Publication Ethics

Jurnal Inovasi Administrasi Negara Terapan (Inovant) is committed to maintaining the highest standards of integrity, transparency, accountability, fairness, and responsibility in scholarly publishing.

The journal follows internationally recognized principles of responsible scholarly publishing and refers to the Core Practices of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) in handling ethical issues related to authorship, peer review, conflicts of interest, research integrity, publication misconduct, corrections, and retractions.

All parties involved in the publication process—editors, reviewers, authors, and the publisher—are expected to uphold the ethical principles described below.

1. Responsibilities of Editors

Editors are responsible for ensuring that manuscripts are evaluated fairly, independently, and consistently.

Editors must:

  • evaluate manuscripts primarily on their scholarly quality, originality, relevance to the journal's Focus and Scope, methodological adequacy, and contribution;
  • ensure that editorial decisions are not influenced by the author's nationality, institutional affiliation, gender, religion, ethnicity, political views, or other irrelevant personal characteristics;
  • maintain the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts and editorial records;
  • ensure that manuscripts undergo an appropriate peer-review process;
  • select qualified and independent reviewers;
  • manage actual, potential, or perceived conflicts of interest;
  • protect the integrity of the scholarly record;
  • respond appropriately to allegations of research or publication misconduct;
  • ensure that corrections, expressions of concern, or retractions are issued when necessary; and
  • maintain appropriate documentation of the editorial and peer-review process through OJS.

Editorial decisions must be based on scholarly considerations and should remain independent from commercial, financial, institutional, or personal interests.

2. Editorial Independence and Conflict of Interest

Editors must not participate in the editorial handling of manuscripts in which they have a relevant conflict of interest.

An editor who is an author or co-author of a manuscript submitted to Inovant must not:

  • conduct the initial editorial screening;
  • select or invite reviewers;
  • access confidential reviewer identities where this would compromise independence;
  • participate in editorial deliberation; or
  • make the final decision on the manuscript.

Such manuscripts must be assigned to another qualified and independent editor.

This requirement applies to all members of the editorial team, including the Editor-in-Chief, Managing Editors, and Editorial Board members.

3. Responsibilities of Reviewers

Reviewers play an essential role in maintaining the scholarly quality and integrity of the journal.

Reviewers are expected to:

  • provide objective, constructive, evidence-based, and respectful assessments;
  • evaluate manuscripts within their area of expertise;
  • complete reviews within the agreed timeframe;
  • maintain the confidentiality of manuscripts and related information;
  • disclose any relevant conflict of interest before accepting a review;
  • avoid personal, discriminatory, defamatory, or inappropriate comments;
  • identify important relevant literature that may have been overlooked;
  • alert editors to suspected plagiarism, duplicate publication, data manipulation, citation manipulation, or other integrity concerns; and
  • refrain from using unpublished information obtained through peer review for personal, academic, professional, or commercial advantage.

Reviewers must not contact authors directly regarding manuscripts under review unless explicitly authorized by the editor.

4. Confidentiality of Peer Review

Inovant applies a double-anonymized peer-review process.

The identities of authors are concealed from reviewers, and reviewer identities are concealed from authors during the review process.

Editors and reviewers must treat all submitted manuscripts, review reports, editorial communications, unpublished data, and related materials as confidential.

Manuscripts or substantial portions of manuscripts must not be shared with unauthorized persons.

5. Responsibilities of Authors

Authors are responsible for the accuracy, originality, integrity, and ethical compliance of their submitted manuscripts.

Authors must:

  • submit original scholarly work;
  • accurately report research methods, data, findings, and interpretations;
  • appropriately cite and acknowledge all sources;
  • ensure that all listed authors meet the journal's authorship criteria;
  • obtain the agreement of all co-authors before submission;
  • disclose relevant funding sources;
  • disclose actual or potential conflicts of interest;
  • comply with applicable research ethics requirements;
  • provide ethical approval or informed-consent information where relevant;
  • disclose substantive use of generative AI or other AI-assisted technologies when required by the journal's AI Policy;
  • ensure that the manuscript is not simultaneously submitted to another journal; and
  • cooperate with editors in addressing legitimate questions concerning the manuscript or published article.

Authors remain accountable for the content of their work after publication.

6. Originality and Plagiarism

All manuscripts submitted to Inovant are subject to similarity screening using Turnitin before peer review.

As a general editorial requirement:

  • the overall similarity index should not exceed 20%, excluding the bibliography/reference list; and
  • similarity from a single source should normally not exceed 3%.

These numerical thresholds are used as screening criteria and do not constitute an automatic determination of plagiarism.

The journal considers plagiarism to include, but not be limited to:

  • direct copying without appropriate attribution;
  • substantial unattributed textual reuse;
  • inappropriate paraphrasing or patchwriting;
  • reuse of ideas, data, tables, figures, or images without proper acknowledgment;
  • self-plagiarism;
  • duplicate or redundant publication; and
  • deliberate attempts to disguise copied material.

Editors assess similarity reports based on the nature, context, source, and extent of matched content.

7. Research Misconduct

Inovant does not tolerate research or publication misconduct.

Examples include:

  • fabrication of data or findings;
  • falsification of data, procedures, or research records;
  • plagiarism;
  • inappropriate manipulation of images, figures, or data;
  • duplicate or redundant publication;
  • citation manipulation;
  • peer-review manipulation;
  • undeclared conflicts of interest;
  • inappropriate authorship;
  • fraudulent authorship information;
  • misrepresentation of research procedures;
  • intentional omission of material information; and
  • other serious violations of research or publication integrity.

Suspected misconduct will be evaluated through a documented editorial process.

8. Authorship and Contributorship

Authorship should be limited to individuals who have made substantial scholarly contributions to the research or manuscript, participated in drafting or critically revising the work, approved the final version, and agreed to be accountable for their contributions.

The following practices are not permitted:

  • guest authorship;
  • gift authorship;
  • honorary authorship; and
  • ghost authorship.

Requests to add, remove, or change the order of authors after submission must be supported by a clear explanation and agreement from all authors.

Changes to authorship after acceptance will only be considered under exceptional and verifiable circumstances.

9. Conflicts of Interest

Authors, reviewers, and editors must disclose any financial, professional, personal, academic, institutional, or other relationship that could reasonably be perceived as influencing their judgment.

Disclosure of a conflict of interest does not automatically prevent publication or participation in the editorial process. However, relevant conflicts must be appropriately managed to protect editorial independence and the credibility of the publication process.

10. Research Ethics

Research involving human participants, personal data, vulnerable populations, confidential information, or other ethically sensitive materials must comply with applicable ethical standards and institutional or legal requirements.

Where applicable, authors must provide information concerning:

  • ethical approval;
  • informed consent;
  • participant confidentiality;
  • data protection;
  • authorization to access sensitive information; and
  • other relevant ethical safeguards.

Editors may request supporting ethical documentation when necessary.

11. Artificial Intelligence and Publication Ethics

Artificial Intelligence tools cannot be listed as authors or co-authors.

Authors remain fully responsible for all content produced or assisted by AI technologies.

Substantive use of generative AI or other AI-assisted technologies in manuscript preparation, analysis, data processing, image generation, or other scholarly activities must be disclosed in accordance with the journal's Artificial Intelligence Policy.

Editors and reviewers must not upload confidential manuscripts or substantial portions of manuscripts to external generative AI systems in ways that could compromise confidentiality, privacy, intellectual property, or research integrity.

AI tools must not replace scholarly judgment or editorial decision-making.

12. Duplicate and Simultaneous Submission

Authors must not submit the same or substantially similar manuscript to more than one journal at the same time.

Previously published work must not be submitted as a new manuscript unless the nature of the reuse is transparent, academically justified, and permitted under applicable publication policies.

If duplicate or simultaneous submission is confirmed, the manuscript may be rejected and further editorial action may be taken where appropriate.

13. Citation Integrity

Authors must cite sources accurately, appropriately, and only when relevant to the scholarly content of the manuscript.

The journal does not permit:

  • citation manipulation;
  • excessive self-citation intended primarily to inflate citation metrics;
  • coercive citation;
  • citation of irrelevant sources for non-scholarly purposes; or
  • deliberate omission of important sources in order to misrepresent existing knowledge.

Editors and reviewers must not require authors to add citations solely to increase citations to themselves, the journal, or specific publications.

14. Corrections, Expressions of Concern, and Retractions

Inovant is committed to preserving the integrity of the scholarly record.

Minor or significant errors identified after publication may be addressed through:

  • Correction;
  • Erratum;
  • Corrigendum;
  • Expression of Concern; or
  • Retraction,

depending on the nature and severity of the issue.

A retracted article will not be deleted from the journal archive. Its retracted status will be clearly indicated, and a retraction notice explaining the reason for the action will be linked to the original article.

15. Handling Allegations of Misconduct

When the journal receives a credible allegation of misconduct, the editorial team may:

  1. conduct an initial assessment;
  2. review available evidence;
  3. request clarification from the author, reviewer, or other relevant party;
  4. consult additional independent expertise when necessary;
  5. determine whether further investigation is required;
  6. make an editorial decision based on the available evidence; and
  7. implement and document appropriate corrective action.

Possible actions include:

  • requesting correction;
  • returning a manuscript for revision;
  • rejecting a manuscript;
  • withdrawing a manuscript from editorial consideration;
  • issuing a correction;
  • publishing an expression of concern; or
  • retracting a published article.

Where appropriate, the journal may communicate with the relevant institution, publisher, ethics body, or other responsible authority.

16. Complaints and Appeals

Authors and other relevant parties may submit complaints or appeals regarding editorial procedures or decisions through:

[email protected]

The complaint or appeal should clearly identify the manuscript or article concerned, explain the grounds for the request, and provide relevant supporting information.

Complaints and appeals will be reviewed by an editor who has no relevant conflict of interest.

Where the complaint concerns the editor who handled the manuscript, responsibility for the review will be transferred to another independent editor.

17. Publisher Responsibilities

Universitas Negeri Surabaya, as the publisher of Inovant, supports editorial independence, scholarly integrity, transparency, continuity of publication, and the preservation of the journal's scholarly record.

The publisher does not interfere with editorial decisions based on legitimate scholarly assessment.

18. Commitment to Publication Integrity

Inovant is committed to continuously improving its editorial policies and practices in order to promote responsible scholarly communication, protect the integrity of the academic record, and maintain the trust of authors, reviewers, readers, institutions, and the wider scholarly community.

All ethical concerns will be handled as fairly, transparently, consistently, and confidentially as reasonably possible.