Publication Ethics

The Journal of Community Service in Health (JCSH), Universitas Muhammadiyah Pringsewu follows the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) in facing all aspects of publication ethics, particularly how to handle cases of research and publication misconduct. All articles involving human subjects must comply with the principles of research ethics as described in the Declaration of Helsinki, while studies involving animals must follow the International Guiding Principles for Biomedical Research developed by the Council for International Organization of Medical Sciences (CIOMS).

JCSH adopts COPE standards to ensure high-quality ethics for publishers, editors, authors, and reviewers. As an essential issue, publication ethics must be clearly explained to improve the quality of research globally. In this section, we describe the ethical standards for editors, authors, and reviewers. In addition, the publisher does not have the authority to interfere with the integrity of the contents and only supports timely publication.

For Editors

  • Editors are responsible for every article published in JCSH.
  • Editors assist authors in following the author guidelines adopted from ICMJE.
  • Editors may communicate with other editors or reviewers in making the final decision.
  • Editors must evaluate manuscripts objectively, based on quality, without considering nationality, ethnicity, political beliefs, race, religion, gender, seniority, or institutional affiliation of the authors. Editors must decline assignments if there is a potential conflict of interest.
  • Editors must ensure that documents sent to reviewers do not contain author information, and vice versa.
  • Editors must communicate decisions to authors, accompanied by reviewers’ comments, unless the comments are offensive or libellous.
  • Editors must respect reasonable requests from authors that certain individuals should not review their submission.
  • Editors and staff must guarantee the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts.
  • Editors will follow COPE flowcharts if there is suspected misconduct or disputed authorship.

For Reviewers

  • Reviewers must comment on ethical issues and possible research or publication misconduct.
  • Reviewers must conduct reviews in a timely manner and notify the editor if they cannot complete the task.
  • Reviewers must maintain the confidentiality of manuscripts.
  • Reviewers must decline to review manuscripts in which they have potential conflicts of interest with any of the authors.

For Authors

  • Authors must affirm that their submission has not been previously published and that they have not transferred the rights elsewhere.
  • Authors must ensure the originality of their work and properly cite the works of others according to the reference format.
  • Authors must not engage in plagiarism or self-plagiarism. Duplicate publication is strictly prohibited in JCSH.
  • Authors must follow authorship criteria as described in the JCSH author guidelines, adapted from the Journal of Health and Wellness.
  • Authors must avoid disclosing personal information that may identify patients in descriptions, photographs, or pedigrees. If photographs are essential, authors must obtain written consent and state it clearly.
  • For studies involving humans, authors must certify that the research followed ethical standards of the Declaration of Helsinki and was approved by domestic or international committees. If any doubt arises, authors must explain. For studies involving animals, authors must certify that the research followed domestic and international guidelines for animal experimentation.
  • Authors must provide editors with data and details if there are suspicions of falsification or fabrication.
  • Authors must disclose any potential conflicts of interest such as funding sources, consultancy fees, or intellectual property in the JCSH disclosure form.