Publications Ethics

1. General Statement

Journal Justiciabelen (JJ) is committed to upholding the integrity of scholarly publishing in law. These guidelines bind every party in the publication process: authors, reviewers, editors, and the publisher.

They are based on:

Detailed rules on authorship and AI use are set out in the Author Guidelines; plagiarism and retraction are governed by the Plagiarism Policy and Article Retraction & Withdrawal.

2. Duties and Responsibilities

2.1 Editors

  • Decide whether to accept or reject a manuscript solely on its scholarly quality, originality, and fit with the scope, regardless of the authors' race, gender, religion, nationality, institutional affiliation, or political views.
  • Keep manuscripts and the identities of authors and reviewers confidential throughout double-blind review.
  • Not use material from an unpublished manuscript in their own research without the authors' written consent.
  • Declare conflicts of interest and recuse themselves from handling a manuscript when a conflict exists (see Section 4).
  • Handle alleged ethical breaches under Section 3 and publish corrections, expressions of concern, or retractions when needed.

2.2 Reviewers

  • Assess manuscripts objectively, on time (within 2 weeks), and with clear reasoning.
  • Decline an assignment when they lack the expertise or have a conflict of interest.
  • Keep manuscripts confidential; not share, cite, or upload them to other parties or to generative AI tools.
  • Inform the editors of substantial similarity to other work or of any suspected ethical breach.

2.3 Authors

  • Submit original work that has not been published and is not under consideration elsewhere.
  • Present legal materials and data accurately and cite every source correctly.
  • Meet the Authorship Criteria and declare contributions, funding, conflicts of interest, and AI use in Section E of the manuscript.
  • Promptly inform the editors of any significant error found in the manuscript, before or after publication, and cooperate in correcting it.
  • Obtain informants' consent and protect the identity of parties to cases, especially children and victims of sexual violence, as required by law.

2.4 Publisher

  • Guarantee editorial independence and not interfere in decisions on manuscripts.
  • Provide the resources and systems (OJS, Turnitin, Crossref DOIs) needed to run the publication process under these guidelines.
  • Ensure that the article archive remains available and openly accessible.

3. Allegations of Research Misconduct

JJ follows up every allegation of misconduct concerning a manuscript under review or a published article, following the COPE flowcharts. Allegations are handled confidentially and fairly, and the authors are given the opportunity to respond.

3.1 Types of misconduct

Type

Definition and examples

Fabrication

Inventing data, interview results, court decisions, or legislation that do not exist

Falsification

Altering, truncating, or manipulating data, quoted norms, or the content of decisions so they no longer match the original

Plagiarism

Using others' ideas, sentences, or data without citing the source, including translating others' work without attribution

Duplicate publication and self-plagiarism

Submitting the same or a very similar manuscript to more than one journal, or republishing one's own work without disclosure

Authorship misconduct

Ghost, guest, or gift authorship, buying or selling author positions, and using ghostwriters ("joki")

Citation manipulation

Coercive citation, excessive self-citation, or citation cartels

Peer review manipulation

Suggesting fictitious reviewers or attempting to influence reviewers

Breach of research-subject ethics

Revealing the identity of children, victims, or other parties who must remain anonymous, or interviewing without consent

Undisclosed AI use

See Author Guidelines item 5.10

3.2 How to report

Anyone (readers, reviewers, authors, or institutions) may report to journal.justiciabelen@unsur.ac.id with the subject line "Alleged Misconduct – [article title]". The report should include the reporter's identity, the article's title and DOI, a description of the alleged misconduct, and supporting evidence. The reporter's identity is kept confidential, and good-faith reporters are protected from retaliation. Anonymous reports are still considered if the evidence is sufficient.

3.3 Handling procedure

  1. The editors acknowledge the report within 7 working days.
  2. Initial assessment. The Editor-in-Chief, with an editor who has no conflict of interest, examines the evidence, including with Turnitin and by checking the original sources.
  3. If the allegation has merit, the editors ask the corresponding author, copying all authors, for a written explanation within 14 days.
  4. The editors evaluate the response and decide. If the authors do not respond or the response is inadequate, the editors may contact the authors' institution for further investigation.
  5. The decision is communicated to the authors and the reporter.

While the allegation is being handled, a manuscript under review is put on hold. For a published article, the editors may issue an expression of concern until a decision is reached.

3.4 Actions and sanctions

Level of misconduct

Action

Honest or minor error (e.g., incomplete citation)

Authors are asked to correct it; for a published article, a corrigendum is issued

Misconduct in a manuscript under review

The manuscript is rejected and the authors are told why

Serious misconduct in a published article (fabrication, falsification, substantial plagiarism, duplicate publication)

The article is retracted under the Article Retraction & Withdrawal policy; the article page remains, marked RETRACTED, with a retraction notice

Repeated or deliberate misconduct

In addition, the authors' institution is notified and the authors are barred from submitting to JJ for a period set by the Editorial Board

Authors who disagree with a decision may submit a written appeal with new evidence to the Editor-in-Chief within 30 days. The decision on the appeal is final.

4. Conflict of Interest

A conflict of interest exists when personal, financial, professional, or institutional interests may influence, or appear to influence, the objectivity of writing, assessing, or deciding on a manuscript. A conflict of interest does not automatically disqualify a manuscript, but it must be disclosed openly.

4.1 Types of conflict of interest

  • Financial: research funding, honoraria, shareholding, or employment with a party that has a stake in the research findings.
  • Professional and case-related: the author served as counsel, judge, prosecutor, investigator, expert witness, or party in a case or decision analyzed; or took part in drafting the legislation or policy under study.
  • Institutional: the research was funded or commissioned by an agency whose policy the article evaluates.
  • Personal: family ties, close friendship, rivalry, or disputes with the parties studied, the authors, or the reviewers.
  • Ideological or political: involvement in a political party, advocacy organization, or campaign directly related to the article's subject.

4.2 Authors' obligations

Authors disclose any conflict of interest under "Conflict of Interest" in Section E of the manuscript and in the OJS metadata. If there is none, write: "The authors declare no conflict of interest." Sources of funding and their role in the research are also stated in Section E.

4.3 Reviewers' obligations

Reviewers decline the assignment and inform the editors if they recognize the authors, work at the same institution as the authors, have collaborated with the authors in the past 3 years, were involved in the case under study, or have any other interest that prevents an objective assessment.

4.4 Editors' obligations

  • Editors do not handle manuscripts written by themselves, their family members, colleagues from the same study program, their supervised students, or their collaborators within the past 3 years. Such manuscripts are reassigned to another editor.
  • Manuscripts from Editorial Board members are handled by another editor through the same double-blind review, and the author takes no part in any decision on their own manuscript.
  • Editorial decisions are not influenced by APC payment, funding, or the publisher's interests.

4.5 Undisclosed conflicts

An undisclosed conflict of interest discovered later is handled as alleged misconduct under Section 3. For a published article, the action may be a correction adding the conflict-of-interest statement, or retraction if the conflict affected the conclusions.

5. Ownership and Management Information

Journal Justiciabelen (JJ) is owned and published by Universitas Suryakancana and has been managed by the Master of Law Study Program, Postgraduate Program, Universitas Suryakancana, since its founding in 2021.

Item

Details

Owner and publisher

Universitas Suryakancana

Managed by

Master of Law Study Program, Postgraduate Program, Universitas Suryakancana

Founded

2021

Editor-in-Chief

Trini Handayani (Universitas Suryakancana)

Managing Editor

Aji Mulyana (Universitas Suryakancana)

Editorial Board

Full composition on the Editorial Team page, including editors from Universitas Suryakancana and seven other universities

Address

Jl. Pasirgede Raya, Bojongherang, Kec. Cianjur, Kabupaten Cianjur, West Java 43216, Indonesia

E-mail

journal.justiciabelen@unsur.ac.id

P-ISSN / E-ISSN

2774-3764 / 2774-8375

DOI

Prefix 10.35194, registered with Crossref

Platform

Open Journal Systems (OJS) 3.3 on the Universitas Suryakancana server, https://jurnal.unsur.ac.id/index.php/JJ

Funding sources

Universitas Suryakancana and article processing charges (APC) as set out on the Articles Processing Charge page

Access model

Open access; articles are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Editorial independence. Universitas Suryakancana, as owner, does not interfere in editorial decisions. Decisions on manuscripts rest entirely with the Editorial Board, based on peer review, and are not influenced by funding, APC payment, or the authors' affiliation with Universitas Suryakancana.

Changes in ownership or management are announced on the journal website and on the Journal History page.

References