Publication Ethics

The Proceedings of Indonesia Focus (PIF), published by the Asian Society for International Relations and Public Affairs (ASIRPA), is committed to the highest standards of publication ethics. PIF follows the guidelines and best-practice recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), including the COPE Core Practices. All parties involved in the publishing process (authors, reviewers, editors and the publisher) are expected to follow the standards below.

Duties of Authors

  • Originality: Authors must submit only original work that has not been published before and is not under consideration elsewhere. Work and words of others must be properly cited.
  • Plagiarism: Plagiarism in any form, including self-plagiarism and duplicate publication, is unethical and unacceptable.
  • Authorship: Authorship is limited to those who made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution or interpretation of the work. All co-authors must approve the final version and agree to its submission.
  • Data accuracy: Authors must present their results honestly, without fabrication, falsification or inappropriate manipulation of data, and should be prepared to provide raw data on request.
  • Conflicts of interest: Authors must disclose any financial or personal relationships that could be seen to influence their work, and acknowledge all sources of funding.
  • Research ethics: Research involving human participants must comply with applicable ethical standards, including informed consent and approval from a relevant ethics body where required.
  • Errors in published work: Authors who discover a significant error in their published paper must promptly notify the editors and cooperate in correcting or retracting it.

Duties of Reviewers

  • Contribution to decisions: Peer review assists the editors in making decisions and helps authors improve their papers.
  • Promptness: Reviewers who feel unqualified to review a paper, or who cannot complete the review on time, should notify the editors and decline.
  • Confidentiality: Manuscripts under review are confidential documents and must not be shared or used for personal advantage.
  • Objectivity: Reviews must be objective and constructive. Personal criticism of authors is inappropriate.
  • Acknowledgement of sources: Reviewers should identify relevant published work not cited by the authors and report any substantial similarity with other published work.
  • Conflicts of interest: Reviewers should decline to review papers in which they have competitive, collaborative or other conflicts of interest.

Duties of Editors

  • Publication decisions: Editors decide which papers are published, based on their originality, significance, clarity and relevance to the scope of PIF.
  • Fair play: Manuscripts are evaluated on their intellectual content, without regard to the race, gender, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship or political views of the authors.
  • Confidentiality: Editors must not disclose information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the authors, reviewers and editorial advisers, as appropriate.
  • Conflicts of interest: Editors must not use unpublished material from a submitted manuscript for their own research, and should recuse themselves from handling papers in which they have a conflict of interest.
  • Peer review: Editors ensure that each paper is blindly reviewed by experts in the appropriate field.

Duties of the Publisher

ASIRPA supports the editors in maintaining the integrity of the scholarly record, ensures the editorial independence of PIF, and works with the editors to publish corrections, clarifications and retractions when needed.

Handling of Misconduct

Suspected misconduct, such as plagiarism, data fabrication, duplicate submission or undisclosed conflicts of interest, will be investigated by the editors following the COPE flowcharts. Authors will be given the opportunity to respond. Depending on the outcome, the paper may be rejected, corrected, or retracted, and the authors institution may be informed.

Corrections and Retractions

Errors that affect the interpretation of a published paper will be corrected through a published correction. Papers found to contain seriously flawed or fraudulent results, or that breach publication ethics, will be retracted following the COPE Retraction Guidelines. Retracted papers remain accessible and are clearly marked as retracted.

Open Access and Fees

PIF is freely available to anyone interested in the subject. Submission and access to published papers are free of charge.

Contact

To report an ethical concern, please contact the editors through the Contact page.