Following is an outline of our commitment to publication ethics and transparency in accordance with the principles of the Committee on Publishing Ethics (COPE). 

Peer review process: All submitted manuscripts undergo rigorous peer review. The peer review process is detailed here. 

Editorial team: The full names and affiliations of the editors who have edited our books are given here. 

Publishing fee: The publishing fee for each book chapter in an edited volume is found here.  

Copyright/Licensing Policy: Copyright of individual chapters belongs to the respective authors. The authors grant unrestricted publishing and distribution rights to the publisher. The electronic versions of the chapters are published under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0). Users are allowed to share and adapt the chapters for any non-commercial purposes as long as the authors and the publisher are explicitly identified and properly acknowledged as the original source. The books in their entirety are subject to copyright by the publisher. The reproduction, modification, republication and display of the books in their entirety, in any form, by anyone, for commercial purposes are strictly prohibited without the written consent of the publisher.

Process for identification of and dealing with allegations of research misconduct 

Plagiarism check:  All submitted manuscripts will undergo plagiarism check first. We work with CrossRef to use iThenticate to detect plagiarism. iThenticate gives a 'similarity index', which is the word-by-word copying of materials from previously published literature. We use similarity index to make a decision. Even if the original source was cited, articles with more than 10% similarity index will be returned to the authors without peer review for corrective action. For articles with similarity index between 1-10%, we follow the guidelines of COPE on text recycling to make a decision. 

Responsibility of Authors: The responsibilities of authors are included here. 

Responsibility of Editors and independent reviewers: Editors and independent reviewers are expected to keep the manuscripts confidential, provide an unbiased scientific opinion of the manuscript on time and declare any conflict of interest as described here. 

Copyright violation: Where relevant, it is the responsibility of the authors to obtain permission from copyright holders, and to ensure that the use of images, data and illustrations in the manuscript do not violate copyright laws. It is mandatory that all chapters include the following "Copyright and Permission" statement: To the best of my/our knowledge, the materials included in this chapter do not violate copyright laws. All original sources have been appropriately acknowledged and/or referenced. Where relevant, appropriate permissions have been obtained from the original copyright holder(s).  

Corrections: If an error in any of the published chapter is brought to our attention, we will publish an Erratum or Corrigendum on the publisher's website.  

Retraction: Proof of scientific misconduct will lead to retraction of a published chapter. Other issues will be dealt with on a case-by-case based on the retraction guidelines of COPE. The retracted chapter and the reason(s) for retraction will be clearly stated. 

Web site: To the best of our knowledge, the site does not contain any misleading information. If any misleading information on the website is brought to our attention, we will take corrective action.

Conflict of interest: It is mandatory that authors, editors, and independent reviewers disclose conflict of interest as described here. 

Access: Our publications are freely available online. There is no need for any kind of registration to access them. 

Revenue sources: A publishing fee is charged for each chapter.  

Direct marketing: Potential authors are invited by acquisition editors by email or through advertisement on our website.

Contact details: Our contact details are displayed under Contact. 

Instructions for Authors: Detailed guidelines for authors are included here.