Conflict of Interest

KOMUNITA: Jurnal Pengabdian dan Pemberdayaan kepada Masyarakat is committed to ensuring transparency, objectivity, and integrity throughout the publication process. Conflicts of interest may arise when personal, professional, financial, institutional, or other relationships could influence, or could reasonably be perceived to influence, the preparation, evaluation, or publication of a manuscript.

The journal requires authors, reviewers, and editors to disclose relevant conflicts of interest so that editorial decisions are made fairly and independently, based on the scholarly and scientific merit of the submitted work.

1. Types of Conflicts of Interest
Conflicts of interest may include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Financial interests: Employment, consultancy, honoraria, research funding, grants, stock ownership, patents, or other financial relationships that may be affected by the publication.

  • Professional interests: Collaborations, competing research interests, academic competition, or professional relationships that may compromise impartial assessment.

  • Personal relationships: Family relationships, close friendships, personal disputes, or other relationships with authors or individuals involved in the research.

  • Institutional interests: Affiliations or responsibilities that may create competing obligations or influence the assessment of a manuscript.

  • Other competing interests: Any additional circumstances that could reasonably be perceived to affect the objectivity of authors, reviewers, or editors.

2. Responsibilities of Authors
All authors are required to disclose relevant conflicts of interest when submitting a manuscript. Authors must declare financial and non-financial interests that may be directly or indirectly related to the work.

Authors must also disclose relevant funding sources and explain the role of the funder, if any, in the study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, manuscript preparation, and the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.

If there is no conflict of interest, authors must include a statement such as:
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest related to this work.

Any relevant conflict identified after submission or publication must be promptly reported to the editorial team so that appropriate action may be considered.

3. Responsibilities of Reviewers
Reviewers must disclose actual or potential conflicts of interest before accepting a review assignment. Reviewers must decline the assignment if their relationship with the authors, institution, research, or subject matter could compromise their impartiality.

Reviewers must not use unpublished information obtained through peer review for personal advantage, research competition, or any purpose unrelated to the review. All manuscript information must remain confidential.

4. Responsibilities of Editors
Editors must disclose and manage actual or potential conflicts of interest that could affect their editorial assessment. Editors with a relevant conflict must not handle the manuscript or participate in the decision-making process for that submission.

In such circumstances, the manuscript will be assigned to another qualified editor who can evaluate it independently. Editorial decisions must not be influenced by personal relationships, institutional affiliations, financial considerations, or commercial interests.

5. Management of Conflicts of Interest
When a conflict of interest is disclosed or identified, the editorial team will assess its nature and potential impact on the publication process. Depending on the circumstances, the journal may:

  • Request additional information or clarification from the parties involved.

  • Assign a different reviewer or editor to preserve impartiality.

  • Require an appropriate disclosure statement in the published article.

  • Take further editorial action if a significant conflict was not disclosed or if the integrity of the review or publication process may have been compromised.

The existence of a conflict of interest does not automatically constitute a violation or require the rejection of a manuscript. The journal will consider whether the conflict can be appropriately disclosed and managed while maintaining the fairness and integrity of the publication process.

6. Transparency and Publication
Disclosure of relevant conflicts of interest will be recorded and, where appropriate, included in the published article. The journal reserves the right to request further disclosure or take corrective action if material information is later found to have been omitted or inaccurately reported.

All parties involved in the publication process are expected to cooperate with reasonable requests for clarification and to uphold the principles of transparency, accountability, and responsible scholarly communication.

7. Contact
Questions or disclosures regarding conflicts of interest should be directed to the editorial team of KOMUNITA: Jurnal Pengabdian dan Pemberdayaan kepada Masyarakat at: jurnalkomunita@gmail.com.