Complaint Policy and Process

Complaints regarding the policies, procedures, or actions of Proceedings’ editorial staff are welcome as they provide an opportunity for improvement. Our response is quick, courteous, and constructive. Please write your complaint with journal title, vol. no., issue no., paper ID, paper title, page no.

Criteria of a Complaint

• Complaint is the expression of unhappiness expressed by the complainant in writing.
• Complaint means that the complainant assumes a failure of process, like a long delay or a rude response or maybe a severe misjudgment.
• Complaint means something about the responsibility of editorial board, content or related to process but not simply disagreeing with any decision we have made or anything we have published.

Categories of usual complaints:

• Authorship complaints
• Multiple, duplicate, concurrent publication/Simultaneous submission.
• Plagiarism complaints
• Reviewer bias or competitive harmful acts by reviewers.
• Reviewer complaints
• Undisclosed conflicts of interest

Editorial Complaints Policy

The Editor and staff of Proceedings will make every effort to put matters right as soon as possible in an appropriate way. We will investigate complaints in a blame-free manner, evaluating how systems and processes can be improved to prevent mistakes in future.

In case of non resolution of the issue, a committee of well reputed two senior editors not belonging to Proceedings will give their written opinion with binding on both parties for agreement.

How to Make a Complaint

Complaints about editorial content should be made as soon as possible after publication (maximally within 3 months, before the publication of next issue, preferably in writing by email to: chiefeditor@proceedings-szmc.org.pk

Manuscript withdrawal policy

Cancellation/withdrawal of manuscripts will be considered only if the request is made before publication of the manuscript. The details of the corresponding authors and other authors will not be changed or cancelled after publication other than some typing errors. The cancellation policy will not be relevant once the manuscript is uploaded online.