Academic Researchers offers complete open access to all its published articles. All articles are freely available and immediately accessible online upon publication. Authors can use and distribute their published work online under the licensing terms of Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), provided they give appropriate credit to Academic Researchers. However, if any third party intends to republish the entire article or any part of it, they must first obtain permission from Academic Researchers.

Upon completion of the initial scrutiny by the Editor-in-Chief, the manuscripts that meet the selection criteria will undergo a peer review process. This process involves two external peer reviewers who specialize in the subject area of the manuscript, as identified by the Editor. If a manuscript is not prepared according to the guidelines, it will be returned to the authors for necessary corrections/modifications before it is sent for peer review.The journal implements a double-blind peer-review procedure, which ensures the anonymity of both the reviewers and the authors. The reviewers are given an average of two weeks to thoroughly review each manuscript. Moreover, only one manuscript is assigned to a single reviewer at a time.In cases of conflict or dispute, the Chief Editor is consulted. If necessary, a third reviewer nominated by the Chief Editor will be brought in to resolve the issue.

For research involving human subjects, authors must declare whether they conducted their experiments following the ethical standards outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki and Independent Data and Safety Monitoring Committee (IDMC). It is important to note that any information that could identify human subjects must not be used. Additionally, reports on experiments should indicate which institutional or national standards were followed. Authors must receive ethical clearance from the appropriate review board (such as an institutional, provincial, or national bioethics committee) before starting any study. In the manuscript, authors are required to provide the name of the ethical review committee and the approval or certificate number. Although the study may have been approved by the Ethical Review Committee, the editorial board or reviewers may still evaluate the article's ethical aspects.

Researchers have a responsibility to protect the rights of study participants and not use them as a means to an end. To empower participants, researchers must obtain written informed consent unless a waiver has been granted by the Ethical Review Committee. The process of obtaining informed consent includes providing understandable information about the study's title, objectives, methodology, risks, benefits, and confidentiality, ensuring comprehension by participants, and allowing voluntary participation. In manuscripts, authors should state how informed consent was obtained from participants of different age groups, genders, and vulnerable populations. Informed consent must include study information, purpose, methodology, confidentiality, possible benefits/risks or discomforts, financial considerations, treatment alternatives, the right to refuse and withdraw, contact details, and an undertaking by the research participant. In the case of mentally incapacitated patients, consent may be obtained from immediate relatives or legal guardians. In community-based studies, participants should agree without coercion or undue inducements. The Journal may ask for copies of informed consent. If it is impossible to obtain informed consent, the reason should be stated in the manuscript, and approval should be taken from the Ethical Review Committee. For more information, refer to the Declaration of Helsinki.

Animal studies, whether involving lab-reared or non-lab-reared vertebrates or invertebrates, must conform to globally recognized animal welfare standards. Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) or its equivalent must approve animal studies, and authors must include this information in the methodology section, citing the approving body's name, certificate number, and issuance date. The Journal retains the right to request additional information regarding animal experiments, and authors should briefly describe the procedures and guidelines they followed regarding animal welfare. Manuscripts that suggest animals have been subjected to unnecessary or avoidable pain/distress will be rejected. Only essential experimentation on animals should occur when no alternatives exist. For more information, please review the International Association of Veterinary Editors' Consensus Author Guidelines on Animal Ethics and Welfare.

Any instances of publication misconduct will be addressed per the guidelines established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Upon receipt of the available evidence, the corresponding author will be contacted and asked to provide an explanation. Depending on the severity of the misconduct, the article may be corrected or retracted. If the authors fail to respond satisfactorily or fail to respond at all, unpublished manuscripts will be dropped from consideration, and published manuscripts will be retracted. The retraction notice will be posted on the website and printed in the journal. In addition, authors who engage in publication misconduct may be blacklisted from further submissions to the journal, and their institutional head may be informed of the situation. Any form of publication misconduct, including plagiarism, fabrication (text or figures), falsification, a duplicate submission, redundant publication, selective and misleading reporting, and selective and misleading referencing, will be subject to strict action.

The Academic Researchers adheres to the guidelines/criteria established by ICMJE, PMC, and HEC for detecting all types of plagiarism, which can be accessed at www.icmje.org, https://www.pmc.gov.pk/, and www.hec.gov.pk. All submitted manuscripts are checked for plagiarism using Turnitin software (courtesy of HEC), and those with a similarity index of more than 19% are not processed further unless rectified. Authors are responsible for detecting plagiarism in any form, including paraphrasing and self- plagiarism. Manuscripts submitted to the journal may be sent to HEC, other medical journal editors, and international agencies for authentication of originality. The Academic Researchers’ disciplinary committee, comprised of staff, editors, and the Chief Editor or his representative, will handle cases of plagiarism. For articles identified as plagiarized, the corresponding author will be required to provide an explanation upon request, and the article will be dropped from further processing/consideration of publication. If the author's response is unsatisfactory, the matter will be referred to the disciplinary committee, which will decide the course of action. In the case of published articles, the allegedly plagiarized article will be temporarily retracted from publication, and a notice will be published in the journal. The author will be asked to provide an explanation, and if there is no response within the given time or an unsatisfactory explanation is provided, the article will be permanently retracted, and the author will be blacklisted. HEC, PMC/PMDC, and the author's institution will be informed, and in the case of multiple submissions, other editors will also be notified. If an author claims intellectual/idea or data theft of an article, they must provide documentary proof to support their claim. If a defense of retraction from publication is pleaded, documentary evidence must be provided.

The Journal follows the Attribution Creative Commons-Noncommercial (CC BY-NC) license, allowing users to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format, remix, transform and build upon the material. The users must credit the source and indicate, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. However, the CC BY-NC license restricts the use of material for commercial purposes. For further details about the license, please check the Creative Commons website. The CC-BY- NC license allows authors to retain copyright and they can use it without any restriction. The editorial board of the Journal strives hard for the authenticity and accuracy of the material published in the Journal. However, findings and statements are the views of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Editorial Board. Many software like (Google Maps, Google Earth, and Biorender (free version)) restricts the free distribution of materials prepared using these softwares. Therefore, authors are strongly advised to check the license/copyright information of the software used to prepare maps/images. In case of publication of copyright material, the correction will be published in one of the subsequent issues of the Journal.

This website is owned and operated by the "Academic Researchers" Journal of Fazaia Ruth Pfau Medical College (FRPMC). The Journal is committed to maintaining confidence and trust with respect to the information it collects from its viewers/users. The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.

All submitted manuscripts are subjected to initial scrutiny by the Editor-in-Chief. Upon receiving initial approval by the Editor-in-Chief article will be proceeded with the peer review process. The journal follows double blind review process. Based on minimum two review comments from independent referees the Editor-in-Chief will take a decision which will be conveyed to the author. If an article is submitted by the Editor-in-Chief/ Co-Editor or Editorial Board Members it will undergo independent peer –review and will be submitted to another Editor for his decision or acceptance for publication. The manuscript must be submitted by the corresponding author and he will be in contact with the editorial office regarding processing and tracking of the article. The manuscript must be written in good English and copyedited prior to submission. The author will confirm that the manuscript is original and has not been submitted for consideration in any other journal or has been published previously. Final decision on the paper to proceed with publication or rejection is made by the Editor-in-Chief. However, the author may request reconsideration of the paper with reasoning and evidence. Criticism on rejection letter could not be made based on difference of opinion, novelty or suitability for the journal. Furthermore, if the editorial decision favors the reconsideration of the article it may again be subjected to peer review process and reconsideration of an article does not guarantee its acceptance for publication. The sequence and list of authors must be confirm at the time of submission and change in author list after submission will not be acceptable. Editorial office must be informed with any changes in the authors’ list during processing of the article with reason and evidence accompanied with a letter signed by all authors confirming that the change is accepted by them. The publisher encourage authors to notify Editorial Office if they find errors in published content, authors’ name and affiliations or if they have reason for concern over the legitimacy of a publication. In such cases the journal will publish an ERRATUM or a CORRIGENDUM in consultation with Editor-in-Chief and authors of the article, and/or replace or retract the article. Corrections will be published as corrigenda (corrections of author’s errors) or errata (corrections of publisher’s errors). Any published material should not be used with obtaining permission from the copyright holder. In case of infringements of professional ethical codes such as plagiarism, fraudulent use of data, fake claims of authorship etc the article will be retracted. The article will be removed from the website and an pdf of statement will appear with published information of the article i.e., title, authors, page numbers and statement of retraction with reason. The journal will not consider translation of published articles. Abstract and posters of conferences, results presented at meetings, result database etc will not be consider prior publication.

Submission of a manuscript to the journal implies that all authors have read and agreed to the content of the undertaking form or the Terms and Conditions. It is a condition of publication that manuscripts submitted to a journal have not been published and will not be simultaneously submitted or published elsewhere. When an article is accepted for publication in the print format, the author(s) are required to transfer Non-exclusive copyright to The Academic Researchers and retain the rights to use and share their published article with others. However, re-submission of the full article or any part for publication by a third party would require prior permission of The Academic Researchers. Articles published in the “Academic Researchers” are open access articles under a Creative Commons Attribution- Noncommercial - Share Alike 4.0 License. This license permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium; provided the original work is properly cited and initial publication in this journal. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access. In addition to that users are allowed to remix, tweak and build upon the work non-commercially as long as appropriate credit is given and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms. Or, in certain cases, it can be stated that all articles and content there in are published under creative commons license unless stated otherwise.

All individuals involved in the peer review process, including authors, editors and reviewers are required to declare any potential competing interests. Competing interests can be financial or non-financial, professional, or personal. Competing interests can arise in relationship to an institution, organization, or another person. Where authors have no competing interests, the statement should read “The author(s) declare(s) that they have no competing interests”. In cases where an undisclosed competing interest comes to light after publication, the journal will follow the guidelines set forth by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Failure to declare competing interests may halt the processing of the manuscript or may lead to the rejection of the manuscript depending on the clarification provided by the author.

• Authors must have substantially contributed to the research by participating in the conception, design, data acquisition, analysis, interpretation, or creating new software used in the work. They should have either drafted the work or made significant revisions to it.
• Authors must have approved the submitted version and any substantial modifications involving their contributions to the study.
• Authors are personally accountable for their contributions and must ensure that questions related to the work's accuracy or integrity are appropriately investigated, resolved, and documented in the literature.
• The journal encourages collaboration with colleagues at the research location, making them co- authors if they fulfill authorship criteria.
• Contributors who do not meet all authorship criteria should be acknowledged in the Acknowledgements section.
• Changes to the author list after submission, including the order, addition, or deletion of authors, must be approved by every author using a change of authorship form.
• Changes in authorship are not permitted after manuscript acceptance.
• All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an ‘Acknowledgements’ section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help or writing assistance, or a department chair who provided only general support.
• All manuscripts must be submitted by an author and may not be submitted by a third party.