Publication Ethics

1. Institutional Commitment & Ethical Framework

Jurnal Transformatika is committed to upholding the highest standards of publication ethics, scientific integrity, and editorial transparency. The journal aligns its publication policies and editorial procedures with the Core Practices of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing.

All parties involved in the publication process—including Authors, Editors, Peer Reviewers, and the Publisher—are required to agree upon and adhere to the ethical behavior standards outlined in this policy.

2. Overview of COPE Core Practices

Jurnal Transformatika maintains publicly documented policies and operational procedures covering COPE's ten core areas of publication ethics:

  1. Allegations of Misconduct: Prompt, confidential, and objective assessment of reported scientific misconduct.
  2. Authorship and Contributorship: Clear authorship criteria based on substantive intellectual contributions .
  3. Complaints and Appeals: Transparent avenues for handling editorial appeals and administrative complaints .
  4. Conflicts of Interest: Mandatory disclosure and active management of competing interests for authors, reviewers, and editors.
  5. Data and Reproducibility: Support for data availability statements, open data practices, and research reproducibility.
  6. Ethical Oversight: Rigorous checks on research ethics approvals, consent, and participant privacy.
  7. Intellectual Property: Strict protection of copyright, licensing (CC BY-SA 4.0), and anti-plagiarism controls .
  8. Journal Management: Clear governance, editorial independence from publisher/commercial interests, and long-term digital archiving ].
  9. Peer Review Processes: Transparent double-blind peer review with rigorous integrity safeguards.
  10. Post-Publication Discussions and Corrections: Established procedures for post-publication critiques, errata, corrigenda, retractions, and expressions of concern.

3. Duties and Responsibilities of Authors

A. Authorship Criteria & Contributorship

Authorship in Jurnal Transformatika is strictly restricted to individuals who have made substantial intellectual contributions. Following the ICMJE guidelines, every listed author must meet all four of the following criteria:

  1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data;
  2. Drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content;
  3. Final approval of the version to be published; and
  4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Ghost, guest, or gift authorship is strictly prohibited. Contribution details must be explicitly declared in the manuscript using the CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) framework.

B. Originality, Plagiarism, and Similarity Threshold

Authors must ensure that submitted manuscripts are entirely original work. Text, data, figures, or ideas from third parties must be explicitly cited and credited.

  • Plagiarism Screening: All submissions undergo automated similarity checks using Turnitin.
  • Threshold: Submissions exhibiting an overall text similarity score exceeding 20% or uncredited verbatim copying will be subjected to editorial inquiry and may be rejected immediately.
  • Text Recycling & Duplicate Submission: Simultaneous submission of the same manuscript to multiple journals or redundant publication of previously published findings is unacceptable.

C. Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest & Funding

Authors must disclose any financial, personal, or institutional relationships that could influence, or be perceived to influence, the objectivity of the research. All sources of financial support (including grant numbers and funding agency names) must be disclosed in the mandatory Funding Statement.

D. Declaration of Generative AI Usage

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and AI-assisted tools (such as LLMs) cannot be listed as an author or co-author. Authors who utilize generative AI for language editing, proofreading, or coding must transparently declare its usage in the dedicated "Declaration of Generative AI in Scientific Writing" section prior to the references. AI must not be used to fabricate data, manipulate images, or generate synthetic references.

4. Duties and Responsibilities of Editors

A. Fair Play and Editorial Independence

Editorial decisions to accept, revise, or reject a manuscript are based solely on scholarly merit, original contribution, methodological validity, and alignment with the journal's focus and scope. Decisions are independent of author nationality, institutional affiliation, commercial interests, or political beliefs.

B. Confidentiality & Competing Interests

Editors and editorial staff must maintain strict confidentiality regarding submitted manuscripts and must not disclose information to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, and publisher. An editor who has a competing interest regarding a manuscript must recuse themselves and reassign the submission to an independent handling editor.

5. Duties and Responsibilities of Peer Reviewers

A. Integrity & Confidentiality

Reviewers must treat all manuscripts received for review as confidential documents. Reviewers are strictly prohibited from uploading, pasting, or feeding submitted manuscripts into external generative AI platforms or third-party automated tools, as doing so violates author copyright and confidentiality agreements.

B. Objectivity & Conflict Disclosure

Reviews must be conducted objectively and constructively. Personal critiques or derogatory comments are unacceptable. Reviewers must disclose any competing interests before accepting an invitation to review and must decline to review manuscripts in which they have a conflict.

6. Allegations of Research Misconduct & Whistleblowing

Jurnal Transformatika takes credible allegations of research or publication misconduct (including data fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, peer review manipulation, or citation stuffing) seriously.

A. Reporting Procedure

Concerns or complaints from authors, readers, reviewers, or whistleblowers should be directed to the Editor-in-Chief via email at transformatika@usm.ac.id . Reports should include specific details, manuscript identifiers, and supporting evidence.

B. Investigation & Institutional Escalation

When an allegation arises, the Editorial Board conducts an initial assessment. If substantiated, the journal will request an explanation from the affected parties. For severe misconduct involving data integrity or authorship disputes, the journal may contact the authors' host institution or employer for formal investigation.

7. Post-Publication Discussions, Corrections, and Retractions

Jurnal Transformatika maintains mechanisms to correct or retract published articles when necessary to protect the integrity of the scholarly record.

A. Post-Publication Discussions

Readers may submit formal critiques or Letters to the Editor regarding published work. Valid critiques will be shared with the original authors to allow them the opportunity to publish a formal response alongside the critique.

B. Corrections (Errata and Corrigenda)

  • Erratum: Issued to correct a significant error introduced during journal production.
  • Corrigendum: Issued when authors identify a significant error that affects the interpretation or reproducibility of their findings without rendering the overall conclusions invalid . Correction notices are published, freely accessible, and bidirectionally linked to the original article.

C. Retraction Policy

An article may be retracted following COPE Retraction Guidelines in cases of:

  1. Clear evidence of unreliable findings due to major errors, data fabrication, or falsification;
  2. Plagiarism, redundant publication, or severe copyright infringement; or
  3. Unethical research practices or compromised peer review processes.

Retraction Process: A formal Retraction Notice will be published and linked to the paper. The original PDF will remain accessible to preserve historical record but will be prominently watermarked with "RETRACTED" on every page.

8. Ethical Oversight & Data Availability

Research involving human subjects, sensitive personal data, or clinical interventions must comply with institutional and international ethics standards (Declaration of Helsinki). Authors must cite the Institutional Ethics Committee Approval Number in the manuscript.

B. Research Data Availability

Authors are required to provide a Data Availability Statement in their published papers specifying where the underlying data supporting their findings can be accessed (e.g., public repository links or restricted access justifications).