Make sure that every reference cited in the text must also be presented in the reference list and vice versa. Proper citation is essential to acknowledge the work of others, avoid plagiarism, and ensure the credibility and integrity of scholarly communication. This Citation Policy outlines the requirements and guidelines for citing sources in all manuscripts submitted to our journal. Personal communications and unpublished results should not be included in the reference list at the end of the manuscript but may be presented in the text.

Authors must ensure that all citations accurately reflect the original source, including correct author names, publication titles, and page numbers. Citations should be directly relevant to the manuscript’s content, supporting claims, data, and research findings. All sources that have contributed to the development of the manuscript, including ideas, data, or direct quotations, must be cited. Authors should avoid selective citation practices that exclude important or contrary research. While thorough citation is encouraged, excessive self-citation or citation of irrelevant works should be avoided.

Authors should cite the; Original research articles, conference papers, or other firsthand data sources that directly inform the manuscript’s research.Review articles, books, or other sources that provide interpretation or analysis of primary sources.Personal communications, unpublished data, or manuscripts under review must be cited as such and should not be listed in the reference list but mentioned in the text.Websites, online databases, and digital sources should be cited with the most up-to-date URLs, publication dates, and access dates.

Citation Style: Vancouver style for citing sources (https://library.viu.ca/citing/vancouver)

Authors must not present the work or ideas of others without proper citation. Any form of plagiarism, including direct copying of text, paraphrasing without attribution, or failure to credit the source of ideas or data, is strictly prohibited. Practices like citation stacking (mutually agreed on excessive citations between authors), citation cartels, or including irrelevant citations to inflate citation counts are unethical and will be treated as misconduct. Authors should avoid citing articles that have been retracted unless it is necessary to discuss the retraction itself or comment on the reason for the retraction. Non-peer-reviewed or unreliable sources, such as predatory journals, blog posts (unless of academic value), or user-edited websites like Wikipedia, should not be cited as authoritative references. However, such sources may be referenced for informational purposes with caution.

Any data, images, or figures reproduced from other works must be properly cited, and authors must obtain permission from the copyright holder where necessary. If external datasets are used, they must be cited in the same way as other scholarly sources. Dataset citations should include details such as the dataset title, version, author(s), publisher, and DOI (if available). Authors are encouraged to use citation management tools (e.g., EndNote, Zotero, Mendeley) to ensure consistency and accuracy in their citations. However, authors must review and verify that citations generated by such tools comply with the journal’s requirements. If authors discover citation errors after submission or publication (e.g., incorrect references or missing citations), they should promptly inform the editorial team. The journal may issue a correction or erratum in case of significant citation inaccuracies. The editorial board of pharma research library (PRLP)reserves the right to review and check the citations in submitted manuscripts to ensure compliance with this policy. Manuscripts that fail to meet proper citation standards may be returned to authors for revision. If authors are found to have engaged in citation malpractice, such as plagiarism or citation manipulation, invite actions like, Manuscript rejection or retraction (if already published), Notification to the author’s institution or funding body, A ban on future submissions to the journal for a specified period etc.