Publication Ethics Statement

HEUTAGOGIA: Journal of Islamic Education is a peer-reviewed, open-access scholarly journal committed to advancing rigorous research and critical inquiry in Islamic education. The journal upholds high scholarly standards based on integrity, transparency, accountability, editorial independence, and respect for ethical research principles.

This Publication Ethics Statement defines the ethical responsibilities of authors, editors, reviewers, editorial board members, and the publisher. The journal’s policies are guided by internationally recognized publication ethics standards, including the principles and core practices of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). These standards apply to all stages of editorial management, including submission, peer review, editorial decision-making, publication, correction, retraction, and post-publication oversight.

Ethical Guidelines for Journal Publication

The publication of peer-reviewed articles is a core element in the development of credible academic knowledge in Islamic education. Editorial decisions are made independently and must not be influenced by advertising, sponsorship, institutional pressure, commercial considerations, or personal interests. Any commercial revenue, including advertising, reprint services, or sponsorship, shall have no effect on editorial judgment.

The journal, editorial board, and publisher are committed to safeguarding academic freedom, editorial independence, and the integrity of the scholarly record.

Research Misconduct and Publishing Malpractice

Research misconduct and publishing malpractice include, but are not limited to, fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, self-plagiarism without disclosure, duplicate or redundant publication, undisclosed conflicts of interest, citation manipulation, authorship manipulation, peer-review manipulation, image manipulation, data misrepresentation, and unethical use of artificial intelligence.

Any allegation of misconduct or publishing malpractice will be handled seriously, confidentially, fairly, and in a timely manner. The journal may request explanations, raw data, ethics approval documents, authorship clarification, funding disclosure, or institutional confirmation from the authors. The journal may also consult editorial board members, independent experts, or relevant institutions.

If misconduct is confirmed before publication, the manuscript will be rejected. If confirmed after publication, the journal will issue an appropriate post-publication notice, including a correction, expression of concern, or retraction, depending on the severity of the case. Editors and the publisher share responsibility for taking timely and proportionate action when publication ethics are breached.

Allegations of Misconduct

When the journal receives a complaint or allegation of possible research misconduct, ethical breach, or publishing malpractice, the Editor-in-Chief or a designated editor will conduct a preliminary assessment to determine whether the allegation is credible and supported by sufficient information. This may include review of similarity reports, editorial correspondence, peer-review records, metadata, and supporting documents.

If the allegation appears credible, the corresponding author will be contacted and invited to provide a written explanation on behalf of all co-authors. Where necessary, the journal may request further information or refer the matter to the authors’ institution, funder, or another competent authority for formal investigation.

During the investigation, the journal may suspend editorial processing, delay publication, reject the submission, or issue an expression of concern if a published article may be unreliable and the matter cannot be resolved promptly.

Handling of Unethical Publishing Behavior

In cases of alleged or proven scientific misconduct, fraudulent publication, plagiarism, duplicate publication, fake peer review, citation manipulation, authorship abuse, undisclosed conflicts of interest, or other serious ethical violations, the journal, together with the publisher, will take appropriate measures to clarify the situation and correct the scholarly record. Such measures may include editorial investigation, requests for documentation, suspension of editorial processing, rejection of the submission, publication of a correction, expression of concern, or retraction, and notification to relevant institutions where appropriate.

Complaint and Appeal Process

Authors may appeal editorial decisions by submitting a formal written justification to the Editor-in-Chief. Appeals must address reviewer comments, editorial concerns, or procedural issues with clear academic arguments. An independent editor, editorial board member, or additional reviewer who was not directly involved in the original decision may be assigned to assess the appeal. The decision made after appeal review is final.

Complaints regarding editorial conduct, peer-review practice, conflicts of interest, ethical concerns, or post-publication decisions may be submitted to the editorial office. All complaints will be handled confidentially, impartially, and in accordance with established ethical standards.

Plagiarism and Similarity Screening

Authors must not use the words, data, images, figures, tables, or ideas of others without proper acknowledgment. All sources must be cited at the point of use, and any reuse of wording must be appropriately quoted or attributed.

HEUTAGOGIA: Journal of Islamic Education uses Crossref Similarity Check (iThenticate), Turnitin, and other recognized similarity detection tools to assess overlap between submitted manuscripts and existing published or unpublished materials. The maximum similarity threshold tolerated by the journal is 20 percent, excluding references, bibliographies, and properly quoted material. Similarity reports are interpreted carefully and are not used mechanically. Editorial judgment is applied to distinguish acceptable overlap from plagiarism, redundant publication, or textual recycling.

Manuscripts found to contain plagiarism or substantial unacknowledged overlap may be rejected. If plagiarism or serious overlap is discovered after publication, the journal may issue a correction, expression of concern, or retraction as necessary.

Use of Artificial Intelligence in Manuscript Preparation

The journal permits the limited use of Artificial Intelligence tools only as supportive instruments for grammar checking, language refinement, readability enhancement, translation support, and limited literature classification under strict human supervision. The use of AI to generate, rewrite, fabricate, or manipulate substantial scholarly content, including abstracts, arguments, findings, discussions, tables, figures, images, references, peer-review reports, or synthetic data, is prohibited unless explicitly justified within the research design and transparently disclosed.

All use of AI-assisted tools in manuscript preparation must be declared in an AI Disclosure Statement placed in the Acknowledgements or Methods section, as appropriate. Authors remain fully responsible for the originality, accuracy, validity, citation integrity, and ethical compliance of the submitted work.

Reviewers must not upload manuscripts, peer-review files, or confidential journal materials into public or unauthorized AI systems. Editors and editorial staff must also not upload confidential manuscripts or editorial documents into public AI platforms. Editorial judgment and publication decisions must always remain under human responsibility.

Publication Decisions

The Editor-in-Chief has full authority over publication decisions and ensures that all editorial determinations are made independently, objectively, and in accordance with recognized ethical publishing standards. Decisions are based on the manuscript’s relevance to the aims and scope of the journal, originality, scholarly contribution, methodological rigor, ethical compliance, clarity of presentation, and overall academic merit.

All decisions are also subject to applicable legal requirements concerning defamation, copyright infringement, permissions, privacy, research ethics, and related regulatory standards.

Corrections Policy

The journal is committed to maintaining the accuracy of the scholarly record. When errors, omissions, or inaccuracies are identified in a submitted or published article, the editors will determine whether a formal correction is necessary.

A minor correction may be made for metadata errors, typographical errors, author affiliation details, or other inaccuracies that do not affect the interpretation of the article. A substantive correction may be issued when the error affects the clarity, accuracy, attribution, data presentation, or integrity of the article but does not invalidate the overall findings or conclusions of the work.

Corrections may be initiated by authors, editors, reviewers, readers, or the publisher. The responsibility for evaluating and approving corrections rests with the Editor-in-Chief or a designated editor, while the publisher is responsible for implementing the approved correction in the online record, linking the correction notice to the original article, updating relevant metadata where applicable, and maintaining transparency in the publication history.

All formal corrections will be clearly identified, freely accessible, dated, and permanently linked to the original article. The correction notice will describe the nature of the error and the changes made. The journal will not alter the published record in a manner that obscures the existence of the original error.

Retractions Policy

A retraction will be issued when a published article is found to be seriously unreliable due to misconduct or major error, including but not limited to fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, unethical research, duplicate publication, unauthorized use of data or materials, serious authorship misconduct, peer-review manipulation, or other breaches that substantially undermine confidence in the article.

The decision to retract an article is made by the Editor-in-Chief, in consultation with relevant editors, the editorial board, or the publisher where appropriate. The publisher is responsible for ensuring that the retraction notice is published, permanently linked to the original article, clearly identified in the journal’s online record and metadata, and reflected in indexing information where applicable. Retraction may proceed even if the authors do not agree, refuse to respond, or cannot be contacted, provided that the available evidence supports the action.

The retraction notice will clearly state the reason for retraction and indicate whether the retraction is issued by the authors, the editors, or jointly by the editors and publisher. Retracted articles will remain available as part of the scholarly record unless legal, ethical, or public safety considerations require removal, but they will be clearly marked as retracted.

Expression of Concern Policy

An expression of concern may be issued when the journal has serious reason to question the reliability, ethics, or integrity of a published article, but the available evidence is inconclusive, the authors’ explanation is insufficient, or an institutional investigation is still ongoing. This mechanism is used to alert readers to a potentially significant problem while the matter remains under review.

The decision to publish an expression of concern is made by the Editor-in-Chief or a designated editor, with support from the publisher for technical implementation, metadata updating, and permanent linkage to the affected article. Once the matter is resolved, the expression of concern may be followed by a correction, retraction, or editorial note indicating that no further action is required.

Duties of Editors

Responsibilities

Editors are responsible for managing manuscripts fairly, confidentially, efficiently, and independently, and for making editorial decisions based solely on academic merit, relevance, methodological soundness, and ethical compliance.

Fair Play

Editors evaluate manuscripts without discrimination on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, political philosophy, institutional affiliation, or other non-scholarly considerations.

Confidentiality

Editors and editorial staff must treat all submitted manuscripts, peer-review reports, correspondence, reviewer identities where applicable, and associated documents as confidential.

Disclosure and Conflict of Interest

Editors must avoid conflicts of interest in handling manuscripts. An editor must not oversee a manuscript if they have a personal, professional, institutional, financial, collaborative, or supervisory relationship with any author, reviewer, or organization connected to the submission that could affect impartial judgment. In such cases, the editor must immediately declare the conflict and recuse themselves from editorial handling.

All editorial conflicts of interest must be disclosed as soon as identified, and the reassignment of editorial responsibility must be documented by the editorial office. When the Editor-in-Chief has a conflict of interest, editorial responsibility must be delegated to another qualified editor or an independent editorial board member. The publisher and editorial office must support this reassignment to preserve editorial independence, procedural fairness, and an auditable editorial record.

Transparency and Integrity of the Scholarly Record

Editors are responsible for ensuring that appropriate procedures are in place for corrections, clarifications, expressions of concern, and retractions.

Research Integrity

Editors must take reasonable steps to identify and prevent the publication of papers where research misconduct, publishing malpractice, or ethical violations have occurred.

Duties of Reviewers

Contribution to Editorial Decisions

Peer review assists editors in making editorial decisions and helps authors improve the quality, clarity, rigor, and scholarly value of their manuscripts.

Promptness

Any invited reviewer who feels unqualified to review the manuscript, or unable to complete the review in a timely manner, must promptly notify the editor and decline the invitation.

Confidentiality

Manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. Reviewers must not share, discuss, copy, or use the manuscript or its contents except as authorized by the editor.

Standards of Objectivity

Reviews must be conducted objectively, fairly, and constructively. Reviewers should express their views clearly and support their evaluations with academic arguments and relevant evidence.

Acknowledgment of Sources

Reviewers should identify relevant published work not cited by the authors and inform the editor of any substantial similarity, overlap, plagiarism, or ethical concern they identify in the manuscript.

Citations

Reviewers must not recommend citations to their own work, or that of colleagues or associates, unless such citations are genuinely necessary for scholarly reasons.

Disclosure and Conflict of Interest

Reviewers must decline to review manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest arising from competitive, collaborative, financial, institutional, or personal relationships with any of the authors or organizations connected to the submission.

Duties of Authors

Reporting Standards

Authors must present an accurate, clear, and honest account of the work performed and an objective discussion of its significance. Data, methods, and findings must not be fabricated, falsified, selectively misrepresented, or inappropriately manipulated.

Data Access and Retention

Authors may be asked to provide raw data, instruments, ethics approval documents, consent procedures, or other supporting materials for editorial review. Authors should retain research data for a reasonable period after publication and comply with applicable ethical, legal, and institutional standards.

Originality and Plagiarism

Authors must ensure that their work is original. When the words, ideas, figures, tables, or data of others are used, proper citation or quotation must be provided. Plagiarism in any form, including undisclosed self-plagiarism, is unacceptable.

Multiple, Redundant, or Concurrent Publication

Authors must not submit the same manuscript to more than one journal simultaneously. Publication of substantially similar work in more than one venue without proper justification, transparency, and cross-reference constitutes unethical publishing behavior.

Acknowledgment of Sources

Authors must properly acknowledge the work of others and cite publications that have influenced the conception, design, analysis, interpretation, or reporting of the study.

Authorship of the Manuscript

Authorship must be limited to individuals who have made significant scholarly contributions to the conception, design, execution, analysis, or interpretation of the study. All those who meet authorship criteria must be listed as co-authors, and all listed authors must approve the final version of the manuscript.

Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest

All authors must disclose any financial, institutional, personal, or other substantive conflicts of interest that could influence the work, its interpretation, or its presentation. All funding sources and relevant support must be clearly acknowledged.

Hazards and Human or Animal Subjects

If the work involves human participants, animals, hazardous materials, confidential data, vulnerable communities, or sensitive cultural settings, authors must clearly state that the study complied with relevant ethical and legal requirements and, where applicable, provide evidence of ethics approval or ethics exemption.

Fundamental Errors in Published Works

When authors discover a significant error or inaccuracy in their own published work, they must promptly notify the journal and cooperate with the editors and publisher in issuing a correction, clarification, or retraction as appropriate.

Permissions

Authors who reproduce figures, tables, images, extended text passages, or other copyrighted material from previously published sources must obtain written permission from the copyright holder for both print and online publication.

Ethical Oversight

Research involving human participants, animals, sensitive communities, confidential data, or potentially hazardous materials must comply with recognized ethical standards. Where required, authors must provide evidence of ethical clearance from an appropriate institutional review board, ethics committee, or legal authority.

Digital Archiving and Access to Journal Content

The journal ensures long-term digital preservation and accessibility of published content through institutional repositories and recognized archiving mechanisms. The publisher is committed to maintaining the permanent availability, discoverability, and integrity of published scholarly research.

Editorial Board Accountability

Editorial board members are selected on the basis of academic expertise and professional integrity. They are expected to uphold ethical publishing standards, support editorial quality, avoid conflicts of interest, and contribute to the continuous improvement of journal policy and practice.

Duties of the Publisher

Guardianship of the Scholarly Record

The publisher has a fundamental responsibility to safeguard the integrity, continuity, accessibility, and preservation of the scholarly record.

Handling of Unethical Publishing Behavior

In cases of suspected or confirmed misconduct, publishing malpractice, plagiarism, fraudulent publication, or serious ethical breach, the publisher works in close cooperation with the editors to support investigation, documentation, communication, and implementation of appropriate corrective action.

Support for Corrections, Retractions, and Editorial Notices

The publisher is responsible for implementing approved corrections, retraction notices, expressions of concern, and other post-publication updates in the journal system and online record. The publisher must ensure that such notices are clearly displayed, permanently linked to the original publication, and accurately reflected in metadata and indexing information where applicable.

Safeguarding Editorial Independence

The publisher must ensure that editorial decisions remain independent and free from interference by commercial interests, sponsors, owners, advertisers, or other external parties.

Technical, Procedural, and Legal Support

The publisher provides technical infrastructure, administrative support, publication systems, and, where necessary, legal guidance to support ethically sound editorial decisions.

Education and Promotion of Publication Ethics

The publisher promotes awareness of publication ethics by providing guidance, resources, and support to editors, reviewers, and authors.

Copyright Notice

All articles published in HEUTAGOGIA: Journal of Islamic Education are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).

Under this license, users may share and adapt the material for non-commercial purposes, provided that appropriate credit is given to the original author and source, a link to the license is provided, and any changes made are indicated. Authors retain copyright in their work while granting the journal the right of first publication.