Publication Ethics

LEX POLICY: Journal of Law, Public Policy and Justice is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by the Center for Public Policy and Energy Law Studies, Institute for Research and Community Service (LPPM), Universitas Sebelas Maret, Indonesia. This publication ethics statement sets out the standards of ethical conduct expected from all parties involved in the publication process, including authors, the Editor-in-Chief, members of the Editorial Board, peer reviewers, and the publisher.

The journal follows the principles and guidance of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) in addressing publication ethics, editorial integrity, research integrity, and allegations of publication or research misconduct.

Ethical Guidelines for Journal Publication

The publication of scholarly work in a peer-reviewed journal contributes to the development of a credible, reliable, and accountable body of knowledge. Published articles reflect the quality and integrity of the work of authors, reviewers, editors, institutions, and other parties involved in the publication process.

All parties involved in the publication process of LEX POLICY are therefore expected to uphold the principles of academic integrity, transparency, objectivity, confidentiality, accountability, fairness, and responsible scholarly communication.

Publisher Responsibilities and Editorial Independence

The Center for Public Policy and Energy Law Studies, Institute for Research and Community Service (LPPM), Universitas Sebelas Maret, Indonesia, as the publisher of LEX POLICY, is committed to safeguarding the integrity and independence of the editorial process.

Editorial decisions shall be based on the scholarly quality, relevance, originality, methodological or analytical soundness, and contribution of submitted manuscripts. Institutional, administrative, political, financial, commercial, or other external interests shall not improperly influence editorial decisions.

The publisher supports the Editorial Board in maintaining responsible publication practices and, where necessary, in communicating with authors, reviewers, institutions, other journals, publishers, or relevant parties in matters concerning publication ethics and research integrity.

Duties of Editors

Publication Decisions

The Editor-in-Chief and designated Editors are responsible for determining which submitted manuscripts are suitable for publication in LEX POLICY. Editorial decisions shall be based on the quality, validity, originality, relevance, methodological or analytical rigor, and contribution of the manuscript to the journal's focus and scope.

Editors shall apply the journal's editorial policies consistently and may consult members of the Editorial Board, peer reviewers, or other appropriate experts when making editorial decisions. Decisions must also comply with applicable legal and ethical requirements concerning copyright, plagiarism, defamation, privacy, confidentiality, research ethics, and other relevant matters.

Fair Play and Non-Discrimination

Editors shall evaluate manuscripts solely on the basis of their scholarly content, academic merit, relevance, and contribution without discrimination based on race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, institutional affiliation, citizenship, disability, political philosophy, or other personal characteristics unrelated to academic quality.

Confidentiality

Editors and editorial staff must protect the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts and related editorial information. Information concerning a submission shall only be disclosed to the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, members of the editorial team, the publisher, or other parties where disclosure is necessary for legitimate editorial, legal, or ethical purposes.

Submitted manuscripts and associated materials must not be disclosed, distributed, or used for purposes unrelated to the editorial and peer-review process.

Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest

Editors must not use unpublished information, data, arguments, interpretations, or ideas contained in a submitted manuscript for their own research, professional activities, or personal advantage without the author's explicit written permission.

Editors should withdraw from handling manuscripts where they have a conflict of interest arising from personal, professional, financial, institutional, collaborative, competitive, academic, or other relationships that could reasonably affect, or be perceived as affecting, their impartiality.

Where such a conflict exists, responsibility for handling the manuscript should be transferred to another qualified Editor who has no relevant conflict of interest.

Handling Allegations of Misconduct

Editors shall take reasonable and proportionate steps when concerns or allegations arise regarding plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, duplicate or redundant publication, inappropriate authorship, undisclosed conflicts of interest, manipulation of the peer-review or publication process, unethical use of data, research ethics violations, or other forms of research or publication misconduct.

Where appropriate, the journal may request clarification, supporting documentation, original data, ethical approval documentation, authorship confirmation, or other evidence from the parties concerned.

The journal may also communicate with relevant institutions, ethics committees, publishers, journals, or other appropriate parties where necessary. Ethical concerns shall be handled fairly, confidentially, consistently, and on the basis of available evidence.

Duties of Reviewers

Contribution to Editorial Decisions: Peer review assists Editors in making informed editorial decisions and may also assist authors in improving the quality, clarity, rigor, and scholarly contribution of their manuscripts.
Promptness: A reviewer who considers themselves unqualified to assess a manuscript or is unable to complete the review within the required period should promptly notify the Editor and decline or withdraw from the review process.
Confidentiality: Manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. Reviewers must not share, distribute, reproduce, upload, discuss, or disclose manuscript content to others unless specifically authorized by the Editor.
Standards of Objectivity: Reviews should be conducted objectively, constructively, fairly, and professionally. Personal criticism of authors is inappropriate. Reviewers should provide clear comments supported by appropriate academic reasoning and, where relevant, scholarly evidence.
Acknowledgment of Sources: Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been appropriately cited and should notify the Editor of any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under review and other published or unpublished work of which they are aware.
Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest: Information or ideas obtained through peer review must remain confidential and must not be used for personal, academic, professional, or financial advantage. Reviewers should decline manuscripts where personal, professional, financial, competitive, collaborative, institutional, or other conflicts of interest could affect their objectivity.

Duties of Authors

Reporting Standards: Authors should provide an accurate, clear, objective, and sufficiently detailed account of the research, legal analysis, policy analysis, or other scholarly work conducted. Data, evidence, arguments, interpretations, and conclusions should be presented honestly and must not be fabricated, falsified, manipulated, selectively misrepresented, or misleadingly reported.
Data Access and Retention: Authors may be requested to provide underlying data, supporting materials, research instruments, legal documents, coding materials, analytical records, or other relevant documentation for editorial or ethical review. Authors should retain research data and supporting records for an appropriate period and, where possible and ethically permissible, facilitate access in accordance with applicable regulations, institutional policies, participant consent, confidentiality obligations, and data-protection requirements.
Originality and Plagiarism: Authors must ensure that submitted manuscripts are original. The words, ideas, arguments, data, figures, tables, documents, or other materials of others must be appropriately cited, quoted, or acknowledged. Plagiarism in any form is unacceptable.
Multiple, Redundant, or Concurrent Publication: Authors should not submit substantially the same manuscript to more than one journal simultaneously or publish substantially the same research in multiple primary publications without appropriate justification, disclosure, and permission.
Acknowledgment of Sources: Authors must appropriately acknowledge publications, legislation, judicial decisions, policy documents, datasets, reports, theories, ideas, documents, and other sources that have materially influenced the submitted work.
Authorship and Contributorship: Authorship should be limited to individuals who have made substantial scholarly contributions to the conception, design, execution, analysis, interpretation, or preparation of the work. All persons who meet the criteria for authorship should be listed as authors, while contributors who do not meet those criteria should be appropriately acknowledged.
Corresponding Author Responsibility: The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all listed authors have reviewed and approved the final manuscript, agreed to its submission, and approved any subsequent revisions or publication decisions requiring author confirmation.
Research Ethics and Human Participants: Research involving human participants, including surveys, interviews, focus group discussions, observations, experiments, or other forms of data collection involving individuals, must be conducted in accordance with applicable ethical principles.
Informed Consent and Privacy: Authors should obtain informed consent where appropriate and protect the privacy, confidentiality, dignity, safety, and personal data of research participants. Personally identifiable or sensitive information should not be disclosed unless justified, legally permissible, ethically appropriate, and supported by appropriate consent.
Ethical Approval: Where ethical approval is required by institutional policies, applicable regulations, or the nature of the research, authors must obtain approval from the relevant ethics committee or institutional review body and provide appropriate information regarding such approval in the manuscript.
Research Involving Vulnerable Individuals or Communities: Research involving vulnerable individuals, marginalized populations, indigenous communities, or other groups requiring additional protection should incorporate appropriate ethical safeguards and respect relevant rights, cultural considerations, and applicable regulations.
Use of Administrative, Institutional, Legal, and Secondary Data: Authors are responsible for ensuring that administrative records, institutional data, government data, court records, regulatory documents, secondary datasets, and other non-primary data are obtained, accessed, processed, interpreted, and reported lawfully and ethically. Confidential, restricted, or personally identifiable information must be appropriately protected.
Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest: Authors must disclose financial, institutional, professional, personal, academic, political, or other relationships that could reasonably be perceived as influencing the research, analysis, interpretation, or conclusions of the manuscript. Sources of financial or institutional support should also be disclosed where applicable.
Funding Disclosure: Authors should clearly disclose research funding, grants, institutional support, sponsorship, or other forms of financial assistance related to the study where applicable.
Fundamental Errors in Published Works: If authors discover a significant error, inaccuracy, or ethical problem in their published article, they should promptly notify the journal and cooperate with the Editors in issuing a correction, retraction, clarification, or other appropriate editorial action.

Plagiarism and Originality

LEX POLICY requires all submitted manuscripts to demonstrate originality and proper acknowledgment of sources. Manuscripts may be screened using plagiarism-detection software, including Turnitin, as part of the editorial process.

The detection of textual similarity does not automatically determine plagiarism. Similarity reports are evaluated by the editorial team in context, taking into account properly quoted material, references, terminology, methodological descriptions, legal texts, and other legitimate forms of textual similarity.

Where inappropriate textual overlap, plagiarism, duplicate publication, or other integrity concerns are identified, the journal may request clarification or revision, reject the manuscript, or take other appropriate editorial action depending on the nature and severity of the issue.

Conflicts of Interest

Authors, reviewers, and Editors must disclose relationships or circumstances that could reasonably influence, or be perceived as influencing, their judgment, interpretation, evaluation, or editorial decisions.

Potential conflicts may include financial interests, institutional relationships, professional collaboration, personal relationships, competitive interests, advisory roles, funding arrangements, political or organizational affiliations, or other relevant circumstances.

Disclosure of a potential conflict does not necessarily prevent publication or participation in the editorial process. The purpose of disclosure is to enable the journal to manage potential conflicts transparently and appropriately.

Post-Publication Corrections and Publication Integrity

LEX POLICY is committed to maintaining the integrity, accuracy, and reliability of the scholarly record after publication.

Where significant errors, ethical concerns, or evidence of misconduct are identified after publication, the journal may take appropriate editorial action, including the publication of a:

correction or erratum;
retraction;
expression of concern;
clarification;
updated version or notice; or
other appropriate post-publication statement.

The form of editorial action will depend on the nature, severity, evidence, and implications of the identified issue and will be determined in accordance with applicable journal policies and publication-ethics principles.

Requests for article withdrawal or other post-publication changes will be evaluated by the editorial team based on the nature of the issue, the stage of publication, available evidence, applicable journal policies, and relevant publication-ethics principles.

Cooperation in Ethical Investigations

Authors, reviewers, Editors, and other parties involved in the publication process are expected to cooperate in good faith with reasonable inquiries concerning research integrity or publication ethics.

Where necessary, LEX POLICY may request evidence, explanations, research data, original documents, ethical approval documents, authorship confirmation, conflict-of-interest disclosures, funding information, or other supporting materials relevant to an ethical investigation.

The journal may communicate with authors' institutions, research ethics committees, publishers, other journals, funding organizations, or other relevant parties when such communication is reasonably necessary to establish facts or protect the integrity of the scholarly record.

LEX POLICY is committed to handling ethical concerns fairly, proportionately, confidentially, consistently, and transparently while protecting the integrity of the scholarly record and the rights of all parties involved.