Publication Ethics

Publication Ethics and Research Integrity

Al-Adzka: Jurnal Ilmiah Pendidikan Guru Madrasah Ibtidaiyah is committed to maintaining high standards of publication ethics, research integrity, editorial independence, and scholarly transparency. This policy applies to authors, editors, reviewers, editorial board members, and the publisher. The journal’s editorial and publishing practices are guided by the COPE Guidance and Tools, the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing, and the BERA Ethical Guidelines for Educational Research, Fifth Edition.

The journal does not tolerate plagiarism, duplicate or redundant publication, data fabrication or falsification, inappropriate authorship, citation manipulation, undisclosed conflicts of interest, unethical research involving human participants, manipulation of the peer-review process, or any other form of academic misconduct.

Editorial Independence and Responsibilities

Editorial decisions are based solely on scholarly merit, originality, methodological quality, relevance to the journal’s aims and scope, clarity of presentation, and compliance with ethical standards. Decisions must not be influenced by the authors’ nationality, institutional affiliation, academic position, gender, religion, political views, personal relationships, or commercial considerations. The publisher protects editorial independence and does not interfere with decisions concerning manuscript acceptance or rejection.

Editors are responsible for maintaining manuscript confidentiality, selecting qualified and independent reviewers, managing conflicts of interest, and ensuring fair and impartial evaluation. Editors must not use unpublished material from submitted manuscripts for personal, academic, financial, or professional benefit. Manuscripts submitted by editors or editorial board members must be handled by an independent editor who has no conflict of interest with the authors.

Peer Review and Reviewer Responsibilities

All original research manuscripts undergo a double-anonymous external peer-review process involving at least two independent reviewers. Reviewers must possess relevant academic or methodological expertise and must not have institutional, supervisory, financial, personal, or recent collaborative relationships with the authors. Detailed procedures are available on the journal’s Peer Review Process page.

Reviewers are expected to provide objective, constructive, respectful, and evidence-based evaluations. They must preserve manuscript confidentiality, disclose potential conflicts of interest, and inform the editor when they identify plagiarism, duplicate publication, data irregularities, unethical research, inappropriate citation practices, or other research-integrity concerns. Information obtained through peer review must not be used for personal research or professional advantage.

Author Responsibilities and Authorship

Authors are responsible for the originality, accuracy, transparency, and ethical integrity of their manuscripts. Submitted work must not have been published previously or be under consideration by another journal. Authors must describe research procedures and findings honestly, acknowledge all relevant sources, disclose funding and conflicts of interest, and cooperate in correcting significant errors identified before or after publication.

All individuals listed as authors must have made substantial scholarly contributions to the research and manuscript, approved the final version, and agreed to be accountable for the integrity of the work. Honorary, gift, guest, purchased, and ghost authorship are prohibited. Contributors who do not meet authorship criteria should be acknowledged appropriately. Authors are encouraged to describe individual contributions using the CRediT contributor taxonomy.

Any proposed change to authorship after submission must be explained in writing and approved by all authors. Changes after acceptance will only be considered in exceptional and fully justified circumstances.

Research Involving Human Participants and Children

Research involving human participants must comply with applicable institutional, national, and international ethical standards. Authors must provide the name of the approving ethics committee or institutional review board, the approval number, and the informed-consent procedure when required. Participation must be voluntary, and participants must be informed about the purpose of the research, procedures, potential risks and benefits, confidentiality, data use, and their right to withdraw.

Because Al-Adzka publishes research in elementary and Islamic primary education, special protection must be provided to children. Research involving children should obtain appropriate institutional or ethical approval, informed consent from parents or legal guardians, and assent from participating children according to their age, maturity, and level of understanding. Researchers must protect children’s dignity, safety, privacy, identity, personal data, and educational rights.

Children must not be pressured to participate, and participation or refusal must not affect their grades, educational services, school access, or relationships with teachers. Photographs, videos, names, voices, classroom records, or other identifiable information concerning children may only be published when appropriate consent has been obtained and publication is academically necessary. Further guidance is available in the journal’s Ethical Oversight policy and the BERA Ethical Guidelines for Educational Research.

Research Data and Reporting Integrity

Authors must report research methods, data, analyses, and findings accurately and honestly. Fabrication, falsification, selective reporting, misleading omission, and inappropriate data manipulation constitute serious misconduct. Authors must not invent participants, interviews, observations, statistics, research sites, ethical approvals, or research findings.

Manipulation of images, tables, graphs, statistical results, transcripts, or digital files in ways that misrepresent findings is prohibited. Editors may request anonymized raw data, research instruments, statistical outputs, interview records, coding documentation, ethics approval, or consent information when concerns arise.

Authors should include a Data Availability Statement explaining whether supporting data are publicly available, available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request, restricted because of ethical, legal, privacy, or confidentiality considerations, or unavailable with an appropriate explanation. Data sharing must not violate participant consent, child-protection requirements, or institutional agreements.

Originality, Plagiarism, and Citation Ethics

All manuscripts must be original and must properly acknowledge the work of others. Plagiarism, inappropriate paraphrasing, self-plagiarism, duplicate publication, redundant publication, and unattributed use of ideas, data, figures, tables, instruments, or other scholarly materials are prohibited.

The journal uses similarity-detection software as part of its editorial screening. Similarity results are evaluated contextually and are not used as the sole basis for editorial decisions. Detailed information is available in the journal’s Plagiarism Check policy.

Citations must be accurate, relevant, and academically justified. The journal prohibits coercive citation, citation manipulation, citation stacking, excessive self-citation, fabricated references, irrelevant citation, and citation practices intended primarily to increase the metrics of an author, journal, institution, or publisher. Editors and reviewers must not require authors to cite their publications or Al-Adzka articles unless the references are directly relevant and academically necessary.

Conflicts of Interest and Funding Disclosure

Authors, editors, and reviewers must disclose any actual, potential, or perceived conflict of interest that could influence or appear to influence professional judgment. Conflicts may arise from financial relationships, employment, institutional affiliation, personal relationships, academic competition, intellectual commitments, commercial interests, or recent research collaboration.

Authors must disclose all sources of financial and institutional support, including the funding agency, grant number where applicable, and the funder’s role in the research and publication process. When no external funding was received, this should be stated explicitly.

Editors and reviewers must withdraw from handling manuscripts when a conflict of interest may compromise, or reasonably appear to compromise, their impartiality.

Generative Artificial Intelligence

Generative artificial intelligence tools cannot be listed as authors because they cannot assume responsibility for scholarly content, approve the final manuscript, disclose conflicts of interest, or be accountable for research integrity. Authors remain fully responsible for all text, data, analyses, images, references, and other materials created or revised with AI assistance.

The use of generative AI must be disclosed when it materially contributes to drafting, language editing beyond routine correction, coding, data analysis, image generation, literature synthesis, or the development of research materials. The disclosure should identify the tool, its purpose, and the extent of human review and verification.

AI must not be used to fabricate data or references, generate false quotations, conceal plagiarism, manipulate findings, or replace essential scholarly judgment. Editors and reviewers must not upload confidential manuscripts to public AI platforms. Detailed requirements are provided in the journal’s Generative AI Policy.

Copyright and Use of Research Materials

Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce copyrighted figures, tables, photographs, questionnaires, scales, teaching materials, assessment instruments, and other protected content. The source and permission status of reproduced materials must be stated clearly.

Previous dissemination through a thesis, dissertation, conference proceeding, institutional repository, or preprint platform must be disclosed. Manuscripts developed from earlier works must demonstrate a clear additional scholarly contribution and must not mislead readers regarding their originality.

Authors retain copyright and grant the journal the right of first publication under the license specified by Al-Adzka. Further information is available in the journal’s Copyright Notice.

Handling Misconduct and Ethical Concerns

Allegations of publication or research misconduct will be examined fairly, confidentially, and proportionately. The journal may request clarification, raw data, ethics documentation, consent records, or other supporting evidence; consult reviewers, editorial board members, research-integrity specialists, or institutional authorities; suspend the editorial process; reject or retract a manuscript; issue an expression of concern; or notify an author’s institution or funding body when justified.

No author, reviewer, editor, or institution will be publicly accused before sufficient evidence has been evaluated. Decisions will be based on the available evidence, the seriousness of the concern, and recognized principles of publication ethics and research integrity.

Authors wishing to withdraw a manuscript must provide a clear written explanation and follow the procedures described in the journal’s Withdrawal of Manuscript policy.

Corrections, Retractions, and Post-Publication Concerns

Al-Adzka is committed to maintaining the accuracy and integrity of the scholarly record. Minor errors that do not invalidate an article’s main findings may be corrected through an erratum or corrigendum. An expression of concern may be issued when serious questions remain under investigation.

An article may be retracted when reliable evidence demonstrates data fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, unethical research, duplicate publication, manipulated peer review, serious authorship misconduct, or other major violations of research integrity. Retraction procedures follow relevant principles in the COPE Retraction Guidelines.

Retracted articles will remain accessible as part of the permanent scholarly record but will be clearly identified and linked to a retraction notice. Detailed procedures are available in the journal’s Article Retraction policy.

Readers, authors, reviewers, and institutions may report potential errors or ethical concerns after publication by contacting the editorial office and providing clear supporting evidence.

Complaints and Appeals

Authors may appeal an editorial decision when they believe that a significant procedural, factual, or ethical error has occurred. Appeals must be submitted in writing, clearly identify the contested decision, respond specifically to the editor’s or reviewers’ comments, and provide relevant scholarly evidence.

Appeals based solely on disagreement with academic judgment will not normally be considered. Whenever possible, complaints and appeals will be reviewed by an editor who was not directly involved in the original decision. Further procedures are available in the journal’s Appeals and Complaints policy.

Digital Preservation and Policy Updates

Al-Adzka is committed to preserving published content and ensuring permanent access to the scholarly record. Published articles will not be silently removed, including when corrections or retractions are issued, except in exceptional circumstances involving legal obligations, serious privacy risks, or threats to participant safety.

This policy may be revised to reflect developments in publication ethics, research integrity, artificial intelligence, data protection, and responsible educational research. By submitting, reviewing, editing, or publishing in Al-Adzka, all parties agree to uphold the principles of research integrity, participant protection, editorial independence, fair peer review, and responsible scholarly communication.

Related Policies and Ethical Standards

The following policies and standards form an integral part of Al-Adzka’s ethical and editorial framework:

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