Review Process
The journal follows a double-blind peer-review process in the following manner:
Stage 1: Technical Review
In this phase, the similarity index, AI content, and formatting of the paper and the references are verified. If papers are found ineligible at this stage, then such papers are summarily rejected. Papers found eligible will be assigned paper codes after removing all personal details of the author(s) and will be forwarded to the Reviewers.
Stage 2: First Peer-Review
Each time a journal receives a certain number of contributions qualifying for the first stage, a definite number of reviewers corresponding to the qualifying contributions will be appointed by the Board of Editors. Each paper will be sent to a minimum of 3 reviewers at a time. Each reviewer may provide the following remarks:
- Reject the contribution.
- Allow the author(s) to make the recommended changes.
- Accept and forward the contribution to the Third Stage of Review.
Stage 3: Second Peer-Review
In this stage, based on the majority opinion of the reviewers, the editors will decide the following:
- Either the paper will be rejected if the majority of reviewers opine for the same.
- Send the papers back to the authors to make necessary changes in the papers based on the reviewers' comments.
- May send the papers to some other reviewers if the Editors find it necessary, or may send for publication if all the reviewers accept the paper unanimously.
Stage 4: Final Review
At this stage, the Board of Editors will review all the contributions that qualified the previous three stages of review and will make the final decision with regards to the publication of the contributions.
Copyright Permission & Licensing
All the articles are published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, at the free choice of the authors. Under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-commercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, share alike, for non-commercial use, provided the original work is properly cited. This license does not permit commercial exploitation without specific permission. (read full legal code by clicking here: Creative Commons — Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).
The journal provides everyone after the publication the free right to use its published contents for all academic purposes including teaching, presentation, distribution, etc., and can also use the HTML links for maintaining their profile.
However, the user shall inform the Editorial Board for re-publishing the manuscripts after once been published in the journal. For storing in any non-commercial academic or institutional repositories for the spread of awareness and research outcomes, no one is required to inform the Board even after publication of the concerned manuscript in the concerned Journal, however, proper citations shall be provided while doing so. No one is allowed to republish their manuscripts after publication in any of the journals on commercial platforms without prior permission from the Editorial Board. This is for maintaining the ethical and professional standards of the Journals.
Copyright Policy
The CUK Journal of Legal Studies requires a copyright agreement to be submitted by all the authors along with their manuscripts. The journal requires its authors to transfer their copyright over their manuscripts after publication. However, if any manuscript is not selected for publication, then the copyright agreement shall cease to operate, and the authors shall have full copyright over their manuscript that has not been published.
The copyright policy of the journal demands copyright transfer from the authors since such transfer provides the journal with the following liberties:
- Liberty to publish the manuscripts on all social media platforms;
- Re-publish in the future with appropriate attributes to the authors;
- Restricting the same manuscripts from being published by other publishers with commercial motives after being edited to avoid conflict of interests and unreasonable competition from parallel platforms;
- To demand royalty or to sell the subscription of the manuscripts to meet the expenses of publication, if required in the future;
- To sell the images, figures, diagrams, or any part of the manuscripts on approval from the authors or creators of such contents;
- To preserve the intellectual property of the publication from being misused; and
- To smoothen the publication process.
The copyright policy of the journal provides the authors with the following rights:
- The authors can preserve their intellectual property rights over the contents or research works mentioned within the manuscripts;
- Nonexclusive right to make copies of the published manuscripts either in electronic or print version for academic purposes including for presentation of lectures, seminars, conferences, etc. provided proper attribution is made;
- Nonexclusive right to distribute published manuscripts either in electronic or print version for free of cost (non-commercial uses) to enhance educational benefits in institutions, provided proper attribution is given;
- The right to include the contents of the works published either in whole or in part in the research thesis, provided such thesis shall be the work of the authors and proper attribution is given;
- Right to store or achieve the published manuscripts in any non-commercial educational or institutional repositories provided proper attributions are made; and
- Right to self-archive the published works.
Figure Permission
For publishing any Figures including diagrams, tables, graphs, etc. in CUK Journal of Legal Studies that are self-created by the author, in case of sole authorship, it is essential to mention them as ‘self-created’ in the footnotes which shall be provided against the names of such figures.
In cases where there are multiple authors, it is essential to give credit to the actual creator of such figures in the footnoting section against the name of the figures. The journal shall not entertain any conflict of interest amongst the authors after publication of the concerned manuscripts over any contents of the manuscripts.
In the case where the figures are created by any third parties including artists, designers, or any professionals, for the authors then it is essential to give credit to such artists in the footnote section against the name of the figures within the manuscript.
In the case where the copyright of the figures belongs to any third party who holds such copyright over such figures even if the source from where such figures are taken are open access sources, the authors are required to obtain permission from such copyright holders. It is advised to all the authors to read the copyright policy of the platforms from which the authors intend to derive any figures or other such content.
For publishing figures published in the journal, all authors need to obtain copyright permission from the Editorial Board of the Journal.
If any author(s) is found to have violated any copyright of any third party, then it shall not bind the Editorial Board of the Journal nor the Publisher rather only the concerned author(s) shall be made responsible and the Publisher shall be responsible to remove such publication on a grievance filed by the aggrieved party with sufficient pieces of evidence.