Publication Ethics

Media Publikasi Promosi Kesehatan Indonesia

Media Publikasi Promosi Kesehatan Indonesia (MPPKI) is committed to maintaining high standards of publication ethics, research integrity, transparency, accountability, and editorial independence. The journal follows the principles and guidance of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) when assessing suspected research or publication misconduct.

Manuscripts are evaluated according to their relevance to the journal scope, originality, scientific contribution, methodological rigor, ethical compliance, reporting quality, and validity of analysis and interpretation. Editorial decisions are made independently of commercial, financial, institutional, political, or personal influence.

1. Research Involving Human Participants

Research involving human participants, identifiable human materials, personal information, or identifiable data must comply with applicable institutional and national requirements and internationally recognized ethical principles.

• The approving ethics committee or institutional review board must be identified.
• The ethics approval or reference number and approval date must be reported where applicable.
• Authors must explain how informed consent was obtained.
• An approved waiver of consent must be identified and justified.
• Participant privacy, confidentiality, and data protection must be maintained.
• Consent for publication is required when an individual may be identified from text, images, recordings, quotations, or case details.

2. Research Involving Animals

Research involving animals must comply with applicable institutional, national, and international animal-welfare standards.

• The approving animal ethics committee must be identified.
• The approval or reference number and approval date must be reported where applicable.
• Authors must describe measures used to minimize pain, distress, and suffering.
• Appropriate animal care and humane endpoints must be reported.
• Replacement, reduction, and refinement principles should be applied whenever scientifically and ethically feasible.

3. Responsibilities of Editors

Editors are responsible for maintaining fair, confidential, independent, and evidence-based editorial procedures.

• Base decisions on scientific quality, scope, originality, methodological rigor, and ethical compliance.
• Evaluate manuscripts without discrimination based on personal characteristics, nationality, institution, or commercial status.
• Maintain confidentiality of manuscripts, reviewer reports, author responses, and editorial records.
• Protect reviewer identities under the journal's double-blind review model.
• Declare conflicts of interest and recuse themselves when impartiality may be compromised.
• Select reviewers with appropriate subject or methodological expertise.
• Prevent coercive citation, peer-review manipulation, and inappropriate editorial influence.
• Address complaints, appeals, and integrity concerns fairly and consistently.
• Take proportionate corrective action when reliable evidence indicates a problem in the scholarly record.

4. Responsibilities of Reviewers

• Provide objective, constructive, respectful, and timely assessments.
• Accept review assignments only when they have appropriate expertise and sufficient time.
• Treat manuscripts, supplementary files, reports, and correspondence as confidential.
• Declare financial, professional, institutional, academic, collaborative, or personal conflicts of interest.
• Decline an assignment when impartiality may be compromised.
• Report suspected plagiarism, duplicate publication, fabrication, falsification, unethical research, or other integrity concerns confidentially to the editor.
• Avoid personal criticism, discriminatory statements, and unsupported allegations.
• Recommend citations only when they are directly relevant and scientifically necessary.
• Not use unpublished information for personal research, professional advantage, or competitive benefit.

5. Responsibilities of Authors

• Submit original work that has not been published and is not under consideration elsewhere.
• Report methods, data, analyses, results, limitations, and conclusions accurately.
• Retain and provide supporting data or documentation when reasonably requested.
• Provide appropriate attribution and accurate references.
• Obtain and report all required ethical approvals and consent.
• Disclose funding sources, funder roles, and financial or nonfinancial conflicts of interest.
• Ensure that every listed author meets the journal's authorship criteria.
• Obtain approval from all authors for the submitted version and author order.
• Disclose use of generative artificial intelligence when required by journal policy.
• Inform the journal promptly when a significant error or ethical concern is identified.
• Participate honestly and constructively in peer review and revision.

6. Authorship and Contributorship

Authorship must reflect substantial scholarly contribution and accountability for the work. All listed authors must approve the manuscript and accept responsibility for their contributions.

• Author contributions should be described using appropriate CRediT roles.
• Guest, honorary, gift, purchased, or coercive authorship is prohibited.
• Individuals who contributed but do not meet authorship criteria should be recognized in the acknowledgments with their permission.
• Changes to authorship after submission require a written justification and approval from all affected authors.
• Artificial intelligence tools must not be listed as authors.

7. Conflicts of Interest

Authors, reviewers, editors, and editorial board members must disclose relationships or interests that could influence, or reasonably appear to influence, their judgment or conduct.

Relevant interests may include:

• Financial relationships
• Employment or consultancy
• Institutional or collaborative relationships
• Personal or family relationships
• Academic competition
• Intellectual property interests
• Political, religious, or ideological commitments relevant to the work

8. Plagiarism and Similarity Screening

Submitted manuscripts are subject to similarity screening. Authors must provide the required similarity report, and the similarity index must comply with the limit specified in the Author Guidelines.

A similarity percentage alone does not establish plagiarism or originality. Editors assess the nature, source, location, extent, and attribution of matched material.

Plagiarism, including unattributed copying, inappropriate paraphrasing, translation plagiarism, self-plagiarism, and reuse of previously published material without proper disclosure, is prohibited.

9. Artificial Intelligence

Generative artificial intelligence must not replace human scholarly judgment, authorship responsibility, editorial decision-making, or independent peer review.

• Authors must disclose applicable AI-assisted activities according to journal policy.
• Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, citations, confidentiality, and integrity of submitted content.
• AI tools must not be listed as authors.
• Reviewers and editors must not upload confidential manuscripts or unpublished data to public AI systems.
• AI-generated or AI-assisted content must be checked for factual error, fabricated references, bias, and inappropriate reuse.

10. Research and Publication Misconduct

MPPKI does not tolerate conduct that undermines the reliability, integrity, or fairness of scholarly publishing.

11. Handling Ethical and Integrity Concerns

The journal reviews credible concerns confidentially, fairly, consistently, and without presuming misconduct before relevant evidence has been assessed.

1. Initial assessment: the journal evaluates whether the concern is specific, credible, and within its responsibility.
2. Clarification: authors or other relevant parties may be asked to provide explanations, original data, approvals, documents, or supporting evidence.
3. Independent advice: the journal may seek methodological, statistical, ethical, legal, or subject expertise.
4. Institutional coordination: when appropriate, the journal may contact an institution, ethics committee, funder, repository, publisher, or other responsible body.
5. Editorial action: proportionate action is taken according to the evidence and stage of publication.

12. Corrections, Expressions of Concern, and Retractions

When a problem is identified after publication, the journal will determine the appropriate action according to the nature, seriousness, evidence, and effect of the problem on the reliability of the article.

• Correction: used when an error does not invalidate the principal findings but requires a transparent amendment.
• Expression of Concern: used when serious concerns exist but available evidence is incomplete or an investigation remains unresolved.
• Retraction: used when findings are unreliable, publication is redundant, misconduct is established, or serious ethical or legal problems invalidate the article.
• Removal: considered only in exceptional circumstances involving legal requirements, serious privacy concerns, or significant safety risks.

Retraction notices will identify the article, explain the reason for retraction, state who initiated the action where appropriate, and remain linked to the published record.

13. Manuscript Withdrawal

A manuscript is not considered withdrawn until the Editorial Office has reviewed the formal request and issued written confirmation. Suspected misconduct or an integrity concern may continue to be assessed after withdrawal when necessary.

14. Complaints and Appeals

Authors and other parties may raise a complaint regarding editorial procedure, reviewer conduct, confidentiality, discrimination, conflicts of interest, citation coercion, or research-integrity handling.

Authors may appeal an editorial decision when they believe it resulted from a material factual error, substantial misunderstanding, procedural irregularity, or overlooked evidence. Disagreement with reviewer judgment alone is not sufficient.

Complaints and appeals will be assessed by an editor or qualified person who was not materially involved in the matter when independent review is necessary.

15. Confidentiality and Records

Manuscripts, reviewer reports, author responses, ethical documents, allegations, investigations, and editorial correspondence are treated as confidential and accessed only by persons with an appropriate editorial or institutional role.

The journal retains appropriate editorial records to document decisions, revisions, reviewer activity, correspondence, complaints, appeals, and integrity assessments in accordance with applicable institutional and legal requirements.