·         Open Access Policy and Publication Fees

·         Submission Overview

·         Manuscript Preparation

·         Publication and Research Ethics

·         Open Access Policy, Licence and Copyright

·         Suggesting Reviewers

·         English Corrections

·         Editorial Procedures and Peer-Review

·         Publication Ethics Statement

·         License and Copyright

Announcement: Considering the financial impact of COVID-19, ACDMHR is happy to fully waive the Article Processing Charge (APC), until further notice. Any papers submitted during this period, provided that they are accepted following the journal’s standard peer review process, will be published completely free of cost.

Annals of Contemporary Developments in Management & HR (ACDMHR) is a scholarly peer-reviewed open access international research journal enabling low cost publication solutions while projecting an image of quality research. As an Open Access journal, ACDMHR aims to provide a channel for quality research to be publicised to a broad audience. All published papers are freely made available on ACDMHR website’s archive section.

ACDMHR confirms that no university library or individual reader will ever have to buy a subscription or buy access through pay-per-view fees to access the articles published in the journal. Hence, ACDMHR does not have any income from selling subscriptions to the print or online version of this journal or from pay-per-view fees.

In order to cover the costs of providing and maintaining a publication infrastructure, managing the journals, and processing the manuscripts through peer-review and the editorial procedure, the journal uses a form of conditional submission fee referred to as Article Processing Charge (APC). This APC is applicable only if the article is accepted for publication in this journal after peer-review and authors would like to publish the paper. However, there are no submission charges.

ACDMHR’s APC structure for 2017 year is as follows, which also covers two copies of printed issues posted to the corresponding author’s mailing address:

        • Non-IAER Members: 160 GBP

        • IAER Members: 140 GBP (IAER Membership is completely free)

        • Non-IAER Research Students: 140 GBP

        • IAER Associate Member (Students): 125 GBP (IAER Membership is completely free)

Despite ACDMHR’s APC being is very low compared to other journals, as a registered low-profit organization (CIC in England and Wales) we have funds to support post-graduate research students as well as researchers from low income countries to publish their research outcomes at a discounted rate or even completely free. To apply, please download, complete and attach this form along with your submission.

Types of Articles

Manuscripts submitted to ACDMHR should neither been published before nor be under consideration for publication in another journal. The main article types are as follows:

·         Articles: research manuscripts that report new evidence or new conclusions. The journal considers all original research manuscripts provided that the work reports scientifically sound experiments and provides a substantial amount of new information. Authors should not unnecessarily divide their work into several related manuscripts, although short Communications of preliminary, but significant, results will be considered. Replications of previous studies are permitted if clearly indicated as such.

·         Reviews: review manuscripts provide concise and precise updates on the latest progress made in a given area of research.

·         Conference Papers: Expanded and high quality conference papers are also considered in ACDMHR if they fulfil the following requirements: (1) the paper should be expanded to the size of a research article; (2) the conference paper should be cited and noted on the first page of the paper; (3) if the authors do not hold the copyright to the published conference paper, authors should seek the appropriate permission from the copyright holder; (4) authors are asked to disclose that it is conference paper in their cover letter and include a statement on what has been changed compared to the original conference paper.

Submission Process

Manuscripts for ACDMHR should be submitted using the submission site. The corresponding author, is responsible for the manuscript during the submission and peer-review process. The corresponding author must ensure that all eligible co-authors have been included in the author list and that they all have read and approved the submitted version of the manuscript.

Template and File Formats

Authors must use the ACDMHR MS Word template to prepare their manuscript. Please insert your graphics (schemes, figures, etc.) in the main text after the paragraph of its first citation. Supplementary files may be any format, but it is recommended that you use common, non-proprietary formats where possible.

Cover Letter

A cover letter must be included with each manuscript submission. It should be concise and explain why the content of your paper is significant, placing your findings in the context of existing work and why it fits the scope of the journal. Please confirm that neither the manuscript nor any parts of its content are currently under consideration or published in another journal.

For the preparation of manuscripts following are the general considerations:

Title

The title of your manuscript should be concise, specific and relevant.

Author List and Affiliations

Authors' full first and last names must be provided. The initials of any middle names can be added. The PubMed/MEDLINE standard format is used for affiliations: complete address information including city, zip code, state/province, country, and all email addresses. At least one author should be designated as corresponding author, and his or her email address and other details should be included at the end of the affiliation section.

Abstract

The abstract should be of 150-200 words. However, a maximum length of 300 words will be allowed. The abstract should be a single paragraph and should follow the style of structured abstracts. The abstract should be an objective representation of the article: it must not contain results which are not presented and substantiated in the main text and should not exaggerate the main conclusions.

Keywords

Four to Six pertinent keywords need to be added after the abstract. We recommend that the keywords are specific to the article, yet reasonably common within the subject discipline.

Abbreviations

Abbreviations should be defined in parentheses the first time they appear in the abstract, main text, and in figure or table captions.

Units

SI Units (International System of Units) should be used. Imperial, US customary and other units should be converted to SI units whenever possible.

Equations

If you are using Word, please use either the Microsoft Equation Editor or the MathType add-on. Equations should be editable by the editorial office and not appear in a picture format.

Research Data and supplementary materials

Authors may make all materials, data, and protocols associated with the publication available to readers. Describe any supplementary material published online alongside the manuscript (figure, tables, video, spreadsheets, etc.). Please indicate the name and title of each element as follows Figure S1: title, Table S1: title, etc.

Acknowledgments

All sources of funding of the study should be disclosed. Clearly indicate grants that you have received in support of your research work and if you received funds to cover publication costs. Note that some funders will not refund article processing charges (APC) if the funder and grant number are not clearly and correctly identified in the paper. Funding information can be entered separately into the submission system by the authors during submission of their manuscript. Such funding information, if available, will be deposited to FundRef if the manuscript is finally published.

Conflicts of Interest

Authors must identify and declare any personal circumstances or interest that may be perceived as inappropriately influencing the representation or interpretation of reported research results. If there is no conflict of interest, please state "The authors declare no conflict of interest." Any role of the funding sponsors in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results must be declared in this section. If there is no role, please state “The founding sponsors had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, and in the decision to publish the results”.

References

Authors are required to follow APA- American Psychological Referencing Style, 6th Edition. More details on APA style can be found here.

If more than publication of the same author published in the same year are referred in the text, the year of publication must be followed by letters (such as 2018a, 2018b, 2018c, etc.) to clearly distinguish amongst them.

For online resources, a complete working URL should be provided along with date when last accessed.

DOI and other standard numbers should be provided when available.

For articles having dual authors, both the authors name should be mentioned connecting by “and”. However, if the article is co-authored by more than two authors, instead of mentioning all the names, the first author name followed by 'et al.' in italic should rather be used. While referring more than one article together, they should be in alphabetical order whilst segregating by semicolons. For example, “numerous studies (Ahmed et al., 2017; Joseph & Cranbarra, 2011; Baldwin & Henson, 2009a, 2009b) have supported the findings of the present study.”

Authors are required to arrange the reference list alphabetically followed by chronological sorting, if needed.

References should be described as follows, depending on the type of work:

• Journal Articles:
Ahmed, U., et al. (2017). Engaging PhD students: Investigating the role of supervisor support and psychological capital in a mediated model. Iranian Journal of Management Studies, 10(2), 283-306.

• Books and Book Chapters:
Brandow, A. E., & Wenceler, S. (1987). Breaking the language barrier: Our experiences teaching Pig Latin to South American aboriginal peoples (Rev. ed.). Kalohe, HI: Kahoolawe University Press.
Bryson, B., & Winkler, I. R. (1992). What does "oo-day" really mean?. In J. Paul, Current research on semantic competence in creolized Pig Latin (3rd ed., pp. 96-107). Lick Fork, VA: Fourchette University Press.

• Unpublished work, submitted work, personal communication:
Nala, A. (1998). Teaching vocabulary: Evidence from research in Pig Latin. Unpublished manuscript, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT.

• Conference Proceedings:
Game, A. (2001). Creative ways of being. In J. R. Morss, N. Stephenson & J. F. H. V. Rappard (Eds.), Theoretical issues in psychology: Proceedings of the International Society for Theoretical Psychology 1999 Conference (pp. 3-12). Sydney: Springer.

• Thesis:
Knight, K.A. (2011). Media epidemics: Viral structures in literature and new media (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from MLA International Bibliography Database. (Accession No. 2013420395)

• Websites:
Alan, R.K. (2011, June 16). New Challenges and Opportunities in Human Resource Management. American Post, URL http://www.americanpost.com, Retrieved on 3 December 2018.

Preparing Figures, Schemes and Tables

• All Figures, Schemes and Tables should be inserted into the main text close to their first citation and must be numbered following their number of appearance (Figure 1, Scheme I, Figure 2, Scheme II, Table 1, etc.).

• All Figures, Schemes and Tables should have a short explanatory title and caption.

• All table columns should have an explanatory heading. To facilitate the copy-editing of larger tables, smaller fonts may be used, but no less than 8 pt. in size. Authors should use the Table option of Microsoft Word to create tables.

• Authors are encouraged to prepare figures and schemes in color (RGB at 8-bit per channel).

Research Involving Human Subjects

When reporting on research that involves human subjects, human material, human tissues or human data, authors must declare that the investigations were carried out following the rules of the Declaration of Helsinki of 1975, revised in 2008. According to point 23 of this declaration, an approval from an ethics committee should have been obtained before undertaking the research. As a minimum, a statement including the project identification code, date of approval and name of the ethics committee or institutional review board should be cited in the Methods Section of the article. Data relating to individual participants must be described in detail, but private information identifying participants need not be included unless the identifiable materials are of relevance to the research (for example, photographs of participants’ faces that show a particular symptom). A written informed consent for publication must be obtained from participating patients in this case.

Editors reserve the rights to reject any submission that does not meet these requirements.

Example of Ethical Statements:

All subjects gave their informed consent for inclusion before they participated in the study. The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, and the protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of XXX (Project identification code).

During the submission process, please suggest three potential reviewers with the appropriate expertise to review the manuscript. The editors will not necessarily approach these referees. Please provide detailed contact information (address, homepage, phone, e-mail address). The proposed referees should neither be current collaborators of the co-authors nor have published with any of the co-authors of the manuscript within the last five years. Proposed reviewers should be from different institutions to the authors. You may identify appropriate Editorial Board members of the journal as potential reviewers. You may suggest reviewers from among the authors that you frequently cite in your paper.

To facilitate proper peer-reviewing of your manuscript, it is essential that it is submitted in grammatically correct English. If you are not a native English speaker, we recommend that you have your manuscript professionally edited before submission or read by a native English-speaking colleague. Optionally you may email IAER's English editing service. Professional editing will mean that reviewers and future readers are better able to read and assess the content of your manuscript. All accepted manuscript undergo language editing, however an additional fee will be charged.

Screening

All submitted manuscripts received by the Editorial Office will be checked by a professional in-house Managing Editor to determine whether it is properly prepared and whether the manuscript follows the ethical policies of the journal. Manuscripts that do not fit the journals ethical policy will be rejected before peer-review. Manuscripts that are not properly prepared will be returned to the authors for revision and resubmission. After these checks, the Managing Editor will consult the journals’ Editor-in-Chief or the Guest Editor (or an Editorial Board member in case of a conflict of interest) to determine whether the manuscript fits the scope of the journal and whether it is scientifically sound. No judgment on the significance or potential impact of the work will be made at this stage. Reject decisions at this stage will be verified by the Editor-in-Chief.

Peer-Review

Once a manuscript passes the initial checks, it will be assigned to at least two independent experts for peer-review. A single-blind review is applied, where authors' identities are known to reviewers. Peer review comments are confidential and will only be disclosed with the express agreement of the reviewer.

Potential reviewers suggested by the authors may also be considered. Reviewers should not have published with any of the co-authors during the past five years and should not currently work or collaborate with one of the institutes of the co-authors of the submitted manuscript.

Editorial Decision and Revision

All the articles, reviews and communications published in IAER journals go through the peer-review process and receive at least two reviews. Review comments will then be synthesised by the editor to make the final decision:

• Accept
The paper has been accepted and needs no further corrections or modifications.

• Accept (Subject to Minor Revisions)
The paper has been accepted but requires minor revision to address the reviewer’s comments.

• Reconsider after Major Revisions
The acceptance of the manuscript would depend on the revisions. The author needs to provide a point by point response or provide a rebuttal if some of the reviewer’s comments cannot be revised.

• Reject and Encourage Resubmission
An article, where additional experiments are needed to support the conclusions, will be rejected and the authors will be encouraged to re-submit the paper once further experiments have been conducted.

• Reject
The article has serious flaws, makes no original contribution, and the paper is rejected with no offer of resubmission to the journal.

Author Appeals

Authors may appeal a rejection by sending an e-mail to the Editorial Office of the journal. The appeal must provide a detailed justification, including point-by-point responses to the reviewers' and/or Editor's comments. The Managing Editor of the journal will forward the manuscript and relating information (including the identities of the referees) to an Editorial Board member. If no appropriate Editorial Board member is available, the editor will identify a suitable external scientist. The Editorial Board member will be asked to give an advisory recommendation on the manuscript and may recommend acceptance, further peer-review, or uphold the original rejection decision. A reject decision at this stage will be final and cannot be revoked.

In the case of a special issue, the Managing Editor of the journal will forward the manuscript and relating information (including the identities of the referees) to the Editor-in-Chief who will be asked to give an advisory recommendation on the manuscript and may recommend acceptance, further peer-review, or uphold the original rejection decision. A reject decision at this stage will be final and cannot be revoked.

Production and Publication

Once accepted, the manuscript will undergo professional copy-editing, English editing, proofreading by the authors, final corrections, pagination, and, publication on the www.theiaer.org website. Print format of the journal will also be produced by our affiliated printer in Oxfordshire, UK.

ACDMHR fully adheres to the Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines outlined by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

The editors of this journal enforce a rigorous peer-review process together with strict ethical policies and standards to ensure to add high quality scientific works to the field of scholarly publication. All submitted papers are checked against plagiarism and similarity index using Turnitin UK. Unfortunately, cases of plagiarism, data falsification, image manipulation, inappropriate authorship credit, and the like, do arise. The editors of ACDMHR take such publishing ethics issues very seriously and may proceed with a zero tolerance policy.

Authors wishing to publish their papers in ACDMHR must abide to the following:

• Any facts that might be perceived as a possible conflict of interest of the author(s) must be disclosed in the paper prior to submission.

• Authors should accurately present their research findings and include an objective discussion of the significance of their findings.

• Data and methods used in the research need to be presented in sufficient detail in the paper, so that other researchers can replicate the work..

• Raw data should preferably be publicly deposited by the authors before submission of their manuscript. Authors need to at least have the raw data readily available for presentation to the referees and the editors of the journal, if requested. Authors need to ensure appropriate measures are taken so that raw data is retained in full for a reasonable time after publication.

• Simultaneous submission of manuscripts to more than one journal is not tolerated.

• Republishing content that is not novel is not tolerated (for example, an English translation of a paper that is already published in another language will not be accepted).

• If errors and inaccuracies are found by the authors after publication of their paper, they need to be promptly communicated to the editors of this journal so that appropriate actions can be taken.

• Your manuscript should not contain any information that has already been published. If you include already published figures or images, please obtain the necessary permission from the copyright holder to publish under the CC-BY license.

• Plagiarism, data fabrication and image manipulation are not tolerated:

        • Plagiarism is not acceptable in ACDMHR submissions.
        Plagiarism includes copying text, ideas, images, or data from another source, even from your own publications, without giving any credit to the original source.

        Reuse of text that is copied from another source must be between quotes and the original source must be cited. If a study's design or the manuscript's structure or language has been inspired by previous works, these works must be explicitly cited.

        If plagiarism is detected during the peer review process, the manuscript may be rejected. If plagiarism is detected after publication, we may publish a correction or retract the paper.

        • Image files must not be manipulated or adjusted in any way that could lead to misinterpretation of the information provided by the original image
         Irregular manipulation includes: 1) introduction, enhancement, moving, or removing features from the original image; 2) grouping of images that should obviously be presented separately (e.g., from different parts of the same gel, or from different gels); or 3) modifying the contrast, brightness or color balance to obscure, eliminate or enhance some information.

        If irregular image manipulation is identified and confirmed during the peer review process, we may reject the manuscript. If irregular image manipulation is identified and confirmed after publication, we may correct or retract the paper.

Our editors will investigate any allegations of publication misconduct and may contact the authors' institutions or funders if necessary. If evidence of misconduct is found, appropriate action will be taken to correct or retract the publication.

All papers, published in ACDMHR journal, are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, including commercial use, as long as the original work is properly cited.

Authors retain copyright of their work. Once material has been accepted for publication, authors are asked to sign an author agreement form verifying that they have the right to publish the material and that they grant permission to IAER to publish their work online. In addition:

• Authors retain the right to publish extended versions of their material elsewhere, provided the original publication is acknowledged.

• Authors retain the right to publish their work in on-line repositories, internal technical reports, etc.

• The Science and Information Organization does not pay honoraria to authors.

• The Science and Information Organization has the right to edit the material to meet the publication standards.