Conflict of Interest Policy

Jurnal Pengabdian Kepada Masyarakat Unisa Kuningan

1. Policy Statement

Jurnal Pengabdian Kepada Masyarakat Unisa Kuningan, published by Universitas Islam Al-Ihya Kuningan, Indonesia, is committed to maintaining transparency, objectivity, academic integrity, and fairness throughout the scholarly publishing process.

A conflict of interest may arise when personal, financial, professional, institutional, or other relationships could influence, or reasonably be perceived to influence, the preparation, evaluation, editorial handling, or publication of a manuscript.

The journal requires authors, editors, reviewers, and other parties involved in the publication process to disclose relevant conflicts of interest so that they can be assessed and managed appropriately.

2. Types of Conflicts of Interest

Conflicts of interest may include, but are not limited to, the following:

2.1 Financial Conflicts of Interest

Financial conflicts may arise from employment, consultancy, honoraria, research grants, sponsorship, paid services, ownership interests, or other financial relationships with organizations that may benefit from or be adversely affected by the published work.

2.2 Personal and Professional Relationships

Personal or professional relationships may create a conflict when an individual has a close personal relationship, a supervisory relationship, a collaborative partnership, a dispute, or another association with an author or other party involved in the manuscript.

2.3 Institutional Conflicts of Interest

Institutional conflicts may arise when an author's, editor's, reviewer's, or publisher's institutional affiliation or organizational interests could influence the assessment or publication of a manuscript.

2.4 Academic and Intellectual Conflicts

Academic conflicts may arise from strong professional positions, competing research interests, intellectual commitments, or other circumstances that could affect an individual's impartial judgment of a manuscript.

2.5 Conflicts Related to Community Service Activities

Because the journal publishes community service and community empowerment articles, conflicts may also arise from relationships with partner institutions, local governments, community organizations, program beneficiaries, sponsors, technology providers, or other stakeholders involved in the reported activities.

Authors should disclose relevant relationships that may influence the design, implementation, evaluation, interpretation, or reporting of community service outcomes.

3. Responsibilities of Authors

All authors are required to disclose any actual, potential, or perceived conflicts of interest relevant to their submitted manuscripts.

The disclosure should identify the nature of the relationship or interest and explain its relevance to the reported work. Authors must also disclose relevant funding sources, sponsorship arrangements, and the role of funders or supporting organizations in the design, implementation, evaluation, analysis, manuscript preparation, and publication decisions.

If no conflicts of interest exist, authors should include the following statement in their manuscript:

“The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this article.”

If a conflict exists, authors should provide a clear and accurate disclosure. The editorial team will assess whether additional information or a specific disclosure statement is required.

Authors are responsible for ensuring that all co-authors have reviewed and agreed to the conflict of interest declaration.

4. Responsibilities of Editors

Editors must disclose any actual, potential, or perceived conflicts of interest that could compromise their impartial handling of a manuscript.

An editor who has a relevant conflict of interest must not make editorial decisions concerning the manuscript. The manuscript should be assigned to another qualified editor who can manage the review and decision-making process independently.

Editors must ensure that manuscripts are evaluated on their academic merit, relevance to the journal's scope, methodological quality, and compliance with publication ethics, rather than on personal, financial, or institutional interests.

The journal's editorial decisions must remain independent of sponsorship or other relationships that could create inappropriate influence.

5. Responsibilities of Reviewers

Reviewers are required to assess manuscripts objectively and disclose any circumstances that could affect, or reasonably be perceived to affect, their impartiality.

Reviewers should decline an invitation when they have a significant conflict of interest, such as a close personal relationship with an author, a direct financial interest in the work, or a professional relationship that could prevent an unbiased assessment.

Reviewers must maintain the confidentiality of manuscripts and must not use unpublished information for personal, professional, or financial advantage.

If a potential conflict becomes apparent after a review has begun, the reviewer should promptly notify the editorial office so that appropriate action can be taken.

6. Responsibilities of the Publisher

Universitas Islam Al-Ihya Kuningan, as the publisher of Jurnal Pengabdian Kepada Masyarakat Unisa Kuningan, supports editorial independence and responsible scholarly publishing.

Financial and institutional support for journal operations must not improperly influence reviewer recommendations, editorial decisions, or publication outcomes.

The publisher and journal management should maintain appropriate procedures for identifying, disclosing, and managing conflicts of interest in accordance with the journal's editorial policies.

7. Disclosure and Management Procedures

The journal applies the following procedures to manage conflicts of interest:

Authors disclose relevant conflicts of interest during manuscript submission and in the manuscript itself, where applicable.
Editors assess the disclosure and determine whether additional clarification or management measures are necessary.
Reviewers disclose relevant conflicts before accepting a review invitation.
Individuals with disqualifying conflicts are excluded from the relevant editorial or review decisions.
Appropriate disclosures may be included in the published article to ensure transparency for readers.
If an undisclosed conflict is identified after publication, the journal will assess the circumstances and determine whether a correction, clarification, expression of concern, or other editorial action is warranted.

The journal may request additional information from authors, editors, reviewers, or other relevant parties when necessary to evaluate a potential conflict.

8. Undisclosed Conflicts of Interest

Failure to disclose a relevant conflict of interest may constitute a breach of the journal's publication ethics requirements.

When an undisclosed conflict is identified, the editorial team will assess its significance, request an explanation where appropriate, and determine suitable action based on the available evidence.

Possible actions include requesting a disclosure statement, correcting the published record, reassigning editorial responsibility, reviewing the validity of the editorial process, or taking other measures consistent with the journal's Publication Ethics and Correction and Retraction policies.

Any action will be proportionate to the circumstances and intended to protect the integrity and transparency of the scholarly record.

9. Transparency in Published Articles

Relevant conflict of interest declarations will be included in published articles when appropriate. Funding information and the role of supporting organizations should also be disclosed when relevant to the work.

The purpose of disclosure is to enable readers to evaluate the context in which the work was conducted and to assess any relationships that may be relevant to the interpretation of its findings.

The disclosure of a conflict does not automatically imply misconduct or invalidate the results of a manuscript. The journal will assess whether the conflict can be managed appropriately and whether further action is necessary.

10. Policy Review

This policy will be reviewed periodically to ensure that it remains consistent with recognized publication ethics principles and the journal's editorial practices.

All authors, editors, reviewers, and other parties involved in the publication process are expected to uphold transparency, fairness, accountability, and academic integrity.

Journal: Jurnal Pengabdian Kepada Masyarakat Unisa Kuningan

Publisher: Universitas Islam Al-Ihya Kuningan, Indonesia

Related Policies: Publication Ethics, Authorship Criteria, Peer Review Process, Allegations of Research Misconduct, and Correction and Retraction Policy.