Open Access Policy

Literary Druid is an Open Access International Journal because our journal is a publication model that enables the propagation of research articles to the global learned community without any mode of restriction through the internet. The Author/Author’s Institution/Research Funds should cover the publication costs. At the same time, the authors who publish in Literary Druid retain the copyright of their article. All of the articles published under open access and can be accessed by anyone with internet access with a suggestion THINK BEFORE PRINT to save trees and environment.

Budapest Open Access Initiative | Budapest Open Access Initiative

Article Copyright and Licensing

The article published in the journal gives the author(s) of the article to retain the copyright of the article. They may republish the article as part of a book or other materials. While reusing the published article, author(s) have to cite the original source of the publication. i.e. Cite that the article was originally published in the journal Literary Druid. Note: The copyright mentioned as "Copyright © Literary Druid, 2018. All rights reserved" in the footer of the website is only for web design, and the academic content, such as articles, chapters, etc, are compliant with OA principles. All are of Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). So, the articles published by the journal are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ for clarification.

Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

Literary Druid requires all authors to adhere to the ethical standards required for research writing. Specifically, the journal requires all authors to adhere to the ethical standards as prescribed by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Promoting integrity in scholarly research and its publication | COPE: Committee on Publication Ethics. The publisher will take necessary steps for the research misconduct and research misconduct will be dealt in a professional manner to ensure justice to original research and publication ethics. If the journal finds any research delinquency that hinders research and academic publishing, the article will be retracted. For the sake of corrections in the article, it can be made with a request to the editor by mail. Note: In regard to Authorship and Contributorship, there are clear policies defining eligibility and responsibilities of authors and contributors in the Submission, Review, And Publication Processes. For Complaints and Appeals, transparent procedures for handling complaints and appeals from authors, reviewers, or readers are also found in the research misconduct section. In case of Conflicts of Interest / Competing Interests, the disclosure of financial or non-financial conflicts are in every article. For Data Sharing and Reproducibility, the journal follows CCBY 4.0 International license guidelines to promote data availability and reproducibility of research findings. For Ethical Oversight, the journal is committed to ensure ethical standards in research and publication practices. To ensure Intellectual Property, The journal adopts the policy that the copyright belongs to the authors. For Post-Publication Discussions and Corrections, the journal will consider post-publication dialogue, corrections, and retractions if it seems necessary. 

Repository Policy

The Journal abides to the rules of Mir@bel https://reseau-mirabel.info/revue/9200/Literary-Druid and Sherpa/Romeo https://beta.sherpa.ac.uk/id/publication/40474 and is indexed in them.

Archiving Policy

The Journal articles are archived in 'Internet Archive' for Long-term Preservation.

Authorship

The person who does not meet authorship requirement as specified by the editorial policy or the elimination of a person who meets the requirement is a violation of ethical requirements of the journal and will be prosecuted in due of it. The author should take all responsibility if his/her work is found an intellectual theft and be the one to endure judicial prosecution.

Submission, Review, And Publication Processes

Submission Process

All submissions to Literary Druid must be made electronically via the E-mail literarydruid@gmail.com to the editor.

To Authors

Literary Druid publishes full-length research articles, book reviews, translations, creative writing and other authentic language and literary writings in English.

A full list of references in English is mandatory. Citation of the article should be in MLA style for Literature studies, APA for scientific methods. The details of acknowledgement, conflict of interest and financial support should be given at the end of the article. The authors are obliged to provide details as per the checklist.

Preparing of Your Manuscript

Initial to submission, ensure that your manuscript falls within the scope of the journal. All original works must be written in good English. Poorly written submissions will be rejected. Abstracts with keywords ought to be sent with the full paper for the peer-review process. The manuscripts should be prepared in Times New Roman, 12 font, single-line spacing not more than 6-12 pages. No numbering to Headings, Subheadings, Sections, and Subsections. Major headings ought to be in bold and block text (e.g INTRODUCTION). Utilize MLA Hand Book 8 for all sorts of research documentation.

Manuscript Submission Checklist

The checklist is recommended to the author:

The manuscripts that are not properly formatted will be returned to the author before being reviewed.

• 12 font, Times New Roman, A4 Paper, Margin 1 on all sides.
• Double-space all text, including references.
• Number pages and number lines continuously.
• All Format references in MLA style. Refer MLA 8th Edition.

Review Process

All manuscripts are considered confidential and are authentically reviewed by members of the Board of Editors, invited editors, or invited reviewers. When a manuscript is submitted, the author will be intimated through the online letter pad. Then, plagiarism check is the next step. If the paper found guilty of plagiarism, it will be rejected. If accepted it will be sent for the double-blind peer-review process. The reviewers operate under strict guidelines provided by the journal. The author will be notified generally within 4 weeks after submission of the manuscript about the decision to accept, reject, or require modification. In case of modification, the corresponding author must submit the modified one within thirty days or withdraw the manuscript. The review report will be intimated to the authors for improvement of research in them and be kept confidential by the journal.

Peer Review Policy

Literary Druid employs a meticulous peer review system. All submitted manuscripts will undergo a double-blind peer review process before publication (one International academician and one National academician).

The process consists of Pre-publication-Double blind peer review; Editors mediate the interactions between reviewers and authors; the Peer reviews are not published but kept as a document by the publisher; open access is given to all.

The reviewers will act objective to ensure the core quality of the journal. After the successful review every reviewer should extend their willingness that there is no conflict of interest. Reviewers are asked to point out relevant published work which is not yet cited in the article. They must keep the review process as confidential.

AI Generated Content Policy

Literary druid considers use of AI in academic research and writing as a complex duality and raise concerns about academic integrity, originality, and potential biases. So, if any use of AI generation in the preparation of article, It will be disqualified and the author will be banned from future publication. Reviewers should also avoid the use of AI in Peer Review.

Suggestive Parameters for Peer-Reviewed Journals UGC 2025 Guidelines

In strict accordance with the UGC 2025 Guidelines governing the assessment and curation of peer-reviewed journals, we maintain rigorous adherence to these standards, which were formally promulgated on 11th February 2025. It is confirmed that certain 36 parameters for choosing peer-reviewed journals by faculty members, students and the Higher Educational Institutions by the Commission at the 59lst meeting held on 24 June, 2025 to use the guidelines for all academic and research-related publication activities. These guidelines serve to uphold the principles of academic rigour, scholarly transparency, and publication excellence within the research community. In its recent advisory concerning selection criteria for peer-reviewed publications, the University Grants Commission (UGC) emphasises that Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) must uphold their commitment to advancing rigorous research and ensuring its dissemination through reputable peer-reviewed journals. To facilitate this objective, HEIs are advised to adopt the following indicative parameters when evaluating journals, tailored to their institutional priorities and disciplinary specialisations. These guidelines serve as a foundational framework to safeguard the quality, editorial transparency, and scholarly relevance of selected publications. For cross-verification against the UGC-mandated 36 parameters, please find below a detailed examination of this journal's alignment with the stipulated criteria.

Suggestions for HEIs

1. Choice of Peer-Reviewed Journals: Using the above parameters, faculty members and students may choose peer-reviewed journals tailored to their specific disciplines and research focus areas for publishing their research work.

2. Internal Review Committees: HEIs may establish internal committee(s) to fine-tune the above-suggested parameters from time to time as needed in their specific cases to ensure they continue to meet the quality standards and to align with the institute’s academic and research goals. (Ref: 584th meeting held on 3rd October 2024, circular released on 11 February, 2025), (Ref: 59lst meeting held on 24 June, 2025, Public Notice released on 16th July 2025)

Literary Druid - UGC Suggestive Parameters for Peer-Reviewed Journals - Download PDF

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is not limited to the text only; it can involve any part of the manuscript, figures, and tables, in which it is copied without permission and proper attribution. in the same way, An author should not reuse his/her own formerly published work without acknowledgment. (text recycling- also known as self-plagiarism).

Literary Druid considers plagiarism a serious intellectual crime and offense. The manuscripts must be the original works of the author(s). The journal will follow the guidelines enunciated by COPE in alleged cases of plagiarism. The journal is committed to eliminating manuscripts with feasible cases of plagiarism from its review and publication process. The journal uses Plagiarism Checker X  to check each manuscript for possible cases of plagiarism. Plagiarism check will be the first step in the manuscript review process. The Manuscripts that are found with similarity to other published works are immediately rejected. 

Kindly refer to the link: (https://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts OR https://style.mla.org/plagiarism-and-academic-dishonesty/) to identify questionable writing practices and to avoid it. 

Retraction Policy and Correction Policy

Retractions will be done to the articles which has questionable practices in writing the paper and a complaint letter will be forwared to the institution of the author to rectify the problem. Corrections, clarifications and apologies will be taken into concern via proper channel (head/Supervisor of the Institution) for genuine cases and the matter will be aptly done and announced.

Acceptance Certificate

Authors will be issued an Acceptance Certificate for manuscripts that have been reviewed and accepted for publication by the editor. 

Manuscript Fee

Authors are required to pay the manuscript fee after the manuscripts have been Peer-reviewed and accepted for publication (after getting the Acceptance Certificate) from the editor.

The fee is 9000 INR and is subjected to change according to the tax and economic fluctuation. Other Nationals calculate according to your nationality value of the prescribed INR. There is no charge for the submission fee. The journal may grant waivers to deserving research scholars.

Publication

Once the proofs are received, the manuscripts are usually included in the next issue of the journal. Thereafter, it will be published on the journal’s website.

Publication copy to the Author(s)

After publishing online, an e-copy of the journal will be sent to the corresponding author with links to the issue and article. Kindly print if it is needed for documentation because as our main scope is to avoid paper printing.

Certification

We will provide e-certificate of publishing to the corresponding person.

Institutional Subscription

Contact Editor for digital gateway subscription. An authentic certificate will be issued to the institution.

Metadata of every issue, special issue incase, citation status and world wide visibility of the articles will be credited to the institution to promote research and publication ethics. Notifications will be send on this regard after every issue to the concerned library of the institution. Some times if needed hard copy may be provided for those pay the subscription to get it as a record.

Special Issues

LITERARY DRUID is an online-only journal, offers open access to all content online to foster research, learning and to preserve ecological values through ethical publishing. We publish three special issues per year and the special issues are included among the regular issues annually. In view of that, we aim for special issues that are likely to attract enough high-quality papers to justify by creating a dedicated issue on a particular topic.