Author's Guideline (Submission Guidelines)
Authors can submit their articles, case studies, conceptual papers, etc. by sending Word documents to joc@hcc.edu.pk. Note: We do not charge any publication Fee
We are considering submissions with the YPYW policy, which had been initiated by Elsevier and is now adopted by numerous journals. It is a straightforward submission system aimed at facilitating authors and reducing the burden of formatting and arranging manuscripts. It also saves time and energy in preparing manuscripts for submission. But there are some general guidelines for the preparation of the manuscript, provided below:
• The author should submit the manuscript as a single WORD file containing text, tables, and figures.
• Figures should be of high enough quality for refereeing.
• There are no specific formatting guidelines but a standard manuscript should have Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Literature Review, Methodology, Results, Discussion, Implications, Limitations & future direction, and Conclusions as the major sections.
• We prefer APA (latest edition) as the formatting and referencing guidelines, but references maintained in any other style would also be acceptable for review. If the manuscript is accepted the authors would then have to format the manuscript as per the APA guidelines.
General Instructions and Formatting
Length of Paper
The manuscript should not exceed 8000 words (including text, tables, figures, and references).
Language
The language of the manuscript should be English (preferably British)
First page
The first page of the manuscript should have (i) the title of the article, authors’ details (names, affiliations, and contact details), conflict of interest statement, acknowledgments, abstract, and keywords.
• Title: should not exceed 18 words
• Author(s) name and Affiliation(s)
o Author(s) should indicate the given name and family name. Present the authors' affiliation addresses (where the actual work was done) below the names. Indicate all affiliations with a lower-case superscript letter immediately after the author's name and in front of the appropriate address. Provide the full postal address of each affiliation, including the country name and, if available, the email address and telephone number of each author.
o Author(s) should not mention names and affiliations in the main text of the manuscript
• Corresponding Author
• Indicate who is willing to handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing, publication, and post-publication. Ensure that telephone numbers (with country and area code) are provided in addition to the email address and the complete postal address.
• Sponsoring/ Funding Source Information
• If the research is sponsored or supported by an organization, please indicate it. If the research is sponsored or supported by an organization, please indicate it.
Abstract
A concise and factual abstract is required (maximum length of 250 words). The abstract should state briefly the purpose of the research, the method, the principal results, and the major conclusions and implications.
Keywords
Maximum 5 keywords describing the nature of the problem investigated, theme of study, and relevancy of specialized field. Be specific by avoiding long phrases. Avoid conjunctions such as “and”. Only use abbreviations or acronyms that are quite common and well-known.
Subdivision of the Articles
Author(s) should subdivide their article into various sections. They may use heading style from APA heading style.
Table and Figures
Author(s) may present tables and figures in line with the text. Please note that the article will be published in black and white. References
References
Author(s) should preferably follow the latest edition of APA style in referencing. Please visit www.apastyle.org to learn more about APA style.
• Citations in the text
o Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa).
• Reference List
o References should be arranged according to APA (latest edition) style of referencing
Plagiarism Policy
The Journal of Commerce follows the HEC guidelines/criteria for all types of plagiarism. The same can be accessed at HEC Plagiarism Policy. All the submitted manuscripts are subjected to plagiarism checking through the software Turnitin (courtesy HEC). Manuscripts with similarity index more than 19% are not processed further unless rectified. It is the authors' responsibility to apprise themselves of plagiarism in any form including paraphrasing and self-plagiarism.
For a plagiarized article (multiple submissions) in processing, the identification of act will lead to dropping of article from further processing / consideration of publication. The corresponding author will be required to give an explanation on demand. In case of an unsatisfactory reply, the matter will be referred to the disciplinary committee that may decide the course of action. For a published article, the allegedly plagiarized article will be temporarily retracted from publication and a notice to the effect will be published in the JOC. The author will be served an explanation demand. In case of non-response in the stipulated time or unsatisfactory explanation, the article will be permanently retracted and the author will be blacklisted. HEC and author's institute will also be notified. In case of multiple submissions, other editors will also be informed. The author(s) will have to provide documentary proof of retraction from publication, if such a defense is pleaded. Those claiming intellectual / idea or data theft of an article must provide documentary proof in their claim.
Review Guidelines
Reviewers should respond with in stipulated time frame, which is one week (7 days) for the journal. Reviewers should try to fill in all the parts of reviewer’s report so that a fair judgment regarding the quality of the paper can be made As review is essential step towards publication process, every reviewer is therefore supposed to be fair in reviewing. Any reviewer who feels him/herself as unqualified, or not having judgment idea or deficit of time should inform editor promptly, so that the paper can be forwarded elsewhere. The review should be objective one, and personal feelings, judgments or biasness should not affect the review and its outcomes. A reviewer should not review a paper that discusses any point that might have conflict of opinion with reviewer. No manuscript should be reviewed which is authored, co-authored or authored by some known person/s, in order to avoid biasness. A manuscript sent for review is confidential document, so it should be treated fairly and secretary and should not be shown somewhere else. Reviewers should comment on each point clearly so that the judgment regarding acceptance/rejection or changes may be made on the basis of review If reviewer notices any similarity with any other paper published in any other journal, containing same contents and that issued should be addressed to editor.
Submission Preparation Checklist
Before submitting the manuscript, author(s) should check the following list:
• Author(s) make sure to read all the guidelines of the journal.
• The submission is neither published elsewhere nor under consideration
• The submission is in Word format
• The submission could be asked for changes (related to formatting, referencing etc.) after acceptance
• The author(s) must not mention their name and affiliation in the main text.
• A conflict-of-interest statement should be submitted by the author(s).
• Authorship certificate (mentioning contribution and originality of the manuscript) should be submitted at the time of submission.
• A plagiarism report should be submitted along with the manuscript.
Peer Review Process
The peer review process is one of the most important and fundamental components of the publication process. The credibility and reputation of a journal mainly depend on the integrity of the peer review process and the trust of authors. The Journal of Commerce (JOC) likes to assure the research community that it applies a very stringent and rigorous peer review process in order to deliver high-quality content to its widespread readers around the globe. JOC is releasing its 10th volume and would like to move towards higher review standards and strict control over submissions in accordance with the new reduced domain (commerce, business, and economics rather than the wide domain of all social sciences previously) following the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan (HEC) guidelines. HEC assesses all documentation (including peer review documents) for recognition/accreditation, annual funding, and up-gradation of its recognized/accredited journals. Journals not following the peer review and other guidelines of HEC can also be delisted from HEC recognized/accredited status thus losing their annual financial support from HEC.
Being an HEC-recognized/accredited journal, JOC follows peer review guidelines of HEC in true letter and spirit to meet the requirements of annual funding. All papers submitted to JOC undergo a rigorous internal and external review by experts in the relevant area of interest.
Internal Review
Each paper goes through an internal review by a relevant editorial board member to determine whether it is properly formatted, within the scope of JOC, and follows the publication ethics. The board member would also consider whether basic protocols of research have been followed in research design/analysis and contribution to the literature. Papers that do not meet the basic requirements are not sent out for external review, and the authors are generally informed within 1 to 2 weeks.
External Review
JOC follows a double-blind review process after a paper is screened through the internal review. Authors are requested not to include their personal information in the text of the paper. They are further indicated not to post their papers on any website to prevent their identity to potential reviewers. Reviewers are also expected to refuse if they come to know about the identification of the author(s) of a paper referred to them for peer review.
External reviewers (1-2) generally comment and suggest originality, quality of presentation, research design, data/results/conclusions, usefulness of the study, and interest to the research community. During an external review, if reviewers find that the research paper has major flaws that cannot be resolved through major revision, they can recommend declining the paper.
