PUBLICATION ETHIC

Sinnun Maxillofacial Journal (SMJ) is committed to maintaining the highest standards of academic integrity, scientific quality, transparency, and ethical scholarly publishing. The journal recognizes that responsible research conduct and ethical publication practices are essential to ensuring the credibility, reliability, and advancement of scientific knowledge in dentistry and oral and maxillofacial sciences.

SMJ adopts the principles and recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) as a framework for its editorial policies and publication practices. These principles guide the responsibilities of publishers, editors, reviewers, and authors in maintaining the integrity of the scientific publication process.

All research involving human participants must comply with internationally recognized ethical principles, including those outlined in the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki, and applicable national and institutional regulations. Research involving animals must comply with relevant institutional and national animal welfare requirements and internationally recognized ethical principles, including the International Guiding Principles for Biomedical Research Involving Animals, developed by the Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences (CIOMS) and the International Council for Laboratory Animal Science (ICLAS).

SMJ exclusively considers original research articles that meet the journal's scientific, methodological, and ethical standards. All parties involved in the publication process are expected to uphold the following ethical responsibilities.

1. Responsibilities of Editors

Editors play a fundamental role in safeguarding the quality, integrity, impartiality, and confidentiality of the editorial process.

Editorial Independence and Accountability

Editors are responsible for ensuring that submitted manuscripts are evaluated fairly, objectively, and consistently according to their scientific merit, originality, methodological quality, and relevance to the journal's focus and scope.

Editorial decisions must not be influenced by the authors' nationality, ethnicity, gender, religious beliefs, political views, institutional affiliations, academic positions, or personal backgrounds.

Manuscript Evaluation and Decision-Making

Editors are expected to:

  1. Conduct an initial assessment of submitted manuscripts to determine their suitability for peer review.

  2. Ensure that manuscripts comply with the journal's author guidelines, editorial requirements, and publication ethics policies.

  3. Select qualified reviewers with appropriate expertise and without relevant conflicts of interest.

  4. Evaluate reviewers' recommendations objectively and communicate editorial decisions clearly to authors.

  5. Consult members of the Editorial Board or additional reviewers when necessary to resolve conflicting assessments or complex scientific concerns.

  6. Ensure that publication decisions are based on scientific quality and ethical considerations rather than commercial or personal interests.

The Editor-in-Chief holds the final authority regarding acceptance or rejection of manuscripts submitted to SMJ.

Confidentiality and Peer Review Integrity

SMJ implements a double-blind peer review process to protect the identities of authors and reviewers during manuscript evaluation.

Editors and editorial staff must maintain the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts, reviewer reports, editorial correspondence, and unpublished research materials.

Unpublished information obtained during the editorial process must not be disclosed or used for personal research, professional advancement, or other purposes without appropriate authorization.

Conflicts of Interest

Editors must disclose any financial, professional, institutional, or personal relationships that could compromise, or reasonably appear to compromise, their impartiality.

Editors with relevant conflicts of interest must withdraw from handling the affected manuscripts and arrange for an independent editor to oversee the evaluation process.

Handling Ethical Concerns

Editors are responsible for evaluating allegations of plagiarism, data fabrication, falsification, duplicate publication, inappropriate authorship, undisclosed conflicts of interest, and other potential forms of research misconduct.

Suspected misconduct must be assessed fairly, confidentially, and in accordance with appropriate editorial procedures and relevant COPE guidance.

2. Responsibilities of Reviewers

Peer reviewers contribute to the scientific quality and credibility of SMJ by providing independent, objective, and constructive evaluations of submitted manuscripts.

Scientific Evaluation

Reviewers are expected to:

  1. Evaluate the originality, significance, methodological quality, scientific validity, and relevance of the submitted research.

  2. Provide clear, constructive, and evidence-based comments that assist authors in improving their manuscripts.

  3. Identify methodological limitations, inconsistencies in data interpretation, inadequate reporting, or unsupported conclusions.

  4. Notify the editor of suspected plagiarism, substantial similarities with previously published work, ethical concerns, or other potential publication misconduct.

  5. Avoid personal criticism, offensive language, or unsupported allegations when preparing reviewer reports.

Confidentiality

Reviewers must treat all manuscripts and related materials as confidential documents.

Manuscripts, research data, reviewer correspondence, and unpublished findings must not be shared with unauthorized individuals or used for personal or professional advantage.

Reviewers must not disclose their involvement in reviewing a particular manuscript or share confidential review materials without editorial authorization.

Timeliness and Professional Responsibility

Reviewers should accept review invitations only when they possess sufficient expertise and can complete the evaluation within the requested timeframe.

If a reviewer cannot complete the review as scheduled, the editor must be informed promptly to avoid unnecessary delays in the publication process.

Conflicts of Interest

Reviewers must disclose any potential conflicts of interest arising from personal, professional, institutional, financial, or academic relationships that may influence their evaluation.

Reviewers should decline assignments when such conflicts could compromise the independence or objectivity of their assessments.

3. Responsibilities of Authors

Authors are responsible for ensuring that their submitted manuscripts represent original, accurate, transparent, and ethically conducted scientific research.

Originality and Research Integrity

Authors must ensure that submitted manuscripts contain original research findings and have not been previously published or simultaneously submitted to another journal.

All sources of information, ideas, methods, and findings obtained from previous publications must be appropriately acknowledged and cited.

Plagiarism, data fabrication, falsification, inappropriate image manipulation, redundant publication, and other forms of research misconduct are strictly prohibited.

Accuracy and Transparency of Research Data

Authors are responsible for presenting research methods, results, statistical analyses, and interpretations accurately and transparently.

Research findings must not be selectively manipulated, misrepresented, or fabricated.

When justified concerns regarding research integrity arise, authors may be requested to provide relevant research data, ethical documentation, methodological explanations, or other supporting materials for editorial evaluation.

Authorship and Contributions

Authorship must reflect substantial intellectual contributions to the conception, design, execution, analysis, interpretation, or preparation of the research.

All listed authors must have reviewed and approved the submitted manuscript, accepted responsibility for their contributions, and agreed to its submission for publication.

Individuals who contribute to the research but do not meet the applicable authorship criteria should be appropriately acknowledged with their consent.

Any changes to authorship after submission must be justified and approved by all concerned parties, subject to editorial assessment.

Ethical Approval and Informed Consent

Research involving human participants must receive approval from an appropriate institutional research ethics committee when required by applicable regulations.

Authors must clearly report relevant ethical approval information, including the name of the approving institution and ethical approval number, where applicable.

Informed consent must be obtained from research participants or their legally authorized representatives as required by applicable ethical and legal standards.

For research involving minors or other potentially vulnerable populations, additional ethical safeguards must be implemented in accordance with relevant regulations and ethical principles.

Protection of Patient Privacy

Authors must protect the privacy, dignity, and confidentiality of all research participants.

Personal identifiers, recognizable photographs, clinical images, and other information that may reveal a participant's identity must not be published unless appropriate consent for publication has been obtained.

When identifiable patient information is essential to the scientific content, authors must obtain explicit consent for its publication and confirm compliance with applicable ethical and legal requirements.

Animal Research Ethics

Studies involving experimental animals must comply with institutional and national animal welfare regulations and recognized international ethical principles.

Authors must report relevant ethical approval information, describe appropriate animal care and welfare measures, and demonstrate efforts to minimize unnecessary pain, distress, and suffering.

Conflicts of Interest and Funding Disclosure

All authors must disclose financial and non-financial relationships that could potentially influence the research or its interpretation.

These may include employment, research funding, consultancy arrangements, institutional relationships, intellectual property interests, or other relevant affiliations.

Funding sources and the roles of funding organizations in the research process must be clearly stated, where applicable.

Compliance with Journal Guidelines

Authors must prepare and submit manuscripts in accordance with the journal's author guidelines, reporting requirements, and editorial policies.

Authors are expected to respond professionally to reviewers' and editors' comments and provide transparent explanations of revisions made during the editorial process.

4. Confidentiality and Editorial Communication

SMJ recognizes confidentiality as an essential principle of responsible scholarly publishing.

All submitted manuscripts, reviewer reports, editorial assessments, and communications between authors, reviewers, and editors are considered confidential unless disclosure is authorized or otherwise required by applicable ethical or legal obligations.

Editors and reviewers must not disclose, reproduce, or distribute unpublished manuscripts or associated materials without appropriate authorization.

Authors are also expected to respect the confidentiality of editorial correspondence and peer review reports. Such materials should not be publicly distributed, posted on websites, or disclosed to third parties without appropriate permission.

These confidentiality obligations apply throughout the submission, review, revision, and editorial decision-making processes.

5. Plagiarism and Publication Misconduct

SMJ maintains a strict policy against plagiarism, self-plagiarism, duplicate publication, data fabrication, falsification, and other forms of unethical scholarly conduct.

All submitted manuscripts undergo similarity screening before peer review. SMJ requires a similarity index of less than 25%, although the similarity percentage alone is not considered definitive evidence of plagiarism.

The editorial team evaluates similarity reports by considering the nature, extent, and context of overlapping material.

Manuscripts containing substantial plagiarism or serious violations of publication ethics may be rejected regardless of their overall similarity percentage.

Suspected research or publication misconduct will be assessed in accordance with the journal's editorial procedures and relevant ethical publishing guidelines.

6. Copyright and Licensing

Authors retain the copyright to their original scholarly work published in Sinnun Maxillofacial Journal.

SMJ publishes its articles under the Creative Commons Attribution–ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) license, which permits readers and other users to access, reproduce, distribute, and adapt published materials, including for commercial purposes, provided that appropriate attribution is given to the original authors and publication source.

Any adaptations of published materials must be distributed under the same or an appropriately compatible ShareAlike license, in accordance with the applicable licensing terms.

Authors must ensure that any third-party materials included in their manuscripts are used in accordance with relevant copyright requirements and that necessary permissions have been obtained when applicable.

Authors are required to agree to the journal's publication and licensing terms before their manuscripts are published.

7. Corrections, Retractions, and Post-Publication Concerns

SMJ is committed to maintaining the accuracy and integrity of the scholarly record after publication.

When errors, inaccuracies, or ethical concerns are identified in published articles, the editorial team will assess the nature and significance of the issues and determine the appropriate corrective action.

Depending on the circumstances, such actions may include:

  • Correction: Issuing a formal correction when an error affects the accuracy or clarity of the published article but does not invalidate its principal findings or conclusions.

  • Retraction: Retracting an article when substantial evidence indicates that its findings are unreliable or that serious ethical or publication misconduct has occurred.

  • Expression of Concern: Publishing an editorial notice when significant concerns regarding the reliability or integrity of an article remain unresolved and further investigation is necessary.

Editorial investigations and post-publication decisions will be conducted fairly and transparently, with appropriate consideration of the available evidence and relevant COPE guidance.

8. Complaints and Appeals

SMJ recognizes the importance of providing authors, reviewers, readers, and other stakeholders with an appropriate mechanism for submitting complaints or appeals related to editorial decisions, peer review procedures, publication ethics, or other aspects of the journal's publishing process.

Complaints and appeals should be submitted in writing and must include a clear description of the concern, relevant supporting information, and any associated manuscript or publication details.

The editorial team will review complaints objectively and confidentially. When necessary, the Editor-in-Chief may consult members of the Editorial Board or independent experts to ensure a fair assessment.

Editorial appeals must provide reasonable grounds for reconsideration, such as potential procedural errors, misunderstandings of scientific evidence, or concerns regarding the fairness of the review process.

Complaints and appeals may be submitted to:

Editor-in-Chief
Sinnun Maxillofacial Journal
Faculty of Dentistry, Universitas Muslim Indonesia
Makassar, South Sulawesi, Indonesia
Email: fadilabdillaharifin@umi.ac.id

9. Commitment to Ethical Scholarly Publishing

Sinnun Maxillofacial Journal is dedicated to fostering a responsible, transparent, and trustworthy scholarly publishing environment.

The journal expects all authors, reviewers, editors, and individuals involved in the publication process to adhere to internationally recognized principles of scientific integrity and publication ethics.

Through fair editorial practices, rigorous peer review, responsible authorship, and appropriate handling of ethical concerns, SMJ seeks to maintain the credibility of its scientific publications and contribute to the continued advancement of dental research, education, and clinical practice.