Editorial Policy

Journal Editorial Policy
Har Krishan Bhalla and Sons (HKB) publishes scholarly journals committed to academic excellence, ethical integrity, and transparency. This policy applies to all journals published by HKB.

Affiliations
Authors are expected to include all institutional affiliations relevant to the completion, approval, or support of the submitted work. Non-research submissions must include the author’s current affiliation. When an author has moved to a different institution prior to publication, the original affiliation should be retained, with a footnote indicating the current institution. Authors without an institutional affiliation should identify themselves as independent.

Authorship
Authorship is limited to individuals who have made substantial scholarly contributions. All authors must approve the final manuscript. Guest, gift, or ghost authorship is not permitted.

Images and Figures
Figures must be original or used with permission. Inappropriate image manipulation is prohibited and may result in rejection or retraction.

Research Ethics and Consent
Research involving humans or animals must comply with applicable ethical standards and approvals. Informed consent must be obtained where required.

Use of Third-Party Material
You must secure the appropriate permission before reusing any third-party material in your article. Such materials may include, but are not limited to, text, illustrations, photographs, tables, data, audio, video, film stills, screenshots, or musical notation. In some cases, using short excerpts of text or certain other materials may be allowed on a limited basis for purposes of criticism or review without formal permission. However, if you wish to include any material for which you do not hold copyright and which is not covered by these informal allowances, you must obtain written permission from the copyright owner before submitting your paper.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)
AI tools may be used to support research or writing, but must be disclosed. Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, and integrity of the work. AI tools cannot be listed as authors.

Citations
All sources must be appropriately cited. Citation manipulation or excessive self-citation is not acceptable.

Competing Interests
Authors, editors, and reviewers must disclose any financial or non-financial conflicts of interest. Relevant disclosures will be published.

Funding
All sources of funding must be disclosed, including the role of funders in the research and publication process.

Peer Review
All submissions undergo peer review (single-blind, double-blind, or open, as defined by the journal). Reviewers must act objectively and declare conflicts of interest.

Plagiarism
Manuscripts may be screened using plagiarism detection tools. Plagiarism or unacceptable text overlap will result in editorial action.

Appeals and Complaints
Authors may appeal editorial decisions through a formal written request. Complaints regarding editorial processes or ethics are handled confidentially and reviewed by senior editorial staff.

Corrections, Expressions of Concern, and Retractions
HKB journals correct the scholarly record when necessary through corrections, expressions of concern, or retractions, following recognised publishing best practices.

Data Availability and Deposition
Authors are encouraged to make data publicly available through recognized repositories. Any restrictions must be clearly stated.

Designations of Territories
HKB journals remain neutral regarding jurisdictional claims in maps, institutional affiliations, and territorial descriptions.

Editor Code of Conduct
Editors act independently, fairly, and confidentially. Editorial decisions are based solely on scholarly merit and relevance.

Harassment
HKB maintains a zero-tolerance policy toward harassment, discrimination, or bullying in all editorial and peer-review activities.

Misconduct
Research and publication misconduct, including fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, and duplicate publication, will be investigated and addressed appropriately.

Preprints and Early Reporting
Submission of manuscripts previously posted on recognized preprint servers is permitted, provided this is disclosed at submission.

Standards of Reporting
Authors should follow recognized reporting guidelines relevant to their discipline to ensure transparency and reproducibility.

Special Issues and Conference Proceedings
Special issues, supplements, and conference proceedings follow the same editorial and peer-review standards as regular journal issues.

Policy Review
This policy is periodically reviewed and updated to reflect evolving standards in scholarly journals.