Publication Ethics

Resolusi: Jurnal Sosial Politik is committed to the highest standards of publication ethics. The journal follows the Core Practices of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and expects authors, reviewers, editors and the publisher to follow them (see also Allegation of research misconduct page). 

1. Our commitments

The journal will:

1. judge manuscripts on academic merit alone, without regard to the author’s nationality, ethnicity, gender, religion, political view or institution;
2. keep submissions and reviews confidential until publication;
3. protect the integrity of the scholarly record by correcting or retracting flawed work promptly and transparently;
4. publish its policies and fees openly;
5. keep editorial decisions independent of the publisher, funders, and fee payments; and
6. respond to every well-founded ethical concern, however it reaches us.

2. Responsibilities of authors

Originality and integrity. Authors must submit only original work that is not under review elsewhere. They must cite and quote all sources properly (see Plagiarism Policy), and must not fabricate, falsify or selectively report data, interviews, documents, images or sources.

Honest reporting and transparency. Methods, sampling, sources and limitations must be described accurately enough for others to evaluate or replicate the work. Authors must provide a data availability statement. Where data cannot be shared, for example to protect participants, they must explain why.

Research ethics.

• Research with human participants (interviews, surveys, focus groups, observation) requires ethical clearance from an appropriate committee, or an explanation of why it was exempt, and informed consent.
• Participants’ identities, safety and sensitive political views must be protected. Authors must take particular care with research on conflict, security, migration, religion and vulnerable groups, where identification can cause real harm.
• Research using social media or online data must respect platform rules, privacy and applicable law.
• Research in sensitive political contexts must not put participants, assistants or communities at risk.

Authorship. Only people who meet the criteria in the Authorship Criteria policy are listed as authors. Ghost, gift and purchased authorship are prohibited.

Duplicate, redundant and concurrent submission. Authors must not submit the same work to more than one journal at a time, publish the same findings in several papers without disclosure, or reuse their earlier text without citation. Preprints, theses and conference papers from which the manuscript derives must be disclosed.

Competing interests and funding. Authors must declare all relevant financial and non-financial interests and all funding sources (see Conflict of Interest).

Generative AI. AI tools cannot be authors (see Generative AI Policies). Authors must disclose any use of generative AI in the manuscript, take full responsibility for its content, check all AI-assisted text and references for accuracy and originality, and not present AI-generated material, including images, as their own findings. Fabricated references produced by AI are treated as a research integrity matter.

Citation practice. Authors must not cite excessively to inflate citations to their own work, to a particular journal or to another author. Authors must not cite works from journals known to be predatory unless they have a scholarly reason and say so.

Correcting errors. Authors who find a significant error in their published work must notify the journal immediately and cooperate in publishing a correction or retraction (see Correction and Retraction).

Cooperation. Authors must respond to editorial and integrity queries promptly and provide original data, notes, permissions or ethics documents on request.

3. Responsibilities of reviewers

• Review manuscripts in their area of expertise, and decline if they have a conflict of interest or cannot meet the deadline.
• Keep the manuscript and the review confidential, and do not use unpublished information for personal advantage.
• Give objective, specific and respectful feedback, without personal criticism.
• Do not upload manuscripts into generative AI tools.
• Do not ask authors to cite the reviewer’s own work unless it is genuinely relevant, and do not manipulate the review process.
• Tell the editor about suspected plagiarism, duplicate publication, data problems or ethical concerns.
• Never share their review invitation or access with anyone else without the editor’s permission. A reviewer who wants help from a junior colleague must ask the editor first.

4. Responsibilities of editors

• Make decisions on scholarly merit, scope and originality only. Fees, relationships and institutional pressure play no part.
• Treat all submissions fairly and confidentially, and disclose manuscript information only to those who need it.
• Declare and manage conflicts of interest; recuse themselves from manuscripts where they have one (see Conflict of Interest).
• Handle submissions from editors, board members and staff independently, with the author having no access to the review.
• Choose reviewers who are qualified and free of conflict, and monitor review quality and timeliness.
• Not use unpublished material from a submission in their own research without the author’s written consent.
• Act on all credible ethical concerns, following COPE flowcharts and the misconduct procedure.
• Keep records of decisions and ethical cases, and publish corrections, retractions and expressions of concern when needed.
• Make sure policies are published, followed and reviewed annually.

5. Responsibilities of the publisher and journal management

The publisher (Department of Political Science, Universitas Sains Al Qur'an) will:

• respect editorial independence and refrain from interfering in decisions;
• provide the resources, technical support and security needed to run the journal, including backups, preservation and protection of authors’ and reviewers’ data;
• support the editors in handling misconduct, legal issues and complaints;
• make sure fees are transparent and unrelated to editorial decisions;
• protect the journal’s website and identity against misuse, including hijacking, spam and misleading claims about indexing; and
• maintain the journal’s policies and the contact points for ethical concerns.

6. Research involving humans, animals and sensitive data

• Human participants. Follow the principles of voluntary, informed consent; confidentiality; minimal risk; and the right to withdraw. Written or recorded consent is preferred; where verbal consent was used, the manuscript says so. Authors must explain how they stored and protected the data.
• Children and vulnerable groups. Research involving them needs additional safeguards, including parental or guardian consent where appropriate.
• Identifiable information. Do not publish names, photographs, voices or other identifying details of participants without their written consent. Pseudonymise where needed.
• Animals. Research involving animals, which is rare in this journal, must have ethical approval and follow relevant guidelines.
• Archival and leaked material. Authors must explain how sensitive documents were obtained and whether use is lawful and safe for those named.
• Retrospective approval is not accepted. If clearance was required but not obtained, the manuscript may be rejected or, if published, corrected or retracted.

7. Data, images and reproducibility

• Images, tables and figures must not be manipulated in a way that misleads. Authors must disclose any processing.
• Authors must keep raw data, transcripts, notes, codebooks and analysis files for at least 2 years after publication and provide them to the journal if asked.
• The journal encourages sharing data and materials in an open repository with a persistent identifier, subject to ethics and legal limits.

8. Preprints and prior publication

The journal can accept manuscripts that have been posted as preprints, provided that they are disclosed on submission and the preprint is linked to the published version afterwards. Posting a preprint is not prior publication. Publication of the same material as a full article elsewhere is. Work presented at a conference or in a thesis may be considered if the new manuscript is substantially developed and the earlier version is cited.

9. Confidentiality and data protection

• Manuscripts, reviewer reports, correspondence and identities of reviewers are confidential.
• Personal data of authors, reviewers and readers is used only for editorial and administrative purposes.
• Reviewer identities are revealed only with the reviewer’s consent, or in a misconduct inquiry where this is legally required.

10. Handling ethical concerns

To report a concern, write an email to principal contact with the article title or DOI and any evidence. Reports are acknowledged within 10 working days and handled in confidence.

11. Possible sanctions

Depending on severity, the journal may: request clarification or revision; reject the manuscript; publish a correction, expression of concern or retraction; notify the author’s institution, funder or ethics committee; and ban authors from submitting for a stated period or remove reviewers and editors from their roles. Sanctions follow fair process and are proportionate to the breach.

12. Complaints about the journal

Anyone may complain about the journal’s conduct, including editorial decisions, delays, behaviour of editors, or breaches of this policy. Complaints go first to the Editor-in-Chief. If the complaint concerns the Editor-in-Chief, or the complainant is not satisfied with the response, they can write to the head of the Department of Political Science. The journal will reply within 14 days with a summary of the action to be taken, and will keep a record of the complaint and the outcome. COPE’s complaints procedure may be used after the journal’s own process is complete, but note that COPE does not investigate individual cases.

13. Review and updates

This policy is reviewed by the Editorial Board at least once a year and whenever COPE guidance, Indonesian regulations or indexers’ requirements change. Material changes are announced on the journal website.

Policy last reviewed: 2026-10-21