Publishing Ethics

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Publishing Ethics

LLIDS adheres to fair and transparent Publication Ethics and Malpractice policies, which are in close conjunction with the core practices as defined by COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics). LLIDS hopes to have a shared understanding of ethical practices in academia with all its contributors, through the literature below.

 

Publication Attributes

  • License
  • Open Access Policy
  • Peer Review Policy
  • Publication Model
  • Archiving and Indexing Policy
  • Copyright
  • Funding and Sustenance

 

Research Integrity

  • Editorial Policy
  • Submissions Criteria for Pre-Archived Works
  • Similarity Index and Plagiarism Policy
  • AI Policy

 

Ethics and Malpractice Policy

  • Responsibilities of the Publisher
    • Open Access to Publications
    • Confidentiality
  • Responsibilities of the Editors
    • Disclosure and Conflicts of interest
    • Editorial Evaluations
    • Complaints and Appeals
    • Correction/Retraction Policy
    • Policy to deal with Publication Malpractices
  • Responsibilities of Reviewers
    • Conflicting/Competing Interests
    • Peer Review Policy and Guidelines
  • Responsibilities of the Author(s)
    • Submission Ethics
    • Conflicting/Competing Interests
    • Copyright Infringement
    • Complaints and Notifications of Errors

 

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Publication Attributes

 

License

LLIDS publishes under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Authors agree to publish their work under the same CC-BY 4.0 International License. The license entails that anyone is free to share, that is, to copy and redistribute the publications, as long as they credit and cite the authors. 

Open Access Policy

LLIDS follows a Diamond Open Access policy. We do not charge any obligatory APCs from our authors and the full text of all articles published in LLIDS is available free of cost to readers in PDF format from the time of publication without any embargo time. Our intent behind publication is to make research available free of charge and facilitate a greater exchange of knowledge on a global scale. LLIDS allows authors to publish and readers to freely read, download, and share the url to full texts of its articles to be further used for any other lawful purpose. Please read our Open Access Statement here.

Peer Review Policy

LLIDS follows a double-blind peer review policy. The identities of the reviewers as well as the authors are kept confidential from each other. Since we follow a double-bind peer review policy, authors may not suggest reviewers for their own submissions. Reviewers are selected keeping in mind that their subject area as well as their level of educational qualifications match with that of the author. Submissions received under the categories – Research Papers, Forums, and Book Reviews – are subjected to peer reviews. Please read further details on the Peer Review Policy and Guidelines here.

Authors are encouraged to undertake peer reviews and may suggest alternate reviewers for the submissions they have been asked to review. Participation in peer reviews does not affect the evaluation of an author’s submission in any way. 

Publication Model

As of July 2023, LLIDS has transitioned to a Continuous Publication model. This model lets us publish individual papers which have been accepted for publication. Consequently, it allows for a faster publication of papers, which is advantageous to both the authors and readers. The published papers are later on collated into Issues and Volumes. Papers published are available in the List of Published Articles on the website – https://ellids.com/. 

Unlike the established format of Continuous Publication model, LLIDS retains pagination for its Individual article publications. From Volume 7 onwards, each subtopic within a Volume is published under separate sections. The Volume also contains the Forum, Special Submissions, Book Reviews, and Responses. The pagination reflects the sections, such that the first section would start from page number 1.1, the second section would start from page number 2.1, and so on.

This transition to the Continuous Publication model does not affect the previous publications in any way.

Archiving and Indexing

LLIDS is committed to the preservation and discoverability of its publications through various archives and searchable indexes. 

  • LLIDS archives all the published articles on its website which are available in a searchable format on its home page. 
  • All LLIDS publications are indexed with Crossref, and registered with DOIs. Authors are also encouraged to provide their ORCID iD for easy tracking of the author’s publications and metrics.
  • All publications are uploaded to the Internet Archive as soon as they are published. 
  • All completed Issues of LLIDS are archived by the MLA International Bibliography and the Directory of Periodicals.
  • The journal does not allow pre-print archiving but authors are free to archive the Final Publisher’s PDF of the published work as they see fit. 
  • LLIDS encourages authors to self-archive their articles in open access repositories.

LLIDS is indexed by/registered with the following indexes/organization:

We are in the process of applying for indexing to Web and Science and Scopus, as of 2026. Our authors and readers are requested to write to us if they wish for LLIDS to be a part of any particular index. They may also directly apply to an index and let the editors know of the same. 

Copyright

The authors retain the copyright of their work and can re-publish their work wherever they see fit, provided they acknowledge LLIDS as the original publisher and provide the URL of the work in the re-publication.

Funding and Sustenance

  • Volunteers

LLIDS is fueled by the voluntary efforts of its Editorial Team and is published under the aegis of its head organisation, E.L.A. Project. LLIDS accepts voluntary donations – Support Us.

Institutions and Individuals may also Subscribe to LLIDS to sustain its operations and support our work. Our subscriptions are flexible and subscribers can pay any amount as per their volition.  

  • Optional APC (Article Processing Charges) Policy

LLIDS is a Diamond Open Access journal and all contributions under its ‘Optional APC Policy’ are voluntary contributions. It encourages a pay-it-forward model. Your own publication is made possible through the contributions of our existing authors and funding. Similarly, your contribution will support the upcoming open access publications.  

It allows for scholars from varied economic and geographical backgrounds to participate in creation and dissemination of research without any financial barriers. The policy—created with the aim to attempt to create sustenance and long-term viability of LLIDS and its publishing processes—ensures and emphasizes that scholars who are unable to pay the APCs are in no way bound to them and will always remain exempted from them.

The Optional APC policy does not affect the publication decision in any way whatsoever. The selection of articles for publication is solely on the basis of the merit of the work submitted. In order to ensure the above, the editorial team does not have access to the information regarding the APC choice filed by the submitters.

The Optional APCs are suggested to:

  1. Institutionally funded authors.
  2. Non-funded authors who choose to pay them if they want to contribute to our sustenance and long-term viability.
  3. APCs are only to be paid once a submission has been accepted for publication.

APC Amount: $100

All communication regarding the ‘Optional APC Policy’ will be sent from our organizational email ID –  admin@elaproject.org.

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Research Integrity

 

Editorial Policy

LLIDS only publishes previously unpublished work. All submissions are thoroughly checked for similarity index and plagiarism. The submissions which do not meet the basic criteria are given a desk rejection. Our Editorial process is elaborated in detail here. The publication decision for each submission is based on the collated reviews of the Editorial Team, the Advisory Editorial Board, and the peer reviews received for the submission. The decision of the editorial team, in regard to publication, is final and binding. The selection of articles for publication is solely on the basis of the merit of the works submitted.

Submissions Criteria for Pre-Archived Works

LLIDS does not consider submissions that have been self-archived/published on author’s websites or have been archived as pre-prints in any other website. However, works archived in Institutional repositories, as requisite of Institutional policies, and/or derived from one’s thesis are exempted from this rule. The author should inform LLIDS of the same.

Similarity Index and Plagiarism Policy

The similarity index of all submissions is checked by calculating the percentage of quotes in order to maintain the level of original content in the paper. The accepted percentage may vary according to the discipline or the subjective requirement of the submission as seen fit by the editorial team.

LLIDS follows a Zero Plagiarism Policy. Although the responsibility to submit plagiarism free works belongs to the author, all selected papers are thoroughly checked for plagiarism. LLIDS strongly advocates against self-plagiarism as well.

AI Policy

LLIDS does not encourage the use of AI tools for the purpose of writing and/or editing, unless the research directly engages with the topic of Artificial Intelligence and the study requires the use of AI. In such cases, the paper needs to clearly acknowledge and indicate the work produced by the use of AI. AI does not have an agency to be answerable and/or responsible for the outputs generated through the use of such technology. Therefore, in such a case, the author(s) would be considered solely responsible for the outputs of AI. AI cannot be listed as an author or co-author of a work. 

LLIDS strongly prohibits the use of AI to write, edit, or revise a submission. We discourage the use of AI for language editing purposes as well because we believe that the way we formulate syntax allows for meaning-making and it incorporates the authors’ geographies and cultures in the way that they formulate ideas and arguments.

In case any part of a submission is found to be AI generated/edited without proper acknowledgement or reasons for such usage, it will be refused.

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Ethics and Malpractice Policy

 

Responsibilities of the Publisher

  • Open Access to Publications

The publisher, E.L.A. Project, is responsible to upload and maintain all publications on its website and/or on archiving websites such as archive.org to ensure their access to readers. All publications are registered through a DOI as well. 

  • Confidentiality

All information regarding a submission and/or its author(s) is only revealed to Editorial team members, Reviewers, Advisory Editorial Board members, and/or the Publisher as is required or otherwise appropriate.

Responsibilities of the Editors

  • Disclosure and Conflicts of interest

Editors and editorial board members will not use unpublished information/data presented in a submission for their own research purposes without taking the authors’ prior consent. In case of any degree of conflict of interest emerging from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships/connections with any of the authors or institutions related to the submission, editors and editorial board members will notify other team members immediately and excuse themselves from getting involved with the screening and evaluation of such papers; instead, they will ask another member of the editorial team to undertake the due editorial steps.

The editor(s) need to declare any conflicting and/or competing interests before undertaking the evaluation of a submission. Such interests may include but are not exclusive to: 

  1. Prior relation/acquaintance to any of the author(s). 
  2. Receipt of payment/grants/gifts to review the research and/or which may affect its conclusion/outcome.
  3. Any affinity to their own present research which may affect their unbiased evaluation. 
  4. Political, religious, or ideological interests
  5. Commercial interests
  • Editorial Evaluations

The editors must adhere to the editorial processes while considering the submissions and must adhere to neutrality, fairness and objectivity in all their editorial evaluations. They are responsible for ensuring that all submissions receive due consideration and are refused or accepted on the basis of merit alone. The editors are expected to give editorial feedback to authors wherever possible. In case of any discrepancy, the editors are expected to raise the issue swiftly within the editorial team and the same may be resolved in conjunction with other editorial team members. The editors are expected to behave ethically and responsibly throughout the editorial and publishing processes. 

  • Complaints and Appeals

If an author, reviewer, or reader finds any discrepancy or wishes to raise a complaint for ethical malpractices against any publication or editorial process, they may do so by writing to the editorial team at editors[at]ellids[dot]com. The Editors will carefully consider each complaint/appeal and address the issue using the COPE guidelines as reference. The decision on the complaint/appeal will be relayed to the concerned parties as well as to the complainant. 

  • Correction/Retraction Policy

If a significant error/inaccuracy is found in a published work, the author as well as the editorial team are obligated to notify each other, and the author is to cooperate with the editorial team to either correct the inaccuracy or, in case such a correction is not possible, retract the publication and announce the same as suitable. In case an inaccuracy is found in a published work, it is the author’s responsibility to authenticate the research and provide necessary supporting documents for the same. If the author is not obliging or the editorial team is not convinced by the supporting arguments, the decision to retract the publication would lie with the editorial team. 

  • Policy to deal with Publication Malpractices

    • The decision of publication can be revoked at any point before publication and the work can even be retracted after publication if it is found to violate the plagiarism policy, be engaged in any copyright dispute, be short of any publication criteria, or found unsuitable for publication due to any reason by the Editorial team.
    • Authors who do not adhere to the Publication Ethics and Malpractice Policy may be blacklisted from participation in the future as per the discretion of the Editorial team.
    • LLIDS will always be willing to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions, and apologies as and when required.

Responsibilities of Peer Reviewer(s)

Peer reviewers should undertake reviews to support rigorous publication practices. Their contributions are necessary to create an ecosystem of discourse within academic publications. Authors should consider reviewing the works of others to reciprocate the efforts and contribution of others in their own publications. Peer reviews may not use AI in any to aid/conduct the reviews. 

Upon undertaking reviews, it is pertinent that the reviewers adhere to the timeline of the review to aid the publication timelines. In case they require any extra time, peer reviewers should let editors know as soon as possible. 

  • Conflicting/Competing Interests

The peer reviewer(s) need to declare any conflicting and/or competing interests at the time of accepting the peer review. Such interests may include but are not exclusive to: 

  1. Prior relation/acquaintance to any of the Editorial Team members, Advisory Editorial Board members, and/or the author(s). 
  2. Receipt of payment/grants/gifts to review the research and/or which may affect its conclusion/outcome.
  3. Any affinity to their own present research which may affect their unbiased review. 
  4. Political, religious, or ideological interests
  5. Commercial interests
  • Peer Review Policy and Guidelines

For a more comprehensive explanation of the peer reviewer’s responsibilities, please go through our Peer Review Policy and Guidelines. 

Responsibilities of the Author(s)

  • Submission Ethics

Authors should upload submissions as per the ethical practices and academic integrity of research. They are responsible for ensuring that the submissions adhere to LLIDS’s Submission guidelines. After uploading the submission, the author(s) need to sign and email a separate Author Undertaking to editors[at]ellids[dot]com from their respective email IDs. By submitting their works to LLIDS the authors agree to endeavoring to undertake consequent revisions as prescribed by the Editorial team, Advisory Editorial board and Peer Reviewers. If the author(s) are unable to make the revisions and/or disagree with them without due cause, the editorial team has the right to refuse the submission as per their discretion. 

The authors should always cite their previous works whenever necessary and should exercise discretion concerning excessive self-citation or paraphrasing. All instances of paraphrasing are to be marked with intext citations. They should be aware of and should avoid all citation manipulation malpractices. 

The names and email IDs of all the contributing authors should be filed in the submission form. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that their co-authors have gone through the Publication Ethics and Malpractice Policy of LLIDS. They are also responsible for submitting the email IDs for all authors in the submission form itself and ensuring that the co-authors are aware of the correspondence between the editorial team and the corresponding author. All authors must give their approval before a work is submitted to LLIDS. Once a submission has been made, the name of any co-author cannot be added or removed without an appropriate reason as to why it is necessary. 

We encourage authors to register for an  Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID), so that they may claim their publications and represent their research while avoiding any dispute originating from similar names. LLIDS includes the ORCID IDs of authors in the Crossref DOI metadata which ensures that your research is automatically linked to your ORCID ID. If any author did not have an ORCID ID at the time of the publication but registers for one at a later time, they should inform the LLIDS’s editors of the same, so that their ORCID ID is added to the DOI metadata. 

Submission of a work to LLIDS implicates that the author(s) –

  1. Takes responsibility that work belongs to him/her/them, is completely free of plagiarism, and has never been published before in any form.
  2. Has properly cited all sources and quotes used in the research. Information obtained privately, as in interviews, conversation, correspondence, or discussion with third parties, must not be used or reported without explicit, written permission from the source. If such sources have not been previously published, it is preferable to submit their transcripts as appendix along with the submission.
  3. Has particularly specified in the submission form if work has been uploaded online for any purpose including but not exclusive to institutional archiving, pre-publication archiving, or self archiving.
  4. Has not submitted a multiple, redundant, or concurrent publication. Submissions of previous publications or submissions describing essentially the same research or similar sections from a previous research should not be submitted. Submitting the same research to more than one journal is considered malpractice and may lead to being blacklisted from the journal.
  5. Has not submitted the work elsewhere and will not do so while the paper is under consideration in LLIDS.
  6. Has written permission to use any diagrams/charts/figures/images the work may contain from the original copyright holder and will be able to furnish the same if the paper is selected for publication.
  7. Confirms that they have acknowledged the authorship of all contributors as co-authors. LLIDS does not publish acknowledgements of any sort apart from the list of authors of the work. The submitting author/corresponding author should ensure that all co-authors have approved the final version of the paper and are in agreement about its submission to LLIDS for consideration.

  • Conflicting/Competing Interests

The author(s) need to declare any conflicting and/or competing interests at the time of submission. Such interests may include but are not exclusive to: 

  1. Prior relation/acquaintance to any of the Editorial Team members or Advisory Editorial Board members. 
  2. Receipt of payment/grants/funding to conduct the research and/or which may affect its conclusion/outcome.
  3. Political, religious, or ideological interests]
  4. Commercial interests
  • Copyright Infringement

In case of any third-party copyright infringement issues, LLIDS encourages the authors to adhere to the guidelines of Columbia University Libraries’ Fair Use Policy by evaluating their usage of any copyrighted material against their Fair Use Checklist. The authors are responsible for ensuring that they are not violating any copyright laws and have taken permission for any copyrighted material used in their work when required. They are to provide the said permissions to LLIDS before publication. The responsibility for the same lies solely with the author and LLIDS is in no case liable for any copyright infringement issues in the published papers.

  • Complaints and Notifications of Errors

In case any complaint is raised against or an error is found in a published work, the authors will be approached by the editorial team members. In such a case, the authors are expected to coordinate and cooperate with the editorial team to resolve the errors. The editors will conduct an investigation using the COPE guidelines as reference and reach an adequate resolution to the issue. The authors are obligated to upload the decision of the editors in the matter and required to make any revisions/changes necessary to resolve the issue. Non-compliance or a lack of communication on the part of the author(s) may lead to the retraction of the publication.