Publication Ethics

PUBLICATION ETHICS AND MALPRACTICE STATEMENT

JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE EDUCATION AND LITERACY (JLEL)

The publication process in the Journal of Language Education and Literacy (JLEL) is the basis for increasing and disseminating information in an objective, systematic, clear, open, and respectful manner aimed at improving the quality of research. This peer-reviewed journal supports and embodies the scientific method. Therefore, all parties involved in the publication process (authors, reviewers, editors, publishers, readers, and researchers) must adhere to standard ethical considerations. JLEL expects all parties to uphold the following ethical responsibilities.

The following ethical duties and responsibilities are written based on the guidelines and policies developed by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) (https://publicationethics.org/).

General Principles

  1. Author Contribution: Authors must make a substantial intellectual contribution to the article. All authors must be involved in preparing, revising, and approving the final version of the article. All author information must be added to the submission system during article submission. Additionally, non-author contributors should be identified. All authors are expected to agree to be responsible for all aspects of the work.

  2. Conflict of Interest: Authors are required to disclose any conflicts of interest that may bias or appear to bias the article. These conflicts can arise from financial relationships, personal relationships, competition, or trust. Depending on the details, the article may not be published. If the article is published, this information must be communicated in the notes after the main text, before the references.

  3. Research Funding: The source of research funding must be clearly stated. The funder can be an individual, a government agency, or a commercial company. If the funder was involved in the study design or the preparation of the article, their role should be explicitly explained.

  4. Legal and Regulatory Compliance: Authors must ensure that all research work submitted to the journal complies with the applicable laws and regulations of affiliated and regulatory agencies. If the study involved human subjects, authors are required to obtain and document institutional ethics committee approval, informed participant consent, and other legal permits related to the research.

  5. Informed Consent and Privacy: Signed consent forms must be obtained to include participant information in order to comply with all applicable privacy laws and regulations. The signed forms should not be sent to the journal due to confidentiality. Instead, the author must include a statement in the manuscript that informed consent was obtained from the participants and that the original forms are held by the handling institution.

  6. Confidentiality: The privacy rights of individuals or organizations involved in the work are of the utmost importance and should not be violated without their consent. Authors must take all necessary precautions to protect participant information.

  7. Adherence to Ethical Principles: All parties involved are expected to strictly follow ethical principles throughout the publication process. Therefore, editors, editorial staff, and publishers always ensure mandatory compliance with ethical principles and regulations.

  8. Complaints and Appeals: Editors maintain flexibility in the editorial process and in determining which articles to publish. Publication considerations are based on article quality, topic relevance, geographical diversity, and other editorial factors. Authors who are dissatisfied with the editorial process and/or results may submit complaints and appeals to [jlel@ppj.unp.ac.id]. The description of the issue and any supporting evidence must be concise and complete. Complaints and appeals will be investigated in alignment with the flowcharts provided by COPE.

  9. Errors and Retractions: Although all articles undergo a rigorous double-blind peer review and production stage, honest errors may still occur in published content. When detected, these errors will be corrected by issuing an erratum/corrigendum notice detailing the changes to the original publication. Serious errors that invalidate the results and conclusions of the study may result in a retraction notice following COPE guidelines.

Author's Responsibilities

  1. Originality and Novelty: Authors bear the responsibility to ensure that submitted articles are original and represent new work.

  2. Plagiarism, Fabrication, and Falsification: Plagiarism in all its forms (including self-plagiarism), data fabrication (making up research results), and data falsification (manipulating research materials, equipment, or processes) constitute severe publication misconduct. All manuscripts submitted to JLEL are screened for originality using similarity-checking software (e.g., Turnitin). Manuscripts exceeding the acceptable similarity threshold (maximum 20%) or found guilty of misconduct will be rejected immediately.

  3. Concurrent and Redundant Submissions: The article or any part of it must not be published elsewhere or be under evaluation by another journal simultaneously. Authors must not publish redundant articles describing the same research in more than one journal.

  4. Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tools: Authors must explicitly disclose the use of Generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process by adding a declaration at the end of their manuscript. AI tools cannot be listed as an author or co-author, as authorship implies accountability and responsibility for the work, which AI cannot fulfill.

  5. Formatting and Guidelines: Articles must be prepared in accordance with the journal's ethical and formatting guidelines (template).

  6. Authorship Credit: Individuals who did not contribute to the research at an intellectual level should not be listed as authors. Ghost, gift, or guest authorship is strictly prohibited.

  7. Citations and Acknowledgments: Authors must acknowledge all data sources used in the research and cite publications that directly influenced the work.

  8. Data Access and Availability: During the review process, authors may be requested to provide raw data. Authors are encouraged to make their research data publicly available or state its availability (Data Availability Statement) in the manuscript.

  9. Reporting Errors: If any significant errors or inaccuracies are discovered in a submitted or published article, the author must report them immediately to the editor and cooperate to correct or retract the paper.

  10. Withdrawal and Republication: The article may be published elsewhere only after receiving an official rejection from JLEL or if the author's official request to withdraw the work is accepted by the journal editor.

  11. Authorship Changes: Authors responsible for submitting articles to the journal cannot be altered, added, or removed once the review process has commenced, unless approved by the Editor-in-Chief with valid justification.

Reviewers' Responsibilities

  1. Expertise and Availability: Reviewers must agree to review manuscripts only within their area of expertise and complete the review within the allocated time. If completing the review on time is impossible, this must be communicated immediately to the editor.

  2. Confidentiality: Information regarding articles submitted by authors must be kept strictly confidential and treated as privileged information. Reviewed manuscripts must be securely discarded after the review process.

  3. Conflict of Interest: Reviewers must refuse to review a submission if they perceive or face a conflict of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships with any of the authors or institutions connected to the paper.

  4. Objectivity and Fairness: Reviews must be conducted objectively, impartially, and professionally. Personal judgments, slander, or insults based on nationality, gender, religious beliefs, or political views are strictly unacceptable.

  5. Constructive Feedback: Reviewers must express their views clearly with supporting arguments, providing constructive and friendly feedback to help authors improve their work.

  6. Detection of Misconduct: Reviewers should assist the editorial team in identifying instances of plagiarism, redundant publication, data falsification, or uncredited citations.

  7. Use of Final Material: Reviewers may use the content of the reviewed manuscript only after it has been officially published.

Editors' Responsibilities

  1. Publication Decision: The Editor-in-Chief has full authority and responsibility to decide which submitted articles should be published. Decisions are based on the article’s quality, originality, clarity, scientific validity, and alignment with the journal's scope, without regard to political or economic factors.

  2. Double-Blind Peer Review: Editors manage the peer-review process transparently and ensure that all submitted manuscripts undergo fair evaluation by at least two independent expert reviewers through a double-blind peer-review system.

  3. Fairness and Non-Discrimination: Editors evaluate manuscripts for their intellectual content without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors.

  4. Confidentiality: Editors and editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, and other editorial advisers.

  5. Handling Allegations of Misconduct: Editors, alongside the publisher, shall take reasonable steps to identify and prevent the publication of papers where research misconduct has occurred. In cases of alleged or proven misconduct, editors will follow COPE flowcharts to process inquiries, publish corrections, expressions of concern, or retractions.

  6. Editorial Flexibility and Continuity: New editors will not overturn previous decisions to publish submissions made by the prior editor unless clear evidence of scientific misconduct or invalidity is identified.

  7. Correction of Errors: Editors ensure that genuine errors, misleading statements, or inaccuracies in published articles are corrected quickly and prominently with an Erratum or Corrigendum.