Policies

About the Journal

Online Media & Society (Quarterly) is peer-reviewed, open access, scholarly journal that provides a dedicated, interdisciplinary forum for international research on all aspects of Digital Social Sciences including Cultural Studies, Anthropology, Political Sciences, International Relations, Sociology, Education, Psychology and Gender Studies but not limited to above domains. The journal publishes new research on digital platforms, social media and related policy. The journal actively encourages both quantitative and qualitative approaches related to digital social sciences. 

Publishing Frequency of the Journal

ISSN (Online): 2790-1882 , ISSN (Print): 2790-1874 

Acceptance Status          : Double Blind Peer Review
Frequency                       : 4 issues per year
Areas covered                 : Social Sciences (Communication)
                                      
To submit manuscript query: [email protected]  

Guidelines for Submission of Articles

  1. Title Page

The title page will remain separate from the manuscript throughout the peer review process and will not be sent to the reviewers. It should include:

  • The manuscript title
  • All authors' names, designations and affiliations
  • A complete address for the corresponding author, including an e-mail address
  • Acknowledgements
  • Conflict of Interests (if any)
  1. Anonymized manuscript

Please remove any identifying information, such as authors' names or affiliations, from your manuscript before submission. Article wording should consist on 5000-10000.

As well as removing names and affiliations under the title within the manuscript, other steps need to be taken to ensure the manuscript is correctly prepared for Triple-blind peer review.

  1. Paper Template 

Please follow this template for the manuscript: Template for Paper

Article / Paper Style

  • Abstract
  • Introduction
  • Literature and Theoretical Framework
  • Methodology
  • Findings and Discussion
  • Conclusion
  • References (APA Format)

Submit your Article: Through Online System

Submission Link: https://hnpublisher.com/ojs/index.php/OMS/login   

Peer Review Policy

Online Media and Society follows the Triple-Blind Peer Review process and two experts are chosen from international (abroad) technologically advanced countries and one from local (within Pakistan) serving in reputable HEC recognized universities/institutes as regular faculty members having PhD degree in the relevant filed to review an article.

Both the reviewer and the author remain anonymous.

Author anonymity prevents any reviewer bias, for example, based on an author's country of origin or previous controversial work.

Important Note

For journals that use Triple-blind peer review, the identities of both reviewers and authors remain concealed from each other throughout the review. To facilitate this, authors must ensure that their manuscripts are prepared in such a way that they do not reveal their identities to the reviewers, either directly or indirectly.

Originality and Plagiarism Policy

Online Media and Society follow the HEC (Pakistan) policies regarding Turnitin Originality Report and Plagiarism.

A zero-tolerance policy on plagiarism issue. Online Media and Society aims for original script having below 18% Turnitin Originality Report with single source similarity below 5%.

For more information visit HEC relevant Weblinks:

https://www.hec.gov.pk/english/services/faculty/Plagiarism/Pages/default.aspx
How to Interpret Originality Report (Guidelines)
Guidelines on 'Ethics of Using Turnitin' for Administrators
Guidelines on 'Ethics of Using Turnitin' for Instructors 
HEC Plagiarism Policy 
Plagiarism Little Book

Ethical Guidelines

To promote quality research in true spirit, following the ethics for authors, editors and reviewers are mandatory. In research scenario, ethical role of each party (author, editor and reviewer) is pre-defined. Ethical guidelines for authors, editors and reviewers are given below;

Guidelines for Authors (As per HEC)

Reporting Standards:

Authors must maintain research standard while submitting research article to the journal with basic article segments and the contact should be rich in quality content.

Originality and Plagiarism:

Article submitted for publication must have less than 18% plagiarism single source less than 5% plagiarism.

Declaration:

Authors are required to provide an undertaking / declaration stating that the manuscript under consideration contains solely their original work that is not under consideration for publishing in any other journal in any form.

Multiple, Redundant and Current Publication:

Authors should not submit manuscripts describing essentially the same research to more than one journal or publication except if is a re-submission of a rejected or withdrawn manuscript.

Acknowledgment of Sources:

A paper must always contain proper acknowledgment of the work of others, including clear indications of the sources of all information quoted or offered, except that what is common knowledge as well acknowledge the contribution of people, organizations or what so ever who have helped researcher (s) at any stage in the research work.

Authorship of the Work:

Authorship of the work may only be credited to those who have made a noteworthy contribution in conceptualization, design, conducting, data analysis and writing up of the manuscript. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to include name of only those co-authors who have made significant contributions to the work.

Privacy of Participants:

Authors must respect the privacy of the participant of research and must not use any information obtained from them without their informed consent.

Data Access and Retention:

If question arises about the accuracy or validity of the research work during the review process the author(s) should provide raw data to the editor.

Images:

The author(s) should ensure that images included in an account of research performed or in the data collection as part of the research are free from manipulation. Authors must provide an accurate description of how the images were generated and produced. In case of the use of picture from other source as literature review, describe proper source (citation).

Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest:

The potential and relevant competing financial, personal social or other interest of all author(s) that might be affected by publication of the results contained in the manuscript must be conveyed to the editor.

Author(s) should disclose any potential conflict of interest at the earliest possible stage, including but not limited to employment, consultancies, honoraria, patent applications/registrations, grants or other funding.

Manuscript Acceptance and Rejection:

The review period can last between 1-2 months or longer and during this period author has reserve a right to contact editor to ask about the status of the review. Once the review process has been completed, the author will be informed about the status of the manuscript which could either be an acceptance, rejection or made revision. In the event of rejection, the Author reserves the right to publish the article elsewhere.

Ethical Guidelines for Editors (As per HEC)

Online Media and Society follows ethical guidelines for editors issued by the HEC

Editor of Online Media and Society research journal is responsible for:

  • To establish and maintain quality of the journal by publishing quality papers in his/her journal,
  • Providing integrity and credibility of the research contributions,
  • Meeting the needs of authors and readers,
  • Maintaining ethical standards of their journal,
  • Providing corrigendum for any correction, clarification and apologies where required.

 Good practices for their job would include to:

  • encourage new ideas and suggestions of authors, peer reviewers, members of editorial board and readers for improving quality of his/her journal,
  • apply the process of blind peer review in true letter and spirit,
  • promote innovative findings in respective field and publishing them on priority,
  • promote anti plagiarism policy,
  • educate contributors (authors) about ethical practices in research, and
  • implement the journals policy without institutional pressure and revise the policy from time to time.
  1. Formation of Editorial Board
  • Editor must ensure that editorial board comprises of prominent scholars of the field who can adequately promote the journal,
  • The editorial board shall be comprised of:
    • Editorial Committee, who will be responsible for providing logistics, and
    • Advisory Committee, who will be responsible for reviewing the submitted research papers. This committee should have at least 50% representation of scholars from abroad.
    • May appoint editorial board members for a prescribed duration and add or revise the board if required,
    • Editor should inform new board members about ethical guidelines and their expected role and update editorial board members about development, challenges and any changes made in the journal policy,
    • The editorial board should maintain the quality of the journal because an assigned category by the HEC (e.g., W, X, and Y categories) will depend on the quality of published papers in it. It is professional duty of the board members to select credible research work, and
    • To ensure smooth functioning of the journal, editors are responsible to conduct the editorial board meetings on regular basis (at least twice a year).
  1. Fair play and Impartiality
  • The criteria for the selection of research papers must be impartial and editor should select academically and scientifically sound papers,
  • Editor should:
    • Promptly respond to the author(s) of the papers submitted for publication, and
    • Assign a specific number to an article submitted for processing; and pay impartial consideration to all research papers submitted for publication
  • ensure to evaluate (get evaluated) the content of research papers impartially and on merit, and
  • disregard the discriminating factors, e.g. gender, race, ethnicity, religious belief, cultural sentiments, political affiliation, seniority and/or institutional association of the author(s) while selecting articles for publication, and
  • ensure impartiality of the review process by informing reviewer (s) that s/he needs to disclose any conflicts of interest regarding the submitted research paper.
  1. Confidentiality
  • The editor must ensure confidentiality of the author(s) and reviewers during the process of double-blind peer review,
  • Information pertaining to a research paper should not be disclosed by the editor to anyone except the author(s), reviewer(s), and editorial board members,
  • Upon reaching a decision about a research paper, the editor may only disclose or announce title of the study and name of the author(s) that has been accepted for publication. Any other information may only be disclosed with the prior approval of the author(s), and
  • Confidentiality of the participants of the research should also be ensured by protecting personal information (e.g. identifiable personal details, images, and/or individual results), editor should declare clear guidelines to the contributors (authors) regarding confidentiality of the individual participant.
  • Prior to publication, the content of the manuscript should be kept confidential, both the editor and reviewer(s) will not share or use any part of the work.
  1. Editing and Formatting Guidelines
  • The editors should prepare clear guidelines about preparing and formatting of a paper and print these guidelines in each issue of the journal,
  • The guidelines should cover information related to content and format of a research paper,
  • Any preferred manual of style (e.g. APA, Chicago Manual, MLA Style, etc.) should be declared as a policy decision.
  1. Review Process
  • Details about review process should be declared,
  • Editor should ensure that all published papers have gone through a double-blind peer review, and at least one of the reviewers is from outside the country,
  • Editor should ensure that peer-review is masked in both directions and as such the identity of the author is removed from the manuscript prior to its review in order to protect the confidentially and privacy,
  • Editor should provide sufficient guidelines to reviewers, including necessary information about the review process and provide them a reviewer comment form for recording his/her comments,
  • Editor must ensure that peer review process is prompt, nondiscriminatory and highly professional,
  • Editor should develop a system of confidentiality of research papers undergoing the review process,
  • Editor is required to send reviewers comments to author(s) promptly,
  • Editor should ensure that the corrections suggested by the reviewers are incorporated by the author(s) in letter and spirit,
  • Editor to critically evaluate peer review practices regularly and make improvement, if, required,
  • Editor should maintain a database of competent and qualified reviewers. For this purpose, s/he may use various sources other than personal contacts to identify new reviewers (e.g. referring by author(s), citations and references section in a book/journal), and
  • Editor should refer trouble cases (e.g. in case of one acceptance and one rejection or any conflict arisen after review) to advisory committee in order to resolve the matter amicably. 
  1. Dealing with Misconduct
  • Editor should encourage reviewers to comment on ethical issues and possible research and publication misconduct in case the submitted research paper has indulged in (e.g. inappropriate research design, incomplete detail on participants consent, data manipulation, presentation,
  • Editor should encourage reviewers to comment on the validity of submitted research paper and identify subtle (simply copy-paste) and/or blatant (paraphrasing) type of plagiarism, if, practiced by the author(s),
  • Editor should confirm plagiarism (carry out objective check through Turnitin) and/or searching for similar titles to the submitted research paper, and
  • Editor should be prepared to publish a corrigendum, remove and retract a plagiarized article if it comes to his/her knowledge subsequent to its publication
  1. Transparency
  • Editor must ensure that multiple papers as a principal investigator submitted by an author should not be published in the same issue,
  • Only ONE co-authorship will be allowed for those author who will also contribute a research paper as a principal investigator in the same issue,
  • For the members of the editorial board (including the editor), it will only be limited to ONE paper per issue either to submit research paper as a principal investigator or co-author, and
  • Editor should adopt authorship or co-authorship policy that will lead to set example in the scientific community and strictly discourage any misconduct (e.g. forcible inclusion of a name in the author list). Authorship should only be given to those individuals who have substantially contributed in the said article.
  1. Conflict of Interest
  • Editor should not edit a submitted paper for those author(s) and/or institution against which s/he has any conflicts of interest (e.g. resulting from competitive, collaborative and/or professional standing),
  • Editor should also apply this guideline on their reviewers and editorial board members.
  • To ensure unbiased review, the editor should declare a clear cut policy for his/her own submission and a research paper submitted by a editorial board member, and
  • Editor must publish a list of common interests (e.g. financial, academic and/or any other type) for all editorial board members and editorial staff. This list should be updated from time to time.
  • To ensure unbiased review, the editor should declare a clear cut policy for his/her own submission and a research paper submitted by a editorial board member.
  • Suggested that "decision pertaining to the editors submitted article/s, one of the associate editors must decide and the information about reviewers should be kept confidential from the editor.
  1. Disclosure
  • Editor must not use any unpublished information/data from the submitted research paper without the permission of the author(s), and
  • Any information received after peer review process must be kept confidential and not used for personal gains.
  1. Publication Decisions
  • Editor to only short list research papers which have relevancy with the scope of the journal based on his/her judgment, but without any prejudice,
  • After completion of the reviewing process, submission of revised manuscript, and assessing the quality and validity, the editor has a right to accept or reject a research paper,
  • Editors decisions to accept or reject a paper for publication should be purely based on merit, academic standards and professional demands of the journal,
  • Editor must justify the reasons of rejecting a research paper to author(s). This may include:
    • Failure to fit in the scope of the journal (can be communicated after preliminary review)
    • Insufficient depth of content
    • Major errors related to design, analysis, write up and format
    • Any misconduct or conflicting factors (e.g. plagiarism, copyright infringement, legal issues, fake data, authorship issues)
    • Editors are required to timely communicate the editorial decision to the author(s),
    • Editors should not reverse decisions in favor or against author(s) at his/her own.
  1. Establishing a Procedure for Appeal
  • Editor is responsible for establishing a proper mechanism for appeals launched against:
    • the rejection of a research paper
    • objections to publications causing harm to any party
    • infringing ethical boundaries in any manner.

Guideline for Reviewers (As per HEC)

The journal follows the review guidelines of Committee of Publication Ethics (COPE) as well as of Higher Education Commission (HEC) Pakistan.

However, to makes easy decision about the manuscript there are some guidelines that may leads reviewer towards final decision;

Scope of the Article & Conflict of Interest: If article is according to the reviewer subject area and there is no conflict of interest, then procced further otherwise inform the editor to send somewhere else for better decision.

If article is according to your subject expertise, then basic point that need to be checked in the article;

  • Basic Article Structure
  • Standard of Grammar of the Manuscript
  • Contribution in Scientific (Subject) Knowledge
  • Theoretical Contribution &
  • Benefit for Policy Making and Societal Promotion

Basic structure of the article that must fulfil the international standard of research article i.e.,

Abstract,

Introduction,

Literature review,

Theoretical Framework,

Methodology,

Results/Findings,

Discussion,

Conclusion and

References

While Final Decision, following point may help you choosing the right option about the manuscript;

  1. If the article fulfils all the above-mentioned points, final decision may be     ACCEPT AS IT IS
  2. If the article fulfils the core above 5 points but has few deficiencies in the structure of the article, final decision may be    ACCEPT WITH MINOR REVISIONS
  3. If the article fulfils some the above core 5 points as well as article structure has not been followed and missing at least half of the segments of the standard article structure i.e., Abstract, Introduction, Literature Review, Theoretical Framework, Methodology, Results/Findings, Discussion, Conclusion and References, the final decision may be   MAJOR REVISIONS REQUIRED
  4. If the article not fulfils most of the above core 5 points as well as article structure has not been followed and missing at most of the segments of the standard article structure i.e., Abstract, Introduction, Literature Review, Theoretical Framework, Methodology, Results/Findings, Discussion, Conclusion and References, the final decision may be   ARTICLE REJECTED

Author Agreement Form

The editor of Online Media and Society send agreement form (authorship form) to the corresponding author to make sure that complete information of the author (s) have been provided and email addresses and ORCID of all authors are given. Furthermore, corresponding author, need to read and agree the statement i.e., the submitted article is original work and has not been submitted elsewhere for publication and free from plagiarism.

Desk Review

After submission of the article, the desk review of the article is started. The chief editor, send manuscript to the section editor (specific to his/her subject). This desk review process average take place in 1 week.

Peer Review

Upon positive comments from the section editor, the article is sent to the reviewers (Qualified foreigners, usually technological advanced countries as well as Pakistani experts) to take their commented on the manuscript. Usually, this review process consists on 4-6 weeks.

Acceptance

Upon positive comments from the reviewers and incorporations of reviewers' recommendations and upon the recommendation of the section editor, the article is accepted for publication. An acceptance email is sent to the author (s).

Average Publication Time

The average time of article submission to publication take place 60 days.

Desk Review: 1 Week

Peer Review: 4-6 Weeks

Author (s) Revisions: 1-2 Weeks

Copyediting & Production: 1-2 Weeks

Publication/Processing Fee

Article Processing Charges for the articles submitted to Online Media and Society are Rs. 30,000/-

Licensing Information

Authors who publish in Online Media and Society can share their research in several ways. Researchers who have subscribed access to articles published by Online Media and Society can share too. There are some simple guidelines to follow, which vary depending on the article version you wish to share. Online Media and Society for article sharing on Scholarly Collaboration Networks and a member of the Coalition for Responsible Sharing.

  • via their non-commercial personal homepage or blog
  • via their research institute or institutional repository for internal institutional uses or as part of an invitation-only research collaboration work-group
  • directly by providing copies to their students or to research collaborators for their personal use

Online Media and Society is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Open Access Policy

Online Media and Society is an Open Access journal, which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author.

Copyright

Submission of a paper also implies that, round the process the author(s) will have the copyright of the article.

Note:

Editor reserves the right to amend, abridge or otherwise alter the contents of the paper to make it suitable for publication. However, every endeavor will be made not to affect the spirit or effectiveness of the paper.