Values

Open Access

LAR believes in and promotes open access. All of the LAR journals are open access – the most effective channel of disseminating scientific results. LAR believes that the ultimate objective of all scientific works is to benefit human beings. The traditional publication system creates a sturdy cordon between research publications and their envisioned users, and diverts the publication system from its expected objective. The open-access approach, however, removes all such obstacles between scientific publications and their users by letting all interested users have unrestricted access to those publications.

Research Integrity and Ethics

LAR is committed to the highest standards of research integrity and ethical principles in all aspects of publishing research works. As outlined in our ethical policy, we follow a systematic approach to ensure the highest level of responsible conduct by all parties throughout the publication process. The policy particularly sets out guiding principles and specific responsibilities for editors, reviewers and authors in performing their respective roles. The policy aims at ensuring impartial and rigorous objectivity in handling, evaluating, and making decisions on submissions.

Excellence in Peer Review

As a part of its research integrity policy, LAR strives for conscientious peer reviewing of submissions, the cornerstone of scholarly publishing. The peer review process in LAR journals involves a systematic approach in line with the peer review policy of journals available on individual journal webpages. The approach ensures a meticulous, objective, transparent, and consistent evaluation of each article by at least two anonymous external experts from the respective academic field. All articles go through two levels of review: an initial assessment by the editorial team and then a review by anonymous experts. All LAR journals apply blind peer review practices with respect to both expert reviewers and authors.

Disseminating Valuable Research Works is Our Top Priority

LAR is dedicated to and promotes the unrestricted dissemination of research findings that will benefit the scholarly community in particular and people around the world in general. To this end, we provide researchers around the world with an equal and greatly inspiring opportunity to publish their high-quality works and then make those scientific resources freely available to their intended audience.

It is our promise that no high-quality articles will be left unpublished with us because of the author's inability to pay the publication fee. This is how we put research value first in our publishing objective.

It is important to mention that LAR charges a publication fee for accepted articles. This fee, however, is the lowest possible amount in the industry, and barely covers the operating expenses of the journals. Moreover, LAR provides fee assistance for outstanding research works when authors face financial challenges in paying the publication fee. Please see the publication fee section for details about the fee assistance policy.

To eliminate any potential influence of the fee waiver policy on the submission handling and decision-making processes, the publication fee is payable only after the paper is accepted, and authors are recommended to apply for fee assistance at this time. In addition, fee waiver applications are processed and granted by the publisher to ensure the fair treatment of each application.

A Platform for the Global Scholarly Community

At LAR, our community is the global scholarly community and our focus issues are local, regional and global. We ensure equal opportunities for all, irrespective of their geographical location, color, language, religion or other demographics. All of our editorial teams are internationally diverse; contributors and advisors are researchers and scholars around the world.