Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

The International Journal of Research and Community Empowerment (IJoRCE) is committed to maintaining high standards of integrity, transparency, accountability, fairness, confidentiality, editorial independence, accessibility, inclusivity, and academic quality throughout the scholarly publishing process.

This Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement establishes the ethical principles and responsibilities applicable to all parties involved in the publication process of IJoRCE, including Authors, Editors, Reviewers, Editorial Board members, editorial staff, and the Publisher.

IJoRCE refers to internationally recognized principles of ethical and transparent scholarly publishing, including guidance issued by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing developed collaboratively by COPE, the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), the Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association (OASPA), and the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME).

This policy applies to all content submitted to or published by IJoRCE, including regular articles, invited manuscripts, special issue articles, conference-related manuscripts, editorial notices, post-publication updates, Comments and Criticism, Author Responses, and other scholarly content.

IJoRCE upholds the following fundamental principles:

  • Integrity, requiring honesty, accuracy, responsibility, and accountability throughout research, peer review, editorial decision-making, and publication.
  • Fairness, requiring manuscripts, Authors, Reviewers, and ethical concerns to be assessed objectively, consistently, and impartially.
  • Editorial Independence, requiring editorial decisions to remain free from inappropriate commercial, institutional, personal, financial, political, or other external influence.
  • Transparency, requiring relevant editorial policies, procedures, declarations, corrections, and significant publication information to be communicated clearly.
  • Confidentiality, requiring submitted manuscripts, peer-review materials, investigations, personal information, and other confidential information to be appropriately protected.
  • Accountability, requiring Authors, Editors, Reviewers, editorial staff, and the Publisher to take responsibility for their respective roles in maintaining the integrity of scholarly communication.
  • Accessibility, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity, requiring the journal to provide a scholarly publishing environment that avoids unnecessary or discriminatory barriers to participation and engagement.

Editorial decisions are based primarily on the scholarly merit, relevance, methodological soundness, integrity, and contribution of submitted work. They must not be influenced by an Author's nationality, ethnicity, race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, political view, citizenship, institutional affiliation, financial circumstances, or other characteristics unrelated to the scholarly content of the manuscript.

Manuscripts that do not comply with the journal's Publication Ethics, Author Guidelines , submission requirements, required declarations, authorship requirements, or other editorial policies may be returned for clarification or correction, rejected, or otherwise handled in accordance with the applicable journal policy.

Authors are required to read and comply with this Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement and the related policies of the journal. In accordance with the Author Guidelines, Authors must submit a signed Statement of Manuscript Authenticity as part of the submission documentation. The signed statement must be uploaded as a supplementary file during the initial submission. By submitting a manuscript, Authors acknowledge and agree that the signed Statement of Manuscript Authenticity and the manuscript similarity-check report may be published alongside the article as part of the journal's publication ethics and transparency documentation.

The manuscript similarity-check report is used as a screening and transparency tool. The similarity percentage does not automatically determine whether a manuscript is accepted or rejected. Interpretation of the similarity results remains subject to editorial assessment, taking into account the source, nature, context, extent, distribution, and significance of the identified similarities.

Duties of Editors

Publication Decisions

Editors are responsible for determining whether manuscripts submitted to IJoRCE are suitable for publication.

Editorial decisions are based on academic merit, originality, relevance to the journal's Focus and Scope , methodological soundness, clarity, scholarly contribution, peer-review reports, ethical considerations, research integrity, and compliance with the journal's policies.

Editors may consult other Editors, independent Reviewers, Editorial Board members, subject experts, statisticians, research integrity experts, ethics experts, or other appropriate specialists when additional expertise is required.

The journal's peer-review model, Reviewer responsibilities, confidentiality procedures, editorial decision-making, and related processes are described in the Peer Review Process .

Editorial Independence

Editorial decisions must remain independent of inappropriate influence from the Publisher, journal owner, sponsor, institution, commercial entity, Author, or any other third party.

Decisions to accept, reject, request revision, correct, issue an Expression of Concern, retract, remove, replace, or otherwise act upon scholarly content must be based on academic quality, available evidence, ethical considerations, peer-review results where applicable, editorial assessment, and protection of the scholarly record.

Article processing charges, administrative charges, production charges, Fast-Track fees, waiver requests, withdrawal-related charges, post-publication administrative charges, advertising, sponsorship, or any other financial or commercial matter must not influence editorial decisions.

Further provisions are provided in the Editorial Independence Statement .

Fair and Non-Discriminatory Evaluation

Editors shall evaluate manuscripts based on their intellectual and scholarly content without discrimination based on nationality, ethnicity, race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, political views, citizenship, institutional affiliation, personal relationships, financial circumstances, payment status, fee-waiver requests, or other considerations unrelated to scholarly merit.

IJoRCE periodically reviews its policies and practices to identify and, where reasonably possible, remove unnecessary barriers that may create an exclusionary publishing environment.

Confidentiality

Editors and editorial staff must treat submitted manuscripts and related materials as confidential.

Information concerning a submission must not be disclosed to unauthorized persons.

Submitted manuscripts, Reviewer reports, Author responses, raw data, figures, supplementary materials, investigation records, and confidential editorial communications must not be disclosed or shared outside the authorized editorial, peer-review, research-integrity, or journal-controlled process.

Use of Generative AI in Editorial Processes

Editors and editorial staff may use generative AI, AI-assisted technologies, or language-support tools for supportive and non-decisional purposes where such use is permitted under the journal's Generative AI Utilization Policy. Examples may include language assistance, administrative support, metadata organization, workflow support, or development of editorial templates and policies.

Generative AI and AI-assisted technologies must not replace human scholarly assessment, ethical judgment, research-integrity assessment, evaluation of Reviewer recommendations, Conflict of Interest assessment, post-publication editorial assessment, or editorial decision-making.

The Editor remains fully responsible for all editorial assessments, communications, recommendations, and final decisions.

Confidential manuscripts, Reviewer reports, Author responses, data, figures, supplementary materials, editorial records, and private editorial communications must not be uploaded to or processed through public, unsecured, or unauthorized AI systems.

Where local, offline, private, secure, or journal-controlled AI systems are used for confidential editorial materials, appropriate safeguards for confidentiality, privacy, data protection, access control, and intellectual property must be maintained.

Detailed provisions are provided in the Generative AI Utilization Policy .

Conflicts of Interest

Editors must disclose and appropriately manage any financial, personal, academic, institutional, competitive, collaborative, commercial, political, or other relationship that could reasonably be perceived as affecting their impartiality.

An Editor must not handle a manuscript or ethical case where an unmanaged Conflict of Interest exists. Such matters must be reassigned to another qualified Editor who is free from the relevant conflict.

If the Editor-in-Chief has a Conflict of Interest, the manuscript or case must be handled by another appropriate Editor or independent Editorial Board member.

Detailed provisions are provided in the Conflict of Interest Policy .

Complaints and Appeals

IJoRCE provides a mechanism for handling complaints and appeals concerning editorial procedures, editorial decisions, Editors, Reviewers, Editorial Board members, editorial staff, the Publisher, peer review, publication ethics, Conflicts of Interest, research integrity, or other matters directly related to the journal's publication activities.

Complaints and appeals should normally be submitted in writing to the Editorial Office and should provide sufficient information to identify the issue and enable the journal to assess it fairly.

Anonymous or confidential concerns may be considered when they contain sufficiently specific, credible, and relevant information or supporting evidence. The journal assesses concerns primarily according to their substance and available evidence rather than solely according to the identity of the complainant.

The journal may decline or discontinue complaints that are clearly abusive, malicious, knowingly false, repetitive without new evidence, threatening, unrelated to the journal's publication activities, or insufficiently specific to permit meaningful assessment.

A person who is the subject of a complaint must not determine the outcome of that complaint. Where a complaint concerns the Editor-in-Chief, Publisher, Editor, or Reviewer, the case should be handled by another appropriate and sufficiently independent person or body.

Appeals against editorial decisions should identify a material procedural error, factual misunderstanding, unmanaged Conflict of Interest, or other substantial issue that may reasonably have affected the decision. Disagreement with Reviewer comments or editorial judgment alone does not necessarily constitute sufficient grounds for an appeal.

After an appeal has been appropriately assessed, the journal's decision will normally be considered final unless significant new evidence or information becomes available.

Abusive, coercive, threatening, defamatory, harassing, or intimidating communication will not influence editorial decisions. The journal may limit or suspend communication where necessary to protect Editors, Reviewers, staff, or other parties while ensuring that legitimate ethical or scholarly concerns continue to be appropriately considered.

Duties of Reviewers

Contribution to Editorial Decisions

Peer review assists Editors in making editorial decisions and may help Authors improve the quality, clarity, validity, and scholarly contribution of their manuscripts.

Reviewers are expected to provide constructive, objective, respectful, timely, and evidence-based assessments.

Promptness and Competence

An invited Reviewer who believes that they do not have appropriate expertise, cannot conduct an impartial review, has a relevant Conflict of Interest, or cannot complete the review within a reasonable period should promptly inform the Editor and decline the invitation.

Confidentiality

Manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shown to, shared with, uploaded to, or discussed with any unauthorized person.

Reviewers must not use unpublished materials, ideas, data, methods, arguments, or findings obtained through peer review for their own research, publication, teaching, personal advantage, or the advantage of another party.

Use of Generative AI in Peer Review

Reviewers must not use generative AI tools or AI-assisted technologies to review, evaluate, summarize, interpret, analyze, criticize, determine the scholarly validity of, or prepare peer-review reports for manuscripts submitted to IJoRCE.

Peer-review assessment must be conducted personally by the invited Reviewer based on their own expertise, academic judgment, and ethical responsibility.

Reviewers must not upload manuscripts, figures, tables, data, supplementary files, review forms, Author responses, or other confidential peer-review materials to public, unsecured, or unauthorized AI systems.

Further provisions are provided in the Generative AI Utilization Policy .

Reviewer Identity and Delegation

Reviewers must not delegate an assigned review to another person without prior permission from the Editor.

If another qualified person is permitted to contribute to a review, that person must comply with the journal's confidentiality, Conflict of Interest, and publication ethics requirements. Their contribution should be disclosed to the Editor where appropriate.

Standards of Objectivity

Reviews must focus on the scholarly content of the manuscript. Personal criticism of Authors is inappropriate.

Reviewers should express their assessments clearly and, where possible, support substantive criticisms or recommendations with appropriate reasoning or evidence.

Acknowledgement of Sources and Citation Ethics

Reviewers should identify relevant scholarly work that may have been overlooked where such work is genuinely relevant to evaluation of the manuscript.

Reviewers must not request or recommend citations primarily to increase citations to themselves, colleagues, the journal, an institution, or another publication. Citation recommendations must be based on legitimate scholarly relevance.

Reviewers should inform the Editor of substantial overlap, redundant publication, plagiarism, citation manipulation, or other potential ethical issues identified during review.

Conflicts of Interest

Reviewers must disclose potential Conflicts of Interest arising from personal, academic, financial, institutional, competitive, collaborative, commercial, political, or other relevant relationships.

Reviewers should decline or discontinue the review where a Conflict of Interest could reasonably compromise, or appear to compromise, impartial assessment.

Detailed provisions are provided in the Conflict of Interest Policy .

Duties of Authors

Reporting Standards and Accuracy

Authors must present an accurate and honest account of the work performed and provide sufficient information to enable readers and Reviewers to understand, evaluate, and, where appropriate, reproduce or replicate the research.

Data, methods, analyses, results, figures, tables, references, and other research information must be reported accurately and must not be fabricated, falsified, manipulated, selectively misrepresented, or knowingly misleading.

Originality, Plagiarism, and Similarity

Authors must ensure that submitted manuscripts represent original scholarly work.

Where words, ideas, data, methods, instruments, figures, tables, or other materials originating from another source are used, they must be appropriately cited, quoted, acknowledged, licensed, or otherwise used with permission where required.

Plagiarism, inappropriate text recycling, citation manipulation, or other misleading use of previously published material is unacceptable.

Similarity-checking results are used as a screening tool and must not be interpreted solely on the basis of a numerical similarity percentage. Editorial assessment considers the source, context, nature, extent, and significance of identified similarities.

Detailed provisions are provided in the Anti-Plagiarism Policy .

Multiple, Redundant, and Concurrent Submission

Authors must not submit substantially the same manuscript simultaneously to more than one journal.

Redundant or overlapping publication must be disclosed and appropriately justified. Relevant previous or related publications must be transparently cited.

Acknowledgement of Sources and Citation Ethics

Authors must appropriately acknowledge sources that materially contributed to the development, methodology, interpretation, or context of the research.

Authors must not manipulate citations, include irrelevant citations for the purpose of increasing citation counts, intentionally omit materially relevant sources in a misleading manner, participate in citation cartels, or engage in coercive citation practices.

Authorship and Contributorship

Authorship must reflect substantive scholarly contribution and requires responsibility and accountability for the published work.

All listed Authors must meet the journal's authorship requirements, approve the submitted manuscript, and agree to their stated contributions.

Individuals who contributed to the work but do not qualify for authorship should be appropriately acknowledged where applicable.

Requests concerning addition, removal, rearrangement, contribution, correspondence, or other authorship changes must comply with the journal's established procedures.

The journal does not independently adjudicate private authorship disputes that properly require resolution by the Authors and/or their institutions.

Detailed authorship criteria, contributorship requirements, authorship changes, and dispute procedures are provided in the Authorship and Contributorship Policy .

Use of Generative AI and AI-Assisted Technologies

Authors may use generative AI, AI-assisted technologies, language-support tools, or other assistive technologies only in accordance with the journal's Generative AI Utilization Policy.

Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, integrity, ethical compliance, verification, and final content of their manuscript. AI-assisted technologies must not replace the Authors' own scholarly contribution, critical reasoning, analysis, interpretation, discussion, or conclusions.

Use of such technologies must be disclosed where required by the journal.

Generative AI systems and AI-assisted technologies cannot be listed as Authors or co-authors because authorship requires human responsibility and accountability for the integrity of the work.

Detailed provisions are provided in the Generative AI Utilization Policy .

Conflicts of Interest and Funding Disclosure

Authors must disclose relevant financial, personal, academic, institutional, political, commercial, professional, or other interests that could reasonably be perceived as influencing the research, interpretation, writing, review, or publication of the manuscript.

Sources of funding, grants, sponsorship, institutional support, or other material support relevant to the research must be disclosed as required by the journal.

Detailed provisions are provided in the Conflict of Interest Policy .

Data Availability and Reproducibility

Authors are responsible for maintaining accurate records of the data, materials, instruments, methods, procedures, and analyses underlying their work.

Where appropriate and ethically permissible, the journal may request raw data, supporting materials, analysis files, or other documentation for editorial assessment, verification, correction, or research-integrity investigation.

Data sharing must comply with applicable ethical, legal, privacy, confidentiality, security, institutional, and funder requirements.

Detailed requirements concerning Data Availability Statements, access to data, restrictions on data sharing, and reproducibility are provided in the Data Availability and Reproducibility Policy .

Research Ethics and Ethical Oversight

Research involving human participants, animals, vulnerable populations, educational settings, students, teachers, schools, communities, personal or sensitive data, confidential institutional information, hazardous materials, or other activities requiring ethical oversight must comply with applicable ethical and legal standards.

Where required, Authors must obtain and disclose relevant ethics approval, informed consent, institutional permission, research permits, consent for publication, or other appropriate documentation.

Privacy, confidentiality, personal data, images, identities, and the rights and welfare of research participants must be appropriately protected.

Detailed provisions are provided in the Research Ethics Policy .

Fundamental Errors in Published Works

When Authors discover a significant error, inaccuracy, ethical issue, or other material concern in their published work, they must promptly inform the Editorial Office and cooperate with the journal in determining the appropriate action to protect the scholarly record.

Research Misconduct

IJoRCE takes allegations of research and publication misconduct seriously.

Research or publication misconduct may include, but is not limited to, fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, citation manipulation, peer-review manipulation, data or image manipulation, unethical authorship practices, undisclosed Conflicts of Interest, redundant publication, duplicate submission, and other serious violations of research or publication ethics.

Concerns may arise before or after publication and may be reported by Authors, readers, Reviewers, Editors, institutions, whistleblowers, or other parties.

Anonymous or confidential allegations may be assessed where they contain sufficiently specific, credible, and relevant information.

Depending on the nature of the case, the journal may conduct a preliminary assessment, request clarification or supporting documentation, seek independent expert opinion, examine relevant evidence, communicate with Authors, and, where appropriate, contact an institution, research ethics committee, funder, research integrity body, or another relevant authority.

The editorial or publication process may be suspended while a serious ethical or research-integrity concern is being assessed.

Depending on the findings and publication status of the manuscript or article, appropriate action may include rejection, Withdrawal, Correction, Erratum, Corrigendum, Expression of Concern, Retraction, Article Removal, Article Replacement, or referral to an appropriate institution or authority.

Detailed criteria, procedures, and post-publication actions are provided in the Research Misconduct and Post-Publication Policy .

Post-Publication Updates and Scholarly Discussion

IJoRCE is committed to preserving the accuracy, transparency, reliability, permanence, and integrity of the scholarly record after publication.

Where an editorially significant error or integrity issue is identified, appropriate action may include a Correction, Erratum, Corrigendum, Expression of Concern, Retraction, Article Removal, or Article Replacement, depending on the nature, severity, origin, and impact of the issue.

Editorially significant post-publication actions are documented transparently. Where appropriate, a separate editorial notice with its own DOI is published and linked to the Original Article.

The Original Article and relevant post-publication update are maintained and linked in accordance with the journal's applicable policies and scholarly-record requirements.

Detailed criteria and procedures concerning post-publication actions are provided in the Research Misconduct and Post-Publication Policy .

Information concerning the current status of published content and registered post-publication updates is provided, where applicable, through the Crossmark and Post-Publication Update Policy .

Comments and Criticism

IJoRCE supports responsible post-publication scholarly discussion through Comments and Criticism.

Such contributions may address methodology, statistical analysis, interpretation, theoretical considerations, limitations, reproducibility, clarification, or other scholarly matters concerning a published article.

Where appropriate, Authors of the Original Article may be invited to publish an Author Response.

Allegations of fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, unethical research, peer-review manipulation, authorship misconduct, or other serious ethical violations should normally be reported confidentially to the Editorial Office for preliminary assessment rather than presented as established facts in a public scholarly comment.

Detailed procedures for Comments and Criticism, Author Responses, and related post-publication actions are provided in the Research Misconduct and Post-Publication Policy .

Intellectual Property, Copyright, Licensing, and Open Access

Authors, Editors, Reviewers, and the Publisher must respect copyright, intellectual property rights, licensing conditions, permissions, and proper attribution of third-party materials.

Copyright ownership, Author rights, licensing terms, Open Access conditions, permitted reuse, and repository or self-archiving provisions are described in the Open Access, Copyright, and Manuscript Licensing Policy .

The applicable copyright holder and licensing terms must be clearly identified in published content in accordance with the journal's policy.

Responsibilities of the Publisher

PT Mitra Edukasi dan Publikasi, as the Publisher of IJoRCE, is responsible for supporting an editorially independent, transparent, accessible, reliable, and sustainable scholarly publishing environment.

The Publisher shall:

  • respect the editorial independence of the Editor-in-Chief and Editorial Team;
  • not improperly interfere with individual manuscript decisions;
  • support appropriate infrastructure for manuscript management, publication, metadata registration, preservation, and access;
  • support Editors in handling serious ethical, legal, publication-integrity, or research-integrity concerns;
  • ensure that publication fees, revenue considerations, sponsorship, advertising, or other commercial matters do not determine editorial outcomes;
  • support appropriate corrections and other actions necessary to maintain the integrity of the scholarly record;
  • maintain or support appropriate digital preservation and archiving arrangements;
  • disclose ownership and management information transparently;
  • support accessibility, diversity, equity, and inclusivity in scholarly publishing practices; and
  • periodically review journal policies and publishing practices in response to developments in scholarly publishing standards and applicable requirements.

Information concerning the journal's ownership and management is provided in Ownership and Management .

Information concerning preservation and repository arrangements is provided in the Archiving and Repository Policy .

Publication Fees and Commercial Practices

Publication fees, administrative charges, Fast-Track fees, waivers, withdrawal-related charges, post-publication administrative charges, or other financial matters must not influence peer-review outcomes, editorial decisions, ethical assessments, or actions required to preserve the integrity of the scholarly record.

The journal's business model, applicable publication charges, exemptions or waivers, relevant revenue sources, advertising practices, and direct marketing provisions are described transparently in the Publication Fees Policy .

Advertising, sponsorship, marketing activities, revenue considerations, or other commercial interests must remain separate from editorial decision-making.

Direct marketing and manuscript solicitation conducted on behalf of IJoRCE must be appropriate, targeted, professional, and based on accurate information about the journal, its Publisher, indexing status, scope, services, fees, editorial processes, and publication practices.

Direct marketing must not include misleading claims, guaranteed acceptance, guaranteed publication, misleading indexing claims, or other statements that could compromise editorial independence or scholarly publishing integrity.

Policy Review

IJoRCE periodically reviews this Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement and related editorial policies to maintain consistency with relevant publication ethics standards, scholarly publishing best practices, technological developments, legal or regulatory requirements, and the operational needs of the journal.

In particular, IJoRCE may review and revise its policies in response to developments in guidance or standards issued by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), Crossref/Crossmark, the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), and other relevant scholarly publishing organizations or authorities.

Where a situation is not specifically addressed by an existing journal policy, the Editor and Publisher may exercise professional editorial judgment while considering appropriate external guidance, available evidence, independent expert opinion where necessary, and the principles of fairness, transparency, proportionality, confidentiality, editorial independence, accessibility, inclusivity, and protection of the scholarly record.

Until a revised policy is formally adopted, the current approved version remains applicable.

Related Policies

For clarity and transparency, this Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement should be read together with the following IJoRCE policies:

References and Standards