International Journal of Pesantren Studies (INJOPS) is committed to maintaining the integrity, transparency, and academic credibility of scholarly publishing. This Publication Ethics policy establishes the responsibilities of authors, editors, reviewers, and the journal in ensuring that submitted and published research meets recognised standards of research and publication ethics.

The policy is informed by the principles and guidance of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), including those concerning authorship, peer review, competing interests, research integrity, editorial accountability, and corrections to the scholarly record. It applies to all manuscripts submitted to INJOPS and to concerns identified before or after publication.

1. Responsibilities of Authors

Authors are responsible for the originality, accuracy, reliability, and integrity of their research. Manuscripts must present scholarly arguments, research methods, evidence, and findings truthfully and must not contain fabricated, falsified, or deliberately misleading information.

Authors are required to:

• Submit original work that has not been published previously and is not simultaneously under consideration by another journal.
• Acknowledge all sources accurately and distinguish their own arguments from the ideas, findings, and interpretations of other scholars.
• Describe research procedures, sources, and analytical methods with sufficient clarity to permit scholarly evaluation.
• Report findings faithfully, including evidence that may challenge their initial assumptions or interpretations.
• Disclose relevant financial support, competing interests, and ethical considerations affecting the research.
• Cooperate with legitimate editorial inquiries and promptly report significant errors discovered in their submitted or published work.

Authors must not manipulate evidence, misrepresent cited sources, fabricate quotations, or make claims unsupported by the research. These obligations extend to empirical research, conceptual inquiry, historical studies, and textual scholarship.

2. Authorship and Contributorship

Authorship must reflect genuine and substantial scholarly contributions to the research and manuscript. Individuals listed as authors must have contributed meaningfully to the work, approved the submitted version, and accepted responsibility for their contributions and the integrity of the publication.

Honorary, guest, gift, and ghost authorship are unacceptable. Individuals whose assistance does not justify authorship, including those providing administrative, technical, editorial, or financial support, should be acknowledged where appropriate and with their permission.

The order of authors must be agreed upon by all listed authors before submission. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that author information is accurate, that all co-authors have approved the manuscript, and that communications from the editorial office are conveyed appropriately.

Requests to add, remove, or rearrange authors after submission must be accompanied by an explanation and confirmation of agreement from the affected authors. The editor may request further evidence or clarification before deciding whether the change is appropriate.

3. Originality, Plagiarism, and Research Misconduct

INJOPS does not tolerate plagiarism, data fabrication, falsification, misrepresentation of sources, duplicate publication, or other practices that compromise the reliability of scholarly research.

Plagiarism includes presenting another person's words, ideas, translations, interpretations, or research findings as one's own without appropriate acknowledgement. Inappropriate reuse of an author's previously published work without disclosure and adequate citation may also constitute redundant publication or unacceptable text recycling.

Manuscripts may be examined for textual similarity and other indications of publication misconduct. Similarity reports are used as screening evidence rather than automatic proof of plagiarism. Editorial assessment considers the context, nature, and extent of the overlap, as well as the adequacy of attribution.

Submissions arising from theses, dissertations, conference papers, or preprints must disclose their relationship to any publicly available earlier version. The editor will assess whether the submitted manuscript provides an appropriate and sufficiently original scholarly contribution.

4. Integrity of Islamic Textual and Historical Research

Research involving Islamic intellectual heritage (turāth), classical texts, manuscripts, scholarly biographies, and historical traditions must observe standards of textual accuracy, source criticism, and responsible interpretation.

Authors conducting textual or historical research are expected to:

• Identify primary sources, manuscript witnesses, printed editions, and other textual materials with sufficient bibliographic precision.
• Distinguish original textual evidence from editorial reconstruction, modern interpretation, and secondary commentary.
• Explain significant textual variants, uncertain attributions, or interpretive ambiguities where these affect the research findings.
• Reproduce Arabic quotations accurately and apply the journal's transliteration conventions consistently.
• Acknowledge manuscript collections, archival repositories, editors, translators, and other relevant contributors or rights holders.

Arguments concerning Qur'anic interpretation, hadith, Islamic jurisprudence, theology, philosophy, and related disciplines must be supported by identifiable sources and defensible methods of analysis. Authors should not present contested interpretations or uncertain historical claims as established facts without adequate justification.

5. Research Ethics, Consent, and Data Integrity

Research involving human participants, interviews, observation, institutional records, or sensitive personal information must respect the rights, dignity, privacy, and welfare of those involved.

Where applicable, authors must obtain informed consent and the necessary institutional or research ethics approval. The manuscript should explain relevant ethical procedures, including how participants were recruited, how consent was obtained, and how confidential information was protected.

Particular care is required in research involving students, minors, residential religious communities, or individuals whose institutional or social circumstances may limit their freedom to participate. Research involving pesantren communities must avoid coercion, misleading representation, and unauthorised disclosure of identifiable information.

Authors must preserve the integrity of their research data and provide an accurate account of data collection, selection, processing, and analysis. Data availability statements should reflect the actual status of the underlying materials. Public data sharing is encouraged where appropriate but must not override confidentiality, consent, legal restrictions, or legitimate rights of research participants and data holders.

Editors may request clarification or supporting documentation where ethical approval, consent, research procedures, or data integrity raises a material concern.

6. Use of Artificial Intelligence in Research and Publication

INJOPS recognises that artificial intelligence (AI) tools may support certain research and writing activities. Their use must not compromise authorship accountability, source accuracy, confidentiality, research integrity, or the independence of scholarly judgement.

6.1. AI Use by Authors

AI systems must not be listed or credited as authors or co-authors. Human authors remain fully accountable for the manuscript, including any content developed with AI assistance.

Authors must disclose substantive uses of generative AI in manuscript preparation, research design, data processing, analysis, translation, or the generation of textual or visual material. Such disclosures should identify the tool, describe its purpose, and explain the extent of its contribution in the methodology or another appropriate section.

Routine spelling and grammar assistance that does not materially generate or alter scholarly content does not ordinarily require a detailed declaration. Authors nevertheless remain responsible for reviewing all changes made with digital writing tools.

AI-generated references, fabricated quotations, invented research data, unsupported textual attributions, and misleading representations of primary sources are prohibited. Authors must independently verify citations, bibliographic records, textual quotations, translations, and claims derived from AI-assisted processes.

Confidential information, unpublished manuscripts, restricted archival materials, and identifiable research data must not be submitted to AI services without the necessary permission and appropriate safeguards.

6.2. AI Use by Reviewers and Editors

Peer review and editorial decision-making are human scholarly responsibilities. Reviewers and editors must not delegate the substantive evaluation of a manuscript, including its methodology, evidence, originality, argumentation, findings, or publication suitability, to generative AI systems.

Unpublished manuscripts, review materials, and confidential editorial communications must not be entered into unauthorised external AI services. The removal of author-identifying information does not eliminate the obligation to protect confidential manuscript content.

Limited AI assistance for improving the language of independently prepared review comments may be used only with prior editorial authorisation and without disclosing confidential materials. Such assistance must be reported to the handling editor. The reviewer remains responsible for the accuracy, independence, and substance of the final report.

7. Responsibilities of Editors

Editors are responsible for maintaining the academic quality and integrity of the journal's editorial process. Editorial decisions must be based on the manuscript's scholarly merits, relevance to the journal, methodological adequacy, originality, and compliance with publication ethics.

Editors must evaluate submissions fairly and without discrimination based on authors' nationality, ethnicity, gender, religious affiliation, institutional background, or personal characteristics unrelated to the academic quality of the research.

Editors must protect the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts, select reviewers on the basis of appropriate expertise and independence, and manage competing interests that could influence editorial judgement.

Editors must not use unpublished material for personal scholarly advantage. Where an editor has a substantial competing interest concerning a manuscript, editorial responsibility should be transferred to another suitably qualified editor. Decisions must not be influenced by improper financial, institutional, or personal considerations.

8. Responsibilities of Peer Reviewers

Reviewers are expected to provide objective, evidence-based, and constructive assessments within their areas of scholarly expertise. Reviews should identify substantive strengths and weaknesses, assess the relationship between evidence and conclusions, and offer specific recommendations for improvement.

Reviewers must maintain the confidentiality of manuscripts, disclose competing interests, and decline assignments they cannot assess competently or impartially. Personal criticism, discriminatory comments, coercive citation requests, and the use of privileged manuscript information for personal advantage are unacceptable.

Reviewers should inform editors of suspected research misconduct or significant scholarly inaccuracies, providing supporting evidence where possible. Review recommendations inform editorial deliberation but do not replace the editor's responsibility for the final decision. The journal's Review Guidelines provide further instructions on the conduct and preparation of peer review reports.

9. Competing Interests and Funding Disclosure

Authors, reviewers, and editors must disclose financial and non-financial interests that could influence, or reasonably appear to influence, their scholarly or editorial judgement. Such interests may include research funding, professional relationships, institutional affiliations, supervisory relationships, personal associations, and direct academic or commercial interests.

Authors must disclose relevant funding sources and any role played by sponsors in research design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, manuscript preparation, or decisions concerning publication.

A declared competing interest does not automatically disqualify a manuscript or reviewer. The editor will assess its significance and determine appropriate measures to safeguard independence, transparency, and the integrity of the editorial process.

10. Handling Allegations of Misconduct

INJOPS takes credible allegations of research or publication misconduct seriously, whether they arise during editorial assessment, peer review, or after publication. Concerns may be raised by authors, reviewers, readers, research institutions, or other parties possessing relevant information.

Reports should identify the manuscript or published article concerned, describe the alleged problem, and provide supporting information where available. Concerns may be communicated to the editorial office through the journal's official communication channels.

The editorial team will assess the available evidence, determine whether further inquiry is warranted, and provide an appropriate opportunity for the parties concerned to respond. Where necessary, the journal may consult relevant institutions, independent specialists, or other parties with legitimate responsibility for investigating the matter.

Allegations will be handled with appropriate confidentiality, procedural fairness, and attention to the available evidence. Editorial actions may include requesting clarification or corrections, rejecting a manuscript, issuing a published notice, or retracting an article when justified. The measures taken will depend on the nature and substantiation of the concern.

11. Corrections, Retractions, and the Scholarly Record

INJOPS is committed to maintaining an accurate and trustworthy scholarly record. Where a significant error or ethical concern is identified after publication, the editorial team will determine an appropriate response based on the reliability of the published findings and the nature of the problem.

Corrections. A correction may be issued when an error requires public clarification but does not fundamentally invalidate the article's principal findings or conclusions.

Expressions of Concern. An expression of concern may be considered when serious questions have arisen concerning an article and the available evidence is insufficient to reach a definitive conclusion.

Retractions. Retraction may be warranted when there is reliable evidence that an article's findings are seriously compromised, that substantial misconduct has occurred, or that publication was affected by significant ethical violations.

Corrections and retraction notices will identify the affected publication and explain the reasons for the editorial action. Retracted articles will ordinarily remain identifiable in the scholarly record and be clearly marked as retracted. The purpose of these measures is to preserve the integrity of published scholarship rather than to impose personal punishment.

12. Complaints and Appeals

Authors may request reconsideration of an editorial decision when they can identify a material error in the assessment, a procedural irregularity, or relevant evidence that was not adequately considered. Disagreement with an unfavourable decision, by itself, does not establish grounds for an appeal.

Appeals should be submitted through the journal's official editorial communication channels, stating the decision concerned, the specific grounds for reconsideration, and the supporting evidence. The journal will assess the request and, where appropriate, arrange for consideration by an editor who was not responsible for the disputed decision.

Complaints concerning editorial conduct, peer review integrity, confidentiality, or other aspects of journal management may also be submitted to the editorial office. All complaints will be considered fairly, and the journal will seek to resolve substantiated concerns through an appropriate editorial process.

13. Copyright, Licensing, and Publication Rights

Authors retain copyright in their original scholarly works and grant INJOPS the non-exclusive right of first publication. Published articles are made available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).

This license permits sharing, reproduction, translation, adaptation, and reuse of published material, including commercial reuse, subject to the applicable attribution requirements. Users must appropriately credit the original authors, provide a reference to the license, and indicate modifications where applicable.

Authors must ensure that third-party materials included in their articles are used lawfully and that any material excluded from the article's open license is clearly identified. The journal's Copyright Notice and License Terms provide the applicable publication and reuse conditions.

14. Compliance with Publication Ethics

Submission to INJOPS constitutes an acknowledgement that the authors have read and understood the journal's Publication Ethics policy and accept responsibility for ensuring that their manuscript complies with its applicable requirements.

The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all co-authors are informed of the submission and publication requirements. Authors may be asked to confirm compliance with this policy through the journal's online submission checklist.

INJOPS may review and update this policy to reflect developments in research integrity, scholarly publishing, and relevant ethical guidance. Questions concerning the interpretation or application of this policy should be directed to the editorial office through the journal's official website.