader audiences. Everyone with access to internet can freely obtain contents immediate to their release, further facilitate their inclusion in search engines and obtaining attentions of readers that are true beneficiaries of these national and international investments.
Enhanced Achievability and Impact: One of the primary objectives of research investments is to advance our understanding on matters that safeguard humanity. Owing to public availability, freely available contents are by nature achieve high impact.
Financially Competitive: Since the cost of publication is being paid “once-for-ever”, the net investment on publication of an article under open access is fractional to the subscription charges that require continual renewals. Additionally, open access journals provides publication of unlimited experimental procedures and full results, access to these contents further encompass barriers.
Matter of Public Right: Subscription-based article access can only be made by institutions or now by individual subscription or pay as you go. While research funded by public funds, subscription implies an additional layer of financial burden to general public in gaining benefits of research that matters the most to them.
Timely Information: Open access articles, as that of all journals operated by ResearchersLinks, are made available online immediately after their acceptance. The research findings reaches to audiences rapidly compared to traditional and printed journals.
Our financial policy is different for each of two below mentioned categories:
1. ResearchersLinks Journals (journals launched and run by ResearchersLinks)
ResearchersLinks Journals provides a unique and free forum for both authors and readers to disseminate their information worldwide and to facilitate research publications from developing countries or from authors who otherwise have no funds to support article processing charges. This free service is for all authors without applying specifically. Moreover, it will remain this way indefinitely for the betterment of science. Having this policy in place, ResearchersLinks is managing and will manage running expenses using the following four avenues:
(i) We have recently developed an “online manuscript submission system” called “Manuscript Handler”. Authors of ResearchersLinks journals will be using a beta version of Manuscript Handler for their manuscript submission, as will reviewers to review the manuscripts and editors to manage their journals. Manuscript Handler is being commercialised and the revenue will be used to meet expenses for all ResearchersLinks journals.
(ii) A second section of the ResearchersLinks is to publish quality and high-demand books to meet some of our expenses for the journal.
(iii) Major expenses are required to format and edit manuscripts which are compatible to all Abstracting and Indexing services as well as IT support and databases maintenance. Most of these services will be provided by third parties in developing countries, which will reduce our running expenses to significantly lower numbers than normally expected.
2. Associated Journals (Journals that have joined the ResearchersLinks Publishing Platform)
We have developed a great wealth of professional tools including “Content Management System” and “Online Manuscript Handling System (Manuscript Handler)”. These services will be provided to existing and established journals to professionally promote dissemination and management of their contents. All these “Associated Journals” will be charged normal Article Processing Charges (APC), independently determined by the editorial board or their institutions/societies without any involvement of ResearchersLinks. These Associated Journals will be clearly differentiated from our ResearchersLinks Journals either by showing their affiliations on the journal’s page or by listing them separately. The amount of APC will be clearly mentioned on the home page of the journal.
ResearchersLinks ethical and publication policies apply to both ResearchersLinks Journals and Associated Journals.
NB: Authors are kindly requested to verify a category (ResearchersLinks Journals or Associated Journals) before submitting their work for consideration.
For any further clarifications please contact us at [email protected] writing APC or a specific question in the subject line.
CONCERNS, CORRECTIONS AND RETRACTIONS
We ensure clarity in our published and in process contents to better serve the authors, readers, librarians and other academic stakeholders. Therefore, we make serious and genuine efforts to record as accurate information as possible. However, occasionally contradictive information may become available which could be either intentional, unintentional or due to lack of information. In these situations, we apply Committee on Publication Ethics guidelines on corrections, retractions and expressions of concern.
Corrections
In order to avoid any potential mistakes, all formatted articles are proofread by all authors and editors. This ensures correct information to be published, however, in unlikely events errors may occur. In case an error is identified in previously published articles, a correction in the form of a corrigendum or erratum is published in the upcoming issue. Since articles are read and cited as these become available online, we employ live updates through CrossMark for any corrections/updates are made on individual article bases.
To ensure that Corrigenda and Errata reached to maximum audience, we assign page numbers and cross-link these corrections to the associated titles online. In case corrections are insufficient to address an error, Editorial Office and Editor of the journal discuss and advice either retraction or significant errata changes on a case-by-case basis. Authors are to be advised that inadequacies due to novel scientific research advances don’t require correction or withdrawal.
Expressions of Concern
In the event when substantial concerns develop, the Editorial Office and Editor will ensure that matter is adequately addressed with the authors' sponsoring institution. The Editorial Office will take main responsibility to investigate the research integrity and misconducts and will keep Editors informed on the progress. Decisions are made in agreement between Editorial Office, Editors and authors' sponsoring institution. In likely events, Editor may propose publication of an expression of concern over the fraudulent data or integrity of the work.
Article withdrawal
Authors hold rights to withdraw their manuscripts at any stage before publication; however, post-acceptance authors are required to provide justification of retractions. Based on the justifications, the Editor will decide the final withdrawal or decline the request of withdrawal. In events when authors make multiple submission, bogus claims of authorship, plagiarism, fraudulent use of data or the like, Editor gives an opportunity to authors to provide convincing evidences before a final decision is committed.
We publish “Online First Articles” which are not paginated or DOI assigned but accepted articles. These manuscripts will be removed from “Online First Articles” once will be given pages and published in an issue along with all citation information (volume, issue, page numbers) under Current Issue before archiving them in past issues. The overall contents would remain the same and there may be differences in citation information between Online First Articles and the final published articles. At this stage, if errors are identified or the articles violate our journal publishing ethics guidelines (such as multiple submission, bogus claims of authorship, plagiarism, fraudulent use of data or the like), articles may be “Withdrawn”. However, once articles are published these cant be withdrawn unless full justifications for the withdrawn are provided to the associated stakeholder.
Article Retraction
In cases where substantial infringements of publication ethics are observed including multiple submission, fake claims of authorship, plagiarism, fraudulent use of data etc, a retraction is advised. In order to practice fair and transparent retraction process, standards have been developed by a number of library and scholarly bodies. We adapt these principals for article retraction:
- A retraction note titled “Retraction: [article title]” signed by the authors and/or the editor is published in the paginated part of a subsequent issue of the journal and listed in the contents list.
- In the electronic version, a link is made to the original article.
- The online article is preceded by a screen containing the retraction note. It is to this screen that the link resolves; the reader can then proceed to the article itself.
- The original article is retained unchanged save for a watermark on the .pdf indicating on each page that it is “retracted.”
- The HTML version of the document is removed.
Article Removal: legal limitations
There are occasion, though rare, when a published research is clearly defamatory, breaching legal rights, is a subject of court order or it will pose serious health risks. In these situations, except the Title and Authors names, all associated data and documents are removed. Similar to retractions, article removal notes are displayed to inform readers.
Article replacement
Under identical situations of Article Removal, authors may occasionally wish to replace the flawed article with corrected information. In these circumstances, the procedures for retraction will be followed with the difference that the database retraction notice will publish a link to the corrected re-published article and a history of the document.
SELF-ARCHIVING AND LINKING POLICIES
Self-Archiving Rights: All authors hold full copyright and self-archiving rights. Our self-archiving policies are detailed in the RoMEO (ResearchersLinks is a green publisher at RoMEO, which is a database of publishers' copyright and self-archiving policies). Authors are required to download the original paper and be mindful on the updates through ResearchersLinks’ CrossMark membership. Additionally, authors are allowed to archive their articles in open access repositories as “post-prints”.
Pre-print and Pre-published Work: We decline the publication of material that has been online on pre-print or the work has been previously published online, offline or on any other electronic or print media.
Conference/Meeting Presented Research Work: Authors are allowed to submit their research work that has been presented in a seminar, meeting or conference. However, they are required to acknowledge the presentation at first place in the manuscript.
Acknowledgments: Authors are required to cite and acknowledge original reference in other media of communication such as audio files, interview etc.
Open Access: We offer Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial License to researchers and scholar who uses the content of the published papers. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Linking and Referencing: Authors are allowed to link published papers and share the published papers online or offline in the final format printed on the journal website.
Indexing and Storing: Authors are allowed to index and store the published work in any private, public, professional and institutional repositories including Research Gates, University Repositories, etc.
During manuscript submission processes, authors are given opportunities to view all article processing charges. Any waiver shall be requested at the time of submission and shall be made directly to associated journal Editor. Once an article has been accepted for publication, any Article Processing Charges on the articles become due. The submitting author assumes responsibility for the Article Processing Charges, and ResearcherLinks or finance department of the journal will not issue refunds of any kind.)
We offer different advertisement options to different stakeholders to be published in the hard copies of the journals, web sites and related e-mail services (e-mail alerts) according to the following principles:
• Advertising must be separate from content. Content may not be altered, added, or deleted to accommodate advertising. Advertisers have no input regarding any of our editorial decisions or advertising policies. The advertising sales representatives have neither control over, nor prior knowledge of, specific editorial content before it is published.
• We reserve the right to decline or cancel any advertisement at any time.
• Third-party advertisements may not use our name, logo, or title on their web pages or email alerts unless previously agreed.
• Advertised products must be compliant with the regulations in the country where the advertisement will be seen. Advertisements for pharmaceutical products (including new drug applications) that are subject to U.S. Food and Drug Administration oversight must comply with FDA regulations regarding advertising and promotion.
• Users will be able to distinguish advertising and editorial content clearly on the web site and in e-mail alerts. Commercial advertising does not appear on the same screen as editorial content on the web site or in full-content e-mails.
• Advertisers have no control or influence over the results of searches a user may conduct on web pages.
Contact us at [email protected] for advertisement kit, which contains terms and conditions, pricing and affordable packages.
General
Described below “Terms of Use” as well as our “Privacy Policy” outline the basis on which you may browse and use our website available at www.researcherslinks.com and its subdomains and any services offered through it, including the Manuscript Handler. These terms define the agreement between you (user) and us (company).
Ownership
This site is owned and operated by ResearchersLinks, a company registered in England and Wales Company Registration No: 08492932 and registered address at ResearchersLinks Ltd, 111 Avondale, Ash Vale, Surrey GU12 5NF United Kingdom. All logo, cover pages, and designs are trademark of ResearchersLinks. Any connection with sale, distribution and advertising of any goods and services are prohibited unless previously agreed.
Usage
You can access this website without registering with us, however, to submit and track the processing progress you are required to register at Manuscript Hander.
Warranties and Liability
These contents are made available through ResearchersLinks in kind co-operation with Manuscript Handler via ZGTechnologies. We are not responsible for or endorse the accuracy or reliability of any data or conclusions reported in such content. All contents are intended for guidance and reference purposes only. We are unable to guarantee that our sites will always be live, functional, uninterrupted, up to date, or otherwise free from errors, omissions, bugs, or viruses. We own right to suspend, withdraw, discontinue, or change all or any part of the website without prior notice. We will not be liable to you if for any reason our site is unavailable at any time or for any period. You are responsible for regularly creating backup copies of your work.
User-Submitted Content
By submitting contents to ResearchersLinks/Manuscript Handler, authors agree to the following provisions, which may be updated time-to-time.
Submitters are fully responsible for the submitted content and they agree to not to post or submit any content that violates or encourages the violation of any applicable local, state, national or international law, rule, or regulation, or is otherwise inappropriate. We reserve the right to reject, edit, remove or otherwise alter any content submitted for any reason. Once your submission is published, you will not have the right to have it removed or edited.
Login Security
You are restricted in sharing login credential for the Manuscript Handler. Violation may subject to account blockage.
International Use
Users are responsible for compliance with all local applicable laws, rules and regulations regarding online conduct and data usage of the country you reside in or access from.
Privacy
You confirm that you have read and accept our Privacy Policy.
Third-Party Links and Resources
Our website may contain links that direct users to third parties sites and resources. We make every effort to provide necessary information to our users, these information make no warranties and we assume no responsibility for accuracy, legalities and legitimation of these third party services and resources. We also assume no liability to damage or loss, which may arise through these referred sites and resources. Please consult terms of use and privacy policies of these linked sites before accessing contents and we carry no liability to provide such information.
Linking to ResearchersLinks
You are encouraged to link our websites to sources, which are fair, legal and concerned to scholarly publications. However, you must not suggest any form of association, approval, or endorsement on our part where none exists and you must not establish a link to any site that is not owned by you. Our site shall not be framed, famed and we hold full rights to withdraw linking permission without notice.
Modifications of Terms of Use
We reserve the rights to modify these Terms of Use at any time. The continued use of our services after any such posting shall constitute acceptance of the Terms of Use as modified.
Last updated on 8 March 2022
