1. Editorial Principles

Editorial decisions are based on the scholarly merit, originality, methodological quality, relevance to the journal's focus and scope, clarity of presentation, and contribution of the manuscript. Decisions must not be influenced by the authors' nationality, institutional affiliation, gender, ethnicity, religious beliefs, political views, or other personal characteristics unrelated to scholarly merit.

The Editor in Chief has responsibility for determining which manuscripts are accepted for publication, taking into consideration editorial assessment, peer-review reports, journal policies, ethical requirements, and applicable legal considerations.

2. Responsibilities of Editors

• Editors shall evaluate manuscripts objectively on the basis of their scholarly quality and relevance to the journal.
• Editors shall maintain the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts and shall not disclose manuscript information to unauthorised parties.
• Editors shall select reviewers with appropriate expertise and shall seek to avoid reviewers with relevant conflicts of interest.
• Editors shall not use unpublished information contained in submitted manuscripts for personal research or other purposes without appropriate authorisation.
• Editors shall recuse themselves from handling manuscripts where relationships or circumstances could compromise, or reasonably appear to compromise, editorial impartiality.
• Editors shall respond appropriately to credible concerns regarding submitted or published work and shall take reasonable steps to preserve the integrity of the scholarly record.

3. Responsibilities of Reviewers

• Reviewers shall provide objective, constructive, evidence-based, and professional assessments of manuscripts.
• Reviewers shall treat manuscripts and associated review materials as confidential.
• Reviewers who consider themselves insufficiently qualified to evaluate a manuscript or who cannot complete the review within an appropriate period should promptly inform the editor.
• Reviewers shall disclose any potential conflict of interest that could affect their objectivity and should decline the review when impartial assessment cannot reasonably be assured.
• Reviewers shall not use unpublished information obtained through peer review for personal advantage or research without appropriate permission.
• Reviewers should alert the editor to suspected plagiarism, duplicate publication, data irregularities, inappropriate citation practices, or other potential ethical concerns identified during review.

4. Responsibilities of Authors

Authors are responsible for the integrity, accuracy, originality, and transparency of the work they submit. Authors must:

• submit original work and appropriately acknowledge all sources, ideas, data, and materials derived from others;
• ensure that the manuscript has not been published previously and is not simultaneously under consideration by another journal;
• accurately report research methods, analyses, findings, and limitations without fabrication, falsification, selective manipulation, or misleading presentation;
• maintain appropriate research records and provide relevant supporting information when reasonably requested during an ethical or editorial assessment;
• ensure that all individuals listed as authors meet the journal's authorship requirements and that individuals who made relevant contributions that do not qualify for authorship are appropriately acknowledged;
• disclose relevant financial and non-financial conflicts of interest and sources of funding;
• promptly notify the journal when a significant error or ethical concern is identified in a submitted or published article and cooperate with appropriate corrective action.

5. Authorship and Contributorship

Authorship should reflect genuine and substantial scholarly contributions to the work. All listed authors must have made a meaningful contribution, participated sufficiently to take responsibility for their contribution, approved the submitted version of the manuscript, and agreed to be accountable for the integrity of their contribution.

Guest, gift, honorary, and ghost authorship are not acceptable. Requests to add, remove, or rearrange authors after submission must be accompanied by a reasonable explanation and agreement from the authors concerned and will be assessed by the editorial office in accordance with applicable publication ethics guidance.

6. Originality, Plagiarism, and Duplicate Publication

Manuscripts must represent original scholarly work. Plagiarism, including the unattributed use of another person's text, ideas, data, figures, or other intellectual contributions, is unacceptable. Authors must provide appropriate citation and attribution for material derived from other sources.

Redundant publication, duplicate publication, inappropriate text recycling, and simultaneous submission of substantially the same manuscript to more than one journal are not permitted. When a manuscript substantially develops previous work by the authors, the relationship to the earlier work must be transparently disclosed and appropriately cited.

7. Research and Publication Misconduct

Jurnal Sinar Manajemen does not tolerate research or publication misconduct. Potential misconduct includes, but is not limited to, fabrication or falsification of data, plagiarism, inappropriate manipulation of data or images, undisclosed conflicts of interest, authorship manipulation, citation manipulation, duplicate publication, fraudulent peer-review practices, and other conduct that compromises the integrity of the scholarly record.

Allegations will be assessed on the basis of available evidence and handled according to appropriate publication ethics procedures. Where necessary, the journal may request clarification or supporting documentation from authors, reviewers, or other relevant parties and may contact the authors' institution or other appropriate authority when an institutional investigation is required.

8. Conflicts of Interest

Authors, reviewers, and editors must disclose relationships, activities, or interests that could reasonably be perceived as influencing their work, evaluation, or editorial decisions. Conflicts may be financial or non-financial and may include personal, professional, institutional, academic, or other relevant relationships.

Disclosure of a potential conflict does not necessarily prevent publication or participation in peer review, but transparency is required so that appropriate editorial safeguards can be applied.

9. Research Data and Reproducibility

Authors are expected to maintain accurate records of the data and materials supporting their research. Where appropriate and subject to ethical, legal, contractual, confidentiality, and privacy restrictions, authors are encouraged to make supporting data, analytical procedures, instruments, or other relevant materials available to facilitate verification and reproducibility.

Fabrication, falsification, selective manipulation, or intentional misrepresentation of research data is considered serious misconduct.

10. Ethical Oversight

Research involving human participants, personal or confidential information, vulnerable populations, or other activities requiring formal ethical oversight must comply with applicable ethical standards and institutional or regulatory requirements. Where ethical approval or informed consent is required, authors must provide an appropriate statement in the manuscript and should be able to provide supporting documentation upon reasonable editorial request.

11. Use of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence tools and large language models cannot be listed as authors because they cannot assume responsibility or accountability for scholarly work. Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, integrity, citations, analyses, and conclusions of submitted manuscripts.

When generative artificial intelligence or similar technologies have been used in a manner that materially contributes to manuscript preparation, analysis, or other substantive aspects of the work, such use should be transparently disclosed in accordance with the journal's applicable policy. Authors must ensure that the use of such technologies does not compromise confidentiality, copyright, research integrity, or the accuracy of the scholarly record.

12. Confidentiality

Manuscripts submitted to the journal are treated as confidential scholarly communications. Editors and reviewers must not disclose, distribute, reproduce, or use unpublished manuscript content except as necessary for legitimate editorial and peer-review purposes or as otherwise authorised.

13. Corrections, Expressions of Concern, and Retractions

Jurnal Sinar Manajemen is committed to maintaining the accuracy and integrity of the scholarly record. When significant errors or ethical concerns are identified after publication, the journal will assess the matter and may issue a correction, expression of concern, retraction, or other appropriate post-publication notice.

Retraction may be considered when findings are unreliable because of major error or misconduct, when plagiarism or substantial redundant publication is established, or when other serious ethical problems invalidate the integrity of the published work. Retraction notices will identify the affected article and explain the reason for the editorial action as transparently as reasonably possible.

14. Complaints and Appeals

Authors and other stakeholders may raise concerns regarding editorial procedures, ethical matters, or published content. Appeals against editorial decisions should provide a clear and evidence-based explanation of the grounds for reconsideration. Complaints and appeals will be considered fairly and, where appropriate, independently of individuals directly involved in the matter.

An appeal does not guarantee reversal of an editorial decision. The final determination will be based on the journal's editorial policies, peer-review evidence, scholarly merit, and applicable publication ethics principles.

15. Post-Publication Discussion

The journal supports responsible scholarly discussion concerning published articles. Substantive concerns about the accuracy, integrity, interpretation, or ethical aspects of published work may be submitted to the editorial office for assessment. When warranted, the journal may invite a response from the authors or take appropriate post-publication editorial action.

16. Responsibilities of the Publisher

Fakultas Ekonomi dan Bisnis, Universitas Muhammadiyah Palu, as the publisher of Jurnal Sinar Manajemen, supports editorial independence and the application of appropriate standards of publication ethics. The publisher works with the editorial team to safeguard the integrity of the journal, maintain the scholarly record, and respond appropriately to ethical concerns involving submitted or published material.

Commercial, institutional, or other considerations shall not override legitimate editorial decisions concerning the scholarly quality and integrity of published content.

Ethical Standards and References

In addressing publication ethics concerns, Jurnal Sinar Manajemen refers, where applicable, to internationally recognised standards and guidance, particularly those developed by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing.