Publication Ethics

Educatum: Journal of Education Studies (e-ISSN: 3031-1209) is an open-access, peer-reviewed scholarly journal published by Yayasan Yuta Pendidikan Cerdas, Indonesia. Educatum is committed to maintaining the highest standards of publication ethics, academic integrity, transparency, accountability, and responsible scholarly communication throughout the publication process.

This Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement applies to all parties involved in the publication process, including authors, editors, reviewers, editorial board members, and the publisher. The journal follows internationally recognized principles of publication ethics, including the guidelines and recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), as well as the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing developed by COPE, DOAJ, OASPA, and WAME.

All parties involved in the publication process are expected to uphold responsible research practices, protect intellectual property rights, ensure transparency of contributions, disclose conflicts of interest, maintain confidentiality, respect research participants, and contribute to the reliability and integrity of the scholarly record.

Responsibilities of Editors

Editorial Decision-Making

The Editor-in-Chief has the final responsibility for all editorial decisions regarding manuscript acceptance, revision, or rejection. Editorial decisions are based exclusively on academic quality, originality, methodological or conceptual rigor, relevance to the journal scope, ethical compliance, and recommendations obtained through an independent peer-review process.

Editors must ensure that editorial decisions are not influenced by commercial interests, institutional relationships, personal preferences, political considerations, or other factors unrelated to scholarly merit.

Fair and Transparent Evaluation

Editors evaluate manuscripts objectively and fairly without discrimination based on nationality, ethnicity, gender, religious belief, institutional affiliation, political perspective, personal characteristics, or other factors unrelated to scholarly quality.

Confidentiality

Editors and editorial staff must maintain strict confidentiality regarding submitted manuscripts, reviewer reports, author information, and all unpublished materials.

Information obtained during the editorial process must not be used for personal, academic, financial, or professional advantage.

Conflict of Interest

Editors must disclose and manage any actual, potential, or perceived conflict of interest. Editors with conflicts involving authors, institutions, funding sources, or research relationships must withdraw from handling the manuscript.

Peer Review Integrity

Editors are responsible for ensuring that manuscripts undergo appropriate peer review conducted by qualified and independent reviewers. Editors must prevent peer-review manipulation, reviewer impersonation, inappropriate reviewer selection, or any process that compromises the integrity of peer review.

Responsibilities of Reviewers

Contribution to Editorial Decisions

Reviewers provide objective evaluations that assist editors in making publication decisions and help authors improve the quality of their manuscripts.

Reviewer Conduct

Reviews must be professional, constructive, evidence-based, and focused on the scholarly content of the manuscript. Personal criticism, discriminatory comments, or inappropriate language are unacceptable.

Confidentiality

Reviewers must treat manuscripts as confidential documents and must not copy, distribute, disclose, or use unpublished information for personal or professional purposes.

Conflict of Interest

Reviewers must declare any actual, potential, or perceived conflict of interest and decline assignments when their impartiality may be compromised.

Use of Artificial Intelligence

Reviewers must not upload confidential manuscripts or unpublished research materials into external artificial intelligence systems that may compromise confidentiality, intellectual property protection, or research security.

Responsibilities of Authors

Originality and Research Integrity

Authors must submit original scholarly work that has not been published previously and is not under consideration by another journal.

Authors must ensure that research findings are reported accurately, transparently, and responsibly. Fabrication, falsification, manipulation, selective reporting, or misleading presentation of research results constitute serious violations of publication ethics.

Plagiarism and Similarity Screening

Authors must properly acknowledge all sources, ideas, data, methods, and materials obtained from previous works.

All manuscripts submitted to Educatum are subject to similarity checking procedures. Plagiarism, self-plagiarism, inappropriate text recycling, and unauthorized reuse of published materials are unacceptable.

Authorship and Contribution

Authorship should only be granted to individuals who have made substantial intellectual contributions to the research, manuscript preparation, revision, and approval of the final version.

Guest authorship, honorary authorship, and ghost authorship are prohibited.

Data Transparency and Availability

Authors are responsible for maintaining accurate research records and supporting data. Authors should retain relevant research data and supporting documentation for an appropriate period.

When appropriate and ethically permissible, authors are encouraged to provide data availability statements and make supporting research materials accessible through suitable repositories.

Research Ethics

Research involving humans, including students, children, vulnerable groups, or educational communities, must comply with relevant ethical standards. Authors must obtain ethical approval and informed consent when required.

Artificial Intelligence and AI-Assisted Tools

Artificial intelligence tools may be used only as supportive instruments in research and writing processes and must not replace authors' intellectual responsibility.

AI systems cannot be listed as authors or contributors. Authors remain fully responsible for originality, accuracy, ethical compliance, and scholarly validity of submitted manuscripts.

Significant use of generative AI tools must be transparently disclosed according to journal policy.

Publication Misconduct

Educatum investigates allegations of publication misconduct seriously and follows appropriate procedures to protect the integrity of the scholarly record.

Publication misconduct includes, but is not limited to:

• Plagiarism and inappropriate text recycling
• Fabrication or falsification of data
• Duplicate or redundant publication
• Citation manipulation
• Improper authorship practices
• Peer-review manipulation
• Undisclosed conflicts of interest
• Ethical violations involving research participants
• Misuse of confidential information

Corrections, Retractions, and Expressions of Concern

Educatum maintains mechanisms for correcting the scholarly record when errors or ethical issues are identified after publication.

Corrections may be issued when errors do not affect the overall validity of published findings. Retractions may be issued when published findings are seriously compromised due to misconduct, major errors, unethical practices, or unreliable results.

Expressions of concern may be published when substantial concerns exist but an investigation has not yet reached a final conclusion.

Complaints and Appeals

Authors, reviewers, readers, and other stakeholders may submit complaints or appeals regarding editorial decisions, peer-review procedures, or publication ethics issues.

All complaints and appeals will be handled fairly, confidentially, and independently. The journal will investigate concerns based on available evidence and communicate decisions transparently to relevant parties.

Publisher Responsibilities

Yayasan Yuta Pendidikan Cerdas, Indonesia, as the publisher of Educatum: Journal of Education Studies, supports editorial independence and ensures that publication decisions are based on academic quality, research integrity, and ethical considerations.

The publisher does not interfere with editorial decisions and supports appropriate actions related to misconduct investigations, corrections, retractions, complaints, and preservation of the scholarly record.

Commitment to Publication Integrity

Educatum is committed to maintaining a transparent, ethical, and internationally recognized scholarly publishing environment through rigorous peer review, responsible authorship, editorial independence, research integrity, and continuous improvement of publication practices.