Research Misconduct Policy

JPK : Jurnal Penelitian Kesehatan takes all allegations of research and publication misconduct seriously. Cases are handled according to the flowcharts of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), whether they arise before or after publication.

What counts as misconduct

Fabrication – making up data, participants, or results.
Falsification – manipulating research materials, equipment, processes, images, or data, or omitting data, so that the research is not accurately represented.
Plagiarism – using another person's ideas, words, data, or figures without proper attribution, including self-plagiarism and translation plagiarism (see Plagiarism Policy).
Duplicate or redundant publication – publishing the same study, or the same data set without new analysis, in more than one journal, or submitting the same manuscript to several journals at the same time.
Salami slicing – splitting one study into several papers without justification.
Authorship misconduct – guest, gift, or ghost authorship, or adding/removing authors without consent (see Authorship Criteria).
Undisclosed conflicts of interest.
Citation manipulation – excessive self-citation, citation cartels, or citations demanded by reviewers or editors that are not relevant to the work.
Peer review manipulation – suggesting fake reviewers, reviewing one's own work, or breaching confidentiality.
Undisclosed or inappropriate use of generative AI (see Generative AI Policy).

Ethics in health research with human participants

Because JPK publishes nursing, midwifery, physiotherapy, and public health research, the following are mandatory:

Research involving human participants, patients, medical records, or biological samples must have ethical clearance from an accredited Health Research Ethics Committee (Komisi Etik Penelitian Kesehatan, KEPK). The name of the committee and the approval number must be stated in the Methods section.
Written informed consent must be obtained from every participant. For children, consent must be obtained from a parent or legal guardian, plus the child's assent where appropriate.
Participants' privacy must be protected. Names, photos, medical record numbers, or other identifying details must not be published unless the participant has given written consent for publication.
Clinical trials should be registered in a public trial registry, and the registration number reported.
Animal studies must state the approval of the relevant ethics committee.

Manuscripts without the required ethics statement will be returned to the authors before peer review.

How to report suspected misconduct

Anyone (readers, reviewers, editors, or authors) may report suspected misconduct by email to the Editor-in-Chief at [email protected], stating the article title or submission ID and the evidence. Reports are treated confidentially. Anonymous reports are considered if they are supported by sufficient evidence.

How the journal handles allegations

The Editor-in-Chief (or another editor without a conflict) reviews the evidence.
The authors are contacted and given the opportunity to explain.
If the explanation is satisfactory, the case is closed. If it is not, or if the authors do not respond, the journal contacts the authors' institution(s) and, where relevant, the funder, and asks them to investigate.
The journal decides on action based on the outcome, following the relevant COPE flowchart.

Possible outcomes

Before publication: request for revision, or rejection of the manuscript.
After publication: correction, expression of concern, or retraction (see Correction & Retraction Policy).
Notification of the authors' institution and/or funder.
A ban on future submissions from the authors involved, for a period in line with the Plagiarism Policy (one year for intermediate cases, five years for severe cases).