Publication Ethics

Duties of authors

• Originality and plagiarism. Authors must ensure that submitted work is entirely original, and that any use of the work or words of others is appropriately cited or quoted.
• Data access and retention. Authors should be prepared to provide the raw data underlying their article for editorial review, and should retain such data for a reasonable time after publication.
• Multiple, duplicate, or concurrent submission. An author should not submit the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently, nor publish redundant articles describing essentially the same research.
• Acknowledgement of sources. Proper acknowledgement of the work of others must always be given, and authors should cite publications that have influenced the nature of the reported work.
• Authorship. Authorship should be limited to those who meet the journal's Authorship Criteria. All co-authors must approve the final version before submission.
• Disclosure and conflicts of interest. Authors must disclose any financial or other conflicts of interest that might affect the interpretation of their results, in line with the journal's Conflict of Interest policy.
• Fundamental errors in published works. When an author discovers a significant error in their own published work, they must promptly notify the editor and cooperate to correct or retract the article.
• Use of AI tools. Any use of generative AI in preparing the manuscript must be disclosed in line with the journal's AI Statement.

Duties of reviewers

• Confidentiality. Manuscripts under review must be treated as confidential documents and must not be shared with or discussed with others without the editor's authorization.
• Objectivity. Reviews should be conducted objectively, with reviewers expressing their views clearly and supported by argument, avoiding personal criticism of the author.
• Acknowledgement of sources. Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors, and should alert the editor to any substantial similarity between the manuscript and other published work.
• Disclosure and conflicts of interest. Reviewers with a conflict of interest arising from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships with the authors must decline to review the manuscript.
• Timeliness. Any invited reviewer who feels unqualified or unable to complete a review promptly should notify the editor so an alternate reviewer can be contacted.

Duties of editors

• Publication decisions. The editor is responsible for deciding which submitted articles should be published, guided by editorial board policies and legal requirements regarding libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism.
• Fair play. Manuscripts are evaluated based on their intellectual content, without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors.
• Confidentiality. The editor must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, and the publisher, as appropriate.
• Disclosure and conflicts of interest. Editors must not use unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript for their own research without the express written consent of the author.
• Involvement in investigations. Editors must take reasonably responsive measures when ethical complaints are presented concerning a submitted manuscript or published article, in conjunction with the publisher.

Duties of the publisher

LP3M Universitas Pendidikan Muhammadiyah (UNIMUDA) Sorong, as publisher, supports the editorial team in defining and upholding the journal's ethics policies, and helps facilitate communication with other journals or publishers where this is useful to editors. The publisher is also committed to ensuring the timely publication of content and to maintaining the integrity of the academic record.

Handling of allegations of research or publication misconduct follows the journal's Plagiarism and Retraction policies.