Allegations of Misconduct Policy

Allegations of Misconduct Policy

HAPDIS (Harmoni Pendidikan, Islam dan Sains) takes all allegations of research and publication misconduct seriously. We are committed to upholding the highest standards of academic integrity and adhere strictly to the guidelines and flowcharts provided by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

1. Definition of Misconduct Research and publication misconduct includes, but is not limited to:

  • Plagiarism: Using another person's ideas, processes, results, or words without giving appropriate credit.

  • Fabrication: Making up data or results and recording or reporting them.

  • Falsification: Manipulating research materials, equipment, or processes, or changing or omitting data or results such that the research is not accurately represented.

  • Citation Manipulation: Including citations whose primary purpose is to increase the number of citations to a given author’s work or to articles published in a particular journal.

  • Authorship Disputes: Inclusion of "guest" or "gift" authors, or exclusion of legitimate contributors ("ghost" authors).

  • Redundant/Duplicate Publication: Publishing the same data or manuscript in more than one journal without proper justification and cross-referencing.

2. Handling Allegations We welcome reports or allegations of misconduct from reviewers, editors, authors, or readers (whistleblowers). All allegations must be supported by sufficient evidence.

  • Investigation Process: The Editor-in-Chief, along with the Editorial Board, will conduct a preliminary investigation in accordance with COPE flowcharts.

  • Confidentiality: The identity of the whistleblower will be kept confidential to protect them from potential retaliation.

  • Right to Respond: The accused author(s) will be given the opportunity to respond to the allegations and provide relevant explanations or raw data.

3. Sanctions and Resolutions If the allegations are proven true, the editorial board will take the following actions depending on the severity of the misconduct:

  • Pre-publication: Immediate rejection of the manuscript.

  • Post-publication: Issuance of an Erratum/Corrigendum, Expression of Concern, or formal Retraction of the article (as outlined in our Correction and Retraction Policy).

  • In severe cases, HAPDIS reserves the right to impose a publishing ban on the author(s) for a certain period and notify the authors' funding agencies or affiliated institutions.