Research Misconduct Policy

DEVOTION: Jurnal Pengabdian kepada Masyarakat is committed to maintaining research integrity, academic honesty, and responsible scholarly communication. The journal does not tolerate any form of research misconduct, publication misconduct, or unethical behavior throughout the research, community engagement, review, and publication processes.

DEVOTION follows internationally recognized principles of research integrity and publication ethics to ensure that all published articles represent accurate, transparent, and reliable scholarly contributions.

Definition of Research Misconduct

Research misconduct refers to intentional, negligent, or unethical actions that compromise the integrity, reliability, or transparency of scholarly work. Research misconduct includes, but is not limited to:

  • Fabrication
    Creating false data, results, participants, community partners, activities, or research evidence that did not actually occur.
  • Falsification
    Manipulating, altering, omitting, or misrepresenting research data, evaluation results, documentation, or findings.
  • Plagiarism
    Using ideas, text, data, images, methods, or other intellectual contributions from others without proper acknowledgment.
  • Duplicate or Redundant Publication
    Submitting or publishing substantially similar work in multiple journals without appropriate disclosure.
  • Improper Authorship Practices
    Including individuals who have not made meaningful contributions, excluding eligible contributors, or misrepresenting authorship contributions.
  • Citation Manipulation
    Artificially increasing citations or including irrelevant references to influence academic metrics.
  • Peer Review Misconduct
    Manipulating the peer-review process, providing false reviewer information, or attempting to influence review outcomes improperly.
  • Unethical Community Engagement Practices
    Reporting community activities, participant involvement, outcomes, photographs, or documentation that are inaccurate, misleading, fabricated, or obtained without appropriate ethical consideration.

Responsibilities of Authors

Authors are responsible for ensuring that submitted manuscripts accurately represent their research, community engagement activities, methods, data, results, and conclusions.

Authors must:

  • Provide truthful and transparent information regarding community programs and research activities.
  • Maintain accurate records and supporting evidence of reported activities.
  • Obtain appropriate permissions and consent when involving participants, communities, photographs, personal information, or sensitive data.
  • Correctly acknowledge all sources, contributions, funding, and institutional support.
  • Immediately notify the journal if significant errors or inaccuracies are identified after publication.

Detection and Investigation

DEVOTION may investigate suspected research misconduct identified during submission, peer review, or after publication. Concerns may be raised by editors, reviewers, authors, readers, institutions, or other relevant parties.

The investigation process may include:

  • Initial assessment by the Editorial Team.
  • Request for clarification or supporting evidence from authors.
  • Consultation with reviewers, experts, or relevant institutions when necessary.
  • Evaluation according to the journal's Publication Ethics and research integrity standards.

All investigations will be conducted fairly, confidentially, and objectively while protecting the rights of all parties involved.

Editorial Actions

If research misconduct is confirmed, DEVOTION may take appropriate actions depending on the severity of the violation, including:

  • Requesting clarification or correction from authors.
  • Rejecting the submitted manuscript.
  • Issuing corrections or expressions of concern for published articles.
  • Retracting published articles when findings are unreliable or ethical violations are confirmed.
  • Informing relevant institutions or stakeholders when necessary.

Post-Publication Concerns

DEVOTION remains committed to maintaining the integrity of the scholarly record after publication. Reports of possible misconduct or significant errors in published articles will be evaluated carefully and handled according to ethical publishing standards.

Corrections, expressions of concern, and retractions will be clearly identified and linked to the original publication to maintain transparency and accountability.

Commitment to Research Integrity

DEVOTION promotes responsible research practices, ethical community engagement, transparency, and accountability among authors, reviewers, editors, and all participants involved in the publication process.