Chitkara University Publications is committed to minimising endogeny and maintaining an independent, impartial, transparent, and diverse editorial and peer-review process across its journals. An endogenous article is one that has been published, peer reviewed, and written by at least one of the Editors-in-Chief, Associate Editors, Section Editors, Editorial Board members, Guest Editors, reviewers, or others who are directly involved in the editorial or peer-review process of the journal. The journal monitors the proportion of endogenous articles and ensures that such articles do not exceed 25% of the relevant published research articles during the relevant calendar year.

Diversity of Authorship and Editorial Participation

The journal strives to ensure diversity among the authors, editors, reviewers, institutions, countries, and research communities. The journal is not intended to function primarily as a publication outlet for the work of its editors, Editorial Board members, reviewers, or authors from a particular institution or closely connected research network. To prevent excessive endogeny and create a broad and diverse scholarly community, the journal therefore tracks authorship and editorial participation to assess and mitigate potential issues.

Handling Submissions from Editors, Editorial Board Members, Guest Editors, and Reviewers

Manuscripts may be submitted to the journal by the Editors, Editorial Board members, Guest Editors, reviewers, and other persons associated with the editorial or peer-review process of the journal. However, such submissions are subject to the same requirements and standards as all other submissions and must not receive preferential treatment.

Manuscripts submitted by individuals with an editorial or reviewing role must be assigned to an independent editor who has no conflict of interest with the author(s). The submitting editor, Editorial Board member, Guest Editor, reviewer, or other individual involved in the editorial assessment and decision-making process must not be involved in the editorial assessment or decision-making process for their own manuscript. They must not select reviewers, influence the selection of reviewers, participate in editorial discussions, or make or influence the final editorial decision.

Independent Peer Review and Conflict-of-Interest Management

Endogenous manuscripts will be subjected to independent peer review following the journal’s normal peer-review process. Where peer review is applicable, such manuscripts should normally be assessed by at least two independent reviewers who have no conflict of interest with the author(s).

Editors and reviewers are required to disclose and appropriately manage all actual, potential, or perceived conflicts of interest, such as recent co-authorship of a paper, shared institutional affiliation that may lead to questioning of independence, supervisory and student–supervisor relationships, close personal or professional relationships, financial interests, existing or ongoing collaborative research projects, or other conditions that may be construed as a conflict of interest.

No editor or reviewer should participate in the assessment of a manuscript where an actual, potential, or perceived conflict of interest could compromise their independence.

Equal Editorial and Peer-Review Standards

All manuscripts are treated according to the same editorial and peer-review standards, regardless of whether the authors have an editorial relationship with the journal. The editorial decision must not be influenced by the author’s position in the journal, their institutional affiliation, their professional network, or their relationship with an editor.

Only the manuscript’s scholarly and original merit, methodological rigour, significance, relevance, ethical standards, and appropriateness for publication in the journal will be considered.

Monitoring and Corrective Action

The journal monitors the proportion of endogenous articles on a calendar-year basis by identifying published peer-reviewed research articles that include at least one author who is an Editor-in-Chief, Associate Editor, Section Editor, Editorial Board member, Guest Editor, reviewer, or other individual covered by this policy.

The proportion of such articles must not exceed 25% of the relevant peer-reviewed research articles published during the relevant calendar year. For this calculation, the denominator will consist of peer-reviewed research articles published during the relevant calendar year, excluding non-research content such as editorials, announcements, corrections, and similar items.

The journal will implement necessary corrective measures in order to ensure editorial independence and diversity if the percentage of endogenous articles approaches or surpasses this value. This could include restricting or delaying the consideration of additional endogenous submissions, improving independent editorial oversight, appointing external editors, applying further independent editorial peer review, reviewing the composition of Special Issues, or declining manuscripts that cannot be handled by independent editors.

Applicability of the 25% Threshold

The journal recognises that the assessment of endogeny may be affected by the total number of articles published in a calendar year. The 25% threshold is therefore considered within the context of the journal’s annual publication volume, and particular attention is given where the number of published research articles is small.

The journal will regularly review the levels of endogeny and its editorial practices to ensure that suitable safeguards are in place and that editorial independence, impartiality, and diversity of authorship are maintained.