Publication Ethics

Indonesian Financial Review (IFR)

Indonesian Financial Review (IFR) aims to be a leading peer-reviewed journal and an authoritative source of scholarly information in economics and business. IFR publishes original research articles, review articles, and case studies that contribute to the advancement of knowledge and practice. Manuscripts submitted to IFR must not have been published previously in any language or be under consideration for publication elsewhere, except where the journal has explicitly approved an applicable exception.

In alignment with the mission of YPPP AL-AMSI to share knowledge and understanding, IFR provides open access to its published articles in accordance with the journal's applicable access and licensing policies.

IFR is committed to maintaining high standards of publication ethics, academic integrity, and responsible scholarly communication at every stage of the publication process. The journal upholds the principles of fairness, impartiality, transparency, confidentiality, accountability, and honesty. These principles apply to editors, authors, reviewers, and other parties involved in the publication process.

1. Publication Ethics for Editors

Editors are responsible for maintaining the quality, integrity, and academic standards of the journal. Their responsibilities include:

Editorial accountability: Editors are accountable for the content published in IFR and must take appropriate action when corrections, clarifications, expressions of concern, or retractions are necessary.
Editorial decision-making: Decisions regarding publication must be based on the manuscript's scholarly quality, originality, relevance, methodological rigor, and suitability for the journal.
Fair and impartial treatment: Editors must evaluate submissions fairly, without discrimination based on personal characteristics, institutional affiliation, nationality, or other irrelevant considerations.
Confidentiality: Manuscripts and associated information must be treated as confidential and shared only with individuals who require access for legitimate editorial or peer-review purposes.
Peer-review integrity: Editors must ensure that manuscripts are reviewed appropriately and that reviewers' identities are protected in accordance with the journal's declared peer-review model.
Guidance and communication: Editors must communicate relevant editorial policies and expectations to authors, reviewers, and editorial board members and keep these policies updated when necessary.
Conflicts of interest: Editors must disclose relevant conflicts of interest and recuse themselves from decisions where their impartiality could reasonably be questioned. An appropriately independent editor should handle such manuscripts.
Research misconduct: Editors must assess credible allegations of research or publication misconduct and take appropriate action based on the available evidence.
Timeliness: Editors should manage submissions and communicate editorial decisions within a reasonable period.

2. Publication Ethics for Authors

Authors are responsible for ensuring the originality, accuracy, transparency, and ethical integrity of their submissions. Their responsibilities include:

Originality and plagiarism: Authors must submit original work, appropriately acknowledge the contributions of others, and cite all sources used. Plagiarism in any form is unacceptable.
Accuracy and research integrity: Authors must report research methods, data, analyses, and findings accurately. Fabrication, falsification, and deliberate misrepresentation of research results are prohibited.
Authorship: The author list must accurately reflect substantial scholarly contributions to the work. All listed authors must meet the journal's authorship criteria, approve the final manuscript, agree to the author order, and accept appropriate accountability for their contributions.
Submission declaration: All authors must be aware of and agree to the submission of the manuscript to IFR. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that the required declarations and author approvals are completed.
Exclusive submission: Manuscripts must not be simultaneously submitted to another journal or previously published in a manner that violates IFR's publication requirements. Any relevant overlap with previous publications, submitted manuscripts, or related work must be disclosed and properly cited.
Third-party rights: Authors must ensure that their manuscripts do not unlawfully infringe copyright, intellectual property, privacy, or other third-party rights. Required permissions must be obtained for material reproduced from other sources.
Funding and acknowledgments: Sources of financial support and other material assistance must be disclosed. Individuals who contributed to the work but do not meet the authorship criteria should be acknowledged appropriately, with their consent where applicable.
Conflicts of interest: Authors must disclose financial, professional, personal, or other relationships that could influence, or reasonably be perceived to influence, their research or its interpretation.
Research ethics: Authors must obtain appropriate ethical approval, informed consent, or other required authorization when applicable to their research and must accurately report these approvals.
Post-publication responsibility: Authors must promptly notify the editor if they identify a significant error or inaccuracy in their published work and cooperate with the journal in issuing a correction, addendum, expression of concern, or retraction when warranted.

3. Publication Ethics for Reviewers

Reviewers play an essential role in maintaining the scholarly quality and integrity of IFR. Reviewers are expected to:

Objectivity: Evaluate manuscripts objectively and provide clear, constructive comments supported by scholarly reasoning. Personal criticism of authors is inappropriate.
Competence and timeliness: Accept review assignments only when they have appropriate expertise and can complete the review within the agreed timeframe. Reviewers should promptly decline assignments when they are unqualified or unable to meet the deadline.
Confidentiality: Treat manuscripts and all information obtained through peer review as confidential. Unpublished material must not be used for personal advantage or shared without authorization.
Originality and citation: Alert the editor to suspected plagiarism, substantial overlap with other publications, missing citations, or other concerns regarding the originality of the manuscript.
Research integrity: Inform the editor of concerns about possible data fabrication, falsification, inappropriate image manipulation, or other potential research misconduct.
Conflicts of interest: Disclose any financial, professional, personal, or collaborative relationship that could compromise impartiality and decline the assignment when appropriate.
Respect for editorial policy: Follow IFR's peer-review guidelines and submit assessments through the journal's designated review process.

4. Editorial Independence

IFR maintains editorial independence in evaluating submissions and making publication decisions. Editorial decisions should be based on scholarly merit, relevance, originality, methodological quality, and compliance with the journal's policies.

The journal's ownership, sponsorship, funding arrangements, or other external relationships must not improperly influence editorial judgments. Editors and reviewers must disclose relevant conflicts of interest and recuse themselves from handling manuscripts when necessary. Such manuscripts should be assigned to an appropriately independent editor.

5. Plagiarism and Similarity Screening

IFR does not accept plagiarism or other forms of inappropriate appropriation of scholarly work. Submitted manuscripts may be screened using similarity-checking software and assessed by the editorial team.

Similarity scores are indicators of textual overlap and do not, by themselves, establish whether plagiarism has occurred. Editors should consider the nature, location, extent, and context of the overlap, including quotations, references, standard terminology, and properly attributed material.

When concerns arise, the journal may request explanations or revisions, reject the manuscript, or initiate further investigation. Serious cases may result in additional editorial action, including correction or retraction of a published article where warranted.

Any specific similarity threshold or software requirement adopted by IFR must be stated in the journal's author guidelines and applied consistently.

6. Allegations of Research Misconduct

IFR takes allegations of research and publication misconduct seriously and seeks to handle them fairly, objectively, confidentially, and in a timely manner.

6.1 Types of Misconduct

Potential misconduct includes, but is not limited to, fabrication or falsification of data, plagiarism, inappropriate manipulation of images, inappropriate attribution of authorship, duplicate or redundant publication, undisclosed conflicts of interest, manipulation of peer review, and other practices that undermine research integrity.

Honest errors, differences in interpretation, and reasonable scholarly disagreements do not automatically constitute misconduct. Each case must be assessed according to its circumstances and available evidence.

6.2 Reporting Allegations

Authors, reviewers, editors, readers, and other concerned parties may report suspected misconduct to the IFR editorial office. Reports should identify the relevant manuscript or article, describe the concern, and provide supporting evidence where available.

IFR will handle reports sensitively and make reasonable efforts to protect the confidentiality of the reporting party, subject to the requirements of a fair assessment and applicable obligations.

6.3 Preliminary Assessment and Investigation

The editor-in-chief or an appropriately designated editor will conduct a preliminary assessment to determine whether the allegation falls within the journal's responsibility and whether further examination is justified.

Where necessary, IFR may request explanations from the authors, consult independent experts, examine relevant data or publication records, and contact the authors' affiliated institution, research funder, or other appropriate body.

Authors will be given a reasonable opportunity to respond to concerns before an editorial decision is made, where appropriate. An allegation will not be treated as proven solely because a complaint has been submitted.

6.4 Possible Editorial Actions

Depending on the evidence, seriousness, and circumstances of the case, IFR may:

Request clarification, supporting data, or additional documentation.
Require corrections or revisions to a manuscript.
Reject a submission when serious concerns remain unresolved or misconduct is established.
Publish a correction or an expression of concern for a published article, where appropriate.
Retract an article when its findings are unreliable or serious misconduct warrants retraction.
Notify an author's affiliated institution, research funder, or another appropriate authority when justified by the circumstances.

Actions will be proportionate to the findings and consistent with applicable publication ethics principles. Appropriate records of the assessment and decisions will be maintained.

6.5 Confidentiality and Fair Treatment

IFR will seek to protect the rights and reputations of all parties involved. Information will be shared only with individuals or organizations reasonably necessary to assess or address the concern, subject to applicable obligations.

The journal will avoid public accusations before an appropriate assessment has been conducted. Concerns raised in good faith will be taken seriously, and deliberate false or malicious allegations may be considered separately where appropriate.

7. Conflicts of Interest

A conflict of interest arises when financial, professional, personal, institutional, or other relationships could influence, or reasonably be perceived to influence, the conduct, evaluation, or reporting of research.

Authors must disclose relevant conflicts of interest when submitting a manuscript. If no conflicts exist, authors should provide an explicit declaration stating that no conflicts of interest are present.

Reviewers must disclose relevant conflicts before accepting or completing a review. Editors must disclose their own conflicts and ensure that manuscripts involving such conflicts are handled independently.

IFR may reassign a manuscript, appoint an alternative reviewer or editor, request additional disclosures, or take other appropriate action to preserve the fairness and credibility of the publication process.

8. Post-Publication Discussion and Corrections

IFR recognizes that scholarly discussion may continue after an article has been published. Readers and researchers may submit substantive comments, questions, or concerns about published articles to the editorial office.

Post-publication comments should be evidence-based, relevant to the scholarly content, and expressed professionally. The editor will assess submissions for relevance, academic merit, and compliance with editorial policies. Where appropriate, the journal may invite the original authors to respond and may consider publishing the comment and response.

If a concern indicates a possible error, unreliable finding, or ethical violation, IFR will assess the available evidence and determine whether further action is necessary. Such action may include a correction, addendum, expression of concern, or retraction, depending on the circumstances.

Editorial notices should identify the affected article and explain the reason for the action clearly, to the extent appropriate and consistent with confidentiality requirements.

9. Retractions and Expressions of Concern

IFR may retract a published article when there is reliable evidence that its findings are seriously unreliable, the article contains substantial plagiarism, the research involved serious ethical violations, or other circumstances justify retraction under applicable publication ethics guidance.

An expression of concern may be issued when credible concerns exist but the available evidence is insufficient to reach a final conclusion, or when an investigation is ongoing and readers need to be informed.

Corrections, expressions of concern, and retractions will be handled transparently and in accordance with the journal's procedures. The journal will seek to preserve the scholarly record and ensure that readers can identify the status of affected articles.

10. Confidentiality and Data Protection

Editors, reviewers, and editorial staff must protect the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts, peer-review reports, author information, and editorial deliberations.

Manuscript materials must not be disclosed or used for purposes unrelated to the editorial process without appropriate authorization. Confidential information may be shared when reasonably necessary to investigate an ethical concern or comply with applicable legal, institutional, or publication ethics obligations.

11. Ethical Guidance and Implementation

IFR refers to relevant guidance from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) when addressing publication ethics concerns, including plagiarism, research misconduct, conflicts of interest, post-publication corrections, and retractions.

All parties involved in the publication process are expected to cooperate with reasonable requests for clarification and to uphold the principles of integrity, transparency, fairness, and accountability.

IFR will review and update its publication ethics policies when necessary to maintain consistency with good scholarly publishing practices and the journal's actual editorial procedures.