Publication Ethics

The formal component of the scholarly communication system, that is to say, the publication of an article in a peer-reviewed scholarly journal, serves many purposes beyond simple communication. It is a building block in the development of a coherent and respected network of knowledge. It is prima facie evidence of the quality and impact of the research work of its authors and, by extension, the institutions that support them. It supports, and is itself an example of, the scientific method. For all these reasons and more, it is important to establish standards of expected ethical behaviour for all parties involved in the act of publishing, including the author, the journal editor, the peer reviewer, and the journal management of USRATY : Journal of Islamic Family Law.

These guidelines are designed specifically for research articles published by USRATY : Journal of Islamic Family Law, but may also be relevant to review articles and other scholarly publications. The journal may establish more elaborate or specific ethical procedures where necessary, generally reflected in its Author Guideline and other editorial policies. USRATY : Journal of Islamic Family Law also recognises relevant discipline-specific standards and guidance issued by established scholarly and publication-ethics organisations, such as the International Council of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT), where applicable.

Publisher Duties

Safeguarding the Scholarly Record

These guidelines have been written with all of these requirements in mind, but particularly with the recognition that a key role of the publisher is to support the considerable efforts made by journal editors, and the often voluntary and under-recognised work undertaken by peer reviewers, in maintaining the integrity of the scholarly record. While codes of ethics necessarily focus on misconduct that occasionally occurs, it is a testament to scholarly practice that the system works extremely well and that problems are relatively rare. The publisher has a supporting, investing, and nurturing role in the scholarly communication process, but is also ultimately responsible for ensuring that best practices are followed in its publications (see the STM Trade Association International Ethical Principles for Scholarly Publication and the COPE Code of Conduct).

The Department of Islamic Family Law, Faculty of Sharia, Universitas Islam Negeri Sjech M. Djamil Djambek Bukittinggi, as the publisher of USRATY : Journal of Islamic Family Law, takes its responsibility as a guardian of the scholarly record seriously. The journal records the scholarly record, and we recognise our responsibility as a guardian of that record through all of our policies, particularly the ethical guidelines adopted here.

The Department of Islamic Family Law, Faculty of Sharia, Universitas Islam Negeri Sjech M. Djamil Djambek Bukittinggi, as the publisher of USRATY : Journal of Islamic Family Law, adopts these policies and procedures to support editors, reviewers, and authors in fulfilling their ethical responsibilities in accordance with these guidelines. We work with other scholarly publishers and relevant organisations to establish best practices concerning ethical issues, misconduct, and publication retractions.

Systematic Manipulation of the Publishing Process

The Department of Islamic Family Law, Faculty of Sharia, Universitas Islam Negeri Sjech M. Djamil Djambek Bukittinggi, as the publisher of USRATY : Journal of Islamic Family Law, does not tolerate systematic manipulation. This may include, for example, compromising or improperly influencing the submission, peer-review, or publication process; breaches of authorship integrity; citation manipulation; or fabricated, recycled, or nonsensical content.

In accordance with COPE guidelines, if the balance of evidence, including direct and/or indirect evidence, supports a suspicion that a submission or publication has been affected by attempts to manipulate the publishing process, the publisher reserves the right to take action to reject an article or group of articles before publication, or to retract an article or group of articles after publication. To avoid disclosure of information that could compromise the integrity of the investigation and publishing systems, the findings of investigations may not be disclosed to all parties involved.

The publisher may notify the authors’ institutions, employers, or funders where considered necessary, and may refuse to engage with or consider manuscript submissions from individuals who repeatedly or seriously violate the journal’s policies.

Even if authors do not respond to a post-publication investigation, the publisher may take corrective action to protect the scholarly record.

Maintaining Editorial Independence

The publisher is committed to ensuring that potential revenue from advertising, reprints, or other commercial activities does not affect or influence editorial decisions.

Collaborating to Establish Industry Best Practices

The publisher promotes best practices by encouraging editors and members of the editorial team to follow recognised publication-ethics standards, including the guidance and principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), and by using appropriate similarity-checking and research-integrity tools where available.

Providing Technical, Procedural, and Legal Support to Editors

The publisher supports editors in communicating with other journals and/or publishers where this is beneficial to the editors, and is prepared to provide appropriate procedural and legal advice where necessary.

Educating Researchers about Publication Ethics

The publisher also provides education and guidance concerning publication-ethics standards, particularly for early-career researchers, through the journal’s editorial policies, Author Guideline, and other educational resources.

Conflicts of Interest for Editors

Editors of USRATY : Journal of Islamic Family Law are required to disclose any competing or conflicting interests that could affect, or be perceived to affect, their editorial judgment. Competing interests should be disclosed as soon as they arise so that they can be assessed and appropriately managed or resolved. Ongoing editorial conflicts of interest, where relevant, may be disclosed on the journal’s website and/or in published articles when the conflict is related to a specific article.

Conflicts of interest for editors include both financial and non-financial interests, such as:

• Current academic affiliations or other editorial roles. Examples include employment, consultancy, professional affiliations, advisory positions, board membership, or acting as an expert witness, in each case whether paid or unpaid.
• Financial interests, including patents or patent applications, travel grants, ownership interests, and directorships. Small investments in publicly traded shares or investments through mutual funds, pension funds, or similar arrangements may be excluded where they are unlikely to influence editorial judgment.

Editors are required to comply with the journal’s policies concerning the submission and publication of research articles in USRATY : Journal of Islamic Family Law. Editors should not handle manuscripts in which they have a personal, professional, financial, or other competing interest. Where an editor submits a manuscript to the journal, the editor must disclose the conflict to the journal, and the journal will ensure that the entire editorial and peer-review process is independent of the submitting editor.

If such an article is accepted for publication, the article’s declaration of interests should disclose the relevant relationship or affiliation, and the peer-review process must remain fully independent of the author-editor. Editors must also refrain from participating in the editorial handling of manuscripts they have authored, manuscripts authored by family members or close colleagues, or manuscripts relating to products, services, or activities in which they have a relevant interest. In addition, editorial staff must not use information obtained through their work for personal benefit.

Editor Duties

Publication Decisions

The editor of a scholarly journal is solely and independently responsible for deciding which articles submitted to the journal should be published, often in collaboration with the relevant society for society-owned or sponsored journals (see the COPE Code of Conduct). Validation of the work in question and its importance to researchers and readers must always underpin such decisions. Editors may be guided by the journal’s editorial board policies and constrained by legal requirements regarding issues such as defamation, copyright infringement, and plagiarism. Editors may consult with other editors or reviewers, or with relevant representatives of the sponsoring institution, in making these decisions.

Peer Review

Editors should ensure that the peer-review process is fair, unbiased, and timely. Research articles should normally be reviewed by at least two independent external reviewers, and where necessary, editors should seek additional opinions.

Editors should select reviewers with appropriate expertise in the relevant field. Editors should follow best practices in avoiding the selection of fraudulent peer reviewers (see WAME). Editors should review all disclosures of potential conflicts of interest and suggestions for self-citation made by reviewers to determine whether there is any potential bias.

When writing review reports, reviewers are expected to treat authors and their work as they would wish to be treated themselves and to observe good peer-review ethics. Editors may edit reviews in their editorial decision letters or withhold reviews from authors if the reviews do not comply with the journal’s policies.

Fair Play

Editors should evaluate manuscripts based on their intellectual content without regard to the authors’ race, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, ethnic origin, nationality, or political philosophy.

The journal’s editorial policies should promote transparency and complete and honest reporting, and editors should ensure that reviewers and authors have a clear understanding of what is expected of them. Editors should use the journal’s standard electronic submission system for all journal communications.

Editors, together with the publisher, should establish a transparent mechanism for appealing editorial decisions.

Citations and Journal Metrics

Editors should not attempt to influence the journal’s ranking by artificially increasing journal metrics. In particular, editors should not require the inclusion of references to articles from the journal, or from any other journal, except for legitimate scholarly reasons. Authors should not be required to cite articles or products and services in which editors or reviewers, or their colleagues, have an interest. Editors may remove inappropriate citation suggestions from reviewer comments before sharing them with authors.

Confidentiality

Editors must protect the confidentiality of all material submitted to the journal and all communications with reviewers, unless otherwise agreed with the relevant authors and reviewers. In exceptional circumstances and after consultation with the publisher, editors may share limited information with editors of other journals, institutions, and other organisations investigating cases of research-ethics misconduct where this is considered necessary to investigate suspected ethical misconduct (see the COPE guideline).

Unless the journal operates an open peer-review system and/or reviewers have agreed to disclose their names, editors must protect the identities of reviewers.

Unpublished material disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in an editor’s own research without the written consent of the author. Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage.

Use of Generative AI and AI-Assisted Technologies in the Journal Editorial Process

Visit the generative AI policies for journals page to review our generative AI policy for editors.

Declaration of Competing Interests

Any potential editorial conflict of interest should be disclosed to the publisher in writing before the appointment of an editor and subsequently updated if and when new conflicts arise. The publisher may publish such disclosures in the journal where appropriate.

Editors should not be involved in decision-making concerning papers they have written themselves, papers written by family members or colleagues, or papers relating to products or services in which the editor has an interest. Furthermore, any such submission should be subject to all of the journal’s usual procedures, peer review should be handled independently of the author/editor concerned and their research group, and there should be a clear statement to this effect in any published paper.

Editors should apply the journal’s policy concerning the disclosure of potential conflicts of interest by authors and reviewers, including relevant guidance from the ICMJE.

Vigilance over the Published Record

Editors should strive to maintain the integrity of the published record by reviewing and assessing reported or suspected misconduct, including research, publication, peer-review, and editorial misconduct, together with the publisher and, where applicable, the relevant sponsoring institution. Such measures generally include contacting the authors of manuscripts or papers and carefully considering complaints or claims made, but may also include further communications with relevant institutions and research bodies.

Editors should also use the systems and tools provided by the journal or publisher to detect misconduct, such as plagiarism. Editors who are presented with convincing evidence of misconduct should coordinate with the publisher and/or relevant institution to arrange the publication of corrections, retractions, expressions of concern, or other corrections to the published record, as appropriate.

Editors should always keep up to date with all relevant policies and procedures designed to protect the integrity of the published record, including policies relating to their own duties as well as those relating to reviewers and authors.

Duties of Reviewers

Contribution to editorial decisions

Peer review assists the editor in making editorial decisions and through the editorial communications with the author may also assist the author in improving the paper. Peer review is an essential component of formal scholarly communication and lies at the heart of the scientific method.

In addition to completing a scientific evaluation of the manuscript, a reviewer should also be alert to potential ethical issues in the paper and should bring these to the attention of the editor, including any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which the reviewer has personal knowledge. Any statement that an observation, derivation, or argument had been previously reported should be accompanied by the relevant citation.

When writing reviewer reports, reviewers are asked to treat authors and their work as they would like to be treated themselves and to observe good reviewing etiquette. Editors reserve the right to edit reviews in their editorial decision letter or to not share reviews with authors if those reviews do not follow the policies of USRATY : Journal of Islamic Family Law. This includes but is not limited to: hostile or unprofessional reviews or comments that are not scientifically constructive; biased reviews; evidence of plagiarism; evidence of generative AI use against policy; evidence of citation manipulation or citation recommendations against policy; undeclared conflicts of interest; suspected systematic manipulation; or evidence of fictitious or falsified identity, or identity theft.

Any selected referee who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and decline to participate in the review process.

Standards of objectivity and competing interests

Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate, and reviewers should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.

Reviewers should declare potential conflicts of interest to the editor before agreeing to review a manuscript and should discuss with the editor whether they need to recuse themselves because there may be a concern of potential bias. Examples of potential conflicts of interest include (but are not limited to) collaborations between the reviewer and author(s) in the previous three years, reviewers and author(s) who are based in the same institution, and reviewers and authors who have close personal relationships or associations.

Citations

Reviewers should not suggest citations to the reviewer’s (or their associates’) work unless the suggested citations are for genuine scholarly reasons. Citation recommendations should not be made with the intention of increasing the reviewer’s citation count or enhancing the visibility of their work (or that of their associates). Requests for such citations can raise ethical concerns and may be seen as a conflict of interest or a source of bias.

To ensure transparency and enable editorial oversight, reviewers who suggest citations must provide complete bibliographic details and a clear justification for each recommended reference. Editors may remove citations that, in their view, are inappropriate from reviewer comments.

Confidentiality

Any manuscript received for review must be treated as a confidential document. Reviewers must not share the review or information about the paper with anyone or contact the authors directly without permission from the editor. Reviewers must also respect the confidentiality of the peer review process by complying with the USRATY : Journal of Islamic Family Law policy on the use of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the peer review process.

Some editors encourage discussion with colleagues or co-reviewing exercises, but reviewers should first discuss this with the editor in order to ensure that confidentiality is observed and that participants receive suitable credit.

Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in a reviewer’s own research without the express written consent of the author. Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage.

The use of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the journal peer review process

Visit the generative AI policies for journals page to review our generative AI policy for reviewers.

Duties of Authors

Reporting standards

Authors of reports of original research should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data should be represented accurately in the paper. A paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behaviour and are unacceptable.

Review and professional publication articles should also be accurate and objective, and editorial ‘opinion’ works should be clearly identified as such.

Data access and retention

Authors may be asked to provide the research data supporting their paper for editorial review and/or to comply with the open data requirements of the journal. Authors should be prepared to provide public access to such data, if practicable, and should be prepared to retain such data for a reasonable number of years after publication. Authors may refer to the journal’s Author Guideline for further details.

Originality and acknowledgement of sources

The authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works, and if the authors have used the work and/or words of others, that this has been appropriately cited or quoted and permission has been obtained where necessary.

Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given. Authors should cite publications that have influenced the reported work and that give the work appropriate context within the larger scholarly record. Information obtained privately, as in conversation, correspondence, or discussion with third parties, must not be used or reported without explicit, written permission from the source.

Plagiarism takes many forms, from ‘passing off’ another’s paper as the author’s own paper, to copying or paraphrasing substantial parts of another’s paper (without attribution), to claiming results from research conducted by others. Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes unethical behaviour and is unacceptable.

Multiple, redundant or concurrent publication

An author should not in general publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal of primary publication. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical behaviour and is unacceptable.

In general, an author should not submit for consideration in another journal a paper that has been published previously, except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis or as an electronic preprint.

Publication of some kinds of articles (e.g. clinical guidelines, translations) in more than one journal is sometimes justifiable, provided certain conditions are met. The authors and editors of the journals concerned must agree to the secondary publication, which must reflect the same data and interpretation of the primary document. The primary reference must be cited in the secondary publication. Further detail on acceptable forms of secondary publication can be found from the ICMJE.

Citations

Authors must cite relevant, timely, and verified literature to support the claims made in their article. Citations should generally be peer-reviewed. Authors should:

• Ensure that statements in their article which rely on external sources are cited accurately.
• Avoid excessive and inappropriate citations to their own work.
• Avoid excessive and inappropriate citations to the work of other authors or institutions and not enter into arrangements to cite the work of other authors or author groups.
• Avoid excessive citations to support a single statement in their article.

We encourage the use of Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) as reference links as they provide a permanent link to the electronic article referenced.

Editors and reviewers may recommend that authors consult (and potentially cite) additional sources during the peer-review process for scholarly reasons. If the editor or reviewer suggests that an author includes citations to the editor’s or reviewer’s (or their associates’) work, this must be for genuine scholarly reasons and not with the intention of increasing the editor’s or reviewer’s citation count or enhancing the visibility of their work (or that of their associates). Requests for such citations can raise ethical concerns and may be seen as a conflict of interest or a source of bias.

If an author suspects that citations have been suggested in violation of this policy, they should inform the editor when the suggestion is made by a reviewer or contact the journal management of USRATY : Journal of Islamic Family Law when the suggestion is made by an editor.

Confidentiality

Information obtained in the course of confidential services, such as refereeing manuscripts or grant applications, must not be used without the explicit written permission of the author of the work involved in these services.

Authorship of the paper

Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made substantial contributions should be listed as co-authors.

Where there are others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the paper (e.g. language editing or medical writing), they should be recognised in the acknowledgements section.

The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are included on the paper, and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.

Authors are expected to consider carefully the list and order of authors before submitting their manuscript and provide the definitive list of authors at the time of the original submission. Only in exceptional circumstances will the Editor consider (at their discretion) the addition, deletion or rearrangement of authors after the manuscript has been submitted and the author must clearly flag any such request to the Editor. All authors must agree with any such addition, removal or rearrangement. USRATY : Journal of Islamic Family Law generally does not permit authorship changes after acceptance except in exceptional circumstances and subject to the approval of the Editor.

Authors take collective responsibility for the work. Each individual author is accountable for ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Individual journals may have particular definitions of authorship (e.g. medical journals may follow the ICMJE definition of authorship) and authors should ensure that they comply with the policies of the relevant journal.

Group Authorship

Group authorship refers to the attribution of an article to a defined and named group of authors whose members have contributed to the work. Examples include but are not limited to research consortia, clinical trial groups, collaborative networks, task forces or working groups, expert panels or consensus groups, and participatory research groups.

• Group authorship must be declared on the title page at submission. Where applicable, the submitting author should include the group in the relevant author information in the journal’s submission system.
• A corresponding author who agrees to coordinate all communications on behalf of the group must be designated.
• The group name will be included in the author list on the published article (e.g., “on behalf of the [Consortium Name]”).
• All group members associated with the work should be listed in a dedicated section, preferably an appendix.
• All listed authors, whether in the article head or appendix, are expected to follow the chosen journal’s authorship and authorship change policies.
• The group must maintain a transparent internal process for determining authorship and resolving disputes. All authorship disputes must be resolved within the group.

Deceased and Incapacitated Authors

When an author dies or becomes incapacitated during the writing, submission, or peer review of a manuscript, inclusion in the final publication may still be appropriate. The co-authors should identify the deceased or incapacitated author in a footnote (if before acceptance) or a corrigendum (if after acceptance) and should ensure their contributions are correctly recorded in a CRediT statement. If journal publication agreements were not signed prior to death or incapacitation, authors should seek permission from the author’s next of kin or nominated representative. If the deceased or incapacitated author is the corresponding author, co-authors should assign a new or co-corresponding author.

The use of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in scientific writing and in figures, images and artwork

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Jurisdictional claims

USRATY : Journal of Islamic Family Law respects the decisions taken by its authors as to how they choose to designate territories and identify their affiliations in their published content. The journal takes a neutral position with respect to territorial disputes or jurisdictional claims, including, but not limited to, maps and institutional affiliations.

• Maps: Readers should be able to locate any study areas shown within maps using common mapping platforms. Maps should only show the area actually studied and authors should not include a location map which displays a larger area than the bounding box of the study area. Authors should add a note clearly stating that “map lines delineate study areas and do not necessarily depict accepted national boundaries.” During the review process, the journal’s editors may request authors to change maps if these guidelines are not followed.
• Institutional affiliations: Authors should use either the full, standard title of their institution or the standard abbreviation of the institutional name so that the institutional name can be independently verified for research integrity purposes.

Hazards and human or animal subjects

If the work involves chemicals, procedures or equipment that have any unusual hazards inherent in their use, the author must clearly identify these in the manuscript.

If the work involves the use of human participants, living or deceased, including their data and/or biological materials (e.g. organs, tissues), authors must follow applicable ethical requirements and relevant standards for human research. Where required, authors should provide appropriate information regarding ethical approval and informed consent in the manuscript.

If the work involves animal studies, authors must follow applicable ethical requirements and relevant standards for animal research. Where required, authors should provide appropriate information regarding ethical approval and animal welfare in the manuscript.

Declaration of competing interests

WAME define conflict of interest as “a divergence between an individual’s private interests (competing interests) and his or her responsibilities to scientific and publishing activities, such that a reasonable observer might wonder if the individual’s behavior or judgment was motivated by considerations of his or her competing interests” (see full WAME statement). All authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial and personal relationships with other people or organisations that could be viewed as inappropriately influencing (bias) their work.

All sources of financial support for the conduct of the research and/or preparation of the article should be disclosed, as should the role of the sponsor(s), if any, in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the article for publication. If the funding source(s) had no such involvement then this should be stated.

Examples of potential conflicts of interest which should be disclosed include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding. Potential conflicts of interest should be disclosed at the earliest possible stage.

Notification of fundamental errors

When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in their own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper if deemed necessary by the editor. If the editor or the publisher learn from a third party that a published work contains an error, it is the obligation of the author to cooperate with the editor, including providing evidence to the editor where requested.

Image integrity

It is not acceptable to enhance, obscure, move, remove, or introduce a specific feature within an image. Adjustments of brightness, contrast, or color balance are acceptable if and as long as they do not obscure or eliminate any information present in the original. Manipulating images for improved clarity is accepted, but manipulation for other purposes could be seen as scientific ethical abuse and will be dealt with accordingly.

Authors should comply with any specific policy for graphical images applied by the relevant journal, e.g. providing the original images as supplementary material with the article, or depositing these in a suitable repository.