Conflict of Interest

Mitra Teras: Jurnal Terapan Pengabdian Masyarakat requires everyone involved in the publication process (authors, editors, reviewers, and publisher staff) to disclose any conflict of interest. This policy follows the guidance of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

What Is a Conflict of Interest?

A conflict of interest exists when a person's judgment about a manuscript could be influenced, or could appear to be influenced, by other interests. Having a conflict of interest does not mean a manuscript cannot be published. What matters is that the conflict is disclosed and handled openly.

Common types of conflict of interest include:

  • Financial: funding, salary, payment, consultancy, shares, patents, or business ownership related to the work.
  • Personal: a close personal or family relationship with an author, editor, reviewer, or community partner.
  • Institutional: working at the same institution as an author, or having a recent collaboration, such as joint projects, grants, or publications.
  • Academic: strong competition or disagreement with an author's work.
  • Non-financial beliefs: political, religious, or ideological views that may influence how the work is reported or judged.
  • Community partnership: a relationship with the community partner that goes beyond the program, for example when an author owns, manages, works for, or is paid by the partner organization.
  • Self-evaluation: when an author evaluates a program, service, or policy of their own institution or organization.

Interests from the last three years, or interests that are expected in the near future, must be disclosed.

Authors

Authors must:

  • declare all conflicts of interest in the Conflict of Interest statement at the end of the manuscript and in the "Comments for the Editor" field during submission;
  • state all sources of funding in the Funding statement, including the name of the funder and the grant number;
  • explain the role of the funder, if any, in the design of the program, data collection, analysis, writing, or the decision to publish. If the funder had no role, this should be stated;
  • disclose any relationship with the community partner beyond the program;
  • update the declaration if new conflicts arise during the review process.

Example statements:

  • "The authors declare no conflict of interest."
  • "Author A is employed by the community partner organization described in this article. The other authors declare no conflict of interest."
  • "This program was funded by [funder name] (grant number). The funder had no role in the design of the program, data collection and analysis, or the decision to publish."

The Conflict of Interest and Funding statements are published with the article.

Editors

  • Editors must not handle a manuscript if they have a conflict of interest with the authors, the community partner, or the work. The manuscript will be assigned to another editor who has no conflict.
  • If the Chief Editor has a conflict of interest, the manuscript will be handled by another senior member of the Editorial Board, who will make the final decision.
  • Editors must not use unpublished information from a submitted manuscript for their own work without the written consent of the authors.
  • Editors must make decisions based only on the quality of the manuscript, the results of peer review, and the fit with the journal's scope.

Manuscripts by Editors, Reviewers, and Publisher Staff

Editors, Editorial Board members, reviewers, and publisher staff may submit their own manuscripts to Mitra Teras. To keep the process fair:

  • the manuscript is handled by an editor who has no conflict of interest with the authors;
  • the author who is a member of the journal team has no access to the review process or reviewer identities of their own manuscript;
  • the manuscript goes through the same peer review process and standards as all other manuscripts;
  • the role of the author in the journal is stated in the Conflict of Interest statement of the published article;
  • the journal aims to keep the number of articles written by its editors, reviewers, and staff to a small part of each issue.

Reviewers

  • Reviewers must tell the editor about any conflict of interest before accepting a review invitation.
  • Reviewers must decline the invitation if they:
    • work at the same institution as an author;
    • have worked or published with an author in the last three years;
    • have a personal or family relationship with an author;
    • have a financial or other interest in the outcome of the work.
  • If a reviewer finds a conflict of interest during the review, they must stop and tell the editor.
  • Reviewers must not use information from the manuscript for their own benefit.

Publisher

  • PT Mitra Jurnal Indonesia does not take part in editorial decisions.
  • The payment or waiver of the article processing charge (APC) does not affect whether a manuscript is accepted or rejected. Editors and reviewers do not see the payment status of a manuscript during review.

Undisclosed Conflicts of Interest

If a conflict of interest that was not disclosed is found before or after publication, the journal will handle it according to our Allegation of Research Misconduct policy and the COPE flowcharts. Depending on the case, this may lead to:

  • a request to add the missing declaration;
  • a correction to the published article;
  • an expression of concern;
  • retraction of the article, if the undisclosed interest seriously affects the reliability of the work.

See also our Publication Ethics, Authorship Criteria, and Author Guidelines.