Conflict of Interest

PIETAS: Jurnal Studi Agama dan Lintas Budaya (Journal of Religious and Cross-Cultural Studies) is committed to maintaining transparency, fairness, and integrity throughout the scholarly publishing process. All authors, editors, reviewers, and other parties involved in the publication process are required to disclose any actual, potential, or perceived conflicts of interest that may influence the research, manuscript evaluation, or publication decisions.

Definition of Conflict of Interest

A conflict of interest exists when personal, professional, institutional, financial, religious, ideological, political, or other relationships may influence, or may reasonably be perceived to influence, the objectivity, integrity, or impartiality of scholarly work and editorial decisions.

Conflicts of interest do not necessarily indicate misconduct; however, failure to disclose relevant conflicts may compromise trust, transparency, and the integrity of the publication process.

Authors' Responsibilities

Authors must disclose any financial, institutional, professional, personal, religious, organizational, or other relationships that could influence the research process, interpretation of findings, or presentation of the manuscript.

Authors must provide a Conflict of Interest Statement during manuscript submission.

If no conflict of interest exists, authors should include the following statement:

"The authors declare no conflict of interest."

Authors must also disclose:

  • Sources of research funding, grants, sponsorship, or institutional support;
  • Relationships with organizations or communities involved in the research;
  • Professional or personal relationships that may influence interpretation of findings; and
  • Any other circumstances that may affect the objectivity of the manuscript.

Editors' Responsibilities

Editors and Editorial Board members must disclose any conflict of interest related to submitted manuscripts and must not participate in editorial decisions where such conflicts exist.

Editors should withdraw from handling manuscripts when they have:

  • Personal, professional, or institutional relationships with authors;
  • Collaborative research relationships with authors;
  • Financial or organizational interests related to the manuscript;
  • Strong personal, religious, ideological, or political interests that may affect impartial evaluation; or
  • Any other circumstances that may compromise editorial independence.

When necessary, another qualified editor will be assigned to manage the manuscript evaluation process.

Reviewers' Responsibilities

Reviewers must disclose any actual, potential, or perceived conflicts of interest before accepting a review assignment.

Reviewers should decline to review manuscripts when they:

  • Have personal or professional relationships with the authors;
  • Have recently collaborated with the authors;
  • Have institutional affiliations that may affect impartiality;
  • Have financial, academic, religious, ideological, or other interests related to the manuscript; or
  • Believe they cannot provide an objective and independent evaluation.

Reviewers must provide objective assessments based solely on scholarly quality, originality, methodology, relevance, and contribution to knowledge.

Disclosure and Management Process

Conflict of interest disclosures are reviewed by the Editorial Team and managed appropriately to protect the integrity of the editorial process.

Failure to disclose relevant conflicts of interest may result in appropriate editorial action, including additional review, rejection of the manuscript, correction, expression of concern, or retraction of published articles when necessary.

Relationship with Publisher and External Organizations

The publisher, sponsors, affiliated organizations, and other external parties must not influence editorial decisions regarding manuscript selection, peer review outcomes, acceptance, revision, or rejection.

Editorial decisions are based solely on academic merit, originality, relevance to the journal's aims and scope, methodological or conceptual rigor, ethical compliance, and independent peer-review recommendations.

Transparency Statement

PIETAS promotes transparent scholarly communication by requiring appropriate disclosure of conflicts of interest throughout the research, review, and publication processes.

Maintaining transparency regarding competing interests helps preserve public trust, academic integrity, and the credibility of published research.