01. Duties of Editors

Editorial Decisions and Independence

Editors evaluate manuscripts based on scholarly merit, originality, methodological rigor, clarity, relevance, and ethical compliance. Decisions must remain independent of commercial, institutional, political, or personal influence.

Fair Evaluation

Editors must evaluate submissions without discrimination based on authors' personal characteristics, nationality, institutional affiliation, religion, or political beliefs.

Confidentiality

Editors and editorial staff must protect confidential manuscript information, reviewer identities, and editorial communications, except where disclosure is authorized or necessary for a legitimate integrity investigation.

Conflicts of Interest

Editors must disclose relevant competing interests and recuse themselves from manuscripts where impartiality may be compromised. Unpublished materials must not be used for personal advantage.

Ethical Oversight

Editors are responsible for assessing credible concerns about plagiarism, authorship irregularities, manipulated peer review, fabricated or falsified research, and other ethical breaches through fair and proportionate procedures.

02. Duties of Reviewers

03. Duties of Authors

Accuracy and Reporting Standards

Authors must present research honestly and accurately, describe their methods sufficiently, and avoid fabrication, falsification, misleading presentation, or selective distortion of findings.

Originality and Attribution

Authors must appropriately cite and acknowledge the work of others. Plagiarism, deceptive paraphrasing, inappropriate text reuse, and misrepresentation of research contributions are unacceptable.

Multiple or Concurrent Submission

Authors must not submit the same manuscript simultaneously to more than one journal and must disclose relevant prior dissemination or overlapping publications.

Authorship

Authorship must reflect substantive scholarly contributions. All authors must approve the final manuscript and accept responsibility for their contributions. Guest, gift, and ghost authorship are unacceptable. Authorship changes must be appropriately explained and agreed upon by the authors concerned.

Funding and Conflicts of Interest

Authors must disclose funding sources and relevant financial or non-financial interests that could influence the research or its interpretation.

Research Data and Transparency

Authors should provide sufficient methodological information for scholarly assessment and include an appropriate data availability statement. Data sharing must respect legal, ethical, consent, and confidentiality restrictions.

Post-publication Responsibilities

Authors who discover significant errors or ethical concerns in published work must promptly notify the editorial office and cooperate with appropriate corrective actions.

04. Research Involving Human Participants

Research involving human participants, including interviews, surveys, observations, educational interventions, identifiable images, recordings, or personal information, must comply with applicable ethical requirements.

The absence of a formal ethics review requirement does not remove the author's responsibility to conduct research ethically and document relevant consent and protection measures.

05. Research Involving Animals

Research involving live animals must comply with applicable legislation, institutional requirements, and recognized animal welfare standards. Authors must obtain prior approval from an appropriate animal ethics committee or equivalent body when required.

Authors must report relevant ethical approval, animal care procedures, and welfare safeguards in the manuscript. Any applicable exemption should be explained.

06. Generative AI and AI-Assisted Technologies

Transparency and Disclosure

Substantive use of generative AI in writing, analysis, image creation, or other research-related activities must be disclosed, identifying the tool, its purpose, and the extent of human verification. AI use forming part of the research methodology must be described in the relevant methods section. Routine spelling and grammar correction does not ordinarily require disclosure.

Confidentiality in Editorial Work

Editors and reviewers must not upload unpublished manuscripts, confidential review reports, or protected editorial information to external generative AI services without an explicitly authorized arrangement that adequately safeguards confidentiality, intellectual property, and personal data.

AI Detection and Editorial Assessment

AI-detection results may inform preliminary assessment but must not independently establish misconduct. Editors should consider the manuscript, author disclosures, supporting evidence, and any relevant explanations before reaching a decision.

07. Plagiarism, Text Reuse, and Similarity Screening

JoLLA applies a maximum similarity index of 20% as part of its technical screening requirements. This threshold is an editorial screening criterion and must not be interpreted as a universal definition of plagiarism.

Similarity reports require contextual assessment. Legitimate quotations, references, standardized terminology, and other appropriately attributed text may contribute to similarity scores. Conversely, a low similarity score does not rule out plagiarism or other misconduct.

Suspected plagiarism, unattributed reuse, duplicate publication, or inappropriate overlap will be evaluated on the basis of evidence and may result in requests for clarification, revision, rejection, or post-publication action, as appropriate.

08. Allegations of Publication Misconduct

JoLLA takes credible concerns about research and publication misconduct seriously, whether they arise before or after publication. Such concerns may involve plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, inappropriate authorship, compromised peer review, undisclosed conflicts of interest, or violations of research ethics.

The editorial team will assess allegations fairly and proportionately, seek relevant evidence and explanations, protect confidentiality where possible, and consult appropriate institutions or experts when necessary. The parties concerned should be given a reasonable opportunity to respond before conclusions are reached, subject to applicable procedures.

09. Corrections, Expressions of Concern, and Retractions

JoLLA may issue post-publication notices when necessary to protect the accuracy and integrity of the scholarly record. The appropriate action depends on the nature, severity, and evidentiary basis of the concern.

10. Publisher Responsibilities

The publisher, Faculty of Letters, Universitas Negeri Malang, supports editorial independence, transparent publishing practices, ethical oversight, and the appropriate handling of research-integrity concerns.

The publisher works with the editorial team to safeguard the scholarly record and ensure that financial, institutional, or commercial considerations do not improperly influence editorial decisions.

11. Complaints and Appeals

Authors, reviewers, and readers may raise concerns about editorial procedures, ethical conduct, or published content through the journal's official editorial contact channels. Complaints and appeals will be assessed fairly and, where appropriate, by a responsible editor or other person who was not involved in the disputed decision.

A complaint or appeal should identify the relevant manuscript or publication, explain the concern, and provide supporting information where available. The journal may request further clarification to support a fair assessment.