Policies

Aims & Scope

The Dyal Singh Journal of Humanities and Social Science (DSJHSS) is an online, open-access, peer-reviewed, and refereed journal in English and Urdu, published by Government Dyal Singh Graduate College, Lahore, Pakistan. This is a multidisciplinary international journal (In English and Urdu) that is published biannually in the months of June and December. The journal provides a forum for national and international researchers and scholars to publish their original research papers in the fields of humanities and social sciences. It aims to advance disciplinary and inter-disciplinary approaches in its publications from a variety of literature, language, social sciences, arts, and humanities perspectives. The Journal does not charge any Article Processing Fee. The journal is financially managed by Government Dyal Singh Graduate College Lahore through its limited resources. All work related to the journal and the staff (Chief editor, Editor, Editorial team, Technical support, Copywriters etc.) work voluntarily till date. Once we have some financial sources (like HEC or Other Research Funding Agencies), we would like to pay our Reviewers and Managing Staff for their input and efforts.

The areas of interest as per the scope of the journal includes:

• English Literature
• Linguistics (Theoretical and Applied)
• Education
• Media Studies
• Regional Literature (Urdu, Punjabi)
• Sociopolitical and Cultural Studies of Pakistan
• Psychology
• History
• International Relations

Our Scope

The scope of the Dyal Singh Journal of Humanities and Social Science (DSJHSS) focuses on promotion of theoretical and empirical research in arts, humanities, and social sciences through publication. DSJHSS being a biannual research journal encourages and accepts submission of manuscripts that are original, authentic, objective, and analytical in nature in the areas of literature (national and international both), language (local languages are included), linguistics, arts, history, economics, education, media, sociology, psychology, Islamiyat, anthropology, and other related disciplines.

DSJHSS serves as an excellent platform for world academics and researchers to seek and maintain collaborations with one another and encourages scholarly discourses; reflecting on relevant critical theories and latest practices aiming at further research engagement fruitful for our country. The journal also takes it as its academic and ethical mandate to facilitate every researcher across the globe to publish and project their research and disseminate any innovative developments in their respective fields of interest.

OUR MISSION

The mission of Dyal Singh Journal of Humanities and Social Science research journal is to propagate the quality of research through collaboration and innovation of new knowledge that shall be useful for the national and international academia.

Open Access Policy:

Dyal Singh Journal of Humanities and Social Science is a free to read, free to publish, institutionally supported journal.

This journal believes in open access to all its content to support public through availability of research immediately after its publication under the principle of greater global exchange of knowledge.

The journal defines open access according to the definition provided by Open Access Australasia:

Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which research outputs are distributed online, free of cost or other access barriers.  Through licensing via an open license (usually a Creative Commons License), freely available outputs can also be legally shared and reused. Hence, open access is more than just free access.

Additionally, the Journal recognizes the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) principles and recommendations for open access (updated in March 2022) which note that “…OA is not an end in itself, but a means to other ends, above all, to the equity, quality, usability, and sustainability of research.”

The journal applies the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license to all submissions published. This license enables open access – specifically, free immediate access to original works of all types. Under this license, authors agree to make articles legally available for reuse, without permission or fees, for virtually any purpose. Anyone may copy, distribute or reuse these articles, as long as the author and original source are properly cited.

Copyright Notice

To protect the interests and legal rights of both the journal and authors, the following statement regarding manuscript copyright will be applicable:

The author (s) should declare that

• The submitted manuscript is not published elsewhere, and they have not yet submitted it anywhere else.
• The manuscript they are submitting is their own original work; it does not infringe any rights or disclose any secrets, and no disputes of intellectual property shall arise in the ranking of the names of authors. It also includes no material taken from other copyrighted sources. Wherever such materials have been included, they must clearly identify them, either with a quotation or with a proper citation.
• All published works are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
• Under the Creative Commons end user license, readers can reuse portions or extracts from the published article in their works by including attribution to the original work and its author.

Revenue Source

The journal is being published by its own meagre resources and all the editorial staff is working on voluntary basis. There is no revenue generated so far from the publication of journal. In case of future revenue, the college research committee will decide about the usage of revenue. 

Publication Policy

Dyal Singh Journal of Humanities and Social Science (DSJHSS) adheres to the following publication policy:

• We publish twice a year without charging any processing fee, and observing a double-blind peer review process with both national and international evaluation of the accepted manuscripts, after initial desk review by the editorial team.

• We aim to aspire for the "Y" category recently, and to elevate it to the "X" category, shortly.

• We observe a strict work calendar: two (02) weeks for Anti-Plagiarism through Turnitin.com, two (02) weeks for initial desk review and evaluation by respective editorial committee member, four to six (04-06) for double-blind peer review by national and international reviewer respectively including revision process where necessary, one (02) week for final desk editing and formatting by the journal publication team, one (01) week for sending and receiving author disclaimer and final manuscript details check and two (02) weeks for publication of the journal at the authentic registered press outlet.

• We only publish papers falling within the journal’s scope with a zero-tolerance policy for any plagiarized material.

• We encourage original, authentic, and innovative research work under a competent editorial board comprising reputed national and international scholars.
• We are guided and supported by efficient and eminent scholars in and outside the country as members of its advisory board.
• We believe in practicing fair play and impartiality by disregarding any discriminating factors, like gender, race, ethnicity, religious belief, cultural sentiments, political affiliation, seniority, and/or institutional association of the author(s) during the article selection process.
• We implement complete confidentiality to protect the article, details of author(s), and reviewers, and keep the entire process under strict cover.
• We have explicitly stated author(s), reviewer(s), and publication requirements in an openly accessible form.
• We have a zero-tolerance approach to issues pertaining to misconduct. In such cases, the editor acts promptly as per the policy of the journal and publishes a corrigendum, removes, or retracts the article.
• We have declared a clear policy on “competing interest” for the submission of a research paper submitted by any member of editorial or advisory Board in the interest of good practice, to maintain an unbiased and transparent evaluation.
• We do not use any unpublished information/data from the submitted research paper without the permission of the author(s).
• We execute a policy of decision making for acceptance or rejection of a submission purely on merit. In case of rejection, we are only motivated by the following reason(s).

• Failure to fit in the scope of the journal.
• Insufficient depth of content.
• Major errors related to design, analysis, write up, or format.
• Any misconduct or conflicting factors.

Ethical Policy

• The responsibility of the views expressed in the research paper, in terms of anything whether implicit or explicit, starting from presentation of idea till its conclusion drawn shall remain solely with the author (s); and the journal team shall not in any way be responsible for those.
• The editor and the editorial team reserve the right to edit, soften, alter and amend language items i-e; words, phrases, clauses, and sentences in case those are too strong controversial or capable of triggering disrespect/offense to individuals, ideologies, faiths, institutions and state policies.
• The editor and the editorial team also reserve the right to decline the publication of submission at any stage of the submission—publishing process without the obligation to explain or assign any reason whatsoever.
• DSJHSS practices a zero-tolerance policy on the use of “taboo language”. We define “taboo language” as words, phrases, sentences, observations, remarks, and opinions that may be inappropriate with reference to the following context:
• Offending people personal, social, cultural, religious, and political beliefs
• Offending individuals, institutions, and policies enjoying constitutional immunity cover.
• Biased language based on gender, or any other bias
• Bowdlerism, Cursing, and Dysphemism
• Grawlix (unless justified), and Orthophemism
• Pejorative language, language compromising politeness strategies, swear words, Prejudiced, offensive, and hurtful expressions.

We implement ethical guidelines as per HEC policy which states that it remains the author (s) responsibility to ensure that the data submitted is original, within the allowed limit of similarity index, including declarations of originality, authorship, and publication; acknowledges and credits all sources cited, respects the privacy of participants, provision of data on demand and ensuring that images are not manipulated.

Peer-Review Policy

Peer review is the evaluation of manuscripts submitted to the journal and is reviewed by experts in related fields. Peer review enables authors to receive critical feedback from experts on individual manuscripts.

All submitted manuscripts are kept confidential. Reviewers are not allowed to share or disclose unpublished information in a manuscript.

Reviewers of the Dyal Singh Journal of Humanities and Social Science (DSJHSS) avoid evaluating manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest. They contact editors if there is any conflict of interest that could affect their evaluation of a manuscript. In those cases, they can reject reviewing the manuscript.

Reviewers can recommend to the author/s any related work that is not cited.

We use a double-blind system for peer review: The identities of both reviewers and authors remain anonymous. Each submitted manuscript is peer-reviewed by at least two experts. In some rare cases, we may start the third round of peer review according to the recommendations from editors and reviewers.

DSJHSS observes the practice of peer review to ensure the quality of published research. The said practice is adopted by reputable research journals. Our reviewers play a pivotal role in maintaining the high standard of research publication. All the manuscripts submitted are peer-reviewed in the following ways:

• Initial manuscript evaluation The Editor first evaluates all manuscripts. It is rare, but an exceptional manuscript can be accepted at this stage. Manuscripts rejected at this stage are insufficiently original, have serious scientific flaws, have poor grammar or English language, or are outside the aims and scope of the journal. Those that meet the minimum criteria are normally passed on to at least 2 experts for review.
• DSJHSS employs double-blind reviewing, where both the reviewers and the authors remain anonymous throughout the process.
• How the reviewers are selected, reviewers are matched to the research article according to their expertise and our database is constantly being updated.
• Language correction is not part of the peer-review process, but referees may, if so wish, suggest corrections to the manuscript
• Reviewers are asked to evaluate the manuscript on the following basis:
• The originality of the paper
• Soundness of methodology
• Adherence to the appropriate ethical guidelines
• Clarity of results and conclusions
• Correct representation of the references

Timeline of the review process

• The time required for the review process depends on the response of the reviewers. In case the reports of the reviewers contradict or a report is unnecessarily delayed, a further expert opinion will be sought. In rare cases for which it is extremely difficult to find a second reviewer to review the manuscript, or when the one reviewer’s report has thoroughly convinced the Editor, decisions at this stage to accept, reject or ask the author for a revision are made based on only one referee’s report. The Editor’s decision will be sent to the author with recommendations made by the referees, which usually include precise comments by the referees. Revised manuscripts might be returned to the initial referees who may then request another revision of a manuscript.
• A final decision to accept or reject the manuscript will be sent to the author along with any recommendations made by the referees and may include exact comments by the referees.
• Editor’s Decision is final reviewers may advise the editor, who is responsible for the final decision to accept or reject the article.

Note for Reviewers

Those who want to act as reviewers of DSJHSS may contact the editor. The benefits of refereeing for DSJHSS include the opportunity to read, see, and evaluate the latest work in their research area at an early stage, and to contribute to the overall integrity of scientific research and its published documentation. They may also be able to cite DSJHSS work as part of their professional development requirements for various professional societies and organizations.

Originality and Plagiarism Policy

DSJHSS uses turnitin.com for plagiarism checking. Its acceptance rate is 18%. 

DSJHSS is following the HEC (Pakistan) policies regarding Turnitin Originality Report and Plagiarism. Zero tolerance Policy on Plagiarism issue. DSJHSS aims for an original script having 18 or below 18 % Turnitin Originality Report.

Moreover, the journal is also Zero tolerance for AI generated content. The authors should not use AI generation software for creating the content. The AI based originality is only accepted when it is below 10%. After acceptance they can use AI generation software to refine readability of the paper.
HEC relevant Weblinks:

Plagiarism Policy

The little book of plagiarism

Turnitin Guidelines

Tips for avoiding Plagiarism

• Cite all your sources, whether you have read or heard them,
• Keep full records of every source of information you use including the date you accessed electronic resources,
• Place quotation marks around any words you copy verbatim and credit the source,
• Use your own words when summarizing or paraphrasing someone else’s words–but don’t forget–you will still need to reference it!
• Make sure you check with your Journal which referencing system they want you to use

Tips for using AI

• Use AI generation software for generating good titles.
• Use AI generation software to refine the readability of your paper.
• Use AI generation software for finding the resources.
• Do not copy the detailed contents generated by AI applications.

Subscription Details

DSJHSS is Pakistan's comprehensive journal growing rapidly is a publishing platform that has been making an available multitude of research papers biannually since 2023. DSJHSS publishes cutting-edge research, special papers and book reviews. DSJHSS follows Open Access Policy however, people can subscribe to our Journal by Emailing @ editor@dsjhss.gdscl.com.pk 

Details of the Subscription

Online subscription to DSJHSS provides seamless access to the latest research published biannually through our website. In case of subscription of hardcopy, they will pay a certain amount (to be decided by the research committee of the journal) to be submitted in the account of Government Dyal Singh Graduate College.

Ethical Guidelines

DSJHSS follows the Ethical Guidelines for Journals given by HEC, Pakistan.

Ethical approval of research (in case of need) in the form of letters from the ethical review committee (ERC), ethical review board (ERB), institutional review board (IRB), or any other relevant form of ethical approval is mandatory for all manuscripts submitted to DSJHSS. The only exceptions to this rule include letters to the editor based on some new information, narrative reviews, and special communications in the form of a review.

Reporting a Case

Single case or case series in retrospect does not require an IRB certificate but a letter of approval from the head of the department or institute on the institute’s letterhead is required. Ensure that you have read our editorial policy on ethical approval. Following are the ethical grounds:

• The responsibility of the views expressed in the research paper, in terms of anything whether implicit or explicit, starting from presentation of idea till its conclusion drawn shall remain solely with the author (s); and the journal team shall not in any way be responsible for those.
• The editor and the editorial team reserve the right to edit, soften, alter and amend language items i-e; words, phrases, clauses, and sentences in case those are too strong controversial or capable of triggering disrespect/offense to individuals, ideologies, faiths, institutions and state policies.
• The editor and the editorial team also reserve the right to decline the publication of submission at any stage of the submission—publishing process without the obligation to explain or assign any reason whatsoever.
• DSJHSS practices a zero-tolerance policy on the use of “taboo language”. We define “taboo language” as words, phrases, sentences, observations, remarks, and opinions that may be inappropriate with reference to the following context:
• Offending people personal, social, cultural, religious, and political beliefs
• Offending individuals, institutions, and policies enjoying constitutional immunity cover.
• Biased language based on gender, or any other bias.
• Bowdlerism, Cursing, and Dysphemism
• Grawlix (unless justified), and Orthophemism
• Pejorative language, language compromising politeness strategies, swear words, Prejudiced, offensive, and hurtful expressions.

We implement ethical guidelines as per HEC policy which states that it remains the author (s) responsibility to ensure that the data submitted is original, within the allowed limit of similarity index, including declarations of originality, authorship, and publication; acknowledges and credits all sources cited, respects the privacy of participants, provision of data on demand and ensuring that images are not manipulated.

Privacy Statement

DSJHSS adheres to a strict privacy policy. The privacy of the authors is highly important to us. This privacy statement provides information about

• Personal information that we collect
• Ways in which DSJHSS uses that personal information.

Personal information collection

DSJHSS may collect and use personal information that is necessary for the processing and publication of manuscripts submitted to us. This information may include

• Names
• Affiliation
• Contact details
• Postal address,
• Emails,
• Phone numbers
• Fax numbers.

Using personal information

Personal information collected by us will only be used to:

• Process and publish your manuscript.
• Administer this website
• Personalize the website for you
• Enable your access to and use of the website services
• Process your manuscript
• Publish your manuscript
• Send to your communication about your manuscript
• Send to you statements and invoices
• Collect payments from you
• Send you marketing communications

Where to disclose Author’s personal information

DSJHSS may disclose the personal information of the authors to its agents or sub-contractors for these purposes, the agent or sub-contractor in question will be obligated to use that personal information following the terms of this privacy statement.

In addition to the disclosures reasonably necessary for the purposes identified elsewhere above, DSJHSS may disclose your personal information to the extent that it is required to do so by law, in connection with any legal proceedings or prospective legal proceedings, and to establish, exercise or defend its legal rights.

Securing your data

DSJHSS takes judicious technical and organizational precautions to prevent the loss, misuse or alteration of your personal information.

Cross-border data transfers

Information that we collect may be stored and processed in and transferred between any of the countries in which DSJHSS operates to enable the use of the information following this privacy policy. In addition, personal information that you submit for publication on the website will be published on the internet and may be available around the world.

You agree to such cross-border transfers of personal information.

Updating this statement

DSJHSS may update or revise this privacy policy by posting a new version on this website. 

You should check this page occasionally to ensure you are familiar with any changes.

Timelines of Publication of Issues

Authors should be prompt with their manuscript revisions. If an Author cannot meet the deadline given, the Author should contact the DSJHSS’S (chiefeditor@dsjhss.gdscl.com.pk) Chief Editor as soon as possible to determine whether a longer period or withdrawal from the review process should be chosen as an exceptional case.

	First Issue (June)	Second Issue (December)
Call for Papers	January	July
Paper Submission	February (on going)	August (on going)
Review Process	March	September
Acceptance/Rejection Notification to Authors	March	September
Publication	June	December

ARTICLE-PROCESSING/PUBLICATION FEE

At the moment there are NO publication charges.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

Disclosure and CONFLICT OF INTEREST, correction and retraction of research articles, contribution and consent of each author and any other information

Competing Interest

When submitting a manuscript to DSJHSS, the authors are always asked to disclose potential conflicts of interest. Ideally, conflicts of interest should be avoided, but in reality, this is not always possible.

According to Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) , "Conflicts of interest arise when authors, editors, or reviewers have interests that are not fully apparent and that may influence their judgments on what is published and when revealed later, can make a reasonable reader feel misled or deceived."

The most common competing interest cases involve financial or business relationships, which undermines the journals or author's credibility. Therefore, to preserve research integrity, The Dyal Singh Journal of Humanities and Social Science encourage authors, editors, and peer reviewers to mandatory disclose any conflict of interest, inclusive of personal or professional relationships, allegiances or hostilities to any political, social, or religious groups, financial aids for personal or professional gains, ideological beliefs, organization of interest, or any academic competition that might affect the work or review impartiality.

The editorial committee of Dyal Singh Journal of Humanities and Social Science is responsible for avoiding any competing interest in the research publications of this journal that may affect the interpretation of results and evaluation by the reviewers. In case of any potential competing interest, the author(s) shall provide a clear statement bearing the responsibility. They shall disclose the possible competing interests that can influence the decision about the publication of the article.

Article will not be considered by the editors for review if any conflict of interests arises from the collaborative or competitive connections of any of the author (s) or relevant institutions. It is desired that all the contributors disclose competing interests during the submission process. If there is any such revelation after the research is published, corrections or expression of interest and retraction will be issued where needed.  

For Authors
Author(s) must disclose all financial, personal & professional interests that might influence the publication, and evaluation of their submitted content. In the case of no competing interest, the author should mention, "The author(s) declare that they have no competing interests." But in case of competing interests, the author(s) must acknowledge or mention the following:

• all types of financial support in the contributions.
• any commercial or financial involvements that might present an appearance of a competing interest related to the contributions.
• they have not signed any agreement with any sponsor of the research reported in the Contribution that prevents them from publishing both positive & negative results or forbids them from publishing this research without the sponsor's prior approval.

For Reviewer
Reviewers are also encouraged to declare their competing interest upon receiving a review invitation. In case of possible conflict that might bias evaluation of the article, the reviewer should decline the invitation and provide a summary of the conflict to the editor. Most popular competing interest with a reviewer's perspective include:

• History of disagreement with the author(s)
• Working on the same research project
• Being a co-author in recent publications
• A part of the pre-review process before the submission

Also, reviewers are not allowed to use the concept, methodology, or segment of the under-review article before its publication.
For Editors
Like authors and reviewers, the competing interest policy applies to the editors too. In case of any relationship/conflict that might bring biasness, the editor is recommended to refuse the handling of such manuscripts immediately.

Resolution of Conflict of Interest

In this respect, the complaints can be emailed directly to the editor of this journal or patron-in-chief through the following email addresses.

chiefeditor@dsjhss.gdsc.com.pk

editor@dsjhss.gdscl.com.pk

govtdyalsingh@gmail.com 

OPEN ACCESS POLICY

DSJHSS is an open-access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author.  

Copy Rights (Privacy)

Government Dyal Singh Graduate College, Lahore, Pakistan

© Copyrights are reserved with Govt Dyal Singh Graduate College, Lahore.
To reproduce any chunk from the text of DSJHSS, permission from the editor is a must.