Conflict of Interest Policy

Conflict of Interest Policy

Pedagonal: Jurnal Ilmiah Pendidikan is committed to ensuring transparency, objectivity, and high ethical standards in the academic publishing process. In accordance with the Core Practices of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), we require all parties involved—authors, reviewers, and editors—to explicitly declare any potential conflicts of interest (also known as competing interests).

A conflict of interest exists when a primary objective (such as the objective evaluation of research) may be influenced by secondary interests, which can be financial, personal, academic, or institutional.

1. Obligations for Authors

• Authors must disclose any financial or non-financial interests that could be perceived as influencing the research design, data collection, analysis, or interpretation of their manuscript.

• Financial conflicts include, but are not limited to, research grants, employment, consultancies, honoraria, or patent applications.

• Non-financial conflicts include personal relationships, professional rivalries, or strong political/religious beliefs related to the research topic.

• Authors must include a formal "Declaration of Competing Interest" statement in their manuscript before the References section. If no conflict exists, authors must explicitly state: "The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper."

2. Obligations for Peer Reviewers

• Reviewers must evaluate manuscripts objectively and strictly based on academic merit.

• Before accepting a review invitation, reviewers must inform the Editor-in-Chief and decline the assignment if they suspect a conflict of interest, particularly if they:

  • Have collaborated or co-authored a publication with any of the authors within the last three years.

  • Share the same institutional affiliation as any of the authors.

  • Have a direct personal, professional, or financial relationship with the authors.

  • Are engaged in research that directly competes with the submitted manuscript.

3. Obligations for Editors and Editorial Board Members

• Editors must recuse themselves from handling or making decisions on any manuscript for which they have a conflict of interest. In such cases, the manuscript will be reassigned to another independent editor.

• Submissions from the Editorial Board: If an Editor or Editorial Board member submits a manuscript to Pedagonal, they will be completely excluded from the peer-review handling and decision-making process for that specific paper. The manuscript will undergo the same rigorous, independent double-blind peer-review process as all other submissions to ensure fairness and prevent any preferential treatment.

4. Handling Undeclared Conflicts of Interest If an undisclosed conflict of interest is discovered after a manuscript has been published, the journal’s editorial team will take appropriate action in accordance with COPE flowcharts. Depending on the severity of the undeclared conflict, this may result in the publication of an erratum/corrigendum, an expression of concern, or, in severe cases, the retraction of the article.