Publication Ethics

JACOBS is committed to the highest standards of research and publication ethics. All parties involved in the publication process (authors, editors, reviewers, and the publisher) are expected to know and follow the standards set out on this page.

Ethical Framework

The journal's policies are based on:

  • The Core Practices and guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE);
  • The Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), where applicable;
  • The Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (COPE, DOAJ, OASPA, and WAME);
  • The Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct of the American Psychological Association;
  • The Indonesian Code of Ethics for Scientific Publication (Peraturan Kepala LIPI Nomor 5 Tahun 2014 tentang Kode Etika Publikasi Ilmiah).

Duties of Authors

  • Originality. Submit only original work that has not been published elsewhere and is not under consideration by another journal. Properly acknowledge and cite the work and words of others.
  • Accuracy. Present data and results honestly, without fabrication, falsification, or inappropriate manipulation. Report all measures, conditions, and exclusions relevant to the conclusions.
  • Data access and retention. Retain raw data for at least five years after publication and provide them to the editors upon reasonable request.
  • Multiple, redundant, or concurrent publication. Do not publish the same research in more than one journal or divide one study into several articles without justification (salami slicing). Related publications must be disclosed and cited.
  • Authorship. Include as authors all and only those who meet the authorship criteria.
  • Disclosure. Declare funding sources and any conflicts of interest, and disclose the use of generative AI.
  • Participant protection. Obtain ethical approval and informed consent, protect participants' privacy, and avoid any harm to vulnerable participants.
  • Errors in published work. Promptly notify the editor of any significant error discovered in a published article and cooperate in correcting or retracting it.

Duties of Editors

  • Fair evaluation. Evaluate manuscripts solely on their intellectual content, without regard to the authors' race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, nationality, institution, political views, or ability to pay.
  • Publication decisions. The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for deciding which manuscripts are published, guided by the reviewers' assessments, the journal's policies, and legal requirements on libel, copyright, and plagiarism.
  • Confidentiality. Do not disclose information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the authors, reviewers, potential reviewers, and other editorial staff, as appropriate.
  • Conflicts of interest. Withdraw from handling manuscripts in which they have a conflict of interest, and do not use unpublished material from submissions in their own research without the authors' written consent.
  • Ethical oversight. Respond to ethical complaints about submitted or published work, following COPE guidance.
  • Independence. Make decisions free from commercial influence, including influence from the publisher.

Duties of Reviewers

  • Contribution to decisions. Assist the editors in making decisions and help authors improve their work through constructive feedback.
  • Promptness. Decline an invitation promptly if the manuscript is outside their expertise or they cannot complete the review on time.
  • Confidentiality. Treat manuscripts as confidential documents; do not share them or upload them to AI tools.
  • Objectivity. Express views clearly with supporting arguments; personal criticism of the authors is inappropriate.
  • Acknowledgment of sources. Point out relevant published work that has not been cited and alert the editor to substantial similarity with other published or submitted work.
  • Conflicts of interest. Decline to review manuscripts in which they have a competing interest. Do not request citations to their own work unless they are scientifically justified.

Duties of the Publisher

  • Guarantee the editorial independence of the editors.
  • Provide the infrastructure, technical support, and resources needed for the journal to operate professionally.
  • Ensure long-term preservation and accessibility of published content.
  • Support the editors in handling ethical issues, corrections, and retractions, and communicate with other publishers and indexing services when necessary.

Research Involving Human Participants

Research involving human participants must comply with the APA Ethics Code, the Declaration of Helsinki for clinical research, and applicable national regulations. Studies must be approved by a research ethics committee before data collection begins. Particular care is required for research with children, people with mental disorders or disabilities, people in custody, and other vulnerable groups. Intervention studies must ensure that participants in control or waiting-list conditions are offered the intervention or appropriate support after the study ends, whenever possible.

Handling Ethical Concerns

Suspected misconduct, including plagiarism, data fabrication or falsification, duplicate publication, authorship manipulation, undisclosed conflicts of interest, and peer review manipulation, is investigated according to the procedures described in Plagiarism Screening and Allegation of Research Misconduct. Concerns may be reported confidentially to the Editor-in-Chief at journal.nalatama@gmail.com.