Publication Ethics

Publication Ethics

Lontara: Journal of Learning, Teaching, and Research is committed to maintaining high standards of integrity, transparency, fairness, accountability, and ethical responsibility in scholarly publishing. These principles apply to authors, editors, reviewers, editorial board members, and the publisher.

The journal’s publication ethics policies are informed by internationally recognized principles of responsible research and scholarly publishing. However, the journal does not claim membership in any publication ethics organization unless such membership has been officially obtained and verified.

  1. Editorial Integrity

Editorial decisions are based on the academic quality, originality, relevance, methodological rigor, clarity, ethical compliance, and scholarly contribution of submitted manuscripts.

Editorial decisions must not be influenced by the authors’ nationality, ethnicity, gender, religion, institutional affiliation, political views, social background, or other personal characteristics.

Publication fees, institutional relationships, sponsorship, advertising, or commercial considerations must not influence the peer-review process or final editorial decision.

  1. Responsibilities of the Editor-in-Chief and Editors

The Editor-in-Chief and assigned editors are responsible for:

• conducting an initial assessment of each manuscript;
• determining whether the manuscript fits the journal’s focus and scope;
• ensuring that submitted manuscripts follow the journal’s academic, technical, and ethical requirements;
• selecting qualified and independent reviewers;
• protecting the confidentiality of authors and reviewers;
• managing conflicts of interest;
• evaluating reviewer reports objectively;
• making fair, transparent, and academically justified decisions;
• ensuring that authors receive clear editorial communication;
• investigating allegations of research or publication misconduct; and
• maintaining the integrity of the published scholarly record.

Editors must withdraw from handling a manuscript when they have a personal, professional, academic, institutional, or financial conflict of interest. In such cases, the manuscript must be assigned to another qualified editor.

  1. Editorial Confidentiality

Editors and editorial staff must treat submitted manuscripts and related correspondence as confidential information.

Manuscript content must not be disclosed to individuals who are not directly involved in the editorial and peer-review process, except when disclosure is necessary for an ethical investigation, legal requirement, or authorized editorial procedure.

Editors must not use unpublished data, arguments, interpretations, methods, or other information obtained from a submitted manuscript for personal, academic, professional, or commercial advantage.

Editors and editorial staff must not upload confidential manuscripts to external generative artificial intelligence platforms or other services that may retain, reproduce, process, or reuse the submitted content.

  1. Responsibilities of Reviewers

Reviewers support editors in evaluating the quality and suitability of submitted manuscripts. They may also assist authors in improving the clarity and academic quality of their work.

Reviewers are expected to:

• evaluate manuscripts objectively and fairly;
• provide clear, respectful, evidence-based, and constructive comments;
• assess the manuscript’s originality, relevance, theoretical foundation, method, findings, discussion, conclusion, and scholarly contribution;
• complete the review within the requested period;
• decline the assignment when they lack sufficient expertise or cannot complete the review on time;
• disclose any actual or potential conflict of interest;
• maintain the confidentiality of the manuscript and review process;
• identify relevant work that may not have been appropriately cited; and
• inform the editor of suspected plagiarism, duplicate publication, data fabrication, citation manipulation, or other misconduct.

Reviewers must not contact authors directly regarding the manuscript unless authorized by the editor.

Reviewers must not use unpublished information from a manuscript for personal research, publication, competition, financial gain, or other professional advantage.

Reviewers must not upload confidential manuscripts to external artificial intelligence tools or other platforms that may store, analyze, or reuse the manuscript.

  1. Responsibilities of Authors

Authors are responsible for the accuracy, originality, transparency, and integrity of their submitted manuscripts.

Authors must:

• submit original scholarly work;
• present research methods, data, results, and interpretations honestly and accurately;
• avoid plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, and inappropriate data manipulation;
• properly acknowledge all sources used in the manuscript;
• disclose all funding sources and potential conflicts of interest;
• obtain appropriate ethical approval when required;
• obtain informed consent from research participants when applicable;
• protect the privacy and confidentiality of participants;
• ensure that all listed authors meet the criteria for authorship;
• confirm that all authors have approved the submitted and final versions of the manuscript;
• respond to reviewer and editor comments respectfully and transparently; and
• promptly inform the journal when a significant error is discovered.

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

  1. Originality and Plagiarism

Authors must ensure that submitted manuscripts are original and appropriately cite the words, ideas, data, images, instruments, and findings of other sources.

The journal uses Turnitin to support plagiarism and similarity screening. Manuscripts are generally expected to have a similarity score of no more than 20%, excluding the reference list and properly presented direct quotations.

The similarity score is not the sole basis for an editorial decision. Editors assess the sources, patterns, extent, and context of similarity.

The following practices are prohibited:

• copying text without appropriate citation;
• presenting another person’s ideas as one’s own;
• using images, tables, instruments, or data without permission or attribution;
• excessive or inappropriate text recycling;
• fabricated or unverifiable references;
• translation plagiarism; and
• deliberate attempts to manipulate similarity reports.

Manuscripts containing plagiarism or serious unattributed material may be returned, rejected, corrected, or retracted depending on the nature and severity of the violation.

  1. Duplicate and Redundant Publication

Authors must not submit or publish substantially the same manuscript in more than one journal or publication.

A submission may be considered duplicate or redundant when it substantially reproduces previously published data, analysis, arguments, or conclusions without transparent disclosure and appropriate citation.

Authors must disclose any closely related manuscripts, conference papers, preprints, reports, theses, or previous publications that may overlap with the submitted work.

Publication of a study in more than one language requires prior editorial approval, clear disclosure, appropriate citation of the original publication, and compliance with copyright requirements.

  1. Authorship and Contributor Responsibilities

Authorship must be limited to individuals who have made substantial intellectual contributions to the research and manuscript.

All authors should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for its content.

Lontara: Journal of Learning, Teaching, and Research uses the CRediT Contributor Roles Taxonomy to describe author contributions where appropriate.

The corresponding author is responsible for:

• communicating with the journal;
• ensuring that all authors approve the submission;
• confirming the accuracy of author names and affiliations;
• coordinating responses to reviewer comments;
• ensuring that all authors approve the revised and final versions; and
• informing all authors of editorial decisions.

Changes to authorship after submission, including additions, removals, or changes in author order, must be supported by a written explanation and the agreement of all authors.

Authorship changes after acceptance are allowed only in exceptional circumstances and require editorial approval.

Individuals who contributed to the work but do not meet authorship criteria should be acknowledged appropriately.

  1. Artificial Intelligence and Authorship

Artificial intelligence systems, language models, chatbots, and other automated tools cannot be listed as authors or co-authors.

Such systems cannot take responsibility for the accuracy, integrity, originality, or ethical compliance of a scholarly work.

Authors remain fully responsible for all content submitted to the journal, including content developed with the assistance of generative artificial intelligence.

The substantive use of generative artificial intelligence for writing, translation, paraphrasing, data analysis, coding, image production, or other research-related purposes must be disclosed transparently.

Artificial intelligence must not be used to fabricate:

• research data;
• participants;
• interview quotations;
• references;
• statistical results;
• images presented as authentic evidence; or
• research findings.

Basic spelling, grammar, and formatting assistance does not normally require disclosure when the tool does not generate substantive academic content.

  1. Research Integrity

Authors must present research procedures and findings honestly and transparently.

The following practices constitute serious misconduct:

• data fabrication;
• data falsification;
• selective manipulation or omission of findings;
• image manipulation that misrepresents evidence;
• fabricated participants or research settings;
• invented quotations or references;
• manipulation of statistical results; and
• deliberate misrepresentation of research methods.

Editors may request supporting data, instruments, ethical documentation, or other materials when necessary to assess the integrity of a manuscript.

Failure to provide reasonable supporting information may affect the editorial decision.

  1. Research Involving Human Participants

Research involving human participants must respect their dignity, privacy, safety, and rights.

Authors must obtain ethical approval from an appropriate institutional or authorized body when required by applicable standards or regulations.

Authors must clearly state the name of the approving institution or committee and the approval number when available.

Informed consent must be obtained from participants before data collection, unless an authorized ethics body has approved a justified exception.

Research involving children, students, persons with disabilities, vulnerable communities, or other vulnerable groups must apply additional ethical safeguards.

Consent from a parent, guardian, or legally authorized representative must be obtained when required.

  1. Privacy, Confidentiality, and Anonymity

Authors must protect the identities and personal information of research participants.

Names, photographs, recordings, institutional details, quotations, or other identifying information must not be published without appropriate consent.

Participant data should be anonymized or pseudonymized when disclosure could create privacy, social, professional, educational, legal, or personal risks.

Authors must ensure that the publication of research data complies with the consent provided by participants.

  1. Research Data

Authors are encouraged to preserve research data and make them available when ethically, legally, and practically possible.

Empirical research articles should include a data availability statement.

Research data may be:

• deposited in an appropriate repository;
• included as supplementary material;
• made available by the corresponding author upon reasonable request; or
• restricted when public disclosure would violate privacy, confidentiality, informed consent, institutional policy, or legal requirements.

Authors using third-party datasets must obtain the required permission and properly acknowledge the original source.

Sensitive participant data must be anonymized or appropriately protected.

  1. Conflicts of Interest

Authors, reviewers, and editors must disclose any relationship or interest that could influence, or reasonably appear to influence, their judgment.

Conflicts of interest may include:

• financial relationships;
• employment or institutional relationships;
• personal relationships;
• academic competition;
• recent research collaboration;
• consultancy or advisory roles;
• intellectual property interests; and
• political, religious, or ideological commitments directly related to the manuscript.

The existence of a conflict does not automatically prevent publication, but it must be disclosed and managed transparently.

  1. Funding Disclosure

Authors must disclose all financial and material support received for the research and publication.

The funding statement should identify:

• the funder’s name;
• the grant number, when available; and
• the role of the funder in the study.

Authors must state when the research received no specific funding.

Funding bodies must not influence editorial decisions.

  1. Citation Ethics

Authors must cite sources accurately, appropriately, and only when relevant.

Authors must not engage in:

• citation manipulation;
• excessive self-citation without scholarly justification;
• coordinated citation exchange;
• citation of irrelevant sources to increase citation counts; or
• citation of sources that have not been read or verified.

Editors and reviewers must not require authors to add citations solely to increase citations to themselves, the journal, or a particular institution.

  1. Ethical Use of Images, Tables, and Copyrighted Materials

Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce copyrighted images, tables, figures, questionnaires, scales, instruments, or other materials when permission is required.

All reproduced or adapted materials must include appropriate attribution.

Images must not be manipulated in a way that changes, hides, exaggerates, or misrepresents the research evidence.

  1. Corrections

The journal may publish a correction when an error affects the accuracy, clarity, interpretation, authorship, metadata, or presentation of an article but does not invalidate its main findings.

Corrections must be clearly identified and linked to the original article.

Authors are expected to cooperate with the journal in correcting significant errors.

  1. Retractions

An article may be retracted when there is evidence of:

• unreliable findings caused by misconduct or serious error;
• plagiarism;
• duplicate publication;
• fabricated or falsified data;
• unethical research;
• serious authorship violations;
• unauthorized use of confidential information; or
• other conduct that substantially undermines the integrity of the article.

A retraction notice must explain the reason for the retraction and clearly identify the affected article.

The original article will normally remain part of the scholarly record but will be clearly marked as retracted, unless removal is required for legal, privacy, safety, or other exceptional reasons.

  1. Expressions of Concern

The journal may publish an Expression of Concern when serious questions have been raised about an article, but the available evidence is incomplete or an investigation has not yet been concluded.

An Expression of Concern may be replaced by a correction, retraction, or notice that the concerns have been resolved.

  1. Article Withdrawal and Removal

A submitted manuscript may be withdrawn before publication when the authors provide a reasonable written request and comply with the journal’s procedures.

An accepted or published article cannot be withdrawn merely because the authors have changed their minds.

A published article may be removed only in exceptional circumstances, such as:

• a serious legal violation;
• a court order;
• a major risk to participant privacy;
• a serious threat to public safety; or
• unlawful or defamatory content.

When removal is necessary, a notice explaining the reason will normally remain available.

  1. Handling Allegations of Misconduct

Allegations of research or publication misconduct must be supported by relevant information and submitted in good faith.

The editorial team will:

• conduct an initial assessment;
• preserve confidentiality as far as reasonably possible;
• provide the individuals concerned with an opportunity to respond;
• request supporting documentation when necessary;
• consult relevant institutions or authorities when appropriate; and
• take proportionate action based on the available evidence.

Possible actions include requesting clarification, requiring correction, rejecting a manuscript, publishing a correction, issuing an Expression of Concern, retracting an article, or notifying the relevant institution.

The journal will not knowingly use ethical allegations to harass authors, reviewers, editors, or institutions.

  1. Complaints and Appeals

Authors, reviewers, readers, and other parties may submit complaints regarding editorial procedures, ethical concerns, published content, or journal conduct.

Complaints should clearly explain:

• the issue being raised;
• the manuscript or article concerned;
• the relevant evidence; and
• the action requested.

Authors may appeal an editorial decision when they believe that a significant factual, procedural, ethical, or academic error affected the outcome.

An appeal must be professional, evidence-based, and submitted in writing.

Disagreement with an academic judgment alone is not normally sufficient grounds for an appeal.

Whenever possible, complaints and appeals will be reviewed by an editor who was not directly involved in the original decision.

  1. Responsibilities of the Publisher

Malebbi Global Care supports the editorial independence and ethical operation of Lontara: Journal of Learning, Teaching, and Research.

The publisher is responsible for:

• supporting the journal’s editorial infrastructure;
• protecting the integrity of the published record;
• supporting corrections, retractions, and ethical investigations;
• ensuring that commercial interests do not influence editorial decisions;
• maintaining appropriate publication records and backups; and
• supporting transparent communication with authors, reviewers, readers, and editors.

  1. Post-Publication Discussion

Readers may contact the editorial team regarding possible errors, ethical concerns, methodological issues, or requests for clarification related to published articles.

Substantive concerns will be reviewed fairly and, when appropriate, may lead to author clarification, correction, Expression of Concern, or retraction.

Scholarly criticism must be evidence-based, respectful, and focused on the content of the research rather than the personal characteristics of the authors.

  1. Commitment to Ethical Improvement

The journal recognizes that publication ethics standards continue to develop.

Lontara: Journal of Learning, Teaching, and Research may revise its ethical policies when necessary to improve transparency, fairness, research integrity, participant protection, and responsible scholarly communication.

Any substantial policy changes will be communicated through the journal website.