Ethical policy and HEC Plagiarism Policy

Ethical Policy
As per HEC guidelines, the Editor of a research journal plays an important role in establishing and maintaining the professional standards. Publication of a paper in an HEC recognized journal is expected to be a reflection of quality work of the author (s) and the affiliating institution (if any). The Editor is expected to perform the responsibility towards the journal on its all aspects and at varied stages i.e. from receiving of an article to publishing it. Keeping this in view, it becomes prime responsibility of an editor to adapt the following guidelines while publishing papers in his/her research journal.

The Editor of a research journal should be responsible for:
Establishing and maintaining quality of the journal by publishing quality papers in his/her journal.
Promotion of freedom of expression within the cultural, constitutional/legal framework,
Providing integrity and credibility of the research contributions,
Meeting the needs of authors and readers,
Maintaining ethical standards of their journal,
Providing corrigendum for any correction, clarification and apologies where required.
Encourage new ideas and suggestions of authors, peer reviewers, members of editorial board and readers for improving quality of his/her journal,
Apply the process of blind peer review in true letter and spirit,
Promote innovative findings in respective field and publishing them on priority,
Promote anti plagiarism policy,
Educate contributors (authors) about ethical practices in research, and Implement the journal’s policy without institutional pressure and revise the policy from time to time.
The detailed Ethical Guidelines by HEC are available at the following link:

https://www.hec.gov.pk/english/services/faculty/SSAH/Documents/JCR/HEC%20Approved%20Ethical%20Guidelines.pdf

Plagiarism policy

By submitting manuscript to the Gohar-e-Tahqeeq it is understood that it is an original manuscript, unpublished work and is not submitted elsewhere. Plagiarism, including duplicate publication of the author’s own work, in whole or in part without proper citation is not tolerated by the journal. Plagiarism appears in various forms such as copying the same content from the other source; most commonly from internet, coping elements of another author’s paper such as figures, tables or illustrations that con not be considered as common knowledge.

Self-plagiarism is also not allowed. Gohar-e-Tahqeeq (Urdu) defines self-plagiarism as the intentional or unintentional reuse of one’s own copyrighted work without citing the original source. However, this policy does not apply to the manuscripts presented/appeared in any conference proceeding from the author's side and an explicit reference is made.

Plagiarism Check

Firstly, Gohar-e-Tahqeeq (Urdu) checks plagiarism with the software recommended by HEC Pakistan. Secondly, it is checked manually by the team Gohar-e-Tahqeeq (Urdu). If plagiarism is detected by the editorial/advisory board member, reviewer etc., at any stage of article process- before or after acceptance, during editing or at a proof reading stage, we will inform the same to the author(s) and will ask them to reconsider the content or to cite the references from where the content has been taken. HEC Pakistan has already set the acceptable limit of similarity index produced by the TURNITIN i.e. 19%.

Plagiarism detected after publishing:

Sometimes, TURNITIN appears not very much efficient regarding the detection of plagiarism from the papers written in Urdu. In that case, if the plagiarism is detected manually and reported with proof after publishing, Gohar-e-Tahqeeq (Urdu) will conduct an investigation. In case if plagiarism is found, the paper may be formally retracted. Editor will write to the author’s institute and funding agencies about that and the paper containing the plagiarism will be marked "Plagiarism Detected after Publishing" on each page of the PDF Copy for a period of two months. Moreover, after two months, that paper will be removed from the website and author(s) will be banned for next six (6) issues of Gohar-e-Tahqeeq (Urdu).

Plagiarism Undertaking:

Authors must declare that their work is original at the time of submission. For this, an undertaking form has been given in the link below, stating that author has not plagiarized any material and if found guilty he shall be solely responsible and Gohar-e-Tahqeeq (Urdu) reserve the right to take action against him. Author(s) are required to submit that form duly signed and stamped at the time of manuscript submission. In case if a paper has multiple authors, first/ principal author would be bound to take the responsibility of the plagiarism and only he would be required to submit the said undertaking.

Note: Please keep in mind these categories before sending your research articles for Gohar-e-Tahqeeq. For more information, read the guidelines.