Journal Policies

1. Editorial Policy

Forefront in Sociology & Political Sciences (FSPS) is a peer-reviewed, open-access scholarly journal published by Scientific Forefront.

The journal publishes original scholarly research, review articles, and other academic contributions that fall within the journal's aims and scope.

All manuscripts are subject to editorial assessment and, where appropriate, external peer review before a final publication decision is made.

The journal follows principles of academic integrity, transparency, responsible research conduct, and ethical scholarly publishing.

Editorial decisions are based on the scholarly quality, originality, relevance, methodology, ethical standards, and suitability of the manuscript for the journal. Editorial decisions are independent of an author's ability to pay any applicable Article Processing Charge.

2. Conflict of Interest Policy

Authors must disclose any financial, personal, professional, institutional, or other relationships that could reasonably be perceived as influencing the submitted research.

Editors and reviewers must disclose potential conflicts of interest before participating in the evaluation of a manuscript.

A person with a significant conflict of interest should not participate in the editorial or peer-review decision for the affected manuscript.

Where necessary, the journal may request additional information from authors, editors, or reviewers concerning potential conflicts of interest.

3. Copyright and Licensing

Authors retain copyright of their published work.

Articles published in Forefront in Sociology & Political Sciences are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0) unless otherwise stated on the individual article.

The CC BY 4.0 license permits others to share and adapt the published work for lawful purposes, provided appropriate credit is given to the original author(s), the source is cited, a link to the license is provided, and any changes are indicated.

The applicable copyright and licensing information is displayed on the article webpage and in the published full-text article.

The copyright and licensing terms applicable to journal articles are separate from the copyright applicable to the journal website, branding, logos, and other publisher materials.

4. Plagiarism and Originality Policy

All manuscripts submitted to Forefront in Sociology & Political Sciences must be original and must not contain plagiarized, duplicated, or improperly reproduced material.

Authors are responsible for ensuring that all material taken from other sources is appropriately cited and referenced.

The journal may use plagiarism or similarity-detection software as part of its editorial screening process.

Where substantial plagiarism, duplication, fabricated material, or other serious breaches of publication integrity are identified, the journal may reject the manuscript or take appropriate post-publication action.

Authors remain responsible for the originality and integrity of their submitted work.

5. Open Access Policy

Forefront in Sociology & Political Sciences is a fully open-access journal.

All published scholarly articles are made immediately and freely available online without subscription, registration, or payment barriers.

There is no embargo period for access to published articles.

Readers may read, download, copy, distribute, search, link to, and otherwise use published articles in accordance with the applicable Creative Commons license.

The journal does not charge readers or institutions subscription fees for access to its published research.

The journal's open-access model is intended to provide broad and immediate access to scholarly research.

6. Peer Review Policy

Forefront in Sociology & Political Sciences follows a double-blind peer-review process.

Initial Editorial Screening

All submitted manuscripts undergo an initial editorial assessment to determine whether they:

  • fall within the journal's aims and scope;

  • meet the basic submission requirements;

  • contain original scholarly work;

  • comply with the journal's ethical requirements; and

  • are suitable for external peer review.

Manuscripts that do not meet the journal's basic requirements may be returned to the authors or rejected before external peer review.

External Peer Review

Manuscripts that pass the initial editorial assessment are normally evaluated by at least two independent reviewers with relevant subject expertise.

The journal uses a double-blind review process in which:

  • reviewers are not provided with the identity of the authors;

  • authors are not provided with the identity of the reviewers; and

  • reviewers are expected to disclose relevant conflicts of interest.

Editorial Decision

The editor makes the final editorial decision after considering the reviewers' reports and the overall scholarly quality and suitability of the manuscript.

Possible decisions include:

  • Accept

  • Minor Revision

  • Major Revision

  • Reject

Where substantial revisions are requested, the revised manuscript may be returned to the original reviewers or evaluated by appropriate members of the editorial team.

Payment of an Article Processing Charge does not influence peer-review or editorial decisions.

Special Issues

If the journal publishes a special issue or guest-edited collection, the same editorial oversight and peer-review standards apply. The Editor-in-Chief retains overall responsibility for the scholarly content and integrity of the journal.

7. Publication and Production Policy

After a manuscript has been formally accepted, it enters the production stage.

The production process may include copyediting, formatting, proofreading, metadata preparation, DOI assignment where applicable, and preparation of the final published version.

Authors may be asked to review the final proofs and identify factual or typographical corrections before publication.

Substantive changes to the manuscript after acceptance may require additional editorial review.

The final article is published online through the journal's official website.

The date of publication is displayed on the article page.

8. Reviewer Guidelines

Reviewers are expected to evaluate manuscripts objectively, confidentially, and constructively.

Reviewers should consider:

  • originality;

  • relevance to the journal's scope;

  • methodological soundness;

  • clarity and organisation;

  • accuracy of interpretation;

  • quality of references;

  • ethical considerations; and

  • overall scholarly contribution.

Reviewers should disclose any actual or potential conflict of interest to the editor.

Manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents and must not be shared with others without permission from the journal.

Reviewers should not use confidential manuscript content for personal advantage or upload confidential manuscripts to generative AI systems or other tools where confidentiality cannot be assured.

Reviewers should provide clear and constructive comments that can assist authors in improving their manuscripts.

9. Digital Archiving and Preservation Policy

Forefront in Sociology & Political Sciences is committed to maintaining long-term access to its published scholarly record.

The journal maintains digital copies of published articles through its online journal platform and uses external repository services where appropriate to support continued access and discoverability.

Published article records are assigned persistent identifiers where available.

The journal is working to strengthen its long-term digital preservation arrangements and will update this policy when additional recognised preservation services are established.

If the journal website or publishing platform becomes temporarily unavailable, the publisher will make reasonable efforts to preserve and restore access to the published scholarly record.

10. Repository and Self-Archiving Policy

Authors publishing in Forefront in Sociology & Political Sciences are permitted to deposit and share versions of their work in institutional repositories, subject repositories, academic repositories, or other lawful scholarly repositories.

Authors may deposit:

  • the submitted/preprint version;

  • the accepted manuscript; and

  • the published Version of Record.

No embargo is applied to repository sharing of articles published under the journal's open-access licensing terms.

Authors are encouraged to provide the citation of the published version and, where possible, a link to the official journal article page.

The applicable Creative Commons license continues to govern the use and reuse of the published Version of Record.

11. Artificial Intelligence and Automated Tools Policy

Forefront in Sociology & Political Sciences recognises that authors, reviewers, editors, and publishers may use artificial intelligence (AI) and other automated tools during the research and publishing process.

Authors

Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, integrity, and ethical standards of their manuscripts.

Authors should disclose the use of generative AI tools when such tools have been used substantially in preparing the manuscript, generating content, analysing material, or assisting with other substantive aspects of the work.

Routine spelling, grammar correction, language editing, formatting, and similar assistance generally does not require disclosure.

AI tools cannot be credited as authors or co-authors.

Authors remain responsible for verifying facts, references, quotations, data, interpretations, and other material generated or assisted by AI tools.

Generative AI tools should not be cited as sources.

Peer Reviewers

Peer reviewers must maintain the confidentiality of manuscripts under review.

Reviewers should not upload confidential manuscript content to publicly available generative AI tools or other automated systems where confidentiality cannot be assured.

Peer reviewers should not use generative AI to create or generate peer-review assessments.

Editors

Editors must protect the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts and reviewer information.

Editors should not use generative AI to create editorial assessments or decisions.

Where automated tools are used as part of the journal's editorial workflow, appropriate human oversight must be maintained.

Editorial decisions remain the responsibility of the journal's editors.

Research Integrity

The journal may use appropriate automated tools for similarity checking, duplicate-content detection, or other research-integrity screening.

Automated screening results are subject to human review before an editorial decision is made.

12. Corrections, Retractions and Withdrawals

The journal is committed to maintaining the accuracy and integrity of its published scholarly record.

Corrections

Where a published article contains an error that affects the accuracy or understanding of the article but does not invalidate the main findings, the journal may publish a correction or corrigendum.

Retractions

An article may be retracted when there is reliable evidence of serious problems such as substantial plagiarism, fabricated or falsified data, major ethical violations, or other circumstances that substantially undermine the reliability of the published work.

Retractions will be clearly identified and linked to the original article where possible.

Article Withdrawal

Before publication, a manuscript may be withdrawn by the authors in accordance with the journal's withdrawal procedures.

After publication, removal of an article is normally avoided and will only be considered in exceptional circumstances, such as serious legal or ethical requirements.

The journal will maintain a transparent record of corrections and retractions where applicable.

13. Article Processing Charges

Forefront in Sociology & Political Sciences does not charge a submission fee.

An Article Processing Charge (APC) is applicable only to manuscripts that have been formally accepted following the completion of the editorial and peer-review process.

Indian Authors: INR 2999 per accepted article.

International Authors: USD 80 per accepted article.

No APC payment is requested before formal acceptance.

APC payment does not influence peer-review or editorial decisions.

Authors experiencing financial difficulties may contact the journal to request consideration for a waiver or discount. Such requests are considered independently of the editorial decision.

Full details of the current APC, waivers, and payment procedure are provided on the journal's Fees & Charges page.

14. Publication Ethics

Forefront in Sociology & Political Sciences is committed to responsible scholarly publishing and follows recognised principles of publication ethics.

Authors, reviewers, editors, and the publisher are expected to act honestly, transparently, and responsibly throughout the publication process.

The journal may investigate allegations concerning plagiarism, duplicate publication, fabricated or falsified data, authorship disputes, conflicts of interest, unethical research conduct, and other publication-integrity concerns.

Where appropriate, the journal may issue corrections, expressions of concern, or retractions to maintain the integrity of the published record.