Editor
Mr. Akila Randika Jayamaha

Members
Prof. Ajith Nagahawatte
Prof. Nazeera Salim
Dr. Indrapala Chandrasekeram

Copyeditor
Ms. Nimesha Amarsooriya

Secretary
A. M. Fabiola Fernando
H. M. Ishara Herath

Committee members
Ms. Stephanie Perera
Ms. Oshadi Perera
Ms. Rashmi Bandara
Ms. Ransika Yasasini Gamage
Ms. Gavesha Buddhika

• The work described has not been published before (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture, review, or thesis).
• It is not under consideration for publication elsewhere.
• Its publication has been approved by all coauthors, of any, as well as by the responsible authorities at the institute where the work has been carried out; those who have made substantial contributions should be listed as coauthors. Thus, International Journal of KIU will not be responsible for any inclusion or exclusion of the coauthors.
• If and when the manuscript is accepted for publication, the authors agree to the automatic transfer of the copyright to the publisher.
• The manuscript will not be published elsewhere in any language without the consent of the copyright holders; and that written permission of the copyright holder is obtained by the authors for material used from other copyrighted sources.
• The article contains no such material that may be unlawful, infringe any proprietary or personal rights of others (including, without limitation, any copyrights or privacy rights). that the work is factually accurate and contains no matter libelous or otherwise unlawful.
• Author/s have substantially participated in the creation of the work and that it represents the original work adequate for the author/s to claim the authorship.
• If any plagiarism found in the camera-ready article after publication, the authors are the solely responsible not International Journal of KIU or editorial board of the journal.
• The article, the final version of which the authors enclose, should not be substantially the same as any that they have already published elsewhere.
• No responsibility is undertaken by International Journal of KIU, its staff or members of the editorial board for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods, products instruction, advertisements or ideas contained in a publication by International Journal of KIU.
• If the study involves human subjects and/or animals, and also if the manuscript includes case reports/case series, the authors are required to provide the certified ethical approval obtained from an ethical approval committee or institutional review board.
• Reversion of rights; articles may sometimes be accepted for publication but later rejected by the sole discretion of the editors in chief, even in some cases after public posting in “Articles in Press” form, in which case all rights will revert to the author.
• If any dispute arises final decision shall be taken by the editorial board of the International Journal of KIU.
• Upon signing the copyright agreement, the corresponding author takes full responsibility that all the coauthors have been informed and no exclusions have been made.

• The International Journal of KIU as the primary controller of the personal information provided by the authors, recognizes the importance of respecting and protecting the personal information and privacy of the authors.
• The International Journal of KIU obtains personal information of the authors’ contact details, such as authors’ name, email address, affiliation, phone number; account login credentials, such as usernames and passwords, and similar security information; other account registration and profile information, including educational, professional and other background information; payment information, such as a credit or debit card number, and government issued ID numbers. This information which is obtained from the authors should be kept confidentially.
• The international Journal of KIU retains authors’ personal information for as long as necessary to provide the service and fulfill the transactions that the authors have requested, or for other essential purposes such as complying with the journal’s legal obligations, maintaining business and financial records, resolving disputes, maintaining security, detecting and preventing fraud and abuse, and enforcing the journal’s agreements.
• The personal information provided by the authors may be used for responding to the authors’ requests, inquiries, comments or concerns, inviting them to submit or review research articles, notifying about changes, updates and other announcements related to the service.
• The International Journal of KIU takes necessary technical and organizational measures to safeguard authors’ personal information against loss, theft and misuse and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration and destruction.

• All the decisions of the Editorial boards are made independently, without any external pressure or influence and are fully independent from the publisher and any other persons.
• The Journal ensures that the editorial decisions, concerns or complaints about editorial decisions, are dealt strictly within the editorial structures of a publication.
• The Journal maintains the strict condition that no one is allowed to get involved in, interfere with, or even comment on editorial decisions under any circumstances.

• All research articles published in International Journal of KIU are fully open access and immediately freely available to read, download and share.
• The international Journal of KIU promotes new technologies and standards that increase the accessibility thus enabling the users to achieve the maximum benefit, insight and understanding from the journal content.
• The international Journal of KIU provides users a free, irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual right of access to copy and use with a proper attribution of authorship

• The international Journal of KIU in providing open access full publishing services, authors will be charged an article processing fee. Thus, international authors are charged USD 16.00 and local authors are charged LKR 195.00.
• After the official acceptance of the paper, the payment will be non-refundable and if an author requests the copy of a printed publication; per page it will be LKR 10.00 and per an issue of the printed journal LKR 2,750.00 will be charged.

• The chief editors of the journal have the independence and the main responsibility to decide which of the articles submitted to the journal should be published. The editors follow the policies of the journal focusing more on the issues such as copyright infringement and plagiarism
• The editorial board ensures that the peer reviewing has an unbiased, fair and methodical process. The journal maintains the policy that research articles must be reviewed by two external and independent reviewers who have the suitable expertise in the relevant field.
• The editorial policies ensure that the transparency and honest reporting is followed in relation to article acceptance, reviewing and publishing process.
• The editorial board must protect the confidentiality of all materials submitted to the journals and all communications with reviewers.
• Unpublished information and materials enclosed in manuscripts submitted to the journal should not be used for personal advantage.
• The editorial board members are not allowed to involve in decisions about the manuscripts which they have written, or with which they have a close connection. Those manuscripts should go through the journal’s usual procedures and peer review must be handled independently without the involvement of the relevant editor.
• It is the responsibility of the editorial board to take necessary measures to protect the integrity of the published record by reviewing and assessing the reported or suspected misconduct and if a such matter arises, the editor needs to coordinate with the author thus focusing on the complaint made and in a situation where they receive the convincing evidence of misconduct, immediate solutions should be taken to rectify the issue under the guidance of the chief editors.

• Reviewers are expected to be impartial and objective in reviewing the manuscripts and any manuscript received for review must be treated as confidential documents.
• Reviewers are not allowed to share any type of information about the manuscripts with anyone or contact the authors directly without the permission from the editorial board.
• If the reviewers find ethical issues in the manuscript, those issues should be brought to the attention of the editorial board and reported accompanied by the relevant evidence.
• Reviewers should coordinate with the editorial board before giving consent to review a paper where they have potential conflicts of interest.

• Authors should submit the original manuscript and present an accurate amount of the work performed. The research findings and data should be represented accurately in the manuscript. If the authors have used work of others, those details and information should be cited properly.
• Authors are not expected to publish the same research manuscript in more than one journal of primary publication. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal simultaneously implies unethical behavior and is not acceptable.
• Authorship should be given to the people who have immensely contributed to develop the paper and those who have made substantial contributions should be listed as coauthors.
• In submitting the manuscript, the corresponding authors should ensure that all the coauthors have the final version of the manuscript and have agreed to its submission for publication
• In submitting and publishing a research manuscript authors are expected to comply with the policies of the journal
• If the study involves human subjects and/or animals, and if the manuscript includes case reports/case series, authors should ensure that the manuscript contains a statement that all procedures were performed in compliance with relevant laws and institutional guidelines. The authors are required to provide the certified ethical approval obtained from an ethical approval committee or institutional review board.
• If the authors discover a major error or inaccuracy in their published work, they must notify editorial board and take necessary to measures to recorrect it by coordinating with the editorial board.
• In providing original images as supplementary materials with the article , the authors should strictly follow the guidelines set by the Journal and manipulating a specific feature of an image thus hindering the originality of the work is considered as unethical whereas modifying the image for a better quality and clarity can be accepted.