About the Journal | Journal of Accounting and Finance in Emerging Economies

AIMS AND SCOPE
Finance and accounting are seen as basic mechanics for achieving markets efficiency and also considered as catalysts for design and successful implementation of market-based financial decision making related to economic policies in emerging and developing economies. With this background JAFEE aims to be a forum for discussion of high impact research in emerging economies covering general areas of accounting, finance and issues in social sciences. The journal is open to both academicians and practitioners in its subject areas.
The journal covers a wide range of areas in accounting and finance and issues in social sciences. It considers articles written in all areas of accounting in emerging economies including but not limited to accounting education, auditing, corporate social responsibility (including environmental accounting and disclosure) corporate governance, financial reporting, management accounting and performance measurement systems, not-for-profit organizations and public sector accounting, taxation, zakat and Islamic accounting. The journal also covers all areas of finance and social sciences in emerging economies.

REVIEW PROCESS
All papers submitted to JAFEE undergo various steps of rigorous double blind review process by which both reviewer and author are not disclosed each other’s identity to ensure independent review and avoid any conflict of interests. In order to meet growing requirement by authors for an efficient review and publication, the journal has taken appropriate measures to speed up the process yet without compromising on the quality of publication. First step is desk review whereby a paper is screened by the chief editor himself and/or assigned to editorial board. This normally takes 15-20 days after submission of the paper in order to check similarity score, appropriateness of the study with journal scope and objectives. Email is sent to the corresponding author regarding decision of this initial screening usually within a month. After a paper goes through initial screening successfully, the paper undergoes review process by the peers, in second step, by which it is sent to two reviewers who are experienced academics in the area of research the paper focuses on. These reviewers make comments on originality, contribution, appropriateness of flow of discussion and references cited in the study. After this step, review reports are sent to all authors of the paper with a letter of acceptance conditioned to fulfillment of revisions in due time or rejection/excuse. This step usually takes another 30-45 days. The third step is about sending revised copy to the copy editors who look at proofreading and editing of the paper and their report is sent to the corresponding author as well. Authors are requested to submit the proofread and edited copy of the paper within 1-3 weeks after which paper is sent for production. Print copy is sent to corresponding author on request after publication. The journal has introduced early online production system by which the advance copy of paper is published and available online before the hardcopy publication.

PUBLISHING POLICY
CSRC Publishing is the publisher of JAFEE and assumes responsibility of all processes and activities necessary for print and online publishing of the content copy sent by the editorial board. CSRC Publishing or its management body bears no right to interfere in the nomination of editorial board and their role. Similarly, CSRC Publishing affirms to NO INTERVENTION policy in the editorial process and activities thereof.

EDITORIAL POLICY
Job Description of the Editorial Board
Aside from providing prestige, the role of the editorial board is to advise and support the editor.
Functions may include:
• Identifying new topics for commissioning special issues and advising on direction for the journal—giving feedback on past issues and making suggestions for both subject matter and potential authors.
• Provide content by writing articles and occasional editorials reviews
• Approaching potential contributors
• Help to identify and suggest reviewers with expertise in the relevant area of a research paper and/or provide second opinions on papers (i.e. where there is a conflict between reviewers)
• To ensure the implementation of ethical guidelines envisaged by Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
• To identify and resolve conflict of interest using journal’s policy thereof.
• Identify appropriate conferences for editors to attend
• Endorse the journal to authors, readers and subscribers and encourage colleagues to submit their best work.
• To handle complaints/grievances by authors, reviewers or any other external and internal party.

PUBLISHING FEE
In order to maintain academic independence of JAFEE, the editorial board has decided to charge NO FEE for submission and publication of articles (No Article Processing Charges). The journal is independently and voluntarily managed by the editorial board whose members are academic staff from renowned institutions.

FINANCIAL MODEL
In order to meet its financial needs to run the journal smoothly, CSRC Publishing and JAFEE has relied to frame its unique business model which is based on following.

a) Volunteer admin staff and editorial board comprising of PhD scholars and faculty members who render their services without any fixed salary.
b) Funding support from Center for Sustainability Research and Consultancy which seeks to promote Green Model of Publishing of its publishing division, CSRC Publishing, with no pay walls and and open access policy.
c) Fast Track Review and Publication: The JAFEE has introduced a fast track review and publication process under which authors are charged a nominal fee of USD 400/equivalent. The reviewers and editorial members are paid remuneration to help give a rigorous yet timely review and publication feedback to the submitting authors under this track.
d) The published authors are offered to buy 5 reprints of the journal issue for a total nominal charge of USD 100 including the courier charges.
e) Funding from HEC Pakistan: The journal has sought recognition and funding from Higher Education Commission Pakistan to cover part of the cost of running the journal.
f) Annual Conference Fees: The Center for Sustainability Research and Consultancy holds annual conferences of its various national and international chapters to further its mission to highlight sustainability issues in emerging and developing economies. The CSRC utilizes the funds generated from conference fee to support its annual conferences and academic activities including support to CSRC Publishing to run its Green Publishing Model.
g) Language editing and proofreading may be required by the journal editorial for the papers accepted for publication after independent review process. The publisher may charge fee for template setting, language editing and proofreading service to cover part of the publication cost. The authors, however, are not restricted to use CSRC Language and Editing Service and rather may opt to use other professional services.

ADVERTISING POLICY
In order to meet its financial needs, the CSRC Publishing and JAFEE consider to accept advertising requests. The advertising policy states that advertisements from only academically relevant institutions and events be allowed on the website and printed materials. Given the sustainability focus of CSRC Publishing, the advertisements related to organizations promoting green and socially responsible products in any direct or indirect manner will also be considered for acceptance. The interested organizations may contact following.

Sadia Zulfiqar
Research and IT Executive
Center for Sustainability Research and Consultancy Pakistan
sadia@globalcsrc.org

ETHICAL GUIDELINES
The JAFEE follows ethical guidelines by Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and Higher Education Commission Pakistan. Both the publisher and the editorial board of JAFEE affirm to comply with and ensure ethical considerations in submission, review, conflict of interest, disclosure and publication process as underlined by COPE declaration on publication ethics and conflict of interest.

COMPLAINT PROCEDURES
In order to ensure customer centricity, implementation of ethical guidelines and ensure transparency of editorial and publishing process, the editorial board and CSRC Publishing have taken appropriate measures. In order to ensure that complaints and grievances by authors, reviewers, editorial or any external and internal body are resolved in a transparent manner, two members of the editorial board are nominated to be part of Complaint/Grievances Committee who can be contacted for any complaints or concerns related to submission, review, conflict of interest and publication process. This committee is responsible to acknowledge all such complaints by email and setup the hearing and resolve of the issue within 30-45 days of receipt of the complaint.

OPEN ACCESS AND COPYRIGHT POLICY

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0). The editorial board of JAFEE shares common vision with CSRC Publishing in providing unrestricted access to knowledge and education for all and thereby follows OPEN ACCESS POLICY to showcase its content.

JAFEE adheres to Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. The authors submitting and publishing in JAFEE agree to the copyright policy under creative common license 4.0 (Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International). Under this license, the authors published in JAFEE let others remix, tweak, and build upon their work noncommercially. All other authors using the content of JAFEE are required to cite author(s) and publisher in their work.

Authors retain the copyright of their scholarly work and can archive pre-print and post-print or publisher’s version/PDF to personal or institutional repositories or libraries anytime without requiring permission from the journal or publisher. Authors of published articles in JAFEE are entitled to deposit their accepted manuscript or the version of record (published papers) in institutional and/or centrally organized repositories and can make this publicly available immediately upon acceptance and publication, provided that the journal and CSRC Publishing are attributed as the original place of publication and that correct citation details are given.