Policy Document

Policy Document for LGU Journal of Life Sciences (LGUJLS)

Aims and Objectives of the Journal

The journal aims to develop strong basis for conceptual and professional growth by sharing latest research findings. All Scientific Board Members of LGU Journal of Life Sciences are from well-known universities and research institutes to ensure high-quality publications. Our scope includes research articles related to the diverse field of Life Sciences like Microbiology, Molecular Biology, Biotechnology, Zoology, Plant Sciences, Biostatistics, Biochemistry, Biomaterials, Biophysics, Biomechanics, Biometry, Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Environmental Biology, Environmental Statistics, Biological Anthropology, Genomics, Proteomics, Metabolomics, Evolution, Epidemiology, Immunology, Mycology, Veterinary Sciences, Toxicology, Virology, Industrial research, Cancer biology, Poultry Sciences, Forestry, Food and Agricultural Technologies, Health and Medical sciences etc. The journal also covers ethical issues. It aims to serve as a forum for life scientists and health professionals. All research articles and reviews are reviewed by leaders in the field.

Frequency of Journal

LGU Journal of Life Sciences (LGUJLS) is a Biannual journal published every June and December

Manuscript Submissions

  • The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor). The submission file is in Open office, Microsoft Word, or RTF document file format.
  • Where available, URLs for the references have been provided.
  • The text is single-spaced; uses a 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points.
  • The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements as outlined below:

The Abstract should be informative and completely self-explanatory, briefly present the topic, state the scope of the experiments, indicate significant data, and point out major findings and conclusions. The Abstract should be 100 to 200 words in length. Complete sentences, active verbs, and the third person should be used, and the abstract should be written in the past tense. Standard nomenclature should be used, and abbreviations should be avoided. No literature should be cited.

Following the abstract, about 5 to 7 key words that will provide indexing references to be listed.

A list of non-standard Abbreviations should be added. In general, non-standard abbreviations should be used only when the full term is very long and used often. Each abbreviation should be spelled out and introduced in parentheses the first time it is used in the text. Only recommended SI units should be used. Authors should use the solidus presentation (mg/ml). Standard abbreviations (such as ATP and DNA) need not be defined.

INTRODUCTION should provide a clear statement of the problem, the relevant literature on the subject, and the proposed approach or solution. It should be understandable to colleagues from a broad range of scientific disciplines.

MATERIALS AND METHODS should be complete enough to allow experiments to be reproduced. However, only truly new procedures should be described in detail; previously published procedures should be cited, and important modifications of published procedures should be mentioned briefly. Capitalize trade names and include the manufacturer's name and address. Subheadings should be used. Methods in general use need not be described in detail.

RESULTS should be presented with clarity and precision. The results should be written in the past tense when describing findings in the authors' experiments. Previously published findings should be written in the present tense. Results should be explained, but largely without referring to the literature. Discussion, speculation and detailed interpretation of data should not be included in the Results but should be put into the Discussion section.

DISCUSSION should interpret the findings in view of the results obtained in this and in past studies on this topic. State the conclusions in a few sentences at the end of the paper. The Results and Discussion sections can include subheadings, and when appropriate, both sections can be combined.

The ACKNOWLEDGMENTS of people, grants, funds, etc should be brief.

TABLES should be kept to a minimum and be designed to be as simple as possible. Tables are to be typed double- spaced throughout, including headings and footnotes. Tables should be self-explanatory without reference to the text. The details of the methods used in the experiments should preferably be described in the legend instead of in the text. The same data should not be presented in both table and graph form or repeated in the text.

FIGURE LEGENDS should be typed in numerical order and graphics should be prepared using applications capable of generating high resolution GIF, TIFF, JPEG or Power point before pasting in the Microsoft Word manuscript file. Use Arabic numerals to designate figures and upper case letters for their parts (Fig 1). Begin each legend with a title and include sufficient description so that the figure is understandable without reading the text of the manuscript.  Information given in legends should not be repeated in the text.

REFERENCES: In the text, a reference identified by means of an author‘s name should be followed by the date of the reference in parentheses. When there are more than two authors, only the first author‘s name should be mentioned, followed by ’et al‘. In the event that an author cited has had two or more works published during the same year, the reference, both in the text and in the reference list, should be identified by a lower case letter like ’a‘ and ’b‘ after the date to distinguish the works.

Examples:

Smith (2000), Blake et al. (2003), (Kelebeni, 1983), (Chandra and Singh, 1992), (Chege, 1986; Steddy, 1987a, b; Gold, 1993,1995), (Kumasi et al., 2001)

References should be listed at the end of the paper in alphabetical order. Articles in preparation or articles submitted for publication, unpublished observations, personal communications, etc. should not be included in the reference list but should only be mentioned in the article text (e.g., A. Kingori, University of Nairobi, Kenya, personal communication). Journal names are abbreviated according to Chemical Abstracts. Authors are fully responsible for the accuracy of the references.

Examples:

Diaz E, Prieto MA (2000). Bacterial promoters triggering biodegradation of aromatic pollutants. Curr. Opin. Biotech. 11: 467-475.

Dorn E, Knackmuss HJ (1978). Chemical structure and biodegradability of halogenated aromatic compounds. Two catechol 1, 2 dioxygenases from a 3-chlorobenzoate-grown Pseudomonad. Biochem. J. 174: 73-84.

Pitter P, Chudoba J (1990). Biodegradability of Organic Substances in the Aquatic Environment. CRC press, Boca Raton, Florida, USA.

Publication Fee

There is a publishing fee of 15,000 PKR for local authors and equaling in USD for international authors upon acceptance of the manuscript for authors starting from October 2024. The journal does not have a waiver policy for the publication fee.

 

Copyright Policy

  • All work published by LGUJLS is protected by international copyright laws.
  • All articles published in LGUJLS are open-access articles published and distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License which allows reproduction, distribution, remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is cited and authors and publisher are properly identified.
  • Authors retain the copyright to their work while granting LGUJLS the right to publish the article under a specified license.

Ethical Policy

LGUJLS PEER REVIEW POLICY

LGUJLS follows double blind peer review policy as per HEC ‘Y category’ Journals. Each manuscript is peer-reviewed at least by two reviewers in the relevant field before acceptance. The processing of LGUJLS manuscripts has been maintained through OJS, journal management system. The journal will follow HEC recognized indexing/ abstracting agencies as well as well-reputed international databases preferably SCOPUS.

Ethical Policy for Editors

LGUJLS editors must perform their responsibilities fairly and maintain the quality publications. The standard publication ethics are followed vigilantly and without any biasness in processing articles according to HEC policy.

Declaration

  • Authors are required to provide an undertaking/declaration stating that the manuscript under consideration contains solely their original work that is not under consideration for publishing in any other journal in any form.
  • A co-authored manuscript must be accompanied by an undertaking explicitly stating that each author has contributed substantially towards the manuscript's preparation to claim the right to authorship.

Acknowledgment of Sources

  • A paper  must  always  contain  proper  acknowledgment  of  the  work  of  others, including clear indications of the sources of all information quoted or offered, except what is common knowledge.
  • The author(s) must also acknowledge the contributions of people, organizations and institutes who assisted the process of research, including those who provided technical help, writing assistance or financial funding (in the acknowledgement).
  • The author(s) must conduct a literature review and properly cite the original publications that describe closely related work.

Data Access and Retention

  • If any question arises about the accuracy or validity of the research work during the review process, the author(s) should provide raw data to the Editor.

Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest

  • The potential and relevant competing financial, personal, social or other interest of all author(s) that might be affected by publication of the results contained in the manuscript must be conveyed to the editor.
  • Author(s)  should  disclose  any  potential  conflict  of  interest  at  the  earliest  possible  stage, including but not limited to employment, consultancies, honoraria, patent applications/registrations, grants or other funding.
  • All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed alongside a brief overview of the role played, if any by the responses during various stages of the research.

Manuscript Acceptance and Rejection

  • Referees advice the editor, who is responsible for the final decision to accept or reject the article.

Plagiarism and Similarity Policy

LGU Journal of Life Sciences (LGUJLS) upholds the highest standards of originality and academic integrity. All submissions must represent the authors’ own original work and must not have been published previously or submitted concurrently to another journal.

LGUJLS strictly follows the plagiarism guidelines of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan and uses Turnitin® to screen all manuscripts for similarity. In line with HEC policy, the overall similarity index must not exceed 19%, and similarity from any single source should generally not be greater than 5%, excluding references and standard technical phrases. https://www.hec.gov.pk/english/policies/Documents/Plagiarism-Policy.pdf  

The similarity index is used as an initial screening tool only. A low similarity score does not automatically guarantee absence of plagiarism, and all similarity reports are interpreted by the editorial team. Overlap in the following similarity bands will typically be handled as follows:

  • ≤10% overall similarity: Usually acceptable, subject to editorial scrutiny.
  • >10–19%: May be acceptable after careful review; authors can be asked to rephrase overlapping text and resubmit.
  • >19–39%: Considered excessive; the manuscript will be returned to the authors for substantial revision and re-screening before any further processing.
  • ≥40%: Considered a serious breach of publication ethics; the manuscript will be rejected without further review, and, in serious cases, the authors’ institutions and HEC may be informed.

Forms of plagiarism, including but not limited to verbatim copying, mosaic plagiarism, inappropriate paraphrasing, and reuse of figures or tables without permission and citation, are not tolerated. Self-plagiarism (redundant or duplicate publication of one’s own previously published work without proper citation, or salami slicing of data into multiple publications) is also prohibited. If plagiarism is suspected during peer review, the editorial team will seek clarification from the authors. If confirmed, the manuscript may be rejected. If plagiarism is detected after publication, the journal may retract the article, publish a retraction notice, and inform the authors’ institutions and/or HEC, depending on the severity of the case. Authors may also be barred from submitting to LGUJLS for a specified period.

AI-Generated Content: When AI tools (e.g., text or image generators) are used at any stage, authors must clearly disclose the name, version, and role of these tools (e.g., language editing, figure preparation). AI tools must not be listed as authors, and they must not be used to fabricate or manipulate data, results, or references. Responsibility for the accuracy and integrity of the content lies entirely with the human authors.

Research Ethics and Consent

For studies involving human participants, authors must confirm that the research was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki or equivalent ethical standards, and that approval was obtained from an appropriate Institutional Review Board (IRB) or Ethics Committee. A statement of ethical approval (with name of committee and reference number) and informed consent must be included in the manuscript. For studies involving animals, authors must confirm that protocols followed relevant institutional and national guidelines for the care and use of laboratories or experimental animals, and that the study received approval from an appropriate Animal Ethics Committee. Any use of human data (including clinical records, images or biospecimens) must respect confidentiality and privacy regulations, and any identifying information should be removed or anonymized.