Allegations of Research Misconduct

Commitment to Research Integrity

Idarotuna: Journal of Administrative Science is committed to maintaining the integrity, accuracy, transparency, and reliability of the scholarly record. The journal takes every allegation of research or publication misconduct seriously, whether it concerns a submitted, accepted, or published manuscript.

This policy follows the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and supports the publication-ethics and research-integrity requirements considered in the Scopus journal evaluation process.

Definition of Research Misconduct

Research misconduct refers to any action that compromises the honesty, reliability, or integrity of research and scholarly publication. It includes fabrication or falsification of data, plagiarism, duplicate publication, inappropriate authorship, citation manipulation, peer-review manipulation, unethical research, undisclosed conflicts of interest, copyright infringement, and deliberate misrepresentation of research findings.

Honest errors or legitimate differences in scholarly interpretation are not normally considered research misconduct. However, significant errors must still be corrected to maintain the accuracy of the published record.

Data Fabrication and Falsification

Data fabrication involves inventing research data, participants, observations, interviews, results, or references that did not exist. Data falsification includes altering, omitting, selecting, or manipulating research materials, processes, images, or results in a manner that creates a misleading representation of the research.

Authors must retain original data and make relevant supporting materials available to the journal when questions arise regarding the accuracy or integrity of their research.

Plagiarism and Copyright Infringement

Plagiarism includes using another person’s words, ideas, data, images, tables, or other intellectual work without proper acknowledgment. The journal also prohibits self-plagiarism, excessive text recycling, unauthorized translation, and reproduction of copyrighted materials without permission.

All submitted manuscripts may be screened using plagiarism-detection software. Similarity reports will be evaluated contextually, and editorial decisions will not be based solely on a numerical similarity percentage.

Duplicate and Redundant Publication

Authors must not submit or publish substantially the same manuscript in more than one journal. Manuscripts that reuse previously published data, arguments, tables, or findings must clearly disclose and cite the original publication.

Secondary publication may only be considered when it is ethically justified, transparently disclosed, legally permitted, and approved by the editors of the relevant journals.

Authorship Misconduct

All listed authors must satisfy the journal’s authorship criteria and accept responsibility for their contributions. Guest, gift, honorary, purchased, coercive, and ghost authorship are prohibited.

The addition, removal, or reordering of authors after submission requires a reasonable explanation and written agreement from all affected authors. Unresolved authorship disputes may be referred to the authors’ institutions.

Citation Manipulation

References must be included because they are academically relevant to the manuscript. Authors, reviewers, and editors must not request unnecessary citations for the purpose of increasing personal, journal, institutional, or publisher citation metrics.

Evidence of coercive citation, citation cartels, coordinated self-citation, or systematic inclusion of irrelevant references may result in rejection, correction, retraction, or notification of the relevant institution.

Peer-Review Manipulation

The journal prohibits the use of false reviewer names, fabricated email addresses, impersonated identities, undisclosed relationships, or any other attempt to influence the peer-review process improperly.

Authors must provide accurate information when suggesting reviewers. Suggested reviewers must be independent and must not have a relationship that could create an actual or perceived conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval and Informed Consent

Research involving human participants, personal information, animals, or sensitive data must comply with applicable ethical and legal requirements. Authors must obtain approval from an appropriate ethics committee when required and provide the approval number or relevant documentation.

Informed consent must be obtained when participants can be identified or when applicable ethical standards require it. Failure to obtain necessary ethical approval or consent may constitute serious research misconduct.

Conflicts of Interest

Authors, reviewers, and editors must disclose financial, personal, professional, academic, or institutional relationships that could influence their work or judgment.

Failure to disclose a relevant conflict of interest may result in correction, rejection, retraction, or other editorial action. The existence of a conflict does not automatically indicate misconduct, but nondisclosure may compromise the transparency of the publication process.

Use of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence systems and large language models cannot be listed as authors because they cannot accept responsibility for the accuracy, originality, or integrity of a manuscript.

Authors must disclose any substantial use of AI-assisted technology in writing, data collection, data analysis, image generation, or other stages of research. Human authors remain fully responsible for verifying AI-assisted content and ensuring that it does not contain fabricated information, inaccurate references, plagiarism, bias, or copyright infringement.

Reporting an Allegation

Anyone may report suspected misconduct to the Editorial Office. Reports should identify the manuscript or published article, explain the suspected misconduct, and provide relevant evidence whenever possible.

Anonymous allegations may be considered when they contain specific, credible, and verifiable evidence. Allegations based only on speculation, personal disagreement, or unsupported claims may not proceed to a formal investigation.

Initial Assessment

The Editor-in-Chief or an editor without a conflict of interest will conduct an initial assessment. The purpose of this assessment is to determine whether the allegation falls within the journal’s responsibility, whether the evidence appears credible, and whether the integrity of the manuscript or published record may be affected.

The journal may use plagiarism detection, image analysis, reference verification, metadata examination, or independent expert evaluation during this process.

Investigation Procedure

When an allegation appears credible, the journal will preserve the available evidence, notify the relevant author, and provide a reasonable opportunity to respond. Authors may be asked to provide original data, research instruments, ethical approvals, consent documents, contribution statements, funding information, or other supporting materials.

Editorial processing or publication may be suspended while the matter is under investigation. Serious cases may be referred to the authors’ institutions, research ethics committees, funders, or other competent authorities.

Responsibilities of Institutions

The journal is responsible for protecting the integrity of the editorial process and published record. Formal determinations of individual or institutional misconduct are generally the responsibility of the relevant research institution or authorized investigative body.

The journal will cooperate with legitimate investigations and may request an institution to examine concerns that cannot be resolved through editorial assessment alone.

Confidentiality and Data Protection

Allegations will be handled confidentially and information will be shared only with individuals who need it for assessment, investigation, or corrective action.

The identity of a complainant will be protected whenever reasonably possible. However, confidentiality cannot be guaranteed when disclosure is required by law, an institutional investigation, or the need to correct the scholarly record.

Fairness and Conflict Management

All parties will be treated fairly and impartially. A person accused of misconduct will be informed of the substantive concerns and given an opportunity to respond.

Editors, reviewers, or advisers who have a conflict of interest will not participate in the investigation or decision. Allegations involving the Editor-in-Chief will be handled by the publisher or an independent person.

Allegations Against Reviewers or Editors

Reviewers and editors must protect manuscript confidentiality and must not misuse unpublished information. Misconduct may include stealing ideas, disclosing manuscript content, submitting a false review, concealing a conflict of interest, manipulating citations, or influencing an editorial decision for personal benefit.

A reviewer or editor found to have engaged in misconduct may be removed from their role and reported to the relevant institution or authority.

Editorial Actions

The journal’s response will depend on the nature, seriousness, and available evidence of the misconduct. Possible actions include requesting clarification, requiring manuscript correction, suspending editorial processing, rejecting the manuscript, withdrawing acceptance, publishing a correction, issuing an expression of concern, retracting the article, restricting future submissions, or notifying relevant institutions and authorities.

Editorial actions will be proportionate, transparent, and directed toward protecting the integrity of the scholarly record.

Corrections

A correction may be published when an error affects part of an article but does not invalidate its main findings. The correction notice will explain the error and the amendment, remain permanently accessible, and be linked to the original article.

Minor typographical errors that do not affect meaning, interpretation, metadata, or scientific integrity may be corrected without a formal notice at the editor’s discretion.

Expressions of Concern

The journal may publish an expression of concern when there is credible evidence of a serious problem, but the investigation has not been completed or the available evidence remains inconclusive.

An expression of concern will be clearly identified and linked to the affected article. It may later be replaced or supplemented by a correction, retraction, or notice that the concern has been resolved.

Retractions

An article may be retracted when its findings are unreliable because of fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, major error, unethical research, duplicate publication, manipulated peer review, serious authorship misconduct, or another fundamental breach of publication ethics.

A retraction notice will identify the article, explain the reason for retraction, indicate who requested or approved the retraction, and remain permanently accessible. The original article will normally remain available but will be clearly marked as retracted to preserve the scholarly record.

Post-Publication Concerns

The journal will investigate credible concerns about published articles regardless of how much time has passed since publication. Publication does not prevent the journal from requesting data, seeking institutional assistance, or correcting the record.

Authors are expected to cooperate with post-publication inquiries and respond promptly to reasonable requests for clarification or supporting evidence.

Appeals

Authors may appeal a misconduct-related decision by submitting a written explanation and relevant new evidence. Disagreement with an editorial decision alone is not sufficient grounds for appeal.

An appeal will be reviewed by an editor or independent person who was not directly responsible for the original decision. The outcome of the appeal will be communicated in writing.

Malicious Allegations and Protection of Whistleblowers

The journal will not tolerate deliberately false, malicious, harassing, or retaliatory allegations. However, this provision will not be used to discourage legitimate concerns raised honestly and in good faith.

Individuals who report suspected misconduct in good faith will not be disadvantaged in future editorial decisions. The journal will take reasonable steps to protect whistleblowers from retaliation.

Record Keeping

The journal will securely maintain records of allegations, evidence, correspondence, investigations, decisions, and corrective actions. Records will be retained in accordance with applicable ethical, legal, institutional, and publishing requirements.

Guiding Principles

All allegations will be managed according to fairness, confidentiality, accountability, transparency, and due process. The journal’s primary objectives are to determine the reliability of the research, protect all parties from unfair treatment, correct the scholarly record, and maintain public trust in academic publishing.

This policy is informed by the Scopus content policy and selection criteria and the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics.