Ethical and Malpractice Policy

Ethical Policy

Review of Applied Health Research - RAHS follows rigorous ethical standards for publishing articles. RAHS ethics and malpractice statement is conceptualized on the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines. The author (s) are solely responsible for the originality and reliability of the research outcomes and must comply with the following rules.

  • Data and findings of the research shall be provided only if they are real and reliable.
  • The findings of the highlighted research issue must be original.
  • The contribution of other works shall be acknowledged and referred to appropriately. Data sources and supporting evidence must be cited accurately in the text and references section.
  • Any manuscript shall not be submitted if it is already published or sent for publication in another journal.
  • There shall be no violation of copyrights in the text, tables, graphics, and formulas of the manuscript.
  • RAHS strictly condemns breaches of research ethics and copyright infringement in submitted articles. Authors are responsible for any manifestations of plagiarism in their manuscripts, and the editorial board takes rigorous steps to prevent such violations.
  • The authors are accountable for the accuracy of provided information, i.e., facts, personal, geographical, companies, organizational and institutional names, etc.  
  • The opinions expressed in research articles are by the authors and do not necessarily suggest the viewpoints of the editorial board. Therefore, no obligation is imposed on the RAHS editorial team in this context.

Complaint & Misconduct Policy

Review of Applied Health Research - RAHS welcomes complaints by considering them an opportunity for improvement and aims to respond quickly and constructively.

What is a Complaint?

Our comprehension of a complaint is as follows:

  1. The complainant defines his or her expression of unhappiness as a complaint.
  2. We infer that the complainant is not simply disagreeing with a decision we have made or something we have published but thinks there has been a process failure—for example, an unacceptably long delay or a rude response—or a severe misjudgment.
  3. The complaint must be about something within the responsibility of RAHS’s editorial division, i.e., content or process.

Complaint Making Process

  • All complaints will be acknowledged.
  • Complaints should be made either by sending an email to editor.rahs@internationalrasd.org or by posting to the address “House No. 219, Model Town B, Bahawalpur, Pakistan”.
  • Whenever possible, complaints will be dealt with by the editorial team member to whom they are made. If that person cannot deal with the complaint, he or she will refer it to the editor-in-chief.
  • If the complainant remains unhappy, complaints should be escalated to the editor-in-chief, whose decision is final.
  • If possible, a definitive response will be made within two weeks. If this is not possible, an interim response will be given within two weeks. Interim responses will be provided until the complaint is finally resolved.

 The process to Deal with Issues of Misconduct

The RAHS thinks institutions and journals should promote best practices among researchers, authors, reviewers, and editors. To maintain integrity and deal with misconduct allegations, the editor can be contacted at editor.rahs@internationalrasd.org or the official address “House No. 219, Model Town B, Bahawalpur, Pakistan”. The editor is responsible for investigating misconduct by researchers and finding misconduct that could affect the reliability or attribution of published work (e.g., fabrication or plagiarism). Where possible, the evidence could be provided to support allegations of misconduct or questionable practices (e.g. copies of overlapping publications, evidence of plagiarism). Retractions or corrections are issued when provided with findings of misconduct arising from appropriate investigations. Hence, it is advised that the authors and reviewers should read the guidelines provided on the journal’s website and must strictly adhere to all aspects of publication ethics.

Corrections and Retractions Policy

If there is suspicion of misbehaviour or alleged fraud, the journals and/or publisher will investigate following COPE guidelines. If there are valid concerns after an investigation, the authors will be contacted and given an opportunity to address the issue. Depending on the situation, this may result in the journal and/or publisher’s implementation of the following measures, including, but not limited to:

  • Rejecting the manuscript if it is still under consideration.
  • If the article has already been published online, depending on the nature and severity of the infraction:
  1. An erratum/correction may be placed with the article.
  2. The article may be placed with an editor’s note or editorial expression of concern.
  3. Or, in severe cases, retraction of the article may occur.

The reason will be given in the published erratum/correction, editor’s note, editorial expression of concern, or retraction notice.

NOTE: Please note that retraction means that the article is maintained on the platform watermarked “retracted,” and the explanation is provided in a note linked to the watermarked article.

  • The author’s institution may be informed.
  • A notice of suspected transgression of ethical standards in the peer review system may be included as part of the author’s and article’s bibliographic record.

Please see the author name change policy for the authors intending to change their names and wishing to correct it on their published works.

Author Name Change

Author who has changed their names for reasons such as gender transition or religious conversion may request for their names, pronouns, and other relevant biographical information to be corrected on papers published before the change.  The author can choose for this correction to happen silently, in which case there will be no note flagging the change on either the PDF or the HTML of the paper, or alternatively, they may do so by a formal public Author Correction.

Removal of Published Content

In exceptional circumstances, the Review of Applied Health Research - RAHS reserves the right to remove an article, chapter, book, or other content from the online platforms of the International Research Alliance for Sustainable Development (iRASD). Such action may be taken when (i) Review of Applied Health Research - RAHS has been advised that content is defamatory, infringes a third party’s intellectual property right, right to privacy, or other legal rights, or is otherwise unlawful; (ii) a court or government order has been issued, or is likely to be issued, requiring removal of such content; (iii) content, if acted upon, would pose an immediate and serious risk to health. Removal may be temporary or permanent. Bibliographic metadata (e.g. title and authors) will be retained and accompanied by a statement explaining why the content has been removed.