Publication Ethics

AL-FIKRAH: Jurnal Studi Ilmu Pendidikan dan Keislaman is committed to maintaining high standards of publication ethics and academic integrity. The journal follows internationally recognized principles of publication ethics and applies transparent and responsible practices to authors, editors, reviewers, and the publisher.

The journal's publication ethics policy is designed to prevent plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, manipulation of data, duplicate publication, inappropriate authorship, citation manipulation, conflicts of interest, and other forms of research and publication misconduct.

All parties involved in the publication process are expected to uphold the principles of honesty, integrity, fairness, transparency, confidentiality, and accountability.

1. Responsibilities of Authors

Authors are responsible for ensuring the originality, accuracy, and integrity of their manuscripts.

Authors must:

Submit original work that has not been previously published and is not under consideration by another journal.
Present research findings accurately, honestly, and transparently.
Avoid fabrication, falsification, manipulation, or selective reporting of research data.
Describe research methods sufficiently to allow readers and researchers to understand and, where applicable, reproduce the research.
Properly acknowledge and cite all sources, ideas, data, quotations, and other materials obtained from other works.
Avoid plagiarism, self-plagiarism, duplicate publication, redundant publication, and inappropriate text recycling.
Ensure that all individuals listed as authors have made substantial contributions to the research or manuscript.
Ensure that individuals who made substantial contributions are appropriately recognized and that guest, gift, or ghost authorship does not occur.
Obtain approval from all authors before submission and ensure that all authors approve the final version of the manuscript.
Disclose all relevant financial and non-financial conflicts of interest.
Disclose all sources of research funding and explain the role of funders or sponsors, where applicable.
Obtain appropriate ethical approval and research permissions for studies involving human participants, animals, or sensitive data, where required.
Protect the privacy and confidentiality of research participants and obtain informed consent where applicable.
Respond to reviewers' and editors' comments professionally and within the specified timeframe.
Notify the editor promptly if a significant error is identified in a submitted, accepted, or published manuscript.
Cooperate with the editor in issuing corrections, retractions, or other appropriate post-publication actions when necessary.

Authors must not submit the same manuscript simultaneously to more than one journal.

2. Authorship and Contributorship

Authorship must accurately reflect substantial contributions to the research and manuscript.

Individuals who qualify for authorship should have made substantial contributions to the conception or design of the study, data acquisition, analysis or interpretation, or substantial drafting or critical revision of the manuscript.

All authors must:

approve the final version of the manuscript;
agree to be accountable for the work;
agree to the submission and publication of the manuscript;
disclose relevant conflicts of interest.

Individuals who provide limited technical, administrative, editorial, or other assistance that does not meet the criteria for authorship should be acknowledged appropriately.

The journal does not permit:

Guest authorship: listing individuals who have not made a substantial contribution;
Gift authorship: listing individuals as authors because of seniority, status, personal relationships, or other non-contributory reasons;
Ghost authorship: omitting individuals who have made substantial contributions.

Any change in authorship, including adding, removing, or changing the order of authors, must be approved by all authors and communicated to the editor before publication.

3. Responsibilities of Editors

Editors are responsible for maintaining the academic quality, integrity, and fairness of the journal's editorial process.

Editors must:

Evaluate manuscripts based on academic quality, originality, relevance, methodological rigor, and contribution to knowledge.
Ensure that editorial decisions are not influenced by the author's nationality, ethnicity, gender, religion, political beliefs, institutional affiliation, or other irrelevant personal characteristics.
Maintain the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts and related information.
Assign appropriate reviewers based on subject expertise.
Manage potential conflicts of interest fairly and transparently.
Ensure that peer review is conducted objectively and professionally.
Avoid using unpublished information from submitted manuscripts for personal research or other purposes without permission.
Investigate suspected cases of plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, duplicate publication, citation manipulation, or other misconduct.
Provide authors with fair opportunities to respond to editorial or ethical concerns.
Take appropriate action when serious errors or misconduct are identified in published articles.
Ensure that corrections, retractions, expressions of concern, or other post-publication notices are issued when necessary.
Maintain accurate and transparent editorial records.

Editors must not reject manuscripts solely because their findings are negative, inconclusive, or contrary to prevailing assumptions, provided that the research meets the journal's academic and methodological standards.

4. Responsibilities of Reviewers

Reviewers play an important role in maintaining the quality and integrity of published research.

Reviewers must:

Evaluate manuscripts objectively, fairly, and constructively.
Maintain the confidentiality of manuscripts and information obtained during the review process.
Identify relevant published work that has not been properly cited.
Notify the editor of any substantial similarity between the manuscript under review and other published or unpublished work.
Disclose any potential conflict of interest that may affect their impartiality.
Decline the review assignment if they lack the appropriate expertise or cannot complete the review within the required timeframe.
Avoid using unpublished information obtained through peer review for personal advantage or research purposes.
Provide clear and evidence-based comments that can help authors improve their manuscripts.
Avoid personal criticism, discriminatory comments, or inappropriate language.
Evaluate the manuscript independently and do not allow personal, institutional, political, or religious views to influence the review.

Reviewers must not contact authors directly about manuscripts under review unless authorized by the editorial team.

5. Research Misconduct

AL-FIKRAH considers research and publication misconduct to include, but not be limited to:

plagiarism;
fabrication of data or research findings;
falsification or manipulation of data;
manipulation or inappropriate alteration of images;
duplicate or redundant publication;
simultaneous submission to multiple journals;
inappropriate authorship;
citation manipulation;
misuse of confidential information;
failure to disclose significant conflicts of interest;
unethical research involving human participants or animals;
fraudulent or unverifiable references.

When an allegation of misconduct is received, the editorial team will conduct an initial assessment and may request an explanation or supporting evidence from the authors.

Where appropriate, the journal may contact the authors' institution or other relevant authorities and follow established publication ethics procedures.

If misconduct is confirmed, the journal may reject the manuscript, withdraw it from the publication process, issue a correction or retraction, publish an expression of concern, or take other appropriate action depending on the nature and severity of the case.

6. Plagiarism and Similarity Screening

All submitted manuscripts may undergo plagiarism or similarity screening before or during the peer review process.

The use of another person's ideas, words, data, images, or other intellectual contributions without appropriate attribution is considered unacceptable.

Similarity screening results are evaluated by the editorial team. A similarity score alone does not automatically determine whether plagiarism has occurred. The editor will assess the nature, source, context, and extent of the similarity.

Manuscripts containing substantial plagiarism may be rejected without proceeding to peer review.

7. Conflicts of Interest

Authors, editors, and reviewers must disclose any financial or non-financial interests that could influence or reasonably be perceived to influence the research, review, editorial decision, or publication process.

Potential conflicts may include:

financial relationships;
employment or institutional relationships;
personal relationships;
academic competition or collaboration;
ownership of intellectual property;
funding relationships;
other interests that may affect impartiality.

Editors will manage conflicts of interest to ensure that editorial decisions remain independent and objective.

8. Funding and Financial Transparency

Authors must disclose all sources of financial support for the research.

The funding statement should identify the funding organization and, where applicable, describe the role of the funder in the research design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, manuscript preparation, and decision to submit the manuscript.

If the research received no external funding, authors should state:

Funding: This research received no external funding.

9. Ethical Oversight and Research Involving Human Participants

Research involving human participants must comply with applicable ethical standards and regulations.

Where ethical approval is required, authors must obtain approval from an appropriate ethics committee or institutional review board before conducting the research.

The manuscript should provide relevant information regarding ethical approval, including the name of the approving institution and approval number, where applicable.

Authors must obtain informed consent from research participants when required.

Personal information that could identify research participants must not be published without appropriate consent or legal and ethical justification.

For research involving vulnerable populations, authors must provide appropriate safeguards to protect participants' rights, safety, dignity, and privacy.

10. Data Sharing and Research Transparency

Authors should provide sufficient methodological information to support the assessment, interpretation, and, where appropriate, reproducibility of their research.

Where ethically and legally permissible, authors are encouraged to make relevant research data, instruments, materials, or analytical procedures available to other researchers.

Data containing confidential, personal, sensitive, or otherwise restricted information must not be shared in a manner that violates ethical, legal, or institutional requirements.

If research data are available through a repository or other legitimate source, authors are encouraged to provide the relevant information in the manuscript.

11. Intellectual Property and Copyright

Authors are responsible for ensuring that all materials included in their manuscripts comply with applicable copyright and intellectual property laws.

Authors must obtain permission to reproduce copyrighted materials when permission is required.

All third-party materials, including quotations, tables, figures, photographs, instruments, and other copyrighted content, must be appropriately acknowledged.

Publication in AL-FIKRAH does not transfer responsibility for the accuracy or legality of third-party materials from the authors to the journal.

Copyright and licensing conditions applicable to published articles are stated separately in the journal's Copyright and Licensing Policy.

12. Artificial Intelligence (AI)

AL-FIKRAH permits the responsible use of Artificial Intelligence tools as supporting technologies in research and manuscript preparation.

Authors may use AI tools for activities such as language improvement, grammar checking, translation, organization of ideas, or other technical assistance.

AI tools must not be listed as authors or co-authors.

Authors remain fully responsible for the originality, accuracy, integrity, and academic content of their manuscripts. Authors must verify all AI-assisted content, including facts, citations, references, interpretations, and conclusions.

The use of AI to fabricate or manipulate data, generate false research findings, create unverifiable references, conceal plagiarism, or replace the authors' intellectual contribution is not permitted.

Substantive use of AI in manuscript preparation must be disclosed by the authors in accordance with the journal's AI Use Declaration policy.

13. Complaints and Appeals

AL-FIKRAH provides authors and other stakeholders with an opportunity to raise legitimate complaints or appeals concerning editorial decisions, publication processes, or ethical matters.

Complaints should be submitted to the editorial office with sufficient information and supporting evidence.

The editor will assess complaints fairly and confidentially. Where necessary, the editor may consult members of the editorial board, reviewers, institutional authorities, or other relevant experts.

Appeals against editorial decisions must provide clear academic or procedural grounds. An appeal is not an opportunity to submit a substantially different manuscript or bypass the peer review process.

The journal will make reasonable efforts to resolve complaints and appeals in a timely and transparent manner.

14. Corrections and Retractions

The journal recognizes its responsibility to maintain the integrity of the published scholarly record.

When an error is identified after publication, the journal may publish a correction if the error does not invalidate the overall findings or conclusions.

A published article may be retracted when there is clear evidence of serious problems such as:

unreliable or fabricated data;
falsification;
substantial plagiarism;
duplicate publication;
serious ethical violations;
major errors that invalidate the principal findings;
other forms of misconduct that compromise the integrity of the article.

Retraction notices will clearly explain the reason for the retraction and will remain linked to the original article to preserve the transparency of the scholarly record.

15. Post-Publication Discussion

AL-FIKRAH welcomes legitimate academic discussion concerning published articles.

Readers who identify substantial errors, methodological concerns, ethical issues, or other matters affecting the integrity of a published article may contact the editorial office with relevant evidence.

The editorial team will evaluate such concerns and may request a response from the authors.

Where appropriate, the journal may publish a correction, clarification, expression of concern, retraction, or other post-publication notice.

16. Editorial Independence and Fairness

Editorial decisions are based on the academic quality, originality, relevance, methodological rigor, and contribution of a manuscript.

The journal does not discriminate against authors based on nationality, ethnicity, gender, religion, political views, institutional affiliation, or other characteristics unrelated to the academic quality of the manuscript.

Editors and reviewers must maintain professional independence and avoid conflicts that could compromise objective decision-making.

17. Confidentiality

The editorial team and reviewers must maintain the confidentiality of all submitted manuscripts and related information.

Manuscripts under review must not be disclosed to individuals who are not involved in the editorial or peer review process without authorization.

Confidential information obtained during the publication process must not be used for personal, professional, or research advantage.

18. Publisher's Responsibilities

The publisher of AL-FIKRAH supports the editorial team in maintaining academic integrity and publication ethics.

The publisher is responsible for providing the journal with the necessary administrative and technical support to maintain transparent publication practices.

The publisher will not interfere with editorial decisions based on academic considerations.

The publisher and editors will cooperate in investigating suspected publication misconduct and in implementing appropriate corrections, retractions, or other post-publication actions when necessary.

19. Ethical Framework

AL-FIKRAH is committed to maintaining publication practices consistent with recognized international standards of scholarly publishing ethics, including the principles promoted by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing developed by COPE, DOAJ, OASPA, and WAME.

The journal may update its publication ethics policies when relevant standards, regulations, or best practices develop.