Journal of Indonesian Society Empowerment (JISE) is dedicated to upholding the highest standards of scientific integrity, research ethics, and publication governance. Research misconduct severely undermines public trust, compromises community empowerment initiatives, and harms the scholarly record. JISE enforces a strict zero-tolerance policy toward all forms of research misconduct. All allegations or evidence of research ethics breaches are investigated thoroughly, impartially, and in full alignment with the principles and flowcharts of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Research misconduct refers to deliberate, reckless, or grossly negligent deception in proposing, conducting, performing, reviewing, or reporting research findings. It does not include honest error, differences of scientific opinion, or legitimate methodological debate. JISE explicitly categorizes research misconduct into the following major areas:

• Data Fabrication: The invention, creation, or manufacture of non-existent research data, empirical observations, field survey results, laboratory measurements, or participant responses, and presenting them as authentic research findings.
• Data Falsification: The intentional manipulation, alteration, selective reporting, or suppression of actual research data, equipment readings, experimental processes, or statistical results to create a misleading impression or force a desired outcome. This includes omitting outliers without scientific justification or cherry-picking data points.
• Image and Graphic Manipulation: Inappropriately altering, enhancing, obscurely cropping, duplicating, or splicing graphical figures, microscopy images, gel electrophoresis bands, or photographic evidence. Adjustments to brightness, contrast, or color balance are permissible only if applied uniformly across the entire image and do not obscure, remove, or misrepresent any original data or feature.
• Authorship Misconduct and Paper Mills: Unethical manipulation of authorship credits, including:
  • Ghost Authorship: Omitting individuals who made substantial intellectual contributions to the research or writing.
  • Gift / Guest Authorship: Including individuals who made no meaningful contribution to the research, often to leverage their academic prestige or fulfill institutional quotas.
  • Paper Mill Submissions: Purchasing, selling, or submitting articles generated by commercial writing agencies or automated content services.

Because JISE publishes research related to community empowerment, social interventions, and field-based studies, rigorous ethical standards regarding human research participants are strictly enforced:

• Human Subjects and Ethics Committee Approval: All empirical research involving human participants, field surveys, interviews, clinical trials, or social interventions must comply with international ethical frameworks, such as the Declaration of Helsinki. Authors must explicitly state in the Methods section that the study received formal approval (including protocol registration numbers) from an institutional Review Board (IRB) or recognized Ethics Committee.
• Informed Consent and Vulnerable Groups: Authors must obtain and document voluntary written informed consent from all human participants (or legally authorized guardians in the case of minors, vulnerable community groups, or marginalized populations) prior to research commencement. Authors must ensure complete anonymity and confidentiality; identifiable personal details, photos, or location specifics must not be published unless explicit written permission was obtained.
• Animal Welfare Compliance: Where research involves animal testing or field experiments, authors must demonstrate compliance with institutional and national guidelines for the care and ethical treatment of laboratory or wild animals.

JISE welcomes legitimate, evidence-based alerts regarding research integrity concerns from peer reviewers, readers, institutional integrity officers, or whistleblowers.

• Confidentiality and Protection: All reports of alleged research misconduct are treated with strict confidentiality. The identity of whistleblowers will not be disclosed to the accused parties without explicit written consent.
• Due Process and Right of Response: All investigations are conducted with impartiality and procedural fairness. Accused authors or researchers are presumed innocent until proven otherwise. Authors will be formally notified of specific concerns and provided a fair timeframe (typically 14 to 30 calendar days) to submit raw data, lab notebooks, survey instruments, or institutional ethics documentation in their defense.

When an allegation or anomaly is identified prior to or following publication, the Handling Editor and Editor-in-Chief follow COPE flowcharts to resolve the matter:

• Preliminary Assessment: The Editorial Board assesses the evidence (e.g., examining raw data files, image forensic analysis, or comparing published figures). If the evidence indicates potential misconduct or unmitigated data anomalies, the Editor-in-Chief requests clarification from the corresponding author.
• Institutional Escalation: If authors fail to provide satisfactory explanations or raw data, or if the allegation involves severe fabrication/falsification, JISE will formally refer the matter to the authors' university, research institution, ethics board, or funding agency for an internal institutional investigation.

If an investigation concludes that research misconduct has occurred, JISE will take corrective measures proportional to the offense:

• Pre-Publication Sanctions:
  • Immediate rejection of the manuscript.
  • Formal notification to the authors' institution or funding agency.
  • A temporary or permanent ban on future manuscript submissions to JISE for all implicated authors.
• Post-Publication Sanctions:
  • Expression of Concern: Published by the Editor-in-Chief if serious doubts arise regarding the integrity of a paper while an institutional investigation remains pending.
  • Formal Article Retraction: Executed if data fabrication, falsification, unethical human experimentation, or paper mill involvement is confirmed. The article will be officially retracted in accordance with COPE Retraction Guidelines. A Retraction Notice detailing the findings will be published, and the PDF version on the JISE portal will be permanently stamped with a prominent "RETRACTED" watermark.