The Bulletin of Pharmaceutical and medical sciences (BOPAMS) aspire to select and publish, through peer review, the highest quality research. In order to achieve this goal, the entire peer review and publication process should be thorough, objective and fair.

Journal reputation depends heavily on the trust by all stakeholders in the fairness of the peer review and publication process. A formal code of ethics, outlining guidelines for good behavior and proposing solutions to ethical dilemmas facing Authors, Editors and Reviewers, can build stakeholder trust and improve journal reputation. With this goal in mind, the BOPAMS Code of Ethics is designed to be a comprehensive policy for peer review and publication ethics in the Research Journal of English Language and Literature.

The Code describes BOPAMS policies for ensuring the ethical treatment of all participants in the peer review and publication process. BOPAMS Authors, Editors and Reviewers are encouraged to study these guidelines and address any questions or concerns to the BOPAMS Editor, editor@bopams.com.

BOPAMS CODE OF ETHICS FOR AUTHORS

Originality: When an Author submits a manuscript to BOPAMS, the manuscript must be an original work.

Authors must not submit the same work, in whole or in part, to two places of publication at the same time, or at any time while the manuscript is under review at BOPAMS. It is also improper for an Author to submit a manuscript describing essentially the same research to more than one place of publication. Thus, an Author may not submit to BOPAMS a work that is in whole or in part under review elsewhere, nor submit to another publication outlet a work that is in whole or in part under review at BOPAMS ...read more.

Plagiarism: All work in the manuscript should be free of any plagiarism or falsification.

Plagiarism takes many forms, from "passing off" another's paper as the Author's own paper, to copying or paraphrasing substantial parts of another's paper without attribution, to claiming results from research conducted by others. Authors are expected to explicitly cite others' work and ideas, even if the work or ideas are not quoted verbatim or paraphrased. This standard applies whether the previous work is published, unpublished, or electronically available. Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.

In instances the Editor deems as "major" plagiarism, the paper will be rejected and authors may be barred from submitting to BOPAMS for a period of time. In cases of "minor" plagiarism, the authors would be asked to rephrase the duplicate sentences.

BOPAMS reserves the right to evaluate issues of plagiarism and redundancy on a case-by-case basis.

Double-Blind Review: BOPAMS follows a double-blind review process, whereby Authors do not know Reviewers and vice versa. Authors should respect the confidentiality of the review process and should not reveal themselves to Reviewers, and vice versa. For example, the manuscript should not include any self-revealing information that would identify the Author to a Reviewer.

Authors should not post their submitted manuscript (including working papers and prior drafts) on websites where it could be easily discovered by potential Reviewers.

BOPAMS CODE OF ETHICS FOR EDITORS

Independence: BOPAMS Editors must maintain their editorial independence and work to ensure that Authors have editorial freedom. Responsibility for acceptance or rejection of manuscripts rests with the Editors. Doing so normally entails advice from Reviewers; however, manuscripts that Editors deem clearly inappropriate may be rejected without such review.