About the Journal

Market Forces is a bi-annual, double-blindpeer-reviewed research journal published in June and Decemberby the College of Management Sciences, Karachi Institute of Economics and Technology, Pakistan.The Higher Education Commission of Pakistan recognizes the journal in Y-category. Market Forces is internationally abstracted and indexed by Ulrich, Crossref, EuroPub, WorldCat, Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), OCLC, Google Scholar, and Citefactor. The journal has an advisory and review board consisting of distinguished professionals from leading institutions in Pakistan and abroad. The journal publishes research papers, case studies, book reviews, policy papers, and conference reports in management, marketing, finance, accounting, economics, supply chain management, and contemporary issues. Market Forces has received wide acclaim from academic and research circles internationally and in Pakistan. The journal does not charge any article publication or processing fees from the authors.

 

Address of Publisher

Karachi Institute of Economics and Technology, PAF Airmen Academy, Korangi Creek, Karachi-75190.

 

Aim and Scope

Market Forces is a refereed journal that provides a platform for disseminating original research on business and management-related themes. It publishes research articles that are multidisciplinary with practical significance. Thus, its main objective is to attract thorough academic research that benefits corporate institutions, economic development, and society. Market Forces encourages original research contributions from academicians and corporate professionals around the globe. The journal publishes conceptual, empirical, and methodological articles across the entire domain of business and management, including accounting and finance, marketing, general management, human resource management, organizational development, strategic management, business ethics, management information systems, and business economics. In addition to academic research, Market Forces occasionally features policy debates and book reviews.

 

Author Guidlines

Market Forces is a biannual HEC-recognized journal (in Y-category) of the College of Management Sciences, Karachi Institute of Economics & Technology. Market Forces is published bi-annually in June and December every year. All the manuscripts received by the journal are initially screened by the editorial board and shortlisted for a double-blind review process. The advisory and review board of the journal comprises renowned national and international academicians and researchers. Market Forces is a multidisciplinary journal that publishes original research papers and case studies in management, marketing, finance, accounting, economics, supply chain management, and contemporary issues. Market Forces does not charge any article processing charges/fees from the authors. The authors are requested to submit their manuscripts as per the following guidelines:

1. Use the Times New Roman font style with 12 points and double spacing.
2. The manuscript should be approximately 5000 to 7000 words.
3. Illustrations/tables or figures should be numbered consecutively in Arabic numerals and inserted appropriately within the text.
4. The first page of the manuscript should contain the title, the name (s), email addresses, and institutional affiliations of all the authors.
5. The manuscript must include an abstract of around 300 words.
6. All the text citations, references, and tables should follow the APA format.
7. The manuscript should adhere to all the relevant guidelines in the APA publication manual.
8. The manuscript must avoid all forms of plagiarism and abide by ethical guidelines discussed in the APA publication manual.

 

We look forward to receiving your manuscripts for consideration in the upcoming issues of Market Forces through the online journal system (OJS) at http://www.pafkiet.edu.pk/marketforces/index.php/marketforces/about/submissions.

Editorial Board Market Forces College of Management Sciences Karachi Institute of Economics & Technology

 

 

Copyright Notice

1. Copyright of all the submissions to the Market Forces will remain to the contributors.
2. Anyone can distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon his/her work, even commercially, as long as it is credited/cited to the original contributors of the Market Forces.

 

Privacy Statement

The names and personal data entered in this journal 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.

 

Peer Review Policy

The authors are required to submit/upload their manuscripts on the Market Forces Online Journal System (OJS). The authors who send their manuscriptsto the Market Forces editorial board are advised to upload their manuscripts on OJS. Initially, the editorial office assesses the manuscript for its appropriateness, quality, and plagiarism. If the manuscript is not appropriate for publication in terms of quality and content, the manuscript is desk-rejected. Furthermore, if the manuscript does not conform to the journal's criteria of plagiarism,it is returned to the authors with the advice to reduce the similarity index before re-submission.

 

The editorial office sends the manuscripts of required quality and acceptable similarity index for double-blind peer review. The manuscript is sent to at least one foreign reviewer and one local reviewer. The reviewers can reject the manuscripts or suggests major or minor changes.   

Upon receiving the comments from the reviewers, the editorial office either rejects the manuscript or sends the comments to the corresponding author for making the suggested changes.The corresponding author must then resubmit the revised manuscript by incorporating the recommended changes, which the editorial office further processes.The final authority to accept or reject a manuscript lies with the editorial office.The flow chart for the peer review process is presented below:

 

 

Plagiarism Policy

The journal has a zero-tolerance policy towards plagiarism.All manuscripts are screened for plagiarism using the Turnitin software. As per HEC guidelines, all manuscripts should have a similarity index of less than 19%.Authors are requested to read the HEC plagiarism policy. Its link is as follows:

https://hec.gov.pk/english/services/faculty/Documents/Plagiarism/Plagiarism%20Policy.pdf

 

 

 

 

Subscription

Market Forces is an open-access journal that does not require the payment of any subscription fee as all published papers are freely available for download from the journal's website. We send hard copies to major private and public sector universities and selected business entities free of cost. There are no subscription charges.

 

Ethical Guidelines for Authors

1. The authors must declare that the submitted manuscript has not been published elsewhere.

 

1. Authors mustnot submit the manuscript in any other journal while it is in the review process at Market Forces.

 

1. Authors must declare that they do not have any conflict of interest. 

 

1. The corresponding author must ensure that all the authors have contributed to the submitted article. The corresponding author must also ensure that the author sequence of the manuscriptis finalized with the consent of all co-authors.

 

1. The manuscript must contain the full names, email addresses, designation, and affiliation of all authors. 

 

1. If the authors have received funds for the submitted article, they must clearly state it at the end of the manuscript.

 

1. The copyright of the published manuscript stays with the authors. However, the content of the published manuscript can be used with proper citation.

 

Ethical Responsibility of the Publisher

1. The journal does not publish research papers submitted by the editorial team members.

 

2. Advisory board members can submit their manuscripts in the journal but are not encouraged.

 

3. Review board members are not encouraged to submit their manuscripts in Market Forces. However, once in a while, we receive manuscripts from a reviewer. In such cases, we do not send the manuscript to the reviewer who has submitted the article for consideration.

 

4. Market Forces do not accept the manuscript of KIET's management, including the President, Dean, Associate Deans, and College Directors.

 

5. We allow a maximum of one self-publication in the journal. That is the publication of KIET's faculty, staff, and students.

 

 

Author Agreement Form

Mostmanuscripts have multiple authors from different locations and some from foreign countries. It is inconvenient for them to sign one author agreement form and delay the timely publication of the journal. Like many international journals, we send the final draft for proofreading to all the authors, with the advice to check the content in the manuscript before publication.The journal also advises authorsto cross-check their names, designations, andinstitutional affiliations. We also communicate that if we do not hear from them in a week, we will assume everything is in order, including the consent of all authors.

 

Deadline of all Processes

Duration of Paper Submission

1. The journal’s call for papers is posted on LinkedIn and other social media on a routine basis.
2. When an author uploadshis/her manuscript on the OJS system, it immediately acknowledges the manuscript's receipt and allocates a code, which the authors can use to see at what stage their manuscript is at. The editorial team only processes manuscripts that theauthors have uploaded on the Market Forces OJS system.

 

Review, Acceptance, and Publication of Manuscripts

We can publish a limited number of articles in an issue. Our editorial office reviewsthe oldest uploaded articleson a first-come, first-served basis andsends them for double-blind review if they are of desired quality. The review process is discussed in the section "Steps involved from the date of receipt of research article till the publication of the article."

 

Timelines for Publication of Issues

Market Forces is a bi-annual research journal that is published regularly in June and December each year.

 

Steps involved from date of receipt of research article till the publication of the article

1. The editorial office initially reviews the manuscripts submitted on a first-come, first basis for quality and plagiarism.

 

2. If the quality of the manuscript isnot of the desired level, the editorial office rejects it and informs the corresponding author.

 

3. The editorial office sends the manuscript for double-blind review if it is of desired quality and similarity.It sendsthe manuscript to at least one foreign and one local reviewer. Both reviewers belong to renowned institutions.

 

4. After receiving the reviewers' comments, the editorial team communicates the comments to the corresponding authors. The comments are mostly related to rejecting the articles or acceptingthem with major or minor changes.

 

5. After receiving the revised manuscripts, the editorial office proofreadsthem and sends themto the printer forthe publication of the first dummy copy.

 

6. The editorial office then sends the first dummy copy to all the authors for receiving their consent on authorship, the correctness of names, order of authors, and affiliation of the authors.

 

7. While sending the dummy copy, the editorial office informs all the authors that if it does not receive any response in a week, it will assume that the authors have consented to the authorships and have nochanges to offer. This process is necessary for the timely publication of the issue.

 

8. The editorial office sends the first dummy copy with the corrections to the publisher in the final stage.

 

9. After receiving the final dummy copy, the editorial office proofreads it and then uploads the manuscripts on OJS to generate DOI.

 

10. The editorial office then sends the DOI to the publisher who prints the generated DOI on each article and sends the final manuscripts for uploading on the web page and to the printer for publishing hard copies of the issue.

 

11. The process takes six months to one year, depending on the number of manuscripts in the queue.

 

Article-processing/publication fee

Market Forces is an open-access journal. The authors are not required to pay any processing and publication fees.All published papers are freely available for download from the journal's website. The editorial team sends the hard copies of the issue to select major private and public sector universities and selected business entities free of cost. There areno subscription charges.

 

Disclosure and Conflict Of Interest

The corresponding authors at the time of publication disclose that none of the authors have a conflict of interest with the publication in Market Forces and their other personal or business interests

 

Correction and Retraction of Research Articles

Market Forces have adopted the guidelines suggested by the COPE for Retraction Policy.

 

Correction by Authors

1. After uploading the articles, the authors can make corrections when the editorial office sends them the reviewers' reports.
2. The authors can also edit the first dummy copy, which the editorial office sends to them. After that, we do not allow any correction in the manuscript.
3. In exceptional cases, we may allow minor changes after the manuscript is uploaded on the Market Forces webpage but before printing the hard copy of the journal.

 

Retraction by Authors

1. The authors have the right to retract their articles from the time of submission and before publication.
2. However, Market Forces may consider retraction after publication in special circumstancesif any author or a person reports a serious unethical practice. In such a case, the editorial office forms a special committee to review the case.

 

Retraction by the Publisher (Market Forces)

1. The editorial team of the Market Forces can retract a published article if they receive irrefutable evidence suggesting unreliable findings. Factors that can contribute to unreliable findings are (i) miscalculation or experimental error, (ii) fabrication of data, or falsification of images or results.

 

2. The published articles have high plagiarism. At the time of publication, the editorial team checks the similarity index, but its plagiarism index can increase in the future if the authors resubmit the same article with minor changes in another journal. If the plagiarism has increased due to some other authors, we may not retract the article.

 

3. The editorial team might retract a published article if the authors' disclosure were not correct or the authors have infringed copyrights.