Publication Ethics Policy

Research Integrity and Editorial Governance

Publication Ethics Policy

Multidisciplinary Journals (MJ) | e-ISSN 3047-8499

Multidisciplinary Journals (MJ), published by Universitas Dehasen Bengkulu, is committed to integrity, transparency, fairness, accountability, and responsible stewardship of the scholarly record. This policy establishes the ethical responsibilities of authors, editors, peer reviewers, editorial staff, guest editors, and the publisher. It is informed by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidance and the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing.

Scope of this page
This is the journal's overarching ethical framework. Detailed operational requirements—such as peer-review procedures, authorship criteria, competing-interest declarations, similarity screening, research-data requirements, generative-AI use, licensing, appeals, and post-publication actions—are governed by the dedicated policies linked in Section 10. Those pages should be read together with, and not duplicated inside, this policy.

1. Purpose and Application

This policy applies to all manuscripts submitted to the journal and all content published by the journal, including research articles, reviews, case studies, short communications, editorials, corrections, special issues, supplements, and conference-related content where applicable.

All parties must act honestly, maintain accurate records, disclose relevant interests, respect confidentiality and intellectual property, protect research participants, and cooperate promptly when a question about the integrity of a submission or publication is raised.

2. Core Ethical Principles

IntegrityResearch and reporting must be honest, accurate, complete, and not misleading.

FairnessEditorial assessment is based on scholarly merit, relevance, quality, and ethical compliance.

TransparencyRoles, funding, interests, methods, data limitations, and corrections must be disclosed appropriately.

AccountabilityAuthors, reviewers, editors, and the publisher remain accountable for their respective decisions and conduct.

3. Responsibilities of Editors and Editorial Staff

3.1 Editorial decisions and independence

The Editor-in-Chief or assigned editor is responsible for the final editorial decision. Decisions must be based on the manuscript's relevance to the journal, originality, scholarly quality, methodological soundness, clarity, ethical compliance, and the evidence provided through editorial assessment and peer review. Commercial considerations, author fees, waiver status, advertising, sponsorship, personal relationships, or institutional pressure must not influence the decision.

3.2 Fair and inclusive assessment

Editors must evaluate intellectual content without discrimination based on race, ethnicity, nationality, citizenship, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, age, religion, political belief, institutional affiliation, professional status, or other characteristics unrelated to scholarly merit. Editors should take reasonable steps to support respectful, equitable, and inclusive participation.

3.3 Confidentiality and proper use of information

Editors and editorial staff must treat submitted manuscripts, reviewer identities, reports, correspondence, and unpublished data as confidential editorial records. Information may be shared only with persons who need it for legitimate editorial, ethical, legal, or research-integrity purposes. Unpublished material or privileged ideas must not be used for personal, institutional, or commercial advantage.

3.4 Conflicts, recusal, and editor-authored submissions

An editor must disclose any interest that could reasonably affect—or appear to affect—impartial judgment and must recuse themselves when appropriate. A manuscript submitted by an editor, editorial-board member, staff member, or close collaborator must be handled independently by an editor without the relevant conflict and must follow the journal's normal standards.

3.5 Integrity of the record

Editors must respond to credible concerns about submitted or published work, preserve relevant records, seek evidence fairly, invite responses from affected parties, and implement proportionate editorial action. Editors must not suppress a substantiated concern because an article has already been published.

4. Responsibilities of Peer Reviewers

Competence and promptness: accept an invitation only when the manuscript falls within the reviewer's expertise and the review can be completed within the requested period; otherwise notify the editor promptly.
Confidentiality: treat the manuscript and review process as confidential and do not share the material, involve another person, or upload manuscript content to an external system without prior editorial authorization.
Objectivity and respect: provide a clear, evidence-based, constructive assessment. Personal attacks, discriminatory language, hostility, and comments unrelated to scholarly quality are unacceptable.
Competing interests: disclose relevant personal, professional, academic, financial, institutional, or collaborative relationships and decline or seek editorial guidance when impartiality may be affected.
No misuse: do not appropriate, disclose, exploit, or use unpublished information, methods, ideas, or data obtained through peer review.
Integrity concerns: alert the editor confidentially to suspected plagiarism, duplicate publication, citation manipulation, fabricated or falsified information, unethical research, or substantial overlap known to the reviewer.
Sources and citations: identify important uncited work when relevant, while avoiding coercive, self-serving, or unnecessary citation requests.

Detailed review criteria, the review model, report preparation, and review workflow are governed by the journal's Reviewer Guidelines and Editorial and Peer Review Policy.

5. Responsibilities of Authors

Accurate reporting: present an honest account of the work, methods, evidence, uncertainty, limitations, and significance. Fabrication, falsification, deceptive image manipulation, and knowingly misleading statements are prohibited.
Originality and exclusive consideration: submit original work, identify and cite reused material appropriately, and do not submit substantially the same manuscript to more than one journal at the same time.
Authorship and contributions: include as authors only persons who meet the journal's authorship criteria; acknowledge other contributions; obtain every author's approval of the submitted and final versions; and describe contributions transparently.
Sources and permissions: cite relevant sources accurately and obtain permission for copyrighted or restricted material when required.
Research data and records: retain underlying records responsibly, provide data or documentation for editorial assessment when lawfully requested, and disclose access restrictions, repository information, and availability conditions accurately.
Ethical approval and consent: obtain required ethics approval, permissions, informed consent, and participant authorization before research begins, and report the relevant approval or waiver accurately.
Funding and competing interests: disclose all relevant financial and non-financial interests, funding sources, grant identifiers, and the role of the funder or sponsor.
Correction of the record: notify the journal promptly when a material error, omission, or integrity concern is discovered and cooperate with any investigation, correction, expression of concern, retraction, or other appropriate action.

Detailed manuscript, declaration, authorship, data, similarity, AI-use, and licensing requirements are provided on the journal's dedicated policy pages. This section states the ethical duties without replacing those operational requirements.

6. Ethical Oversight of Research

Research involving human participants, identifiable personal information, biological materials, animals, vulnerable communities, Indigenous communities or knowledge, culturally sensitive material, or environmental risk must comply with applicable law, institutional requirements, and accepted disciplinary standards.

Authors must provide the name of the approving ethics committee or competent body and the approval, protocol, or waiver identifier when applicable.
Informed consent must be obtained and documented when required, including specific consent for publishing identifiable information or images.
Privacy, confidentiality, dignity, welfare, and data-protection requirements must be respected.
The absence of formal review in a particular setting does not remove the author's responsibility to explain and justify the ethical safeguards used.

More detailed requirements belong in the journal's Ethical Oversight Policy.

7. Responsibilities of the Publisher

Universitas Dehasen Bengkulu, as publisher, is responsible for supporting editorial independence, maintaining reliable publishing infrastructure, protecting editorial records and personal data, displaying accurate journal information, supporting long-term access and preservation, and enabling appropriate corrective action.

The publisher must not interfere with editorial decisions for financial, institutional, reputational, political, or personal reasons. Revenue sources—including article processing charges, sponsorship, advertising, services, reprints, or institutional support—must remain separate from peer review and editorial decision-making.

The publisher and editors may communicate with authors' institutions, research-integrity offices, ethics committees, funders, other journals, indexers, legal advisers, or competent authorities when necessary to protect participants, investigate a credible concern, comply with law, or maintain the scholarly record.

8. Special Issues and Guest-Edited Content

Special issues, supplements, and guest-edited collections are subject to the same authorship, peer-review, ethical, licensing, correction, and transparency standards as regular issues. Guest editors must disclose interests, protect confidentiality, avoid handling submissions where they have a conflict, and follow the journal's documented procedures.

The Editor-in-Chief retains oversight and final responsibility for editorial standards. A guest editor, sponsor, conference organizer, or partner may not guarantee acceptance, bypass independent assessment, or influence decisions through payment, affiliation, or personal relationship.

9. Handling Suspected Misconduct and Ethical Concerns

The journal takes credible allegations seriously whether they concern a submitted manuscript, a published article, peer review, an editor, an author, or another participant in the publication process. Concerns may be raised before or after publication and may be submitted by an identified or anonymous complainant when sufficient verifiable information is provided.

Receipt and preliminary assessmentThe journal records the concern, checks whether sufficient information is available, identifies the applicable policy, and assesses immediate risks to participants, evidence, or the scholarly record.

Conflict and confidentiality checkA person materially involved in the allegation or affected decision must not control the assessment. Information is limited to those who need it for fair handling, subject to legal and safety obligations.

Evidence and responseThe relevant records are reviewed. A person whose work or conduct is questioned is normally informed of the material concern and given a reasonable opportunity to respond.

Consultation or referralThe journal may obtain independent expert advice or contact a research institution, ethics body, funder, another journal, or competent authority. The journal does not substitute for an institution's formal investigation of employee or research misconduct.

Reasoned and proportionate outcomeThe editor determines the appropriate editorial response based on available evidence. Similarity reports, automated checks, or third-party allegations are screening evidence and are not, by themselves, a final finding of misconduct.

Action and recordThe journal documents the outcome and may reject or return a submission, require clarification or correction, change an editor or reviewer, notify relevant bodies, or publish an appropriate post-publication notice.

Good-faith reporting will not result in retaliation. Deliberately false allegations, fabricated evidence, harassment, threats, or misuse of the process may be addressed proportionately after fair assessment. The identity of a whistleblower will be protected as far as reasonably possible, but absolute anonymity cannot be guaranteed when disclosure is required for due process, safety, institutional referral, or law.

Detailed appeal, complaint, correction, expression-of-concern, and retraction procedures are governed by the dedicated policy pages rather than by this general ethics statement.

10. Relationship with Other Journal Policies

To prevent conflicting or duplicated rules, each detailed policy has a defined function:

Dedicated page	Primary subject governed by that page
Editorial and Peer Review Policy	Review model, reviewer selection, confidentiality controls, workflow, editorial decisions, and review exceptions.
Author Guidelines and Reviewer Guidelines	Operational instructions for preparing, submitting, revising, and reviewing manuscripts.
Authorship and Contributorship Policy	Authorship criteria, corresponding-author responsibilities, contribution statements, acknowledgements, and authorship changes or disputes.
Conflict of Interest Policy	Definitions, disclosure requirements, recusal, funding statements, and handling of competing interests before or after publication.
Plagiarism and Data Fabrication Policy	Similarity screening, plagiarism, text recycling, fabrication, falsification, image or citation manipulation, evidence assessment, and case-specific action.
Research Data and Data Availability Policy	Data retention, repositories, availability statements, access restrictions, citation, reproducibility, and confidential or sensitive data.
Ethical Oversight Policy	Ethics approval, informed consent, vulnerable groups, privacy, animals, community permissions, and sensitive research.
Generative AI Policy	Permitted and prohibited AI use, disclosure, accountability, authorship, confidentiality, and reviewer/editor use.
Copyright and Licensing Policy	Copyright ownership, the journal's publication rights, Creative Commons licensing, and third-party reuse.
Post-Publication Policy	Corrections, errata, expressions of concern, retractions, removals, and maintenance of the version of record.
Appeals and Complaints Policy	Grounds, submission requirements, independent handling, response process, escalation, and possible outcomes.

Consistency rule
Detailed procedures, thresholds, timelines, forms, and sanctions must appear only on the policy page responsible for that subject. This ethics page states the governing principles. If two pages conflict, the journal should review and harmonize them promptly rather than apply whichever rule is more punitive.

11. Reporting an Ethical Concern

A concern should identify the relevant manuscript title and OJS submission number, or the published article title and DOI, and should provide a clear description and supporting evidence. Concerns may be submitted through the OJS discussion function associated with a manuscript or through the journal's official contact page. Do not send confidential participant data or unnecessary sensitive personal information through an unsecured channel.

Publication Ethics Contact Multidisciplinary Journals — Universitas Dehasen Bengkulu Journal Contact Page Appeals and Complaints

Reference frameworks: COPE guidance; COPE processes for ethical concerns; and Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing. Policy version: August 2026.