Publishing Policy

The Digital Repository for Indian Scholarly Texts & Information (DRISTI) is committed to publishing scholarly books of the highest academic quality while promoting open access, research integrity, and international publishing standards. Operated by the Centre for Development of Intellectual Property and Research (CDIPR) and the Community for Academic Research and Development (CARD), DRISTI provides a trusted publishing platform for monographs, edited volumes, conference proceedings, policy reports, institutional publications and scholarly book series. All books published through DRISTI undergo rigorous editorial assessment and peer review to ensure academic excellence, originality and relevance. Our publishing framework is guided by internationally recognised best practices in scholarly communication and is committed to maintaining the highest standards of publication ethics, transparency and editorial independence.

Copyright and Licensing Policy

DRISTI supports the principles of Open Access publishing while recognising and protecting the intellectual property rights of authors. Unless otherwise agreed, authors retain copyright over their published work. Authors grant DRISTI a non-exclusive licence to publish, disseminate, archive and preserve their work in digital formats. Publications are generally released under a Creative Commons (CC) licence to facilitate lawful sharing and reuse of scholarly knowledge. The preferred licence is CC BY 4.0 (Attribution International), although other Creative Commons licences may be adopted where appropriate, depending on institutional requirements, funding mandates or author preferences. The editorial office provides guidance to authors in selecting the licence that best aligns with their publication objectives while maintaining compliance with open-access principles.

Book Proposal Evaluation

All book proposals submitted to DRISTI undergo an initial editorial evaluation before entering the formal peer-review process. The editorial assessment considers:

Academic significance and originality
Relevance to the aims and scope of DRISTI
Scholarly contribution to the discipline
Target readership
Editorial quality and organisation
Ethical compliance
Feasibility of publication

The evaluation is conducted by the Editorial Office in consultation with the Academic Advisory Board and subject experts where necessary. Only proposals that satisfy the preliminary editorial requirements proceed to peer review.

Peer Review Process

DRISTI follows a rigorous and transparent peer-review process designed to uphold academic quality and scholarly integrity. Depending on the nature of the publication, manuscripts may undergo double-blind, single-blind, or open peer review, as determined by the Editorial Board. Double-blind peer review remains the preferred model for most scholarly publications.

Each manuscript is normally evaluated by a minimum of two independent expert reviewers possessing recognised expertise in the relevant discipline. Additional reviewers may be appointed where interdisciplinary or specialised subject matter requires broader evaluation. Editors may consider reviewer suggestions proposed by authors; however, reviewer selection remains solely at the discretion of the Editorial Office. Individuals with actual or perceived conflicts of interest including recent collaborators, supervisors, students, departmental colleagues or close professional associates, will not ordinarily be appointed as reviewers.

Reviewers evaluate manuscripts on criteria including:

Originality and contribution to existing scholarship
Academic rigour and methodological soundness
Clarity of arguments and logical organisation
Accuracy of data and factual information
Quality of literature review and referencing
Relevance of conclusions
Overall readability and scholarly presentation
Compliance with ethical research standards

Reviewers provide detailed confidential reports together with one of the following recommendations:

Accept without revision
Accept subject to minor revisions
Major revisions required
Reject

Anonymous reviewer reports are shared with authors to facilitate revision. Following revision, manuscripts may be returned to the original reviewers for further evaluation before a final editorial decision is made. The final decision regarding publication rests exclusively with the Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Board.

Editorial and Production Process

Following acceptance, manuscripts proceed through a comprehensive production workflow including:

Professional copyediting
Language editing where required
Typesetting
Reference verification
Metadata preparation
DOI assignment
ISBN registration
Proofreading
Cover design
Author proof approval
Digital publication
Indexing and dissemination

Books are published through the DRISTI publishing platform in internationally accepted digital formats including PDF, EPUB, HTML and XML where applicable.

Plagiarism and Originality

DRISTI publishes only original scholarly work. All submitted manuscripts may be screened using recognised plagiarism detection software prior to peer review and again before publication where necessary. Authors must certify that:

the manuscript is original;
it has not been previously published;
it is not simultaneously under consideration elsewhere;
all third-party material has been appropriately acknowledged and permissions obtained where required.

Confirmed plagiarism, duplicate publication, fabricated data or other forms of research misconduct may result in immediate rejection or withdrawal of the manuscript.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy

Authors remain fully responsible for the originality, accuracy and integrity of all submitted content. Where Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools or Large Language Models (LLMs) have been used for language editing, translation or other supportive purposes, such use should be transparently disclosed where appropriate. AI technologies may not be credited as authors.

Reviewers and editors must treat all submitted manuscripts as confidential documents. Uploading any part of a submitted manuscript to ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Copilot or any other generative AI system or external AI-assisted platform without the explicit written permission of the publisher is strictly prohibited.

Publication Fees

DRISTI is committed to making scholarly publishing accessible while maintaining high editorial and production standards. Publication fees, where applicable, are determined individually based on several factors, including:

manuscript length;
number of chapters;
editorial complexity;
copyediting requirements;
typesetting requirements;
number and quality of illustrations;
tables, graphs and figures;
multimedia content;
specialised formatting;
production schedule.

Publication fees may cover:

Editorial assessment
Peer review administration
Copyediting
Proofreading
Typesetting
ISBN registration
DOI assignment
Metadata preparation
Digital publication
Long-term digital preservation
Indexing support
Repository hosting
Global dissemination
Marketing and promotional activities

Additional services, including professional translation, image permissions, extensive language editing, custom graphic design or print-on-demand production, may incur separate charges. Where publication fees apply, a formal quotation or publishing agreement will be provided before production begins.

Digital Preservation and Accessibility

All books published through DRISTI are preserved through internationally recognised digital preservation mechanisms and institutional archiving practices. Published works are assigned persistent identifiers and enriched with structured metadata to maximise discoverability, citation and long-term accessibility. Books are made available through secure digital infrastructure supporting: