Publication Ethics

Jurnal Pengabdian Masyarakat Kesehatan is a peer-reviewed scientific journal that publishes community service and scholarly articles in the fields of nursing, public health, midwifery, medical laboratory technology, and health services management. The journal is published by the Faculty of Health Sciences and Technology, Universitas Jenderal Achmad Yani, Cimahi, Indonesia.

This publication ethics statement outlines the ethical responsibilities and standards expected of all parties involved in the publication process, including authors, editors, peer reviewers, and the publisher. The journal is committed to maintaining academic integrity, transparency, fairness, confidentiality, and the quality of the published scholarly record. This statement is developed with reference to the ethical principles and best practices of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Duties and Responsibilities of Authors

Reporting Standards: Authors must present an accurate, complete, and objective account of their community service activities. The implementation, methods, outcomes, and impact of community service activities must be reported honestly and must not involve fabrication, falsification, inappropriate data manipulation, or misleading presentation. Manuscripts should contain sufficient information about the community, problems addressed, intervention or activities conducted, implementation methods, and evaluation to allow the work to be properly understood and, where applicable, replicated.
Originality and Plagiarism: Authors must ensure that the submitted manuscript is original and has not been plagiarized from other works, including their own previously published work. All sources, ideas, statements, data, materials, and substantial contributions from other works must be appropriately acknowledged and cited. Direct quotations must be clearly identified and properly referenced.
Multiple, Redundant, and Concurrent Publication: Authors must not submit the same manuscript simultaneously to more than one journal. Authors should not publish substantially the same community service activity in multiple publications. When multiple publications arise from the same community service program or activity, the relationship between the publications must be transparently disclosed and relevant previous publications must be appropriately cited.
Acknowledgment of Sources: Authors must properly acknowledge all sources that have contributed to the community service program or influenced the reported work. Relevant scholarly literature, supporting evidence, and previously published materials should be appropriately cited whenever applicable.
Authorship and Contributions: Authorship must accurately reflect substantial contributions to the conception, planning, implementation, evaluation, analysis, interpretation, or reporting of the community service activity. All individuals who meet the authorship criteria should be included as authors, while individuals who contributed to the activity but do not meet the criteria for authorship should be appropriately acknowledged. All listed authors must have approved the final manuscript and agreed to its submission.
Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest: Authors must disclose any financial, personal, professional, or other relationships that could reasonably be perceived as influencing the community service activity or its interpretation. Any relevant sources of funding, institutional support, sponsorship, or other forms of assistance must also be disclosed.
Community Service Ethics and Informed Consent: Community service activities involving human participants must comply with applicable ethical standards and institutional requirements. Where required, authors must obtain appropriate ethical approval or institutional permission before conducting the activity. Where photographs, interviews, personal information, identifiable data, or other identifiable materials involving community participants are included in the manuscript, appropriate informed consent must be obtained. Authors must protect participants' privacy, confidentiality, dignity, and rights throughout the implementation and publication process.
Data Integrity and Availability: Authors are responsible for the accuracy and integrity of the data and information presented in the manuscript. Authors should retain relevant activity records, evaluation data, supporting materials, and documentation for a reasonable period and should make them available when appropriate and permitted by ethical, legal, and institutional requirements.
Research and Community Service Misconduct: Authors must not engage in fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, manipulation of images or data, misrepresentation of community service activities, or other forms of academic or publication misconduct. Suspected misconduct may be investigated by the journal in accordance with applicable ethical procedures.
Fundamental Errors in Published Work: If authors discover a significant error or inaccuracy in their submitted or published work, they must promptly notify the editor and cooperate in correcting the manuscript or published article. Authors should not delay notification of significant errors that may affect the interpretation, validity, or reliability of the reported community service activity.

Duties and Responsibilities of Editors

Publication Decisions: Editors are responsible for making fair and informed decisions regarding the publication of submitted manuscripts based on their academic quality, originality, relevance, quality of the community service program, methodological appropriateness, and compliance with the journal's policies. Editorial decisions should be based on the scholarly merit of the manuscript and must not be influenced by personal, institutional, commercial, or other inappropriate considerations. Editors may consult peer reviewers or other editors when making publication decisions.
Fair and Unbiased Review: Editors must ensure that manuscripts are evaluated fairly and without discrimination based on the authors' gender, race, ethnicity, religion, citizenship, institutional affiliation, or other personal characteristics. Editorial decisions must be based on the academic quality, relevance, and contribution of the manuscript.
Initial Screening and Peer Review: Editors must ensure that submitted manuscripts undergo appropriate initial screening and, where suitable, independent peer review. Editors should select reviewers with appropriate expertise and should avoid reviewers who have conflicts of interest with the authors, institutions, community service programs, or other parties involved in the manuscript.
Confidentiality: Editors must maintain the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts and must not disclose information about a manuscript to anyone other than authorized individuals involved in the editorial and peer-review process.
Conflict of Interest: Editors must disclose and manage any actual or potential conflicts of interest. Editors must not participate in editorial decisions concerning manuscripts in which they have a personal, professional, financial, collaborative, or other conflict of interest.
Editorial Independence and Integrity: Editors must maintain editorial independence and make decisions based on academic and ethical considerations. Unpublished information obtained through the editorial process must not be used for the editors' own work or personal advantage without the authors' explicit written permission.
Handling Complaints and Ethical Concerns: Editors must respond appropriately to complaints, allegations of misconduct, plagiarism, conflicts of interest, ethical concerns, or concerns regarding the conduct of community service activities relating to submitted or published manuscripts. Where necessary, editors may request additional information from authors, reviewers, institutions, community partners, or other appropriate parties and may take appropriate corrective action.
Correction and Retraction of Articles: Editors should take appropriate action when significant errors, misconduct, or ethical concerns are identified in a published article. Depending on the circumstances, the journal may issue a correction, expression of concern, or retraction in accordance with applicable publication ethics principles.

Duties and Responsibilities of Peer Reviewers

Confidentiality: Reviewers must treat all manuscripts received for review as confidential documents. Manuscripts and information obtained through the review process must not be shared, discussed, or used for personal or professional advantage without authorization from the editor.
Objectivity and Constructive Review: Reviews must be conducted objectively, fairly, and professionally. Reviewers should provide clear, constructive, and evidence-based comments that help authors improve the quality of their manuscript. Personal criticism of authors is inappropriate.
Acknowledgment of Sources: Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been appropriately cited by the authors. Reviewers should notify the editor if they identify substantial similarity between the manuscript under review and previously published or concurrently submitted work.
Conflict of Interest: Reviewers must disclose any actual or potential conflict of interest before accepting a review assignment. Reviewers should decline to review manuscripts where personal, professional, financial, competitive, collaborative, or institutional relationships could affect their objectivity.
Promptness: Reviewers should respond to review invitations within a reasonable period and should only accept assignments that they can complete within the agreed timeframe. If additional time is required, reviewers should promptly inform the editor.
Ethical Concerns: Reviewers should inform the editor of any concerns regarding community service ethics, inappropriate treatment of participants, suspected misconduct, fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, inappropriate data manipulation, misrepresentation of activities, or other serious issues identified during the review process. Reviewers should not independently investigate such concerns unless requested by the editor.

Plagiarism and Research Misconduct

Jurnal Pengabdian Masyarakat Kesehatan is committed to maintaining academic and publication integrity. All submitted manuscripts may be screened for plagiarism or substantial textual similarity using appropriate plagiarism-detection software or other editorial procedures.

The journal does not tolerate plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, manipulation or inappropriate presentation of data, misrepresentation of community service activities, duplicate publication, unethical practices involving community participants, or other forms of academic and publication misconduct.

When suspected misconduct is identified, the editor may request clarification or supporting documentation from the authors and may contact the relevant institution or other appropriate parties when necessary. Appropriate editorial actions will be taken based on the nature and severity of the concern and in accordance with recognized publication ethics principles.

Withdrawal of Manuscripts

Authors may request withdrawal of a manuscript only for legitimate and reasonable reasons. A manuscript must not be withdrawn merely because it has been accepted, is undergoing peer review, or because the authors intend to submit the same manuscript to another journal.

Requests for withdrawal must be submitted by the corresponding author in a formal written statement explaining the reason for withdrawal and signed or approved by all authors. The request should be addressed to the Editor-in-Chief through the official journal contact.

If a manuscript is withdrawn after entering the review or publication process without a legitimate reason, the journal may take appropriate action in accordance with its editorial policies.

Correction, Retraction, and Post-Publication Issues

The journal is committed to maintaining the integrity and accuracy of its published scholarly record.

If an error is identified after publication, the journal may publish a correction when the error does not invalidate the main findings or conclusions of the article.

A published article may be retracted when there is clear evidence of serious academic or publication misconduct, major errors that invalidate the reported findings or conclusions, unethical community service practices, plagiarism, duplicate publication, or other circumstances that substantially compromise the reliability or integrity of the article.

In cases where an investigation is ongoing and there are substantial concerns about a published article, the journal may issue an Expression of Concern while the matter is being investigated.

All corrections and retractions will be clearly identified and linked to the original publication to maintain the integrity and transparency of the journal's scholarly record.

Publisher's Responsibilities

The Faculty of Health Sciences and Technology, Universitas Jenderal Achmad Yani is committed to supporting Jurnal Pengabdian Masyarakat Kesehatan in maintaining academic and publication integrity.

The publisher supports the editorial team in maintaining editorial independence, providing appropriate resources for the publication process, preserving the scholarly record, and addressing ethical concerns or allegations of misconduct.

The publisher does not interfere with editorial decisions based on commercial, institutional, or personal interests and supports the editors in taking appropriate action when ethical or publication-related concerns arise.