Conflict of Interest

 

Conflict of Interest Policy

1. General Principles

Jurnal Ilmu Manajemen dan Pendidikan (JIMPIAN) is committed to maintaining transparency, fairness, independence, and integrity throughout the submission, peer-review, editorial decision-making, and publication processes.

A conflict of interest, also referred to as a competing interest, occurs when financial, personal, professional, institutional, academic, or other interests may influence, or may reasonably be perceived to influence, an individual's judgment, objectivity, or responsibilities in the publication process.

The existence of a conflict of interest does not necessarily indicate misconduct or automatically invalidate a manuscript. However, failure to disclose relevant interests may undermine confidence in the research and the journal's editorial decisions.

In accordance with the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and relevant international publication ethics guidance, JIMPIAN requires authors, reviewers, editors, and other relevant editorial participants to disclose potential conflicts of interest and to take appropriate steps to manage them.

2. Types of Conflicts of Interest

Conflicts of interest may be financial or non-financial and may arise from, but are not limited to, the following circumstances:

2.1. Financial Interests

Financial conflicts of interest include:

  1. Employment, consultancy, or other paid relationships with an organization that may benefit from the publication.
  2. Research grants, sponsorships, or other financial support related to the research.
  3. Honoraria, speaker fees, travel funding, or other payments from interested parties.
  4. Ownership of shares, stocks, or other financial interests in an organization relevant to the manuscript.
  5. Patents, patent applications, licensing arrangements, or commercial interests related to the research.
  6. Financial relationships involving an institution, company, or other party that may benefit from the manuscript's findings or conclusions.

2.2. Personal and Professional Interests

Non-financial conflicts of interest may include:

  1. Family relationships, close personal relationships, or personal disputes involving an author, reviewer, or editor.
  2. Current or recent supervisory, mentoring, or collaborative relationships.
  3. Professional, institutional, or organizational affiliations that may affect impartial judgment.
  4. Academic competition, rivalry, or disputes concerning research findings, theories, methods, or intellectual contributions.
  5. Strong personal, ideological, political, or intellectual commitments that may reasonably be perceived as influencing an individual's assessment.
  6. Any other relationship or circumstance that could compromise, or reasonably be perceived to compromise, independent judgment.

The examples above are not exhaustive. Individuals should disclose any relevant interest when they are uncertain whether it constitutes a conflict.

3. Responsibilities of Authors

All authors are responsible for disclosing financial and non-financial interests that may influence, or be perceived to influence, their research, interpretation of findings, or preparation of the manuscript.

Authors must:

  1. Declare all relevant conflicts of interest at the time of submission.
  2. Disclose relevant funding, sponsorship, and financial support, including the role of the funder in the research design, data collection, data analysis, interpretation, manuscript preparation, and the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.
  3. State explicitly whether any conflicts of interest exist.
  4. Ensure that disclosures are accurate, complete, and agreed upon by all co-authors.
  5. Notify the Editor promptly if a relevant conflict of interest is identified or changes during the editorial process.
  6. Provide additional information or clarification when reasonably requested by the Editor.

A funding statement and a conflict of interest statement serve related but distinct purposes. Authors must report funding sources separately where required by the journal and disclose other relevant interests even when the research received no direct financial support.

If no conflict of interest exists, authors should include the following statement in the manuscript:

Conflict of Interest Statement: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest related to this study.

If a conflict exists, authors must describe the relevant relationship or interest clearly and explain its connection to the research, where appropriate.

Disclosure of a conflict does not automatically lead to rejection. The Editor will assess whether the interest can be appropriately managed and whether additional disclosure or editorial safeguards are necessary.

4. Responsibilities of Peer Reviewers

Peer reviewers must provide objective, independent, and impartial assessments of submitted manuscripts.

Reviewers are required to:

  1. Disclose any financial, personal, professional, institutional, or academic interests that may affect their impartiality.
  2. Decline a review assignment when a conflict of interest prevents them from providing an objective assessment.
  3. Inform the Editor promptly if a potential conflict becomes apparent after accepting a review assignment.
  4. Maintain the confidentiality of the manuscript and refrain from using unpublished information for personal, professional, or financial advantage.
  5. Avoid using the review process to advance personal interests or disadvantage authors with whom they have disagreements or competing interests.

Reviewers should disclose circumstances such as current employment at the same institution as an author, recent close collaboration, supervisory or mentoring relationships, significant personal relationships, or direct competition involving substantially related research.

As a general guideline, recent close collaborations or other relationships within the preceding three years should be disclosed and carefully assessed. This period is a practical screening guideline rather than an exhaustive definition of all possible conflicts. The Editor may consider older relationships relevant when their influence remains significant.

When a conflict is identified, the Editor will determine whether the reviewer should be replaced or whether another appropriate measure is necessary.

5. Responsibilities of Editors and Editorial Board Members

Editors, editorial board members, and other individuals involved in editorial decisions must maintain independence, confidentiality, and impartiality.

They must:

  1. Disclose relevant conflicts of interest to the Editor-in-Chief or another appropriate editorial authority.
  2. Refrain from handling or making decisions on manuscripts when a conflict may compromise their impartiality.
  3. Ensure that manuscripts are assigned to independent editors or reviewers when necessary.
  4. Avoid using confidential manuscript information for personal, professional, or financial gain.
  5. Ensure that editorial decisions are based on the manuscript's relevance, originality, methodological quality, scholarly contribution, and compliance with publication ethics, rather than personal relationships, institutional interests, commercial considerations, or pressure from external parties.

An editor must not make the final decision on a manuscript when they are an author or co-author of the manuscript or have another relevant conflict of interest. Such manuscripts must be handled by an independent editor who is not involved in the authorship or the conflicting relationship.

Where the Editor-in-Chief has a conflict of interest, responsibility for the manuscript must be transferred to an appropriate independent editor or designated editorial authority.

The same principles apply to guest editors, special issue editors, and other individuals involved in manuscript evaluation.

6. Procedures for Disclosure and Management

JIMPIAN applies the following procedures to manage conflicts of interest:

  1. Disclosure at submission. Authors must provide a conflict of interest statement as part of the manuscript submission process.
  2. Disclosure during review. Reviewers must disclose relevant interests when invited to review and whenever a new conflict becomes apparent.
  3. Editorial assessment. The Editor evaluates the nature, relevance, and potential impact of the disclosed interest.
  4. Implementation of safeguards. Depending on the circumstances, the journal may reassign a manuscript to another editor, appoint an alternative reviewer, request additional disclosure, or implement other appropriate safeguards.
  5. Documentation. Relevant disclosures and editorial decisions concerning conflicts of interest may be documented in the journal's editorial records.
  6. Publication disclosure. Where appropriate, relevant conflict of interest statements will be included in the published article to enable readers to assess the circumstances independently.

The Editor may request further information from authors, reviewers, or editorial participants when a disclosure is incomplete or when additional clarification is necessary.

7. Undisclosed Conflicts of Interest

If JIMPIAN becomes aware of a potential conflict of interest that was not disclosed, the Editor will assess the available information and may request an explanation from the relevant individual.

Depending on the circumstances and the stage of publication, appropriate actions may include:

  1. Requesting a correction or additional disclosure.
  2. Reassigning a reviewer or editor.
  3. Suspending the editorial process while the concern is assessed.
  4. Reconsidering an editorial decision if the conflict materially affected the process.
  5. Publishing a correction, an expression of concern, or a retraction when justified by the evidence and consistent with the journal's publication ethics policies.
  6. Referring credible evidence of serious misconduct to the relevant institution or authority, where appropriate.

Any action will be proportionate to the seriousness of the concern and based on the available evidence. The individual concerned will normally be given an opportunity to respond before a decision is made, subject to the requirements of confidentiality and publication ethics.

An undisclosed conflict of interest does not automatically warrant rejection or retraction. The journal will consider whether the conflict materially affected the research, peer review, editorial decision, or reliability of the published article.

8. Conflicts of Interest Involving the Journal or Publisher

JIMPIAN recognizes that conflicts of interest may also arise from the journal's own institutional, financial, or commercial relationships.

Editorial decisions must remain independent of financial considerations, institutional pressure, personal relationships, or other interests that could compromise editorial integrity.

Payment of publication fees, where applicable, does not guarantee acceptance or publication. Manuscripts must be assessed according to the journal's editorial policies, peer-review procedures, scholarly quality requirements, and publication ethics standards.

The journal will take reasonable steps to ensure that commercial or institutional interests do not improperly influence peer review, editorial decisions, or the presentation of published research.

9. Author Responsibility and Compliance

Authors are responsible for ensuring that all conflict of interest declarations are complete, accurate, and updated when necessary. The corresponding author is responsible for coordinating disclosures among all co-authors and confirming that the submitted statement accurately reflects their declarations.

Reviewers, editors, and editorial board members are individually responsible for identifying and disclosing conflicts relevant to their roles.

Failure to comply with this policy may result in appropriate editorial or ethical action, depending on the nature and seriousness of the circumstances.

10. Policy Framework

This policy is informed by the principles and recommendations of the following publication ethics resources:

  • Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), including its Core Practices on conflicts of interest and its Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers.
  • International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work, particularly the section on disclosure of financial and non-financial relationships, activities, and conflicts of interest.

Although the ICMJE recommendations were developed primarily for medical journals, their general principles of transparency, disclosure, and editorial independence may also inform conflict of interest policies in other scholarly disciplines.

This policy should be read together with JIMPIAN's Authorship Criteria, Peer Review Policy, Publication Ethics, Manuscript Withdrawal Policy, and other applicable journal policies.