Publication Ethics

Mitra Teras: Jurnal Terapan Pengabdian Masyarakat is committed to ethical and transparent publishing. The journal follows the Core Practices of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing. This page explains the ethical duties of authors, reviewers, editors, and the publisher.

1. Duties of Authors

Originality and plagiarism

• Authors must submit original work. Any work or words of others must be properly cited or quoted.
• Plagiarism in any form, including self-plagiarism and copying from the authors' own reports without citation, is not accepted. See our Plagiarism Policy.

Multiple or duplicate submission

• The manuscript must not be published before and must not be under review at another journal at the same time.
• Authors must not publish the same program results in more than one article without clear citation and a different contribution.

Accuracy of data

• Authors must report the program, data, and results honestly and accurately. Making up data (fabrication) or changing data or images (falsification) is research misconduct.
• Authors should keep their raw data, such as questionnaires, attendance lists, and evaluation results, and provide them to the editor if requested.

Authorship

• Only people who meet the authorship criteria may be listed as authors. Other contributors, including community partners, should be named in the Acknowledgments.
• All authors must agree to the final version and to the submission. See our Authorship Criteria.

Declarations

• Authors must include statements on Funding, Conflict of Interest, Author Contributions, and Use of AI Tools at the end of the manuscript. See our Conflict of Interest policy.

Errors in published work

• If authors find a significant error in their published article, they must tell the editor quickly and work with the editor to correct or retract the article. See our Retraction and Correction policy.

2. Ethics in Community Engagement

Community engagement programs involve real people and communities. Authors must make sure that:

• the community partner agreed to take part in the program and to the publication of its results;
• participants gave informed consent before data were collected, such as surveys, interviews, or tests;
• participants' privacy is protected. Personal data, such as names, addresses, and phone numbers, must not be published without permission;
• photos that show faces of participants are published only with their consent. Faces of children must be blurred, or written consent from a parent or guardian must be obtained;
• programs involving children, patients, or other vulnerable groups follow extra care and, where needed, have ethical approval from the authors' institution;
• local culture, customs, and knowledge of the community are respected and properly credited.

The editor may ask authors to show evidence of consent or ethical approval.

3. Duties of Reviewers

• Contribution: Reviewers help the editor make decisions and help authors improve their manuscripts.
• Timeliness: Reviewers who cannot finish the review on time, or who do not feel qualified, should tell the editor and decline.
• Confidentiality: Manuscripts must be treated as confidential documents. Reviewers must not share or discuss them with others without permission from the editor.
• Objectivity: Reviews must be objective and polite. Personal criticism of the authors is not acceptable.
• Sources: Reviewers should point out relevant published work that the authors have not cited, and any major similarity with other published work.
• Conflict of interest: Reviewers must decline manuscripts where they have a conflict of interest and must not use unpublished information for their own benefit.

4. Duties of Editors

• Publication decisions: The Chief Editor makes the final decision based on the quality and originality of the manuscript, the peer review results, and the fit with the journal's scope. The editor follows legal rules on copyright, plagiarism, and libel.
• Fair play: Manuscripts are judged only on their content, regardless of the authors' race, gender, religion, ethnicity, nationality, institution, or political views.
• Peer review: Editors make sure every research article goes through fair and double-blind peer review. See our Peer Review Process.
• Confidentiality: Editors share information about a manuscript only with the corresponding author, reviewers, other editors, and the publisher, as needed.
• Conflict of interest: Editors do not handle manuscripts where they have a conflict of interest, and do not use unpublished information for their own work.
• Handling complaints and misconduct: Editors take action when ethical concerns are raised about a submitted or published manuscript, following COPE flowcharts. See our Allegation of Research Misconduct policy.

5. Duties of the Publisher

• PT Mitra Jurnal Indonesia supports the editorial team but does not take part in editorial decisions.
• The publisher provides the journal platform, keeps published content available, and makes sure articles are archived for the long term. See our Archiving and Repository policy.
• The publisher works with the editors to publish corrections, expressions of concern, and retractions when needed.

6. Use of AI Tools

• Authors may use AI tools for language editing and similar support. Use of AI must be stated in the Use of AI Tools statement. AI tools cannot be listed as authors. Authors remain fully responsible for the content, including its accuracy and references.
• Reviewers must not upload a manuscript, or any part of it, to generative AI tools, and must not use these tools to write their review.
• Editors must not upload manuscripts to generative AI tools or use these tools to make editorial decisions.

7. Reporting an Ethical Concern

Anyone who has concerns about a submitted or published article can contact the Chief Editor at mawaidi@uny.ac.id or the journal at mitrateras@mjipublisher.com. All reports are handled confidentially.