Allegation of Research Misconducts

Authors, journals, and institutions have an important obligation to ensure the accuracy of the scientific record. Regarding research misconduct, Jurnal Kedokteran Meditek has policy that aims to maintain integrity of scientific records, which adhere to international standards, set by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Research misconduct encompasses data fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, unethical experimentation, citation manipulation, inappropriate and image manipulation, that may occur during the research or writing process. Misconduct also includes the failure to disclose significant conflicts of interest or the unauthorized use of data.

In cases of suspected misconducts, the editorial team of Jurnal Kedokteran Meditek maintains responsibility to investigate fairly and objectively in accordance with COPE. The procedure include:

• Initial assessment of the validity of allegation: the editorial team first determine if the allegation is consistent with research misconduct stated above and check for potential conflict of interest involving the parties making the allegation.
• If scientific misconduct or substantial research irregularities are a possibility, the editorial team will contact the corresponding author on behalf of coauthors to provide detailed responses regarding the allegation.
• After evaluating the author’s responses, the editorial team may seek experts’ opinions on the allegation.
• For cases in which misconduct is unlikely and errors are minimum, clarification or additional analysis published as letters to editors are sufficient.
• However, in cases in which submitted manuscripts found to contain misconduct such as severe plagiarism, the manuscripts will be rejected immediately.
• In cases like misuse of generative AI tools, reviewers and editors are tasked to identify and report the misconduct.
• If misconduct is identified in a published article, a formal retraction is issued and linked to the original article to notify readers.