JOURNAL POLICY

1. SCOPE OF THE JOURNAL

Bhutan Insights is a multidisciplinary journal with a primary focus on the educational dimension of the following areas, but not limited to:

• Education
• Agriculture
• Forestry
• Economics and finance
• Medical sciences
• Policy and planning
• Administration and management
• Business and commerce
• Language and literature
• Digital science
• Artificial intelligence.

It is a Double blinded peer reviewed journal meeting the standards of scientific publishing to promote knowledge and inquiry.

2. PUBLISHER

The Journal is published by EduPlus Training Institute, Thimphu, Bhutan.

3. FREQUENCY OF JOURNAL PUBLICATION

Bhutan Insights Journal will be published biannually in April and October of every year. However, depending on the need and the volume of submissions, supplementary issues will be considered..

4. JOURNAL EDITORIAL OFFICE

The Bhutan Insights Journal (BIJ) is operated from the Editorial Office based in the EduPlus Training Institute, Thimphu, Bhutan.

The Editorial Office comprises a Managing Editor, Assistant Editors and Editorial Assistants and handles the submission, performs initial clerical checks, coordinates peer review communications and editorial decision-making processes. 

5. ADVISORY BOARD

The Advisory Board is comprised of the Chief Publisher, Editor-in-Chief, Dy. Editor-in-Chief, and the Managing Editor. The primary role of the Advisory Board is to provide technical advice to maintain academic integrity and give strategic direction for the sustenance and growth of the Journal. The term for the members of the Advisory Board is for three years and renewable.

6. EDITORIAL BOARD

The Editorial Board is comprised of scholars with domain experts ranging from diverse educational and professional backgrounds. Bhutan Insights also provides a platform for young Bhutanese and aspiring academicians to be Editors. The Editor-in-Chief provides the overall lead on all activities of the journal. The term for the members of the editorial board is for three years and renewable.

7. TYPES OF MANUSCRIPTS

The following are the types of articles published in Bhutan Insights Journal.

Article type	Abstract	Main text	Other notes
Research article	250 words, structured	Upto 7000 words, up to 5 tables and figures, up to 40 references	Ethics statement required wherever relevant
Review article	250 words, unstructured	3000 – 5000 words, up to 5 tables and figures, references as required	-
New Wave Article	150 words, unstructured	Up to 2000 words, up to 1 table or 1 figure, up to 7-10 references	New development with valuable lessons
Short communication	250 words, structured	Up to 2000 words, up to 5 tables, up to 10 references	Preliminary findings of research
Editorial	-	1000 – 1500 words, up to 5 references	Invited manuscripts
Commentary	250 words, unstructured	Up to 3500 words, up to 5 tables and figures, up to 10 references	Thematic discussion on subjects, primary data not required
Perspective	250 words, unstructured	Up to 3000 words, up to 3 tables and 1 figure, up to 10 references	Personal opinion on a topic, often with an engaging through rigorous investigation that enhances the understanding of the subject.
Conference proceedings	250 words, unstructured	Up to 2000 words, up to 5 tables and figures, up to 10 references	Articles published in the context of a conference, individually or thematic summary
Case report	150 words, unstructured	Up to 1500 words, up to 5 tables or figures, up to 15 references	Ethics statement and participant's consent required wherever relevant
Policy Brief	100 words, unstructured	Up to 2000 words, up to 2 tables or figures, up to 7 references
Letter to editor	-	Up to 1000 words, up to one table or figure, up to 5 references	Communications to the editor
News	-	Up to 1000 words, up to 2 tables or figures, up to 5 references	Reports on factual information to update on key events
Project Report	250 words, unstructured	Up to 3000 words, up to 5 tables and figures, up to 10 references	report from a project of interest especially on education dimension

The manuscripts must adhere to the relevant international standard reporting guidelines. The minimum number of reviewer reports required for making editorial decisions is two for research articles, review articles, short communications, commentaries, conference proceedings, and case reports. In contrast, only one reviewer report is needed for editorials, field reports, news, and impact papers.

8. PUBLICATION CHARGE POLICY

          Article processing charges apply.

9. PLAGIARISM POLICY

Plagiarism is a violation of academic integrity and a breach of ethics in scientific research. Self-plagiarism by way of reusing substantial aspects of personal publication without the use of any reference is also unethical.

Plagiarism can be alluded to but is not limited to:

• Publishing the exact contents derived from another author’s work.
• Using the same figures, tables, equations, and illustrations.
• Copying and pasting texts from internet sources.
• Copying or downloading figures, images and information and using them without acknowledgements and references.

Bhutan Insights strongly emphasises originality and academic integrity and accepts 20% similarity in articles. Artificial intelligence-generated manuscripts are not accepted.

10. PEER REVIEW PROCESS

All manuscripts submitted to the Journal undergo a double-blinded peer review. A conflict-of-interest declaration is made by the Reviewers and also ensures that no articles have been published with the authors in the past two years.

Primarily the following review process is engaged:

• After a manuscript is received, the time to desk reject or proceed to peer review is made within 2 weeks.
• A Reviewer is given 4 weeks to return the peer review report but may be subject to extension with communication with the case officer/Editorial Assistant.
• After two peer review reports have been received, an editorial board decision is given within 2 weeks.
• After all these processes, the Editor-in-Chief gives the final editorial decision within 2 weeks.
• If a manuscript is solicited for re-submission, the author may be given 2 weeks for minor revisions and 3 weeks for major revisions.

11. EDITORIAL DECISION STAGES

The editorial decision on a manuscript will be based on the reviews and recommendations from the Reviewers and the Editorial Board members. The decisions may be communicated through documented channels or may be made at an editorial board meeting. The final editorial decision shall be given by the Editor-in-Chief.

• After the manuscript is received, a member of the Editorial Office decides whether the manuscript merits a peer review process. If a manuscript is fundamentally flawed, it can be rejected by an editorial board member and endorsed by the Editor-in-Chief.
• The selected manuscript is then peer-reviewed based on a set of criteria. In the first round of review, Peer Reviewers recommend an editorial decision to “Accept, Minor revisions, Major revisions or Reject”.
• The editorial board or the Editor-in-Chief may be guided by these recommendations but are allowed to make independent final editorial decisions. If a manuscript is re-submitted after being recommended “Major revisions (re-submit for review)”, it must undergo a second round of peer review before a final editorial decision is made.
• If a manuscript is re-submitted after being recommended “Minor revisions (revisions required)”, an editorial board member may recommend an editorial decision.
• If a manuscript has publishable contents and format, it may be given an “Acceptable for publication” decision. If a manuscript does not meet the scope and standards of the journal, it may be given a “Reject” decision.

12. AUTHORSHIP CRITERIA

Authorship of a manuscript is based on the following criteria:

• Substantial contribution (conception, research design, analysis and interpretation of data and report writing).
• Drafting the work or critically reviewing it.
• Final approval of the version to be submitted for publishing.
• Shouldering the accountability for accuracy or integrity of the work.

 All authors should declare their conflicts of interest. The use of artificial intelligence-assisted technology in writing manuscripts will not be accepted.

13. CORRESPONDING AUTHOR

One of the authors should be identified as the corresponding author with whom to engage in correspondence with the Editorial office. If authors request any change in the author list after submission or publication, such a request must be accompanied by a signed agreement of all authors listed and all authors added or removed.

The corresponding is responsible for furnishing a signed Authorship Declaration form upon the acceptance of the manuscript for publication.

14. AUTHOR CONFLICT OF INTEREST

Authors must declare financial and non-financial relationships, activities and conflicts of interest as their commitment towards ensuring transparency in the scientific process. For any manuscript, where any one of the editorial board members is listed as an author, he/she/they will be blinded in the entire online review process.

The conflict-of-interest form can be downloaded from here.

15. PROTECTION OF RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS AND RIGHTS TO PRIVACY

When reporting studies on humans, indicate whether the procedures followed were by the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional or regional) and with the WMA Declaration of Helsinki – Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects. When reporting experiments on animals, indicate whether the institution’s or a national research council’s guide for or any national law on the care and use of laboratory animals was followed. Evidence of approval by a local Ethics Committee (for both human as well as animal studies) must be submitted by the authors. Animal experimental procedures should be as humane as possible, and the details of anaesthetics and analgesics used should be clearly stated. The ethical standards of experiments must be bound by international guidelines and best practices. A statement on ethics committee permission and ethical practices must be included in all research articles under the method section.

Case Report: Do not use patients’ names, initials, or hospital numbers, especially in the illustrative material in the article. Authors must submit the Case Report Consent Form signed by the patient or the legal guardian.

16. RESEARCH ETHICS POLICY

Upholding the principles of research ethics is the responsibility of the researchers and authors. Approval by the Ethics Committees of the Authors’ respective institutions is required for articles to be published in Bhutan Insights Journal. In the event of cases concerning ethical practices, BIJ reserves the right to reject, withdraw or retract articles if serious ethical misconduct is reported.

17. CONFIDENTIALITY

Bhutan Insights maintains total confidentiality in the article processing phases. Only the Editor and Editorial staff will communicate with the Corresponding Author related to manuscripts and publication process.

18. COPYRIGHT AND AUTHOR AGREEMENT FORM

Upon acceptance of the manuscript, authors will hand over the rights of publication to the publisher through a written document. The published material will always have its authors’ names attached to it.

The author may have the right to the following:

• They may use their work in teaching activities.
• They may include the manuscript in their personal or departmental (not institutional) database or online site.

19. WITHDRAWAL AND RETRACTION POLICY

The authors may withdraw the manuscript at any time before the final editorial decision. After the Editor-in-Chief has given the final decision to accept the manuscript, it cannot be withdrawn. If the author is to discover any significant error or inaccuracy within the contents of his or her published document, the author is obligated to notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper.

The Journal has the right to withdraw the manuscript or the article if there is sufficient evidence of scientific misconduct, gross data manipulation, ethical misconduct, plagiarism or fraudulent use of data without the consent of its owner. An article may be removed from an online database when subjected to legal limitations with the publisher, copyright holder or author. Recognition of inaccurate data representation, violating legal rights, scientific data tampering and risk of harm to others can lead to the removal of the article from the journal.

An article may be withdrawn or retracted if there are any legal disputes or copyright infringements involving the manuscript or article. The original article will be removed from the online archive and the PDF or HTML link will display as “retracted”.

20. OPEN ACCESS POLICY

Bhutan Insights is an open-access journal, and its contents are freely available to its readers.

21. ARCHIVING POLICY

The digital version of the published material will be archived in the Bhutan Insights Journal website maintained by EduPlus Training Institute, Thimphu, Bhutan.

22. LICENCING

Bhutan Insights allows readers to download, copy, distribute, print, and search the link to the full texts of its articles and allows readers to use them for any other lawful purpose. The articles published by Bhutan Insights are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

23. COMPLAINT POLICY

If a reader notices any concern for the scientific validity or veracity of information presented in a published article or any complaints on scientific or ethical misconduct, Bhutan Insights’ Editorial Office and the Editor-in-Chief can be contacted. The journal office will take appropriate action on every complaint. A summary of such complaints and the actions taken will be announced on the journal’s website. If an erratum needs to be published, it will be included in the subsequent issue.