Marahai: Jurnal Pengabdian Masyarakat

Publication Ethics

Marahai: Jurnal Pengabdian Masyarakat is committed to maintaining high standards of academic integrity, transparency, fairness, accountability, and responsible scholarly publishing. This Publication Ethics policy applies to authors, editors, reviewers, and all parties involved in the publication process. The journal expects all submitted manuscripts to present authentic community-service activities, accurate information, responsible use of data, appropriate acknowledgment of contributions, and respect for the rights, privacy, and dignity of community participants.

• Editorial decisions are based on scholarly quality, relevance, originality, methodological soundness, ethical integrity, and conformity with the journal's scope.
• Manuscripts are evaluated without discrimination based on nationality, gender, ethnicity, religion, institutional affiliation, or other personal characteristics.
• Authors must report community-service activities truthfully and must not fabricate, falsify, manipulate, or misrepresent data or outcomes.
• Peer review must be conducted independently, confidentially, objectively, and constructively.
• Potential conflicts of interest must be disclosed by authors, editors, and reviewers.
• The journal may investigate suspected ethical violations and take appropriate editorial action when sufficient evidence is available.

• Evaluate manuscripts fairly and independently based on their academic merit and relevance.
• Maintain confidentiality regarding submitted manuscripts, authors, reviewers, and editorial correspondence.
• Select reviewers with expertise relevant to the manuscript.
• Avoid appointing reviewers when a potential conflict of interest could compromise impartiality.
• Consider reviewer recommendations critically and make editorial decisions based on the overall evidence.
• Respond appropriately to allegations involving plagiarism, duplicate publication, fabricated data, authorship disputes, unethical research practices, or other forms of misconduct.
• Ensure that commercial, institutional, or personal interests do not improperly influence editorial decisions.
• Support appropriate corrections, retractions, or other post-publication actions when necessary to protect the integrity of the scholarly record.

• Review manuscripts objectively, professionally, and constructively.
• Maintain strict confidentiality of manuscripts and review materials.
• Decline review assignments outside their area of expertise or when they cannot complete the review within a reasonable period.
• Declare personal, professional, institutional, financial, or other conflicts of interest.
• Avoid using unpublished information, methods, data, or ideas obtained through peer review for personal benefit.
• Identify significant methodological, ethical, citation, originality, or reporting problems when detected.
• Provide comments that help authors improve the clarity, rigor, relevance, and quality of the manuscript.

• Submit original manuscripts that have not been published previously and are not simultaneously under consideration by another journal.
• Accurately describe the community problem, target group, intervention, implementation process, evaluation method, and outcomes.
• Present data, participant numbers, evaluation results, figures, tables, and documentation accurately.
• Provide appropriate citations for ideas, methods, data, or materials originating from other sources.
• Ensure that all individuals listed as authors have made substantial contributions to the work and approve the final manuscript.
• Acknowledge individuals or institutions that contributed to the activity but do not meet authorship criteria.
• Declare funding sources and potential conflicts of interest when applicable.
• Correct significant errors discovered after submission or publication and communicate them promptly to the Editorial Team.

Authors must ensure that their manuscript is original and properly acknowledges all sources used. Plagiarism includes copying text, ideas, data, images, tables, or other intellectual material without appropriate attribution. Self-plagiarism, inappropriate duplication, and substantial reuse of previously published material without proper citation or justification are also unacceptable. The journal may use similarity-checking tools as part of the editorial screening process.

Authors must not submit the same manuscript simultaneously to more than one journal. Substantial duplication of a previously published article, including publication of essentially the same community-service activity without meaningful new analysis or contribution, is not acceptable. If a manuscript substantially builds upon a previously reported activity, the relationship with the earlier publication must be clearly disclosed and properly cited.

Data and evidence reported in manuscripts must reflect the actual implementation and evaluation of the community-service activity. Fabrication, falsification, selective manipulation of results, alteration of participant numbers, misrepresentation of program outcomes, and misleading presentation of data are considered serious ethical violations. Authors should retain relevant supporting information and provide reasonable clarification when requested during the editorial process.

Community-service activities must respect the dignity, privacy, safety, and rights of participating individuals and partner communities. Where personal data, photographs, video recordings, quotations, health information, or other identifiable information are used in a manuscript, authors should ensure that appropriate permission or consent has been obtained when required.

Authors should avoid publishing unnecessary identifying information and should take particular care when activities involve children, vulnerable populations, or sensitive personal information. Institutional permission, ethical approval, or other authorization should be reported when relevant to the nature of the activity and applicable requirements.

Authorship should be limited to individuals who have made substantial contributions to the conception, design, implementation, evaluation, analysis, interpretation, or preparation of the manuscript. All listed authors should review and approve the final manuscript and accept responsibility for their contributions.

Individuals who provide administrative assistance, routine technical support, funding, access to facilities, or other contributions that do not justify authorship should be acknowledged appropriately. Ghost authorship, guest authorship, and honorary authorship are unacceptable.

Authors, reviewers, and editors should disclose relationships or interests that could reasonably be perceived as influencing the interpretation, evaluation, or publication of a manuscript. Conflicts may include financial, professional, institutional, personal, collaborative, or other relevant interests. Disclosure of a conflict does not automatically prevent publication, but transparency is required to support fair editorial decision-making.

Artificial intelligence tools, including generative AI, cannot be listed as authors. Authors remain fully responsible for the originality, accuracy, validity, citations, ethical compliance, and integrity of all manuscript content. When AI tools have been used in manuscript preparation, data processing, programming, language improvement, or other substantial technical purposes, their use should be disclosed in accordance with the journal's AI Tools Usage Policy. AI-generated content must be carefully verified by the authors.

Citations should be included because they are scientifically relevant to the manuscript. Authors should not add irrelevant references for the purpose of increasing citation counts. Editors and reviewers must not require authors to cite particular articles unless those references are genuinely relevant to strengthening the scholarly content of the manuscript. Citation manipulation is not acceptable.

When the Editorial Team receives credible concerns regarding possible misconduct, the journal may request clarification, supporting documentation, original data, permissions, or other relevant information from the parties involved.

Depending on the nature and severity of the issue, editorial actions may include additional review, request for correction, rejection of a manuscript, withdrawal of an unpublished manuscript, publication of a correction, retraction of a published article, or communication with relevant institutions when appropriate.

All concerns should be handled as fairly, confidentially, and objectively as possible, and decisions should be based on available evidence rather than unsupported allegations.

The journal seeks to preserve the accuracy and integrity of the published scholarly record. When significant errors or ethical problems are identified, the journal may publish a correction, retraction notice, or other appropriate statement. Requests to withdraw manuscripts or published articles are evaluated according to the stage of the publication process and the circumstances of the case. Further details may be provided in the journal's separate Retraction, Correction, and Withdrawal Policy.

Submitted manuscripts are treated as confidential documents. Editors and reviewers must not disclose manuscript content, review comments, unpublished data, or editorial correspondence to unauthorized parties. Information obtained through the review and editorial process must not be used for personal, academic, financial, or competitive advantage.

Authors or other concerned parties may communicate substantive concerns regarding editorial procedures, ethical matters, or publication decisions to the Editorial Team. Complaints and appeals should clearly identify the issue and provide relevant supporting information. The journal will review legitimate concerns in a fair and documented manner while maintaining appropriate confidentiality.

The Editorial Team of Marahai: Jurnal Pengabdian Masyarakat is committed to supporting ethical, transparent, responsible, and academically sound community-engagement publishing. The journal seeks to ensure that published articles accurately represent the activities undertaken, respect community participants, acknowledge contributions appropriately, and provide reliable scholarly documentation of community-service practice.