Editorial Policy

SLBMJ is an international peer-reviewed journal dedicated to advancing knowledge in strategic leadership and business management domains. The journal welcomes high-quality submissions that contribute to evidence-based research related to the field of strategic leadership and business management. The journal publishes a wide range of article types, including original research, review articles, conceptual/theoretical papers, case studies, policy & practice papers, short communications, methodological papers, letters to the editor, and editorials. All submissions must be written clearly enough to be understood by a broad readership and should contribute to the overall context of the research areas of the journal.

Manuscripts submitted to SLBMJ must be original, unpublished, and not under consideration by any other journal. The journal follows the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) in all matters of authorship, ethical conduct, peer review, and publication integrity. Authors are encouraged to review COPE guidelines at www.publicationethics.org

Authorship Criteria

Authorship confers credit and has important academic, social, and financial implications as well as accountability for published work. It is the moral obligation of an editorial board to ensure that individuals making significant contributions to a paper are given credit for it, but also to ensure that the authors understand their role in taking responsibility for their publication. SLBMJ follows the recommended COPE authorship guidelines based on the following four criteria:

  • Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
  • Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
  • Final approval of the version to be published; AND
  • Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

All those designated as authors should meet all four criteria for authorship, and all who meet the four criteria should be identified as authors. Those who do not meet all four criteria but have made a substantive contribution to the research should be acknowledged in the acknowledgment section of the article. We accept publications/articles from both National and International Authors. It is important to note that:

  • Funding agencies, data collectors, and biostatisticians do not justify authorship.
  • Once the authorship certificate is submitted, no further changes will be allowed in the sequence and/or addition of new authors.

Authors' Contributions

An author contribution statement defining each author’s contribution to the article should be provided. This must be done in two forms: by filling out the authors’ undertaking and authorship letter, which can be downloaded from the journal website. For review articles, where individual statements are less applicable, a statement should be included that clarifies who was responsible for the ideation, who performed the literature search and/or data analysis, and who drafted and revised the work.

Deceased Authors

Deceased authors would be included with a death dagger (†) next to the author’s name and a footnote stating that the author is deceased, along with the date of death.

Submission of Manuscript

Authors should prepare their manuscript according to the specifications provided in the journal’s author guidelines. All manuscripts submitted through the appropriate channel will be entertained for review. Manuscripts sent to the editor’s email should not be accepted.

Authors listed on the manuscript should have met the requirements for authorship specified above. Without final acceptance from the corresponding author, no manuscript will be published. Once the document is submitted to the journal, it is expected that all the authors have been accepted and they will be bound to the terms and conditions of the journal. The contact information of all authors and the Declaration of Conflicts of Interest should be stated in the manuscript.

Manuscript Withdrawal Policy

The corresponding author has to inform the Editor-in-Chief through email of the intent to withdraw the submitted article. A manuscript withdrawal form will be sent to the authors’ email, following which all the respective authors should sign and express their interest in withdrawal. Upon receiving the completed form from the corresponding author, further processing of the article will be stopped. The processing charges are not refunded in case of withdrawal.  

Conflict of Interests

Conflicts may be due to personal reasons, financial relationships, or academic competitions. It may be due to intellectual passion also. Whatever the reason for conflicts of interest, the credibility of the journal, author, and research itself will be influenced from null to high potential. These influences may affect the scientific judgment of the research carried out. It is very important to disclose the conflicts of interest that occurred during the process of research. This will help the evaluators, critics, and readers to understand the situations and the research that took place.

Research and Publication Misconduct

SLBMJ adheres to the guidelines established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) for addressing research and publication misconduct. Duplicating existing publications, a high level of plagiarism, fraudulent or fabricated data, changes in authorship, and not disclosing a conflict of interest can be listed under research and publication misconduct. However, in suspected cases of misconduct, a manuscript may be revealed to members of the university/organization who may require it for the resolution of the misconduct.

Role of Plagiarism Committee

All the submitted articles are scanned with Turnitin, and the similarity report should be less than 19%. Upon completion of the plagiarism scan, they analyze the quality of the manuscript and report to the editor, after which the manuscript is assigned for the review process. A plagiarism report is created, which is emailed to the author along with a review report. The committee looks into plagiarism-related issues and deals with them according to COPE guidelines.     

Acknowledgment

Acknowledgment should cover the persons other than those who claim authorship, especially individuals who worked for manuscript development, the funding agency, or persons who provided resources, organizations that provided support for the smooth run of the research.

Confidentiality

SLBMJ will not disclose any research paper submitted to it. Once the original research is submitted to the journal will be treated as the most confidential material, and maintaining its confidentiality is our responsibility. We will share the article with manuscript developers, reviewers, and editors in various stages of processing after the submission is confirmed.

Review of Articles

Submitted manuscripts are reviewed for originality, significance, adequacy of documentation, reader interest, and composition. Manuscripts not submitted according to instructions will be returned to the author for correction before beginning the peer review/process. Revised manuscripts are judged on the adequacy of responses to suggestions and criticisms made during the initial review. Each manuscript will be checked for technical, statistical, ethical, and language corrections. All parts of accepted manuscripts are subject to editing for scientific accuracy and clarity by the office of the Editor. The editorial board of the journal holds the right to a final decision of accepting or rejecting any article for publication in the journal, at any stage, including the editorial review.