About the Journal

The SZABIST International Journal of Management Sciences (SIJMS) is a biannual journal published by the Department of Management Sciences, Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology (SZABIST), Islamabad Campus. The aim of the ‘SZABIST International Journal of Management Sciences’ (SIJMS) is to create scholarly discussions for knowledge creation and dissemination. SIJMS seeks a international dialogue forum among scholars and researchers, and publishes papers that aid to advance knowledge of both theoretical and empirical aspects of management sciences.

SIJMS is a platform for delivering management research and academic brilliance. Articles published in SIJMS will enable readers to gain extensive understanding of business organizations and provide subject-specific knowledge in the areas of human resource management, marketing, finance, project management, operations, business strategy, innovation, business analytics, entrepreneurship, supply chain, business ethics and sustainability.

Vision

The vision of SIJMS is to be a desired place for understanding and spread of genuine research and knowledge in the fields of management sciences.

Mission

The mission of SIJMS is to materialize its vision by publishing scientific research papers that are widely disseminated and meet the highest standards of the research publication process.

Key Values

The key values of SIJMS are Integrity, Originality, Creativity, and Rigor.

Review Policy

The journal employs double-blind peer review process, where both reviewers and authors remain anonymous to each other throughout the review process. All research articles are submitted to two experts, not belonging to the editorial Staff, and editorial board of the journal. The reviewers are chosen from national and international review panel comprising PhD holders with relevant domain, expertise and publications record. Every manuscript submitted for publication is read by the editorial team, for an initial review. If the article meets minimum quality criteria, it is sent to two reviewers.

Review Process

Initial / Desk Review
  • Submitted manuscripts are first checked by the editorial team to ensure if the manuscript adheres the required formatting (APA 7th) and fulfils the word count limit (4000-8000 words) as prescribed by the journal.
  • The manuscript is also checked for plagiarism using Turnitin software. If the plagiarism report is below 19% and less than 5% from a single source, the manuscript is forwarded to the Managing editor.
  • Manuscripts that do not fall within the scope of the journal are ‘desk-rejected’.

DOUBLE-BLIND REVIEW

  • Manuscripts passed through the desk review are sent for a double-blind review process (one national reviewer and one international reviewer).
  • SIJMS selects the reviewers based on their subject and research expertise and give complete freedom to decide on the papers.
  • To ensure confidentiality and privacy, anonymous/blind manuscripts (without authors’ names and details) are sent to all reviewers.
  • Any paper rejected by the reviewers do not process further, and the author is notified accordingly.
  • If the manuscript is accepted by reviewers with minor changes, the corresponding author is provided with the comments and given ample time to incorporate the comments.
      • The corresponding author send the revised manuscript to the journal in a stipulated time.
      • The editorial board decides on comments and if the manuscript is ready for publication. The corresponding author is informed of the decision.
  • Manuscripts accepted by reviewers with major changes are sent to the corresponding author with ample time to incorporate all comments.
      • The corresponding author is responsible to submit the revised manuscript in a stipulated time and it is at the discretion of the editorial board to send the revised manuscripts to the same reviewers or any other reviewers if required. Otherwise, Editorial board may decide to send the manuscript for the publication process.
  • The corresponding author is responsible to respond the editorial board for all the changes suggested by the reviewers. If the corresponding author does not respond to the journal despite sending reminders, the editorial board has a fully right to reject the paper. Similarly, the corresponding author does not incorporate the required comments or justify on not incorporating the suggested comments. The editorial board has fully right to reject the manuscript.

DECISIONS ON ARTICLE

Reviewers will have four possible options for each article [1] Accept [2] Accept with minor changes [3] accept with major changes and likely re-review [4] Reject. In cases where there is a strong disagreement between reviewers, further expert advice may be sought. Based on the reviewers’ comments, the editorial team makes the final decision either to accept, reject or revise the manuscript and communicates the decision to the authors, along with referees’ reports. If significant revisions are proposed, acceptance is dependent on the satisfactory response to the proposed revisions by the author and may be sent back to the same reviewers for final decision or another reviewer depending on the availability of the reviewers.

Open Access Policy

SIJMS management and social sciences & economics follow an open access publication policy. All published articles have undergone a double-blind peer review process and upon acceptance are immediately and permanently free for everyone to read and download. Re-use of published articles is permitted as per the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC-BY) international license.

Copyright Policy

SIJMS management and social sciences & economics follow an open access publication policy. The full text of all articles is available free of charge as soon as they are accepted. The articles are published and distributed according to the terms defined under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC-BY) international license, which permits remixing, transformation, or building upon the material, provided the original work is appropriately cited mentioning the authors and the publisher, as well as the produced work, is distributed under the same license as the original.

The work submitted to SIJMS implies that it is an original and unpublished work by the author(s), and does not infringe any copyright or other rights held by any other party neither previously published nor accepted for publication elsewhere and is not being considered by another journal for publication.

The authors shall be responsible for all information in the manuscript presented. It is the author(s)’ responsibility to obtain signed permission from the copyright holder to use and reproduce text, illustrations, tables, etc., previously published in other journals, whether electronically or in print. Although authors are not required to submit the raw data used to do quantitative or qualitative analysis at the time of submission, if any question arises about the accuracy or validity of the research work during the review process, the author(s) should provide raw data to the Editor.

Once the acceptance of a manuscript for publication is given by SIJMS, a corresponding author will be asked to sign and submit a completed Copyright Form on behalf of all co-authors of the manuscript. Authors are obligated to disclose any sponsorships or funding from an institution concerning their research in the copyright form.

Authors are not permitted to post the work on any platform online/offline, by any means, from the time such work is submitted to SIJMS until a final decision on the paper has been given to them. If a paper is accepted for publication, the authors may not post the work on any platform online/offline or at any other place, by any means, until the paper is published. SIJMS can reproduce printed copies of articles in any format in the future. Authors can post their papers on any platform once SIJMS publishes the online issue in which the author paper is published in the SIJMS published format available on SIJMS website under archive section.

LICENSING TERMS

SIJMS publishes all accepted articles under a (CC-BY4.0) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). By submitting the research article(s) the author/s agree to Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License which states that anyone can:

Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format

Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.

The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms:

Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.

No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.