Publication Ethics

Palestine Issues on Indonesian Society is committed to maintaining the highest standards of publication ethics, research integrity, transparency, and academic responsibility. The journal follows internationally recognized principles of publication ethics, including the guidelines and recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), and other applicable international standards of responsible scholarly publishing.

The journal is committed to ensuring that all parties involved in the publication process—including authors, editors, reviewers, and the publisher—adhere to principles of honesty, transparency, fairness, confidentiality, accountability, and respect for academic integrity.

The journal does not tolerate plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, manipulation of research results, unethical authorship practices, duplicate or redundant publication, citation manipulation, peer-review manipulation, or other forms of research and publication misconduct.

1. Editorial Responsibility

The Editorial Board is responsible for ensuring that manuscripts are evaluated fairly, objectively, and according to academic standards.

Editors shall:

  • evaluate manuscripts based on their academic quality, originality, relevance, methodological rigor, and contribution to the field;

  • make editorial decisions independently and without discrimination based on nationality, ethnicity, religion, gender, political views, institutional affiliation, or other personal characteristics;

  • maintain the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts;

  • ensure that manuscripts are handled through an appropriate peer review process;

  • disclose and appropriately manage any actual, potential, or perceived conflict of interest;

  • ensure that allegations of research or publication misconduct are investigated appropriately;

  • take reasonable action when ethical concerns arise before or after publication; and

  • correct, retract, or otherwise amend published material when necessary to preserve the integrity of the scholarly record.

Editors shall not use unpublished information from submitted manuscripts for their own research or professional advantage without appropriate authorization.

2. Authors' Responsibilities

Authors are responsible for ensuring that their submitted manuscripts represent original and ethically conducted research.

Authors shall:

  • submit only original work that has not been published elsewhere;

  • ensure that the manuscript is not simultaneously submitted to another journal;

  • accurately report research findings and avoid fabrication, falsification, or manipulation of data;

  • provide sufficient methodological information to allow appropriate evaluation and, where applicable, replication;

  • appropriately acknowledge and cite the work of others;

  • ensure that all sources of information and intellectual contributions are properly attributed;

  • disclose relevant funding sources and conflicts of interest;

  • ensure that all listed authors have made substantial contributions to the work;

  • obtain appropriate permissions and ethical approvals where required;

  • comply with applicable research ethics and legal requirements;

  • cooperate with the editorial process and respond appropriately to reviewer and editor comments; and

  • promptly notify the journal if a significant error is identified in a submitted or published manuscript.

Authors must not engage in plagiarism, self-plagiarism, duplicate publication, salami slicing, data fabrication, data falsification, image manipulation intended to mislead, citation manipulation, or any other form of academic misconduct.

3. Authorship and Contributorship

Authorship should be limited to individuals who have made substantial contributions to the conception or design of the research, acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; contributed substantially to drafting or critically revising the manuscript; approved the final version; and accepted responsibility for the integrity of the work.

All individuals who meet the appropriate authorship criteria should be included as authors. Individuals who do not meet authorship criteria should not be listed as authors solely because of their position, seniority, supervision, funding, or institutional affiliation.

The journal does not permit:

  • guest authorship;

  • gift or honorary authorship;

  • ghost authorship; or

  • inappropriate alteration of authorship during the review or publication process.

Any request to add, remove, or reorder authors after submission must be justified and approved by all affected authors and the Editorial Office. The journal may request additional documentation where necessary.

4. Plagiarism and Originality

All manuscripts must be original and appropriately acknowledge the intellectual contributions of others.

The journal may use plagiarism-detection or similarity-checking tools as part of its editorial screening process. A similarity score alone does not automatically constitute plagiarism; editors will assess the nature, context, and source of overlapping text.

Where plagiarism or substantial unattributed overlap is identified, the journal may reject the manuscript and, where appropriate, take further action in accordance with relevant publication-ethics guidance.

Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to:

  • copying text without appropriate attribution;

  • presenting another person's ideas, data, or findings as one's own;

  • substantial unattributed reproduction of previously published material; and

  • inappropriate reuse of one's own previously published work without proper disclosure or citation.

5. Fabrication, Falsification, and Data Integrity

The journal considers the following serious forms of research misconduct:

  • fabrication of data, results, participants, or research materials;

  • falsification or manipulation of research data, methods, images, or results;

  • selective reporting intended to mislead readers;

  • inappropriate alteration or manipulation of images or research materials; and

  • concealment of relevant research information that materially affects the validity of the findings.

Authors are responsible for retaining appropriate research records and, where reasonably required, providing supporting information to facilitate investigation of potential research-integrity concerns.

6. Duplicate, Redundant, and Concurrent Publication

Manuscripts submitted to the journal must not have been published previously in substantially the same form and must not be under consideration by another journal.

Authors must disclose any closely related publications, manuscripts, datasets, or prior versions that may overlap substantially with the submitted work.

Where duplicate or redundant publication is identified, the journal may reject the manuscript or take appropriate corrective action if the material has already been published.

7. Citation Ethics

Authors are expected to cite relevant and significant scholarly work accurately and appropriately.

The journal does not permit citation practices intended primarily to artificially increase citation counts, including:

  • coercive citation;

  • excessive self-citation without scholarly justification;

  • coordinated citation manipulation;

  • irrelevant citation accumulation; or

  • citation requests made solely to improve the metrics of an author, reviewer, editor, or journal.

Citations should serve a legitimate scholarly purpose and accurately represent the contribution of the cited work.

8. Use of Artificial Intelligence and Generative AI

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI tools in research and manuscript preparation must be transparent and consistent with principles of research integrity.

AI tools may assist with activities such as language improvement, formatting, translation, coding assistance, or other appropriate research-support functions. However, AI tools cannot be listed as authors because they cannot assume responsibility for the accuracy, integrity, originality, and ethical conduct of the research.

Authors remain fully responsible for:

  • verifying the accuracy of AI-assisted content;

  • ensuring that citations and references are authentic and appropriate;

  • protecting confidential or sensitive information;

  • avoiding plagiarism or undisclosed reproduction of copyrighted material; and

  • disclosing substantive use of generative AI where required by the journal or relevant publication standards.

The use of AI to fabricate data, generate false references, manipulate evidence, impersonate peer reviewers, or otherwise mislead the editorial or scholarly process constitutes misconduct.

Editors and reviewers must also maintain confidentiality and must not upload or disclose unpublished manuscript content to AI systems or other third-party services where such disclosure would compromise confidentiality or intellectual property.

9. Conflicts of Interest

Authors, editors, and reviewers must disclose any actual, potential, or perceived conflict of interest that could reasonably influence the research, review, or editorial decision-making process.

Conflicts may include, but are not limited to:

  • financial interests;

  • employment or institutional relationships;

  • personal relationships;

  • academic or professional competition;

  • political or organizational interests; and

  • other circumstances that could compromise impartiality.

A conflict of interest does not necessarily constitute misconduct. However, failure to disclose a relevant conflict may constitute an ethical concern and may require appropriate editorial action.

10. Funding Disclosure

Authors must disclose all sources of financial or material support for the research.

Funding information should identify, where applicable:

  • the funding organization;

  • grant or project information; and

  • the role of the funder in the research design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, writing, or decision to submit the manuscript.

If the funder had no role in these activities, this should be stated where appropriate.

11. Human Participants and Research Ethics

Research involving human participants, personal data, interviews, surveys, or other potentially sensitive information must comply with applicable ethical and legal requirements.

Where required, authors should obtain approval from an appropriate research ethics committee or institutional review board before conducting the research.

Authors must respect:

  • informed consent requirements;

  • participant confidentiality and privacy;

  • protection of vulnerable participants;

  • applicable data-protection regulations; and

  • relevant national and international research-ethics standards.

The journal may request evidence of ethical approval or informed consent where appropriate.

For research involving sensitive political, humanitarian, conflict-related, or personal information, authors are expected to take particular care to minimize risks to research participants and sources.

12. Reviewers' Responsibilities

Reviewers play an essential role in maintaining the quality and integrity of the journal.

Reviewers shall:

  • provide objective, constructive, and evidence-based assessments;

  • maintain the confidentiality of manuscripts;

  • disclose conflicts of interest;

  • decline reviews when they lack sufficient expertise or cannot provide an impartial assessment;

  • identify relevant literature where appropriate;

  • alert editors to suspected plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, or other ethical concerns;

  • avoid using unpublished information for personal or professional advantage; and

  • submit reviews within the agreed timeframe whenever possible.

Reviewer comments must be professional and must not contain discriminatory, offensive, defamatory, or personally directed statements.

13. Confidentiality

Manuscripts submitted to the journal are confidential documents.

Editors and reviewers must not disclose manuscript content, author identities, reviewer identities, or editorial deliberations to unauthorized individuals.

Unpublished information obtained through the peer review process must not be used for personal research, commercial purposes, or professional advantage without appropriate authorization.

14. Complaints and Appeals

The journal provides authors with an opportunity to raise legitimate concerns regarding editorial procedures or decisions.

Complaints and appeals should be submitted to the Editorial Office with sufficient information to allow the matter to be investigated.

The journal will consider complaints concerning, among other matters:

  • procedural errors;

  • conflicts of interest;

  • reviewer or editor misconduct;

  • breaches of confidentiality;

  • authorship disputes;

  • research-integrity concerns; and

  • publication-ethics issues.

Appeals will be considered independently and fairly. A disagreement with the academic judgment of a reviewer, without evidence of procedural error or misconduct, does not automatically constitute grounds for overturning an editorial decision.

15. Allegations of Misconduct

The journal takes allegations of research and publication misconduct seriously.

Potential misconduct may be identified before, during, or after publication. When credible concerns arise, the journal may conduct an initial assessment and request clarification or evidence from the authors.

Depending on the nature and seriousness of the allegation, the journal may:

  • request an explanation or supporting documentation from the authors;

  • contact the relevant institution or research organization;

  • seek advice from appropriate experts;

  • suspend editorial processing or publication;

  • reject the manuscript;

  • issue a correction or expression of concern; or

  • retract a published article.

Where appropriate, investigations will be conducted in accordance with applicable COPE recommendations and recognized principles of research integrity.

The journal will avoid making allegations of misconduct public before there is a reasonable basis for doing so, except where disclosure is necessary to protect the integrity of the scholarly record or other legitimate interests.

16. Corrections, Retractions, and Expressions of Concern

The journal is committed to maintaining the accuracy and integrity of the published scholarly record.

When a significant error is identified after publication, the journal may publish an appropriate:

  • Correction – when an error affects the article but does not invalidate its overall findings;

  • Retraction – when an article contains sufficiently serious problems that its findings or conclusions are no longer reliable or where serious misconduct has occurred; or

  • Expression of Concern – when substantial concerns exist but an investigation has not yet reached a definitive conclusion.

Corrections and retractions will be linked to the original article and clearly identified to preserve transparency and the integrity of the scholarly record.

17. Post-Publication Concerns

Readers and members of the academic community are encouraged to notify the journal of credible concerns regarding published articles.

Such concerns should be supported by relevant evidence where possible. The Editorial Board will assess credible concerns and may initiate an appropriate investigation or correction process.

The journal reserves the right to take action after publication when new evidence demonstrates that an article does not meet the journal's standards of research or publication integrity.

18. Publisher's Responsibilities

The publisher supports the Editorial Board in maintaining editorial independence and publication integrity.

The publisher shall provide appropriate support for:

  • maintaining the integrity of the journal's content;

  • implementing corrections and retractions when necessary;

  • addressing publication-ethics concerns;

  • preserving published content and the scholarly record; and

  • ensuring that commercial or administrative considerations do not improperly influence editorial decisions.

Neither the publisher nor any commercial interest shall interfere with editorial decisions concerning the acceptance, revision, rejection, correction, or retraction of manuscripts.

19. Editorial Independence

The journal maintains editorial independence from authors, institutions, sponsors, advertisers, and other external interests.

Editorial decisions are based on academic quality, originality, methodological rigor, relevance, ethical compliance, and scholarly contribution.

Because the journal addresses potentially sensitive and contested issues concerning Palestine and Indonesian society, the journal particularly emphasizes that political, religious, ideological, or national perspectives shall not by themselves determine the acceptance or rejection of a manuscript. Scholarly arguments are evaluated according to evidence, methodology, theoretical grounding, academic reasoning, and contribution to knowledge.

20. Ethical Commitment

Palestine Issues on Indonesian Society is committed to fostering a scholarly environment characterized by academic freedom, intellectual diversity, methodological rigor, transparency, accountability, and respect for research participants and the broader academic community.

The journal may update this policy periodically to reflect developments in international publication ethics, research-integrity standards, and recommendations issued by organizations such as COPE, DOAJ, and other recognized scholarly publishing bodies.

Where an ethical issue is not explicitly addressed in this statement, the Editorial Board will seek to apply generally accepted principles of responsible research and scholarly publishing and, where appropriate, consult relevant international publication-ethics guidance.