E
--- Standards & Ethics
Our editorial standards are non-negotiable.
NIDAN's credibility rests entirely on the quality and integrity of what we publish. These policies exist not as bureaucratic requirements, but as the foundation of everything we are building.
Scope & Focus
NIDAN publishes original research focused on Indian law, governance and public policy. Before submitting, ensure your work falls within our editorial scope below.
Indian Legal Policy
The blog's scope is limited to Indian legal policy covering statutes, constitutional law, regulatory frameworks, institutional design, and governance across all domains of Indian law.
International Perspectives
International perspectives are welcome as long as they offer a strong, direct link to legal policy issues in India such as comparative analysis, international treaty obligations under WTO, or global regulatory models applicable to India.
Interdisciplinary
Interdisciplinarity is actively encouraged. Research drawing from economics, political science, sociology, public health or technology to illuminate legal questions is particularly valued, provided the legal policy dimension remains central.
Originality & Authorship
All submissions to NIDAN must be original works that have not been previously published and are not simultaneously under review at any other journal, blog, or publication platform. This includes preprint servers, law school blogs, and institutional working paper series unless the prior publication is clearly disclosed at the time of submission.
Authors must declare their full institutional affiliation and any co-authors at the time of submission. Ghost authorship — the practice of publishing under a name other than the true author is grounds for immediate and permanent rejection.
What We Mean by "Original"
Original means the central argument, analysis, and conclusions are the author's own work. Expanding a seminar paper, conference presentation, or classroom essay into a full submission is acceptable provided the work has not been published elsewhere. A paper that merely summarises existing scholarship without contributing new analysis or argument is not original for NIDAN's purposes, regardless of whether it has been published before.
Citation Standards
NIDAN follows OSCOLA (Oxford Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities) as its house citation format. All submissions must use OSCOLA consistently throughout the manuscript. Submissions with inconsistent, incomplete, or absent citations will be returned without editorial review.
All primary sources including cases, statutes, constitutional provisions must be directly cited. Secondary sources must be used to support, not substitute for, the author's own analysis. Over-reliance on secondary literature without primary source engagement is a basis for revision requests.
Plagiarism Policy
NIDAN operates a zero-tolerance policy for plagiarism in all its forms. This includes direct copying without attribution, paraphrasing without attribution, self-plagiarism (reproducing your own previously published work without disclosure), and mosaic plagiarism (rearranging phrases from sources without attribution).
Consequences of Plagiarism
Any submission found to contain plagiarism will be immediately rejected. The author will be permanently barred from submitting to NIDAN and Published articles found to contain plagiarism after publication will be retracted,
We use industry-standard plagiarism detection tools as part of our preliminary screening process. Authors are encouraged to run their own checks before submission. A similarity score is not, by itself, determinative, a proper quotation and attribution of high-similarity content is acceptable. What is not acceptable is the presentation of another's work as one's own.
Review Process
All submissions to NIDAN undergo a three-stage editorial review process. No submission is published without completing all three stages.
Stage 1 — Preliminary Screening
The editorial team assesses relevance to NIDAN's focus areas, compliance with formatting and citation requirements, originality screening, and whether the submission meets the minimum standard for full review. Authors receive a pass/fail decision within 7 working days.
Stage 2 — Peer Review
Submissions passing preliminary screening are assigned to at least two members of the editorial board with expertise in the relevant domain. Reviewers assess argument quality, analytical rigour, citation accuracy, clarity of writing, and policy relevance.
Stage 3 — Revision & Final Decision
Authors receive a decision of Accept, Revise & Resubmit, or Reject, accompanied by detailed reviewer feedback. Authors invited to revise have two weeks to submit a revised manuscript with a response memo addressing each reviewer comment. Final publication decisions rest with the Editor-in-Chief.
Publication Standards
NIDAN publishes four types of research outputs, each with specific format requirements.
Conflicts of Interest
Authors must disclose at the time of submission any financial, personal, or professional relationships that might be perceived to influence their research. This includes employment, consultancy arrangements, grants, or any personal relationship with parties discussed in the research. Disclosure does not automatically disqualify a submission rather undisclosed conflicts do.
Corrections Policy
NIDAN is committed to the accuracy of its published record. Factual errors identified after publication will be corrected promptly via a clearly labelled correction notice appended to the published piece. The original text will be preserved with corrections marked. Authors are encouraged to notify the editorial team immediately upon identifying errors in their own published work.
Retractions are issued where plagiarism, data fabrication, or other serious integrity violations are identified after publication. Retraction notices are permanent and replace the original article in the archive.