Content: NWJ-papers must be original and adhere to a high scientific (content) and technical (language, artwork, etc.) standard.

Authorship of the paper: Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. To ensure that papers are original contributions, and to avoid copyright issues, authors must follow the below mentioned points:

• When a paper is submitted in NWJ, the authors should include a cover letter indicating “The present paper has not been submitted to any another journal, nor will it be submitted in the next 6 months of initial submission to NWJ. All co-authors are aware of the present submission”.
• All co-authors must be aware of the contents of the submission.
• All co-authors agree with the copyright policy and the Open Access policy of the journal.
• The corresponding author declares that the manuscript and the illustrations within are original, or that he/she has taken all the necessary steps to avoid breach of copyright.

Peer review: NWJ operates a double-blind peer review process for all manuscripts submitted to the journal, where both the reviewers and the authors remain anonymous. Authors can draw our attention to potential conflicts of interest by indicating the name of “opposed reviewers” during submission. Authors are required to explain (in detail) why they do not want the indicated person to be invited.

Originality and Plagiarism: The authors should ensure the quality of the work written be original and if the authors have included the words/statements of others, that this has been appropriately quoted or cited. Authors who published papers on the related topic are expected to include citation of those papers when relevant, but to avoid excessive and inappropriate self-citation. The following are considered as basics and are essential for an ethical publication: content integrity; sound approach and presentation of methodologies, sources and techniques used; reproducibility of results; acknowledgement of contributors to data collection and research; acknowledgements of funding agencies and/or previous institutions where (part of) the work was carried out.

Plagiarism is unacceptable and should be avoided. NWJ has adopted strict COPE guidelines to detect plagiarism and any such cases with significant plagiarism will be handled according to the guidelines and the editor has full right to communicate this to the author’s institution. United Scientific Group (USG) is a member of CrossCheck and we use the iThenticate plagiarism detection system to screen submitted manuscripts for originality.

Also, self-plagiarism should be avoided as much as possible; however, when text duplication from previous works is necessary, it is then reported transparently and these previous works are fully cited in the publication itself.

Research misconduct: Invention of data and malicious manipulation of data (including images) are unacceptable. Authors are expected to keep compiled record (datasets) of the accurate data. Intentional data and content manipulation/omission to fit the proposed aim and desired outcome will be considered as fraud.

Reproducibility of results: We strongly encourage authors to submit the datasets used in the study, alongside the manuscript. Datasets can be published in NWJ as supplementary data files, referenced along with the paper and made available for download. To facilitate data reuse, datasets can also be hosted on the authors’ personal/institutional website(s), ingested in relevant databases and repositories.

Disclosure and conflicts of interest: All submissions must include disclosure of all relationships that could be viewed as presenting a potential conflict of interest.

Responsibilities of reviewers:

• The reviewer should maintain confidentiality about the content of the unpublished manuscript and uphold the highest standards of ethics throughout the peer-review process.
• The reviewer should inform the editor about the potential personal or financial conflict of interest, if such exist.
• All co-authors agree with the copyright policy and the Open Access policy of the journal.
• Reviewer should provide a clear and concise un-biased feedback and should avoid personal criticism or comments to authors about the acceptance or rejection. The comments should be constructive and help the authors to shape the manuscript to be the best it can be.

Editorial decision: At the end of the review process, the corresponding handling editor/editor-in-chief makes the final decision of acceptance or rejection, based on the reviewers’ recommendations and report. If there is any conflict of interest between an editor and an author, the editor in question will not be involved in the review and the decision processes.

Fundamental errors in published works: When an author identifies a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper.

Reporting standards: Authors should report the original research with an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance.

Hazards and human or animal subjects: Statements of compliance are required if the work involves chemicals, procedures or equipment that have any unusual hazards inherent in their use, or if it involves the use of animal or human subjects.

Use of patient images or case details: Studies on patients or volunteers require ethics committee approval and informed consent, which should be documented in the paper.

Privacy statement: The names, affiliations and contact email addresses submitted in the journal platform site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.