Publication Ethics

The Journal of Applied SME Informatics Management (JASIM) is a peer-reviewed and open-access scholarly journal published by Sinar Mentari Sundara. JASIM upholds ethical standards throughout the editorial and publication process to ensure the credibility, transparency, and integrity of every published article. These principles apply to authors, editors, reviewers, editorial board members, and the publisher. The journal follows internationally recognized publication ethics principles, particularly the COPE Core Practices, as a reference for addressing authorship, peer review, conflicts of interest, research misconduct, corrections, and other matters related to responsible scholarly publishing.

Generative AI Policies

The Journal of Applied SME Informatics Management (JASIM) permits the responsible use of Generative AI and AI-assisted tools for language improvement, translation, coding, data processing, and other appropriate research activities. Authors remain fully responsible for all submitted content, and AI tools, including Large Language Models (LLMs), cannot be listed as authors or co-authors. All AI-generated content, references, calculations, and interpretations must be verified for accuracy. The use of AI to fabricate data, create false references, manipulate findings, or conceal plagiarism is strictly prohibited. Significant use of Generative AI should be disclosed when relevant, while editors and reviewers must protect manuscript confidentiality and avoid uploading unpublished content or sensitive research data into public AI systems.

Duties of Authors

1. Reporting Standards:
Authors of original research should present an accurate and objective account of the work performed and provide a clear discussion of its significance. Research data, methods, analyses, and results must be represented accurately and transparently. The manuscript should contain sufficient detail, references, and methodological information to allow other researchers to understand, evaluate, and, where appropriate, replicate the research. Fraudulent, knowingly inaccurate, misleading, fabricated, or falsified statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable.

2. Data Access and Retention:
Authors may be requested to provide raw data, supporting documents, research instruments, or other relevant materials associated with the submitted manuscript for editorial review or investigation. Authors should retain relevant research data for an appropriate period after publication and, whenever possible, make the data available to qualified researchers, subject to ethical, legal, confidentiality, intellectual property, and privacy considerations. For research involving SMEs, organizations, customers, employees, or other participants, authors must ensure that confidential business information and personally identifiable information are appropriately protected.

3. Originality and Plagiarism:
Authors must ensure that submitted manuscripts represent original scholarly work. When authors use ideas, words, data, figures, tables, models, methods, or other materials from other sources, those sources must be properly acknowledged and cited. Plagiarism in any form is unacceptable. This includes direct plagiarism, mosaic plagiarism, inappropriate paraphrasing, unattributed use of ideas, unauthorized reuse of figures or data, and excessive self-plagiarism. JASIM may use plagiarism-detection or similarity-checking software to evaluate submitted manuscripts. Manuscripts containing significant plagiarism or unethical reuse of previously published material may be rejected or retracted.

4. Multiple, Redundant or Concurrent Publication:
Authors must not submit the same manuscript simultaneously to more than one journal. Submitting substantially similar research to multiple journals at the same time constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable. Authors should also avoid redundant or duplicate publication in which substantially the same research findings are published in more than one journal without appropriate disclosure, justification, citation, and editorial permission.

5. Acknowledgment of Sources:
Authors must appropriately acknowledge all sources that have influenced the research. Relevant publications, theories, datasets, methods, software, instruments, frameworks, and other intellectual contributions should be properly cited. Information obtained privately through conversations, correspondence, peer review, or confidential discussions should not be used or reported without explicit permission from the source when required. Authors must ensure that citations are relevant to the research and should not engage in unnecessary citation, citation manipulation, excessive self-citation, or coordinated citation practices intended to artificially influence citation metrics.

6. Authorship of the Paper:
Authorship should be limited to individuals who have made significant scholarly contributions to the conception, design, execution, analysis, interpretation, or preparation of the research. All individuals who have made substantial contributions should be appropriately recognized as authors, while contributors who do not meet authorship criteria should be acknowledged appropriately.

The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all appropriate co-authors are included in the manuscript, that inappropriate or honorary authors are excluded, and that all authors have reviewed and approved the final version of the manuscript. Guest authorship, honorary authorship, purchased authorship, ghost authorship, and other inappropriate authorship practices are prohibited. Any proposed change in authorship after submission must be supported by a clear explanation and agreement from all affected authors and is subject to editorial approval.

7. Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest:
Authors must disclose any financial, professional, institutional, personal, academic, or other relationships that could influence, or reasonably be perceived to influence, the research or interpretation of its findings. Potential conflicts of interest may include employment, consultancy arrangements, stock ownership, research grants, patents, institutional relationships, personal relationships, or other financial and non-financial interests.

Authors must also disclose all relevant sources of financial support and funding for the research. The existence of a conflict of interest does not automatically prevent publication; however, transparency is required so that editors, reviewers, and readers can appropriately evaluate the research.

8. Fundamental Errors in Published Works:
If an author discovers a significant error, inaccuracy, or ethical problem in their published article, the author has an obligation to notify the Editor or publisher promptly. Authors are expected to cooperate with the editorial team in correcting, clarifying, or retracting the article when necessary.

If the editorial team becomes aware of a significant problem through a third party, authors may be requested to provide explanations, supporting documentation, original data, or other evidence required to evaluate the reliability of the published work.

Duties of Editors

1. Fair Play and Editorial Independence:
Editors must evaluate submitted manuscripts based on their academic merit, originality, methodological quality, relevance, clarity, and contribution to the scope of JASIM. Editorial decisions must not be influenced by the authors' nationality, gender, institutional affiliation, ethnicity, religion, political beliefs, personal background, or other irrelevant characteristics.

Editors must maintain editorial independence and ensure that publication decisions are not improperly influenced by commercial interests, advertisers, sponsors, institutional authorities, or other external parties.

2. Confidentiality:
Editors and editorial staff must maintain the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts. Information regarding a submitted manuscript should not be disclosed to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, prospective reviewers, editorial advisers, or publisher when required for legitimate editorial purposes.

Editors must protect confidential information obtained during manuscript submission and peer review and must not use unpublished material for personal research, professional advantage, or other unauthorized purposes.

3. Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest:
Editors must disclose any potential conflict of interest that could affect their ability to make an independent and impartial editorial decision. Editors should recuse themselves from handling manuscripts in which they have personal, professional, financial, institutional, competitive, or collaborative relationships that could create an actual or perceived conflict of interest.

In such circumstances, responsibility for the manuscript should be transferred to another qualified editor. Unpublished information contained in submitted manuscripts must not be used by editors for personal research without explicit written permission from the authors.

4. Publication Decisions:
The Editor-in-Chief and responsible editors are accountable for determining which submitted manuscripts should be accepted, revised, or rejected. Editorial decisions should be based on the manuscript's academic quality, originality, relevance to the journal's scope, methodological rigor, ethical compliance, reviewer recommendations, and contribution to scholarly knowledge.

Editors may consult reviewers, members of the Editorial Board, or other experts when necessary. The final publication decision remains an editorial responsibility and should be made independently of commercial or financial considerations.

5. Involvement and Cooperation in Investigations:
Editors must take appropriate action when credible concerns are raised regarding research or publication misconduct. Such concerns may include plagiarism, data fabrication, falsification, image manipulation, unethical research practices, inappropriate authorship, peer-review manipulation, duplicate publication, undisclosed conflicts of interest, or citation manipulation.

Editors should investigate allegations fairly, objectively, confidentially, and in cooperation with the publisher, authors, reviewers, institutions, or other relevant parties when necessary. Where misconduct or significant errors are confirmed, appropriate corrective action may include rejection, correction, expression of concern, retraction, or other measures necessary to protect the integrity of the scholarly record.

Duties of Reviewers

1. Contribution to Editorial Decisions:
Peer reviewers assist editors in making informed editorial decisions and help authors improve the quality of their manuscripts through constructive scholarly feedback. Reviewers should evaluate the originality, significance, methodology, analysis, clarity, relevance, and overall scholarly contribution of the manuscript.

Reviewer recommendations serve as an important component of the editorial process; however, the final publication decision remains the responsibility of the Editor.

2. Promptness:
A reviewer who feels unqualified to evaluate a manuscript or is unable to complete the review within the required timeframe should promptly notify the Editor. Reviewers should accept review invitations only when they have sufficient expertise, time, and ability to provide a thorough and professional evaluation. Timely peer review is essential to maintaining an efficient and fair editorial process.

3. Confidentiality:
Manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. Reviewers must not share, distribute, copy, discuss, or disclose information contained in manuscripts to unauthorized individuals without permission from the Editor.

Reviewers must not use unpublished data, ideas, methods, findings, or other confidential information obtained through the peer-review process for personal, academic, commercial, competitive, or professional advantage.

4. Standards of Objectivity:
Reviews must be conducted objectively, professionally, and constructively. Reviewers should provide clear academic arguments and supporting explanations for their comments and recommendations. Personal criticism, discriminatory remarks, hostile language, insulting statements, or comments unrelated to the scholarly quality of the manuscript are inappropriate and will not be tolerated.

Reviewers should focus on improving the methodological rigor, clarity, relevance, validity, and academic contribution of the manuscript.

5. Acknowledgement of Sources:
Reviewers should identify relevant published research that has not been appropriately acknowledged by the authors when such references are necessary to evaluate the originality or academic context of the manuscript.

Reviewers should notify the Editor if they identify substantial similarity between the manuscript under review and another published or submitted work of which they are aware. Reviewers should not request unnecessary citations to their own publications or those of specific authors, journals, or organizations for the purpose of increasing citation counts.

6. Disclosure and Conflict of Interest:
Reviewers must disclose any potential conflict of interest that could affect the impartiality of their review. Conflicts may arise from competitive, collaborative, institutional, professional, financial, personal, or other relationships with the authors, organizations, or research described in the manuscript.

Reviewers should decline the review when they believe that a conflict of interest may prevent them from providing an objective and independent assessment. Information or ideas obtained through peer review must remain confidential and must not be used for personal or professional advantage.

Duties of the Publisher

Sinar Mentari Sundara, as the publisher of the Journal of Applied SME Informatics Management (JASIM), is committed to supporting editorial independence, publication integrity, transparency, accessibility, and responsible scholarly communication.

The publisher shall:

1. Support the Editor-in-Chief and Editorial Board in maintaining the academic quality and ethical integrity of the journal.
2. Respect and protect editorial independence by ensuring that editorial decisions are based on academic considerations rather than commercial, financial, institutional, or political interests.
3. Ensure that appropriate procedures are available to address allegations of research misconduct, publication misconduct, ethical violations, plagiarism, authorship disputes, conflicts of interest, and other integrity-related concerns.
4. Cooperate with editors, reviewers, authors, institutions, and other relevant parties in investigating credible allegations relating to submitted or published articles.
5. Support appropriate post-publication actions, including corrections, corrigenda, expressions of concern, retractions, or other editorial notices when required to maintain the integrity of the scholarly record.
6. Maintain appropriate digital preservation, accessibility, and availability of published scholarly content.
7. Protect intellectual property rights, copyright arrangements, licensing information, and author rights in accordance with the journal's publication policies.
8. Ensure transparency regarding journal ownership, management, publishing policies, publication fees where applicable, peer-review procedures, editorial structure, and contact information.
9. Prevent commercial interests, advertising, sponsorship, or other financial considerations from influencing editorial decisions.
10. Support the implementation and continuous development of publication ethics policies that promote honesty, accountability, transparency, fairness, confidentiality, and responsible academic publishing.

Sinar Mentari Sundara recognizes that the integrity of scholarly publishing depends on effective cooperation among authors, reviewers, editors, the publisher, institutions, and the wider academic community. The publisher therefore supports appropriate actions necessary to safeguard the credibility and reliability of articles published in JASIM.