Journal Policies

Aims & Scope

PRISL Journal publishes scholarly, technical and industry-focused contributions relevant to plastics, rubber, polymers, elastomers and related materials, manufacturing and applications. The journal aims to provide a professional platform for research findings, technical knowledge, industrial developments, innovation, sustainability and education that can contribute to the advancement of the polymer sector, with particular relevance to Sri Lanka and the wider international community.

Submissions should have a clear connection to the journal’s subject area and should provide substantive technical, scientific, educational or industry value. Article categories may include research articles, review articles, technical articles and appropriately identified industry contributions.

Peer Review Policy

Research and review manuscripts should normally undergo independent peer review before acceptance. Reviewers are selected for relevant subject expertise and should provide objective, constructive and confidential assessments.

• Editors should assess submissions initially for scope, relevance, originality, completeness and basic scholarly quality.
• Research and review articles should normally be evaluated by at least two independent reviewers, subject to the availability of suitable experts.
• Reviewers should disclose conflicts of interest and decline a review where a conflict could compromise impartiality.
• Reviewer identities and reports should be treated as confidential unless the journal formally adopts an alternative transparent-review model.
• Editorial decisions should consider reviewer advice but remain the responsibility of the editor/editorial team.
• Authors may be asked to revise a manuscript in response to reviewer comments before a final decision is made.

Industry, technical and professional contributions may be reviewed according to their category and may receive editorial and/or technical review appropriate to the content.

Publication Ethics

PRISL Journal is committed to maintaining an accurate and trustworthy scholarly record. Authors, reviewers and editors are expected to act honestly, transparently and professionally.

• Authors must submit original work and properly acknowledge sources and contributions.
• Fabrication, falsification, duplicate publication, undisclosed conflicts of interest and unethical manipulation of results are unacceptable.
• All listed authors should have made a meaningful contribution and approved the submitted version.
• Editors and reviewers must disclose relevant conflicts and keep unpublished manuscripts confidential.
• Concerns about research integrity should be investigated fairly, with an opportunity for the affected parties to respond.
• Where appropriate, PRISL Journal will follow established publication-ethics principles and good editorial practice, including relevant COPE guidance.

Where human participants, animals, proprietary data or other regulated material are involved, authors are responsible for obtaining the necessary approvals and providing the required statements.

Copyright & Licence

Authors should retain appropriate rights in their work while granting PRISL Journal the rights necessary to publish, preserve, distribute and make the article publicly accessible.

Recommended default licence for formal adoption: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). Under this licence, readers may share and adapt the work with appropriate attribution, subject to the licence terms.

Any third-party material included in an article remains subject to the rights of its original owner. Authors are responsible for obtaining permission for material for which they do not hold the necessary rights.

The final copyright and licence statement shown on an article should match the licence formally adopted by PRISL and should be displayed consistently on article pages and PDFs.

Author Guidelines

Authors should submit manuscripts that are clear, complete and prepared for scholarly or professional evaluation. Unless a specific article template is issued, submissions should contain:

• Descriptive title and full names of all authors.
• Author affiliations and a corresponding-author contact.
• Abstract for research and review articles, where applicable.
• Keywords that accurately describe the work.
• Logical sections appropriate to the article type, including methods, results and conclusions for research articles where applicable.
• Accurate tables, figures, units, references and captions.
• Declarations of funding, conflicts of interest, ethical approval and other relevant matters where applicable.
• A statement confirming that the submission is original and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, unless the editor has explicitly agreed otherwise.

References and source attribution

References should be complete and consistently formatted. Authors must give proper credit to prior work and must not manipulate citations for the purpose of artificially increasing citation counts.

Use of AI tools

Authors remain responsible for the accuracy, originality, integrity and final wording of their manuscript. Generative AI tools must not be listed as authors. Where AI tools have materially contributed to drafting, analysis, image generation or other manuscript preparation, the use should be transparently disclosed in accordance with the journal’s instructions.

After publication

Authors should cooperate promptly with reasonable requests for clarification, corrections or documentation required to protect the integrity of the published record.

Open Access Policy

PRISL Journal is intended to provide free public access to published articles through its official journal website. Article landing pages, bibliographic metadata and individual article PDFs should be accessible without a subscription or login.

• Readers may access published articles free of charge for research, education and other lawful uses subject to the article licence.
• The journal should maintain stable article URLs and preserve published versions of record.
• Any article processing charges, submission charges or other publication fees must be publicly stated by PRISL. No fee should be implied where none has been formally adopted.
• The journal should maintain appropriate digital preservation and backup arrangements for the scholarly record.

The exact licence and any applicable author charges must be confirmed by PRISL and displayed consistently before an open-access indexing application is submitted.

Plagiarism Policy

PRISL Journal considers plagiarism, substantial unattributed copying, duplicate publication and inappropriate reuse of text, figures, data or ideas to be publication-integrity concerns.

• Submitted manuscripts may be screened using appropriate similarity-detection and editorial checks.
• Similarity scores are evidence for editorial assessment, not an automatic acceptance or rejection threshold.
• Minor, properly attributed overlap may be treated differently from deliberate or substantial unattributed copying.
• Where serious concerns are identified, the editor may request an explanation, reject the manuscript, notify relevant institutions where appropriate, or take post-publication action.
• Authors are responsible for accurate quotation, paraphrasing, attribution and permissions.

The journal should retain sufficient records of plagiarism assessments and decisions to support a fair and auditable editorial process.

Retraction & Correction Policy

PRISL Journal will correct the scholarly record when reliable evidence shows that a published article contains a material error, ethical problem or other issue requiring editorial action.

Corrections

Minor errors that do not invalidate the main findings may be corrected through a clearly identified correction notice or an updated version, while preserving a transparent record of the change.

Retractions

An article may be retracted where there is clear evidence of unreliable findings, major publication misconduct, serious ethical problems, substantial plagiarism, duplicate publication or another circumstance that materially undermines the reliability of the published record. A retraction notice should explain the reason and remain permanently linked to the original article.

Expressions of concern

Where a significant concern cannot be resolved promptly, the journal may issue an expression of concern while an investigation is completed.

Transparency

The original publication record should remain discoverable, with the correction, retraction or expression-of-concern status clearly displayed. Editorial decisions should be documented and handled consistently with established publication-ethics practice.