Submissions

Author Guidelines

Authors are invited to make a submission to this journal by Registering to this website. All submissions will be assessed by an editor to determine whether they meet the aims and scope of this journal. Those considered to be a good fit will be sent for peer review before determining whether they will be accepted or rejected.

All incomplete submission will be deleted from the system without further notice.

Before making a submission, authors are responsible for obtaining permission to publish any material included with the submission, such as photos, documents and datasets. All authors identified on the submission must consent to be identified as an author. Where appropriate, research should be approved by an appropriate ethics committee in accordance with the legal requirements of the study's country.

An editor may desk reject a submission if it does not meet minimum standards of quality. Before submitting, please ensure that the study design and research argument are structured and articulated properly. The title should be concise and the abstract should be able to stand on its own. This will increase the likelihood of reviewers agreeing to review the paper. When you're satisfied that your submission meets this standard, please follow the checklist below to prepare your submission.

The author guidelines for the South India Journal of Social Sciences (SIJSS) are as follows:

1. Manuscript preparation: Manuscripts should be prepared in accordance with the guidelines defined by SIJSS, which can be downloaded from the journal’s website ( TEMPLATE ).
2. Submission: Manuscripts should be submitted online through the journal’s website only.
3. Authorship: All authors should have made significant contributions to the manuscript, and all listed authors should have approved the final version of the manuscript.
4. Originality: Manuscripts should be original and should not have been published previously or be under consideration for publication elsewhere.
5. Plagiarism: Please ensure that the content of your manuscript is original and has not been plagiarized from other sources and abide by the terms and conditions of the UGC Plagiarism Policy. Articles submitted without Plagiarism report attached are deemed to be rejected.
6. Length: Manuscripts should be between 3,500 and 4,000 words, including references and appendices, should not exceed more than 10 Pages. 
7. Formatting: Manuscripts should be formatted accordance with the formatting guidelines of the Journal, which can be downloaded here
8. Abstract and keywords: Manuscripts should include an abstract of no more than 250 words and up to five keywords that describe the manuscript’s main themes.
9. References: References should be cited in-text using the author-date system and listed in alphabetical order at the end of the manuscript. The journal follows the APA referencing style, and  it is recommended to limit the number of references to around 15 sources per article.   
10. Figures and tables: Figures and tables should be included in the manuscript and should be numbered and labelled appropriately. They should be placed within the text at the appropriate locations.
11. Ethics: Authors should follow ethical principles in academic publishing and should ensure that their research does not violate ethical standards.

UGC's Plagiarism Policy

As per the University Grants Commission (UGC) Regulations on Minimum Qualifications for Appointment of Teachers and Other Academic Staff in Universities and Colleges and Measures for the Maintenance of Standards in Higher Education, 2018, the plagiarism policy for academic publications should follow the guidelines provided in the UGC (Promotion of Academic Integrity and Prevention of Plagiarism in Higher Educational Institutions) Regulations, 2018.

The UGC regulations define plagiarism as the “act of using the work of another person (including their ideas, concepts, and expressions) without giving due credit or acknowledgement” and apply to all forms of academic publications, including research papers, books, theses, and dissertations. The key features of the UGC’s plagiarism policy include:

1. Definition of plagiarism: Plagiarism is defined as the practice of using someone else’s work or ideas without proper citation or acknowledgement, presenting it as one’s own.
2. Similarity index: The UGC regulation recommends that all manuscripts should be checked for similarity using appropriate software, and the similarity index should be reported in the manuscript.
3. Acceptable level of similarity: The acceptable level of similarity in academic publications is up to 10% for research articles. However its advised to go through Plagiarism Policy of UGC.
4. Consequences of plagiarism: If plagiarism is detected in a submitted manuscript, the manuscript should be rejected, and the authors should be notified. The authors may be prohibited from submitting to the journal in the future.
5. Ethical considerations: Academic institutions and journals should ensure that ethical standards and principles of academic publishing are followed, and any instances of academic misconduct, including plagiarism, should be taken seriously and addressed appropriately.
6. Self-plagiarism: Authors should not submit manuscripts that have been previously published, either in whole or in part. Authors should ensure that their manuscripts are original and have not been submitted to any other journal