JSPD: Jurnal Sekorong Pendidikan Dasar is committed to maintaining academic integrity, objectivity, transparency, and accountability throughout the scholarly publishing process. This publication ethics policy applies to authors, editors, reviewers, and all parties involved in the management and publication of articles.

JSPD publishes scholarly articles that contribute to the advancement of knowledge and the improvement of primary education. Accordingly, all parties involved in the publication process must adhere to the principles of scientific honesty, originality, accurate data reporting, respect for copyright, confidentiality in the peer-review process, and the protection of research participants.

Research involving students, teachers, educational personnel, schools, and communities must be conducted with due consideration for participant consent, identity protection, safety, privacy, and applicable research ethics requirements. Any suspected violation of publication ethics will be handled objectively, fairly, and proportionately.

A. Reviewer Ethics

Reviewers are responsible for assisting editors in assessing the scholarly merit of manuscripts and providing constructive feedback to improve article quality. Reviews must be conducted based on expertise, objectivity, academic integrity, and the manuscript's relevance to the focus and scope of JSPD.

1. Willingness to Review

Reviewers must confirm their willingness to review a manuscript based on their expertise and availability. If they lack the appropriate expertise or cannot complete the review within the specified deadline, they must promptly inform the editor.

2. Manuscript Confidentiality

Manuscripts under review are confidential documents. Reviewers must not distribute, reproduce, discuss, or grant access to manuscripts to third parties without the editor's permission. Information obtained during the review process may only be used for scholarly evaluation.

3. Objectivity and Professionalism

Reviewers must evaluate manuscripts objectively based on scholarly quality, originality, relevance, methodological rigor, validity of analysis, clarity of presentation, and contribution to the advancement of primary education.

Comments must be polite, professional, specific, and supported by clear scholarly reasoning. Reviewers must not make personal, discriminatory, demeaning, or irrelevant criticisms that do not address the substance of the manuscript.

4. Timeliness

Reviewers must complete their evaluations within the deadlines established by the editor. If additional time is required, reviewers must submit a reasonable extension request to ensure that the editorial process can be managed effectively.

5. Sources and References

Reviewers are encouraged to identify relevant scholarly sources, previous studies, or literature that have not been cited by the authors when these sources could strengthen the arguments and discussion.

Reviewers must notify the editor if they identify unusual similarities with other works, the use of sources without adequate acknowledgment, or suspected violations of scholarly ethics.

6. Conflicts of Interest

Reviewers must disclose to the editor any potential conflicts of interest that could affect the objectivity of their evaluations. These may include professional or institutional relationships, research collaborations, academic competition, personal relationships, or financial interests involving the authors or relevant institutions.

Reviewers whose conflicts of interest could compromise the independence of their assessments must withdraw from the review process. The editor is responsible for appointing a replacement reviewer.

7. Prohibition on Using Manuscripts for Personal Gain

Reviewers must not use unpublished data, ideas, methods, findings, or other materials contained in a manuscript for their own research or personal benefit without the written consent of the relevant rights holder.

8. Editorial Recommendations

Reviewers provide recommendations to the editor, such as acceptance, acceptance with revisions, major revision, or rejection, according to the options available in the journal's submission system. Each recommendation must be supported by clear scholarly reasoning. The final publication decision remains the responsibility of the editor, in accordance with journal policies and the outcome of the editorial process.

B. Editor Ethics

Editors are responsible for managing the editorial process fairly, transparently, independently, and professionally. They must ensure that every manuscript is evaluated based on scholarly quality and its relevance to the focus and scope of JSPD.

1. Publication Decisions

Editors are responsible for making publication decisions based on initial screening results, reviewer recommendations, the scholarly quality of the manuscript, editorial policies, and applicable legal requirements.

Decisions must not be influenced by personal interests, external pressure, institutional affiliations, or discriminatory considerations. Editors may consult members of the editorial board or reviewers for additional advice before reaching a decision.

2. Fairness and Independence

Editors must treat all authors fairly without discrimination based on ethnicity, race, gender, religion, nationality, social background, institutional affiliation, political views, or other personal characteristics that are irrelevant to scholarly evaluation.

Every manuscript must be assessed based on its substance, originality, methodology, quality of argumentation, and contribution to the advancement of primary education.

3. Initial Manuscript Screening

Editors conduct an initial assessment to ensure that manuscripts align with the journal's focus and scope, meet administrative requirements, comply with the author guidelines, and are suitable for peer review.

Initial screening may include assessments of originality, citation completeness, methodological clarity, and indications of potential ethical misconduct. Text similarity reports must not be used as the sole basis for determining plagiarism. Such reports must be interpreted in context and investigated further when necessary.

4. Confidentiality

Editors must maintain the confidentiality of all manuscripts and information obtained during the editorial process. Information may only be shared with parties directly involved in manuscript management, peer review, publication, or ethical investigations, within the scope of their responsibilities.

When the journal applies anonymous peer review, editors must not disclose reviewer identities to authors, except as permitted by an established policy that has been officially communicated.

5. Conflicts of Interest

Editors must disclose potential conflicts of interest that could affect the objectivity of editorial decisions. An editor must not handle a manuscript if they have a collaborative relationship, institutional connection, financial interest, personal relationship, or other conflict involving the author.

Responsibility for handling the manuscript must be transferred to an independent editor. Editors must also require authors and reviewers to disclose relevant conflicts of interest.

6. Prohibition on Using Manuscript Information

Editors must not use unpublished data, ideas, findings, or other manuscript materials for personal benefit or their own research without the written consent of the relevant rights holder.

7. Handling Suspected Ethical Misconduct

Editors must investigate reports or allegations of publication ethics violations objectively. These may include suspected plagiarism, data fabrication, data falsification, duplicate publication, improper authorship, undisclosed conflicts of interest, and research ethics violations.

Editors must provide the relevant parties with a reasonable opportunity to explain their position and must examine the available evidence. When necessary, editors may communicate with the author's institution or other competent authorities.

Editorial actions may include requests for clarification, revision, manuscript rejection, publication of a correction, issuance of an expression of concern, or article retraction, depending on the severity of the violation and the evidence obtained.

8. Corrections and Retractions

If a substantial or critical error is identified in a published article, the editor must promptly assess the issue and communicate with the authors to determine the appropriate action.

A correction may be issued when an error can be rectified without invalidating the overall findings. An article may be retracted if serious misconduct or errors render its principal findings unreliable. Every action must be accompanied by an adequate explanation and transparently documented on the journal website.

9. Separation of Editorial Responsibilities

Articles authored by editors or editorial board members must undergo an independent review process equivalent to that applied to other submissions. An editor who is an author must not participate in editorial decisions concerning their own manuscript.

Editorial articles, issue introductions, or other contributions that have not undergone peer review must be clearly identified so that readers can distinguish them from peer-reviewed articles.

C. Author Ethics

Authors are responsible for the originality, accuracy, integrity, and scholarly validity of manuscripts submitted to JSPD. They must ensure that research and manuscript preparation comply with academic ethics and applicable requirements.

1. Standards of Scholarly Writing

Authors must present research findings and scholarly arguments accurately, objectively, systematically, and accountably. Manuscripts must provide adequate information about the background, methods, data, analysis, results, and conclusions.

Authors must distinguish empirical findings from interpretations, assumptions, and personal opinions. Every scholarly claim must be supported by relevant data or sources. Research methods must be described sufficiently to enable readers to assess the validity and reproducibility of the research procedures.

2. Data Accuracy and Integrity

Authors must ensure that the data presented originate from actual research activities and have been collected using appropriate methods.

Data fabrication, which involves creating data or findings that were never obtained, and data falsification, which involves improperly altering or omitting data to produce a misleading representation, constitute violations of publication ethics.

Data processing, cleaning, exclusion, or transformation must have a clear methodological justification and be reported transparently when relevant to the interpretation of the results.

3. Data Access and Retention

Authors must retain research data, instruments, documentation, and analytical records in accordance with applicable requirements and relevant institutional policies.

If requested by the editor for scholarly verification, authors must provide supporting data that can lawfully be shared while protecting the confidentiality, privacy, and rights of research participants.

Personal or sensitive data must not be shared without an appropriate legal basis, consent, or adequate safeguards. If data cannot be shared for ethical or legal reasons, authors must explain these limitations to the editor.

4. Originality and Plagiarism

Submitted manuscripts must constitute the authors' original work. Any ideas, statements, data, images, tables, instruments, or other materials obtained from external sources must be properly acknowledged and cited.

Plagiarism includes using another party's words, ideas, data, or work without adequate acknowledgment. Authors must also avoid self-plagiarism, including reusing substantial portions of previous publications without appropriate citation and explanation.

Translating or paraphrasing another person's work does not remove the obligation to provide proper citations. Direct quotations must comply with academic conventions and applicable copyright requirements.

5. Duplicate Publication and Simultaneous Submission

Authors must not submit the same manuscript simultaneously to more than one journal.

Previously published manuscripts must not be submitted as new work without appropriate disclosure and a justifiable basis under the journal's policies. Publications based on the same dataset must have clearly distinct scholarly contributions, cite related publications, and disclose the relationship between manuscripts to the editor.

Authors must inform the editor if any part of the data or findings has previously been presented, published in conference proceedings, or disseminated through other relevant publication formats.

6. Use of Sources and References

Authors must cite all sources used to support their arguments, methods, instruments, and interpretation of findings.

Information obtained through personal communications, restricted interviews, confidential documents, manuscript review processes, or other parties' research proposals must not be used without the necessary permission.

Authors must ensure that cited references genuinely support the statements to which they refer and are accurately documented according to the reference style specified by the journal.

7. Authorship and Manuscript Approval

Authorship must be based on substantive contributions to the research or preparation of the article. Such contributions may include conceptualization, research design, data collection or analysis, interpretation of findings, and drafting or substantive revision of the manuscript.

All authors must:

1. Make contributions that satisfy the criteria for authorship.

2. Approve the final version of the manuscript submitted for publication.

3. Agree on the order of authors.

4. Accept responsibility for their contributions and support the integrity of the entire work.

5. Disclose their respective contributions when requested by the journal.

Listing individuals who have not made sufficient contributions as authors, or omitting individuals who meet the authorship criteria, is not permitted. Individuals who provide only administrative support, technical assistance, or general assistance may be acknowledged according to their contributions.

Changes to the author list or author order after submission must be supported by clear reasons, approved by all relevant authors, and authorized by the editor.

8. Conflicts of Interest and Funding

Authors must disclose financial and nonfinancial conflicts of interest that could potentially influence the conduct of research, interpretation of findings, or preparation of the article.

Conflicts of interest may include employment relationships, consultancy, resource ownership, honoraria, intellectual property ownership, grants, funding, or relevant personal and institutional relationships.

All funding sources and the roles of funders in research design, data collection, analysis, manuscript preparation, and publication decisions must be disclosed transparently. If no conflicts of interest exist, authors must explicitly declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

9. Research Ethics Involving Human Participants

Research in primary education may involve children, teachers, educational personnel, parents, and community members. Authors must respect the rights, safety, well-being, privacy, and dignity of all participants.

Authors must ensure that ethical approval is obtained whenever required by applicable regulations, institutional policies, or the nature of the research. Participant consent must be obtained in accordance with applicable procedures. For research involving children, parental or guardian consent and child assent appropriate to the child's age and level of understanding must be obtained when required.

Research must not expose participants to disproportionate risks. Children's identities, school names, photographs, audio recordings, and other information that could reveal participants' identities must be protected unless there is a valid basis of consent and justification for publication.

Authors must also describe participant protection procedures when research involves instructional interventions, personal data collection, behavioral observation, or documentation of activities in schools.

10. Use of Artificial Intelligence

Authors retain full responsibility for all content in their manuscripts, including material prepared with the assistance of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools.

AI must be used responsibly, transparently, and in accordance with the journal's policies. Where disclosure of AI use is required, authors must identify the tool and explain its purpose, such as language editing, translation, organization of ideas, or other relevant technical assistance.

Authors must review and verify AI-generated outputs, including facts, quotations, references, calculations, and interpretations. Authors must not present fabricated references, invented data, or unverified content as valid scholarly results.

AI tools cannot be listed as authors because they cannot assume academic and ethical responsibility for a publication. The use of AI does not exempt authors from obtaining ethical approval, protecting personal data, or respecting copyright.

11. Errors in Published Articles

If authors discover a substantial error in a published article, they must promptly contact the editor and explain the error and its potential impact on the findings or conclusions.

Authors must cooperate with the editor in issuing a correction or undertaking other necessary editorial actions. If an error or violation renders the principal findings unreliable, authors must cooperate with the article retraction process in accordance with the journal's policies.

12. Responses to the Editorial Process

Authors must respond to reviewer and editor comments professionally, objectively, and within the specified deadlines. All manuscript revisions must be explained systematically, while comments that are not followed must be addressed with scientifically justifiable reasons.

Authors must not attempt to influence reviewers or editors through pressure, incentives, intimidation, or unethical communication.

D. Handling Publication Ethics Violations

JSPD is committed to addressing suspected publication ethics violations fairly, confidentially, and proportionately.

1. Types of Misconduct

Publication ethics violations include, but are not limited to:

1. Plagiarism and the use of others' work without proper acknowledgment.

2. Data fabrication or falsification.

3. Duplicate publication or simultaneous submission.

4. Authorship manipulation or improper attribution of authorship.

5. Misleading use of references, quotations, images, or data.

6. Failure to disclose relevant conflicts of interest.

7. Violations of research ethics and participant protection.

8. Misuse of confidential information during the review process.

9. Use of unpublished manuscript materials for personal gain.

10. Manipulation of the peer-review or publication process.

2. Investigation Procedures

Reports of suspected misconduct will be examined by the editor or an independently appointed party. The investigation will involve the following steps:

1. Receiving and assessing the report and initial evidence.

2. Objectively examining relevant information.

3. Requesting clarification from the reported party when necessary.

4. Evaluating the evidence in light of the seriousness and impact of the alleged violation.

5. Determining appropriate actions in accordance with journal policies.

6. Documenting the investigation findings and communicating the decision to the relevant parties.

When necessary, the journal may consult the author's institution, an ethics committee, the publisher, or other competent authorities. Credible reports will be handled without discrimination, while ensuring that the relevant parties have an opportunity to provide explanations.

3. Editorial Actions

Depending on the investigation findings, editorial actions may include:

a. Requests for clarification or correction.

b. Manuscript rejection.

c. Suspension of the editorial process while an investigation is conducted.

d. Publication of a correction or an expression of concern.

e. Retraction of a published article.

f. Notification of the relevant institution when necessary.

Actions will be determined based on the evidence, the severity of the violation, and its impact on scholarly integrity. The journal seeks to maintain transparency in its decisions without disclosing irrelevant personal or confidential information.

E. Closing Statement

All authors, editors, reviewers, and other parties involved in publishing JSPD must comply with this publication ethics policy. Adherence to publication ethics is essential for maintaining the trust of the academic community, improving the quality of primary education research, and ensuring that published knowledge is scientifically accountable.

JSPD reserves the right to review and update this publication ethics policy in response to developments in scholarly publishing standards and the journal's management needs.