The Lahore Journal
of Business

The Lahore Journal
of Business

Lahore Journal of Business

(HEC recognized journal in “Y” category)

The Lahore Journal of Business is aimed at providing a specialized forum for dissemination of qualitative and quantitative research in various areas of business administration. The LJB invites researchers, policy makers and analysts to submit original theoretical and empirical papers that explore and contribute to the understanding of various areas in the business domain. The Journal aims at bringing together state-of-art research findings, particularly from emerging markets, in various business disciplines including (but not limited to) accounting, banking, management, marketing, finance, investments, human resource management and organizational behavior.

The Statement of Ethics, Policies and Responsibilities

The Lahore Journal of Business (LJB) adheres to a strict code of conduct to be followed by all the parties associated with the publication process: the authors, the editors, the editorial board, the peer reviewers, the publisher and the readers. This Code of Conduct is derived from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines, which can be found at www.publicationethics.org. The principal responsibilities lie with the editors, the authors and the reviewers.

Editorial Governance and Independence

LJB operates under a transparent editorial structure. The editorial board is composed of subject experts, whose names, institutional affiliations, and contact information are publicly accessible. The board exercises complete editorial freedom and makes decisions solely based on academic merit and ethical considerations. The publisher or the sponsoring institution exercises no influence on editorial content or decision making.

Authorship and Contributorship

Article authorship should be determined by significant input to the study conception, design, execution or interpretation. The CRediT taxonomy is  used in LJB so that each author can be defined in the contribution. The writers need to be careful to cite and/or quote any other works, words, and/or ideas of others. These involve self-references by the author(s) to their own work, which had already been published before their present work. Every author should agree with the final form of the manuscript. Any request to have authors added, removed, or rearranged after submission is forwarded to ljb@lahoreschool.edu.pk and includes a written statement with all authors’ signatures, including the one being added or removed. Authorship change requests need to be reasonable, accepted by the other co-authors, and approved by the editor. In the event of any dispute over authorship, the journal shall abide by COPE principles, and the authors’ institutions may be asked to investigate the issue.

Plagiarism and Originality

The Lahore Journal of Business adheres to the Higher Education Commission (HEC) ‘s plagiarism policies. The author(s) must ensure that the papers, manuscripts, and articles that are submitted to the Lahore Journal of Business are entirely original works. Any original research submitted must present an accurate description and an objective discussion of the significance of the work undertaken. Any of the underlying data or facts used should be accurately and completely represented in the manuscript. If the author(s) have used any work, words or and/or ideas from any other sources, the authors must ensure that this work has been appropriately cited and/or quoted. Any plagiarism, including self-plagiarism or “text recycling”, will be grounds for the retraction or rejection of articles or manuscripts. Any type of plagiarism is undesirable and should be avoided as unethical publication conduct.

Subscription Policy

The annual subscription charges are PKR 600 for domestic subscribers and US $50 for overseas subscribers. If you wish to subscribe, please email the LJB at ljb@lahoreschool.edu.pk for a subscription form.

Article Processing Charges
All content published in our journal is openly accessible online immediately upon release, without any charge to the authors. There are no fees for submitting articles or for publication. The Lahore School of Economics covers all expenses associated with peer review, production, and dissemination of articles. The manuscript can be submitted at 
https://mc04.manuscriptcentral.com/ljb.
Advertisement Policy
The LJB does not accept or publish advertisements on its website to ensure the integrity and credibility of the content. This policy maintains editorial independence and provides a seamless, distraction-free reading experience. Moreover, it promotes unbiased, accurate, and transparent research and fosters a focused environment for academic engagement.
Archiving Policy

The Lahore Journal of Business ensures the long-term preservation and accessibility of published articles by archiving them on secure platforms, including the Public Knowledge Project Preservation Network (PKP PN) and the National Digital Archive of Pakistan Scientific and Technological Information Centre, and assigning each article a Digital Object Identifier (DOI). It has established a distributed archiving framework across participating libraries and journals to maintain permanent archives of the original, authentic versions of the content. Furthermore, the publisher (Lahore School of Economics) maintains an in-house archival system (DSpace) that archives all full-text articles of the journal. This platform integrates with long-term digital preservation systems to ensure all articles remain accessible over time. The collaborative nature of our archiving policy underscores the commitment to preserving scholarly work for future generations of researchers and readers.

Repository Policy
The Lahore Journal of Business is an open-access journal that allows authors to submit their articles to any repository of their choice once their work has been accepted for publication. The authors do not need to seek prior approval from the publisher. All the full-text articles published in the LJB are also stored in the institutional repository of the publisher (Lahore School of Economics) to encourage wider dissemination of scholarly work. This policy enables authors to archive their work in institutional or subject-specific repositories, ensuring greater visibility and accessibility of their findings to the academic community and the general public.
Conflicts of Interest

Conflicts of interest may be financial, such as funding, employment, or share ownership, or non-financial, such as personal relationships, academic competition, or institutional affiliations. Authors are required to declare all conflicts of interest at the time of submission, and every published article must include a statement either disclosing conflicts or declaring that none exist. Any potential conflict of interest or the perception of bias in favour of or against the potential authors must be made clear to other members of the editorial board, and the relevant member of the editorial staff must refrain from handling the relevant manuscript(s). Reviewers must also declare any potential conflicts and decline invitations if appropriate. The reviewers ought not to consider manuscripts for which they have competing, cooperative, or other relationships or affiliations with any of the authors, businesses, or organisations associated with the manuscripts that could give rise to a conflict of interest. Potential conflicts of interest, or the possibility of the perception of bias in favour of or against potential authors, must be made clear to other members of the editorial board, and the relevant member of the editorial staff must refrain from handling the relevant manuscript(s). The journal will record COI declarations, publish relevant COI statements with articles, and, where a serious undeclared COI is discovered post publication, will follow the journal’s investigation and correction/retraction procedures. The journal keeps COI records for at least five years.

Research Ethics

LJB requires that research involving human participants be conducted in compliance with established ethical standards. To secure institutional ethics approval, authors must confirm that participants gave informed consent. They must also obtain informed consent, keep confidential information confidential, and manage all data in a responsible manner, fully adhering to relevant ethical standards and laws. Manuscripts are asked to include information about ethical considerations, approvals and informed consent. In research involving animals, authors must demonstrate adherence to international welfare standards. The journal stresses honesty, integrity, and respect for research subjects in all published work.

Data Availability and Reproducibility
Lahore Journal of Business (LJB) asks authors to provide a Data Availability Statement (DAS) with their manuscripts to foster transparency and reproducibility. The authors must be ready to submit any raw data related to the manuscript for editorial review. It is recommended that authors deposit their data in trusted repositories and provide appropriate citations for their data. If legal or ethical constraints (such as intellectual property rights, confidentiality, or privacy) prevent free sharing, authors must include this information in the data availability statement. In the case of restricted data, metadata, or access agreements must be provided, along with a description of the data collection process, processing, and analysis. Authors should, where possible, provide the underlying data and code, and include information about data validation procedures and any limitations to support reproducibility.
Allegations of Misconduct
All issues of research or published misconduct are taken seriously by the Lahore Journal of Business and addressed in accordance with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Core Practices. Misconduct encompasses, but is not limited to, plagiarism, data fabrication or falsification, image or citation manipulation, duplicate submission, authorship problems, peer-review manipulation and undisclosed conflict of interest. Editors, reviewers, readers or institutions may raise allegations, which are evaluated promptly by the Managing Editor of the publication. Our first step is to carry out a preliminary screening and, when questions seem valid, to call the respective author to clarify, where suitable, engaging the other co-authors. Cases requiring further validation are forwarded to the authors’ organisation or funder, and the journal is fully cooperative with such investigations. Investigations being carried out may lead to the journal halting editorial processing, or issuing an Expression of Concern; the result can be rejection before publication, or correction, retraction, or statement of concern after publication. Any notices are published publicly, associated with the original article, and they provide the basis of action. Conflicts of interest among the editors are recused from the decisions, and, as much as possible, the identity of the whistleblower is concealed. All cases are audited, and the information is kept confidential. New evidence may be presented to allow an appeal. The editorial judgments will never be made based on funding or institutional affiliations.
Corrections, Retractions, and Expressions of Concern

LJB believes that academic integrity in the record must be maintained. Where mistakes are found that may have compromised the quality of published work, a correction will be issued by the journal. A retraction will be made in instances of known misconduct or invalid results. An expression of concern can be made where an investigation is pending. All such notices will be associated with the original article. Articles that are retracted will be watermarked and placed in the journal archive. The journal strives to inform CrossRef/DOI providers and indexing services (such as DOAJ) of corrections and retractions to update metadata and records. The journal tends to publish corrections within 30 days of verification, and retractions as soon as practicable after an investigation has been completed.

Professional Conduct and Harassment Policy

LJB has a zero-tolerance policy of harassment, discrimination, or academic bullying. Professional and respectful behaviour is expected from all stakeholders involved in the publication process, including authors, reviewers, and editors. Complaints will be taken seriously and discreetly. Unprofessional or harassing behaviour should be reported confidentially to ljb@lahoreschool.edu.pk and will be addressed promptly.

Funding Policy
All publishing costs are covered internally by the journal’s host institution/organisation. Although the journal itself is not externally funded, authors will be asked to include a Funding Statement in their submitted manuscripts. This statement must also explicitly show financial support, grants, or institutional funding of the research and the role (if any) of the funder in the study design, data collection, data analysis, or publication. Any information on the nature of declared funding provided by authors is published alongside the article to provide transparency and integrity to the scholarly record.
Responsibilities of the Editors
  • All articles submitted to the Lahore Journal of Business should be evaluated for merit and quality, regardless of the author(s) ‘s gender, race, orientation, ethnic origin, religious beliefs, political philosophy, or citizenship.
  • Editors are also responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of all submitted manuscripts and for protecting the anonymity of both authors and reviewers. Disclosure is strictly limited to members of the editorial team and other individuals directly involved in the peer review and publication process.
  • Editors are responsible for sourcing anonymous peer reviews from respected experts to form the basis of their decision making. They are responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the journal should be published. Such choices must always be based on the validity of the work in question and its significance to readers and scholars.
  • The final decision to accept or reject an article for publication, to be supported by the reviewers’ reports, remains with the editors.
  • As a corollary to the above, should editors choose to go against the reviewers’ recommendations, they must be able to provide a clear and reasonable justification for doing so?
  • Any information on a submitted article can only be shared by the editors with the corresponding author, reviewers, editorial board, and publisher, as applicable.
  • Any of the work of the author(s), published or unpublished, and including data, cannot be used by editors or anyone involved with the journal or the publisher without the express written approval and consent of the author(s).
  • Any ideas, information, or knowledge obtained from the review process should be kept confidential and cannot be used by the editors or staff for personal or professional benefit.
  • During the publication process, the integrity and intellectual and ethical standards of the journal should not be compromised at any point. The editors are at all times willing and able to publish clarifications, corrections, apologies, retractions and negations as needed. They will do so in compliance with the COPE Guidelines for Retracting Articles.
Responsibilities of the Authors
  • The authors should provide clear, up-to-date contact information, along with a precise description of their current employment and academic positions.
  • Any connection to LJB editors or other staff, or to the Lahore School of Economics, must be made clear and transparent by the authors.
  • Manuscripts submitted to the LJB must be completely original and have not been published in any primary publications prior to the LJB. If the same manuscript or article has been published elsewhere, it will be considered unethical and will be rejected or retracted by the journal’s editorial board.
  • The manuscript should include sufficient details of sources and references so that others can replicate the paper’s findings. Any fraudulent or inaccurate statements, as well as misrepresentations of data and/or facts, constitute unethical behaviour and are unacceptable.
  • The authors must disclose any sources of funding for the work reported in their manuscript: to be mentioned within the text and to the editors at the time of submission.
Responsibilities of Reviewers
  • The editors should be promptly notified if the selected reviewer is unable or unqualified to review the research stated in the article, manuscript or paper.
  • During the review process, strict confidentiality should be maintained at all times. The unpublished work, including the data and associated information, may be used only by the reviewer during the review process and may not be shared with others.
  • The reviewers must remain objective and review the manuscripts on their merits, with their comments reflecting as such. The LJB will not accept ad hominem remarks and other forms of personal criticism by reviewers.
  • The reviewer should identify the relevant published work that has not been cited in the submitted research. In the reviews, any observations, derivations, or arguments made by the reviewer that have been previously stated must be accompanied by the related citations.
  • The reviewer must also point out any significant overlap and/or similarity between the manuscript that is being reviewed and any other previously published research to the editor and the author(s).
  • The reviewers ought not to consider manuscripts for which they have competing, cooperative, or other relationships or affiliations with any of the authors, businesses, or organisations associated with the manuscripts that could give rise to a conflict of interest.