Publication Policies

For journals and eBooks, the following publication policies are applied by Whites Science:

Peer Review

Single blind peer-review procedure is followed by Whites Science Publishers for submissions of all manuscripts to its journals, except for a selected journals where double blind review is followed.

All submitted articles/eBook chapters are subject to an extensive peer review in consultation with members of the journal’s editorial board and independent external referees (usually two reviewers). All manuscripts/chapters are assessed rapidly and the decision based on all the peer reviewers comments is taken by the journal’s Editor-in-Chief/Book Editor, is then conveyed to the author(s).

Copyediting and Proofs

Articles and eBook chapters must be written in good English in a clear and correct style in order to maintain uniformity throughout the text. Articles/chapters submitted are copyedited before they are published.

Reprints

High-quality, bound/unbound, print/e-prints can be purchased for all published articles and book chapters.

Editorial Policies

One of the authors of the manuscript would act as a corresponding author. The principal/corresponding author will be required to submit a Copyright Declaration along with the manuscript, on behalf of all the co-authors (if any). The author(s) will confirm that the manuscript (or any part of it) has not been published previously or is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. Furthermore, any illustration, structure or table that has been published elsewhere must be reported, and copyright permission for reproduction must be obtained.

Appeals and Complaints

Authors who wish to make a complaint should refer it to the Editor in Chief of the relevant journal. For edited eBook series, the chapter contributors may direct their complaints to the Editor of the eBook. Complaints to the Publisher may be forwarded to complain@whitesscience.com

Conflict of Interest

Financial contributions to the work being reported should be clearly acknowledged, as should any potential conflict of interest.

Plagiarism Prevention

Whites Science takes utmost care to detect instances of overlapping and similar text in submitted manuscripts.

These are:

• Reproduction of others words, sentences, ideas or findings as one’s own without proper acknowledgement.
• Text recycling, also known as self-plagiarism. It is an author’s use of a previous publication in another paper without proper citation and acknowledgement of the original source.
• Poor paraphrasing: Copying complete paragraphs and modifying a few words without changing the structure of original sentences or changing the sentence structure but not the words.
• Verbatim copying of text without putting quotation marks and not acknowledging the work of the original author.
• Properly citing a work but poorly paraphrasing the original text is considered as unintentional plagiarism. Similarly, manuscripts with language somewhere between paraphrasing and quoting are not acceptable. Authors should either paraphrase properly or quote and in both cases, cite the original source.
• Higher similarity in the abstract, introduction, materials and methods, and discussion and conclusion sections indicates that the manuscript may contain plagiarized text. Authors can easily explain these parts of the manuscript in many ways. However, technical terms and sometimes standard procedures cannot be rephrased; therefore, Editors must review these sections carefully before making a decision.

Plagiarism in Published Manuscripts:

Published manuscripts which are found to contain plagiarized text are retracted from the journal’s website after careful investigation and approval by the Editor-in-Chief of the journal. A ‘Retraction Note’ as well as a link to the original article is published on the electronic version of the plagiarized manuscript and an addendum with retraction notification in the particular journal.

Copyright and License

Open Access Plus (Subscription Journals and eBooks)

Accepted articles can be published online for free open access or subscription-based access depending on the option they choose at the time of submission of the manuscript.

Copyright (Subscription Journals and eBooks)

Editors/Authors who contribute in a Whites Science Journal/eBook will transfer copyright to their work to Whites Science Publishers. Submission of a manuscript to the respective journals implies that all editors/authors have read and agreed to the content of the copyright letter.

Ethical Approval of Studies and Informed Consent

For human or animal experimental investigations, it is a prerequisite to provide a formal review and approval, or review and waiver, by an appropriate institutional review board or ethics committee, which should be documented in the paper. For investigations undertaken on human subjects, the manner in which the informed consent was obtained from the study participants (i.e., oral or written) should be stated in the Methods section.

Authors are encouraged to obtain patient consent when they use confidential case material. Consent is not necessary in the case of very brief case vignettes which do not contain identifying information or if the case material is disguised sufficiently to prevent identification of the patient.

In obtaining consent, the author(s) should discuss the purpose(s) of publication, the possible risks and benefits to the patient and the patient’s right to withhold or withdraw consent. In the case of a minor patient, consent should be obtained from the parent(s) or guardian(s).

Standard Protocol on Approvals, Registrations, Patients Consents & Animal Protection

All clinical investigations must be conducted according to the Declaration of Helsinki principles. Authors must comply with the guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (www.icmje.org) with regard to the patient’s consent for research or participation in a study. Patients’ names, initials, or hospital numbers must not be mentioned anywhere in the manuscript (including figures). Editors may request that authors provide documentation of the formal review and recommendation from the institutional review board or ethics committee responsible for oversight of the study.

Errata and Corrections in Published Articles

Authors and readers are encouraged to notify the Editor-in-Chief if they find errors in published content, authors’ names and affiliations or if they have reasons for concern over the legitimacy of a publication. In such cases the journal will publish an ERRATUM in consultation with Editor-in-Chief and authors of the article, and/or replace or retract the article.

Article Withdrawal

Articles in Press (articles that have been accepted for publication or published as E-pub Ahead of Schedule but which have not been formally published with volume/issue/page information) that include errors, or are determined to violate the publishing ethics guidelines such as multiple submission, fake claims of authorship, plagiarism, fraudulent use of data or the like, may be “Withdrawn” from the journal. Withdrawal means that the article files are removed and replaced with a PDF stating that the article has been withdrawn from the journal in accordance with WSJ Editorial Policies.

Article Retraction

Published articles (with volume/issue/page information) which may contain infringements of professional ethical codes, such as multiple submissions, bogus claims of authorship, plagiarism, fraudulent use of data or the like are retracted.

• A retraction note titled “Retraction: [article title]” signed by the authors and/or the Editor-in-Chief is published in the paginated part of a subsequent issue of the journal and listed in the contents list.
• In the electronic version, a link is made to the original article.
• The online article is preceded by a screen containing the retraction note. It is to this screen that the link resolves; the reader can then proceed to the article itself.
• The original article is retained unchanged with a watermark on the PDF indicating on each page that it is “retracted.”
• The HTML version of the document is removed.

Redundant (multiple) publication/ Re-publication

Abstracts and posters of conferences, results presented at meetings (for example, to inform investigators or participants about findings), results databases (data without interpretation, discussion, context or conclusions in the form of tables and text to describe data/information where this is not easily presented in tabular form) are not considered prior publication.

Authors who wish to publish translations of the articles that have been published elsewhere should ensure that they have appropriate permission(s), indicate clearly that the material has been translated and re-published, and indicate clearly the original source of the material. The Editor-in-Chief may request copies of related publications if he/she is concerned about overlap and possible redundancy.

Permission for Reproduction:

Whites Science may be contacted directly for customer’s licensing, besides rights & permission needs.

Published/reproduced material should not be included unless written permission has been obtained from the copyright holder, which should be forwarded to the Editorial Office in case of acceptance of the article for publication.

Editorial Violation

Authors will be charged 5000 GBP for the violation of ethical guidelines and plagiarism, including self plagiarism.

Publication Fees

Publication fees once paid is not refundable and non transferable.

Disclaimer

Responsibility for the content published by Whites Science Journal (WSJ) in any of its journals, including any opinions expressed therein, rests exclusively with the author(s) of such content. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, WSJ (on its own behalf, and on behalf of its staff and members of its editorial board) disclaims responsibility for any and all injury and/or damage (whether financial or otherwise) to persons or property, resulting directly or indirectly from any ideas, methods, instructions or products (including errors in the same) referred to in the content of any of WS’s journals. Maximum liability of the journal is limited to withdrawal of manuscript from its website.