Publication Ethics and Research Integrity Policy

Social Sciences Journal (SSJ)  |  e-ISSN 3047-7646

1. Editorial Principles and Publication Decisions

The Editor-in-Chief has final responsibility for deciding whether a manuscript is accepted, revised, or rejected. Decisions are based on the manuscript's originality, scholarly contribution, methodological or analytical quality, ethical compliance, clarity, relevance to the journal's Focus and Scope, and the recommendations of independent reviewers. Commercial considerations, author fees, institutional relationships, advertising, sponsorship, or personal interests must not influence editorial decisions.

• Fair and inclusive assessment: manuscripts are evaluated without discrimination based on nationality, ethnicity, race, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, disability, institutional affiliation, political belief, or other personal characteristics unrelated to scholarly merit.
• Editorial independence: the publisher supports editorial freedom and does not interfere with individual manuscript decisions.
• Recusal: an editor with a personal, professional, financial, institutional, or academic conflict must disclose it and withdraw from handling the manuscript. An independent editor will be assigned.
• Editor-authored submissions: manuscripts submitted by editors or editorial board members receive the same screening and external peer review as other submissions and are handled by an editor with no conflict of interest. The submitting editor has no access to, or influence over, the editorial decision.

2. Duties of Editors and Editorial Staff

• Maintain the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts and disclose information only to the corresponding author, assigned editors, authorized editorial staff, prospective or appointed reviewers, and the publisher when required for legitimate editorial purposes.
• Protect reviewer identities in accordance with the journal's double-blind peer-review policy and maintain an auditable record of editorial actions.
• Not use unpublished material, data, or ideas from a submitted manuscript for personal advantage or research without the author's explicit written permission.
• Select reviewers with relevant expertise and seek at least two independent review reports for research and review articles, subject to the journal's published peer-review policy.
• Act on credible concerns about plagiarism, fabricated or falsified data, unethical research, manipulated peer review, undisclosed conflicts, or other misconduct, regardless of whether the manuscript is under review or has already been published.
• Issue corrections, expressions of concern, retractions, or other notices when necessary to protect the integrity of the scholarly record.

3. Duties of Peer Reviewers

Peer review assists editors in reaching evidence-based decisions and helps authors improve their manuscripts. Reviewers are expected to:

• Accept reviews only within their expertise and notify the editor promptly if they cannot provide a competent and timely assessment.
• Treat all materials as confidential. Manuscripts, supplementary files, review correspondence, and unpublished findings must not be shared, quoted, copied, retained, or used for personal benefit.
• Provide objective, respectful, and evidence-based comments. Personal criticism, hostile language, discriminatory statements, and unsupported allegations are unacceptable.
• Identify relevant uncited literature and alert the editor to substantial similarity, possible plagiarism, data irregularities, duplicate publication, or other ethical concerns.
• Disclose conflicts of interest arising from competitive, collaborative, financial, personal, or institutional relationships and decline the review when impartiality could reasonably be questioned.
• Avoid citation coercion. Reviewers must not request citations primarily to increase citations to themselves, their associates, or a particular journal when those citations are not academically necessary.
• Protect confidentiality when using digital tools. Reviewers must not upload a manuscript or any confidential content to a publicly accessible generative artificial intelligence service. Any journal-authorized use of an AI-assisted tool must be disclosed to the editor; the reviewer remains fully responsible for the review.

4. Duties of Authors

4.1 Reporting Standards and Research Transparency

Authors must present an accurate, complete, and objective account of the research and its significance. Methods, procedures, sources, analyses, limitations, and relevant references must be described with sufficient detail to permit critical evaluation and, where applicable, replication. Fabricated, falsified, selectively manipulated, or knowingly misleading statements are unethical and unacceptable.

4.2 Originality, Plagiarism, and Prior Publication

Submissions must be original and must appropriately quote, paraphrase, and cite the work and ideas of others. Plagiarism, self-plagiarism, inappropriate text recycling, data or image manipulation, and misappropriation of ideas are prohibited. Manuscripts may be screened using similarity-detection tools; a similarity report is used as evidence for editorial assessment and does not, by itself, determine misconduct.

The same or substantially similar manuscript must not be submitted to more than one journal at the same time. Redundant or duplicate publication is not permitted. Authors must disclose related manuscripts, preprints, conference papers, theses, reports, datasets, or other prior dissemination that may overlap with the submission and explain the relationship between them.

4.3 Authorship and Contributorship

Authorship is limited to individuals who made substantial intellectual contributions to the conception or design of the work; acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; drafting or substantively revising the manuscript; approved the final version; and accept accountability for the work. The corresponding author must ensure that all eligible authors are included, no ineligible author is listed, the author order is agreed upon, and all authors approve submission and publication.

Contributions that do not meet the authorship criteria should be acknowledged with permission. Gift, guest, honorary, purchased, and ghost authorship are prohibited. When requested, authors should provide a contribution statement using the CRediT taxonomy or another appropriate contribution framework. Changes to authorship after submission require a written explanation and the agreement of all affected authors; requests after acceptance are allowed only in exceptional, justified circumstances.

4.4 Artificial Intelligence and AI-Assisted Tools

Artificial intelligence tools cannot be listed as authors because they cannot take responsibility for the integrity, originality, or accuracy of a scholarly work. Authors remain fully responsible for all submitted content, including any AI-assisted output, citations, analyses, images, or translations. Substantive use of generative AI must be disclosed transparently in the manuscript, including the tool, purpose, and manner of use. Routine spelling, grammar, or reference-formatting assistance need not be disclosed unless required by the editor. Authors must not use AI tools in ways that breach confidentiality, privacy, copyright, research consent, or data-protection obligations.

4.5 Data Access, Retention, and Reproducibility

Authors must retain the underlying research materials for a reasonable period and provide data, instruments, coding materials, or documentation to the editor when necessary to verify the work, subject to legal, ethical, privacy, confidentiality, contractual, and participant-consent restrictions. When data cannot be shared publicly, the manuscript should explain the restriction and, where possible, state how qualified researchers may request controlled access. Fabrication, falsification, concealment, or inappropriate manipulation of data is prohibited.

4.6 Ethical Oversight of Research Participants

Research involving human participants, identifiable personal information, vulnerable groups, or sensitive data must comply with applicable laws, institutional requirements, and recognized ethical principles. Authors must state the name of the approving ethics committee or institutional review board and the approval number when approval was required. Informed consent must be obtained where applicable, including consent for publication of identifiable information. If approval or consent was not required, the manuscript must provide a clear justification. Participant privacy, dignity, safety, and confidentiality must be protected.

4.7 Conflicts of Interest and Funding

All authors must disclose financial and non-financial relationships that could be perceived to influence the research or its interpretation. This includes employment, consultancies, grants, honoraria, ownership interests, personal or professional relationships, academic competition, political or religious commitments, and institutional roles. Authors must identify all funding sources and describe the funder's role in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, manuscript preparation, and the decision to submit. If there is no conflict of interest or external funding, this should be stated explicitly.

4.8 Acknowledgement of Sources and Citation Integrity

Authors must acknowledge work that influenced the study and cite primary, relevant, and accessible sources accurately. Citations must not be added for the purpose of artificially increasing citation counts. Sources that have not been read or cannot be verified must not be cited as if directly consulted.

4.9 Errors in Submitted or Published Work

Authors who discover a significant error or inaccuracy must promptly notify the editorial office and cooperate in correcting or retracting the article. Authors must respond honestly and within a reasonable time to post-publication questions, requests for clarification, and research-integrity inquiries.

5. Research and Publication Misconduct

Misconduct includes, but is not limited to, plagiarism; fabrication or falsification of data; deceptive image or data manipulation; duplicate or redundant publication; simultaneous submission; citation manipulation; peer-review manipulation; undisclosed conflicts of interest; unethical research; breach of confidentiality; misappropriation of ideas; false authorship; and deliberate misrepresentation of credentials, methods, results, or ethical approval.

Allegations will be assessed on their evidence and substance, not on the identity or status of the complainant. Anonymous allegations may be considered when they contain sufficient verifiable information. The journal will avoid premature conclusions and will maintain confidentiality to the extent permitted by due process, law, and the need to correct the published record.

6. Corrections, Expressions of Concern, and Retractions

The journal corrects the scholarly record transparently. Depending on the nature and reliability of the evidence, the journal may publish:

• A correction or erratum when an error affects part of an otherwise reliable article.
• An expression of concern when substantial doubt exists but an investigation is incomplete or inconclusive.
• A retraction when findings are unreliable because of major error or misconduct, when publication is redundant, when plagiarism has occurred, or when the research is unethical.
• Removal only in exceptional circumstances, such as a legal requirement, a serious privacy breach, or an immediate and substantial risk of harm. Bibliographic metadata and an explanatory notice will be retained whenever possible.

Notices will be clearly labelled, linked to the affected article, freely accessible, dated, and state the reason for the action. Retraction is intended to correct the literature and is not used as a punitive measure.

7. Complaints and Appeals

Authors, reviewers, readers, and other stakeholders may submit a documented complaint or appeal through the journal's official contact channel. An appeal must identify the manuscript or article, explain the disputed decision or process, and provide specific evidence. Appeals are considered on editorial or procedural grounds and are not an automatic second round of peer review.

A person not materially involved in the original decision will review the complaint or appeal whenever feasible. The journal will acknowledge receipt, assess the matter fairly, maintain an appropriate record, and communicate the outcome with reasons. The Editor-in-Chief's decision following the appeal process is final. Complaints involving the Editor-in-Chief will be referred to the publisher or another independent senior editor.

8. Special Issues and Editorial Collections

Special issues, invited collections, and conference-related submissions are governed by the same authorship, originality, ethical oversight, conflict-of-interest, and peer-review standards as regular submissions. Guest editors must disclose conflicts, preserve confidentiality, and act under the supervision of the Editor-in-Chief. The source of funding and the role of any sponsor must be disclosed. No sponsor or guest editor may guarantee acceptance or bypass independent editorial review.

9. Duties of the Publisher

Universitas Dehasen Bengkulu, as the publisher, safeguards editorial independence and supports the journal in maintaining the integrity, accessibility, security, and preservation of its published record. The publisher:

• supports fair peer review and transparent editorial procedures;
• ensures that fees, sponsorship, advertising, institutional interests, or other revenue do not influence editorial decisions;
• supports the investigation of credible ethical concerns and appropriate post-publication action;
• protects personal information and confidential editorial records in accordance with applicable requirements; and
• promotes long-term access to published content and accurate metadata.

10. Reporting an Ethical Concern

Concerns should be submitted through the journal's official contact page and should include the manuscript or article title, DOI or submission identification number, a clear description of the concern, and supporting evidence or sources. Personal accusations, defamatory language, and irrelevant personal data should be avoided. The journal will process reports confidentially, impartially, and in accordance with due process.