Responsibilities of the Editors:

• Editors are responsible for sourcing anonymous peer reviews from respected experts to form the basis of their decision making.
• The final decision to accept or reject an article for publication, to be supported by reviewer reports, remains with the editors.
• As a corollary to the above: should editors choose to go against the recommendations of the reviewers, the former must be able to provide a clear and reasonable motivation for doing so.
• The decision to accept or reject an article for publication will be based solely on the merits and quality of the work, regardless of the gender, race, sexual orientation, ethnic origin, religious beliefs, political philosophy, academic seniority, or citizenship of the author(s).
• Potential conflict of interests, or the possibility of the perception of bias in favour of or against potential authors must be made clear to other members of the editorial board, and the relevant member of the editorial staff must refrain from handling the relevant manuscript(s).
• Editors are responsible for publishing clarifications, corrections, apologies, retractions and negations when necessary, and will do as according to COPE’s Guidelines for Retracting Articles.
• Any information concerning a submitted paper or manuscript can only be disclosed to the author(s) of said document, as well to the reviewers and the journal’s editorial board, staff and publisher.
• Authors will be given permission by the editors to access review decisions regarding their articles, provided they do not contain identifiable information.
• Any and all part of the work of the author(s), published or unpublished, and including data, can not be used by editors or anyone involved with the journal or the publisher without the express written approval and consent of the author(s).
• Any ideas, information or knowledge that is obtained from the review process should be kept confidential and cannot be used by the editors or the staff for personal or professional benefit.
• The editors must ensure that advertising, commercial revenues, or reprints have no impact on the editorial decisions taken regarding submissions.

Responsibilities of the Author(s):

• Authors must provide clear and up to date contact information, as well as an accurate description of their current employment and academic position.
• Any connection to LJE editors or other staff or to the Lahore School of Economics must be made clear and transparent on the part of the authors.
• Manuscripts submitted to the LJE must be wholly original and have not been published in one or more primary publications prior to the LJE. Should it be found that the same manuscript or article has been published elsewhere, it will be considered unethical behaviour and will be rejected or retracted by the journal’s editorial board.
• Authors must ensure that any works, words, or ideas from other sources must be properly cited and/or quoted. This includes self-citing work by the author(s) that has been published elsewhere prior to their current submission. Any plagiarism, including self-plagiarism or “text recycling”, will be grounds for retraction or rejection of articles or manuscripts.
• Potential conflict of interests, or the possibility of the perception of bias in favour of or against potential authors must be made clear to other members of the editorial board, and the relevant member of the editorial staff must refrain from handling the relevant manuscript(s).
• Authors must gain consent to use any copyrighted material in their work when necessary.
• Authors must provide a complete and proper acknowledgement of the work of others, if used as a basis for their own work. Any author(s) whose reported work has served as an influence by the authors should be clearly cited.
• Any errors or inaccuracies in the published work must be highlighted by the author(s) and raised with the editors of the journal, and consent to a correction or retraction of the paper in the form of an erratum.
• The authorship of any submitted manuscripts, paper, and articles must be limited to those individuals who have made significant contributions to the design, conception, execution, and/or interpretation of the submitted work. All of those that significantly contributed to the work submitted to the journal should be given authorship.
• Any original research which is submitted must present an accurate description of the work undertaken for the paper, and an objective discussion of the significance of the undertaken work. Any of the underlying data or facts that have been used in the work should be accurately and completely represented in the paper.
• The paper must contain sufficient details of sources and references in order for others to replicate the findings of the paper. Any fraudulent or inaccurate statements as well as misrepresentations of the data and/or facts constitute unethical behaviour and are unacceptable, and will result in the paper being retracted with a statement by the editorial board.
• Authors must be completely transparent in regards to funding via external sources for their research, with mention to be made within the text and to the editors at the time of submission.
• Authors must also must be prepared to provide any raw data which may have been used in connection with the paper for editorial review. Authors must also be prepared and expect to give the editorial board access to said raw data, to be retained by the LJE after a reasonable period of time post publication. The data will not be shared outside the editorial board.
• The author(s) must not use racist or hateful language in their paper, or use ad hominem and/or other forms of abusive rhetoric or fallacious arguments. Doing so will result in an immediate rejection, regardless of any merit of the manuscript itself.

Responsibilities of Reviewers:

• Reviewers must inform editors of any potential conflict of interest concerning manuscripts, institutional affiliations and/or its author(s)
• If a reviewer or reviewers can identify the author(s), they must inform the editors immediately and ask to be removed.
• Reviewers must remain objective and review manuscripts on their merits, with their comments reflecting as such. Ad hominem remarks and other forms of personal criticism by reviewers will not be accepted by the LJE.
• It is the responsibility of reviewers to highlight potential ethical issues with the manuscript and/or its author(s), forwarding concerns to the editors.
• Any findings or information within or linked to the manuscript must not be shared with others outside the review process during and after the review process, save with the LJE’s editors.
• The reviewer must also point out any significant overlap and/or similarity between the manuscript that is being reviewed and any other previously published research to the editor and the author(s).