Conflict of Interest Policy

DAYA-MAS: Media Komunikasi dan Informasi Hasil Pengabdian dan Pemberdayaan Masyarakat

1. Policy Statement

DAYA-MAS is committed to ensuring transparency, impartiality, and integrity throughout the manuscript submission, peer-review, and publication processes.

A conflict of interest occurs when personal, professional, financial, institutional, or other relationships could influence, or reasonably be perceived to influence, the objectivity and integrity of a manuscript or editorial decision.

All authors, editors, and reviewers are required to disclose any actual, potential, or perceived conflicts of interest relevant to a submitted manuscript.

2. Types of Conflicts of Interest Conflicts of interest may include, but are not limited to, the following:

a. Financial Interests: Employment, consultancy, honoraria, grants, sponsorships, or other financial relationships with organizations that may benefit from the publication.

b. Personal Relationships: Family relationships, close personal relationships, personal disputes, or other circumstances that could affect impartial judgment.

c. Professional or Institutional Relationships: Employment, supervision, collaboration, or institutional affiliations that may influence the evaluation of a manuscript.

d. Academic Competition: Competitive relationships, intellectual disagreements, or professional rivalries that could compromise objective assessment.

e. Organizational Interests: Relationships with community organizations, government agencies, businesses, funding bodies, or project partners that may benefit from the reported outcomes.

f. Other Relevant Interests: Any other circumstances that could reasonably be perceived as affecting the objectivity of the authors, editors, or reviewers.

The existence of a conflict of interest does not automatically imply misconduct. Appropriate disclosure and management are essential to maintaining publication integrity.

3. Responsibilities of Authors

Authors must disclose all relevant conflicts of interest when submitting a manuscript to DAYA-MAS.

Authors should:

• Declare financial support, grants, sponsorships, and relevant institutional or organizational relationships.

• Disclose personal or professional relationships that could influence the conduct, reporting, or interpretation of the community service activity.

• Identify relevant relationships with community partners, beneficiaries, project sponsors, or organizations discussed in the manuscript.

• Include a Conflict of Interest Statement in the manuscript, even when no conflicts exist.

• Inform the editorial team if a relevant conflict becomes apparent after submission or publication.

Authors are responsible for ensuring that all disclosures are accurate and complete.

4. Responsibilities of Editors

Editors must make editorial decisions independently and objectively, based on the manuscript's academic merit, relevance, quality, and compliance with publication ethics.

Editors must disclose any conflict of interest that could affect their judgment and must not handle a manuscript when their impartiality may reasonably be questioned.

When a conflict exists, the editor must recuse themselves from the relevant editorial process and arrange for an independent editor or another authorized editorial representative to handle the manuscript.

5. Responsibilities of Reviewers

Reviewers must disclose any actual, potential, or perceived conflict of interest before accepting or continuing a review assignment.

Reviewers should decline the assignment or notify the editor if they have a close professional relationship with the authors, a competing interest in the work, a personal relationship that may affect impartiality, or another circumstance that could compromise their objective assessment.

Reviewers must maintain confidentiality and must not use unpublished information obtained during peer review for personal, professional, or financial advantage.

6. Conflict of Interest in Community Service Activities

Because DAYA-MAS publishes articles concerning community service and community empowerment, authors should pay particular attention to relationships involving project sponsors, implementation partners, community organizations, local government agencies, businesses, and beneficiaries.

Authors must disclose relevant interests that could affect the design, implementation, evaluation, or reporting of community service activities.

Funding or institutional support does not automatically constitute inappropriate influence. However, the source of support and the role of the supporting organization in the activity and manuscript must be transparently reported where relevant.

7. Disclosure Statement

All submitted manuscripts must include a Conflict of Interest Statement.

If no conflict exists, authors may use the following statement:

“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 manuscript.”

If a conflict exists, authors must describe the nature of the conflict clearly and explain any relevant role played by the interested party in the activity, analysis, preparation, or publication of the manuscript.

8. Management of Conflicts of Interest

When a conflict of interest is identified, the editorial team will assess its nature and potential impact on the integrity of the manuscript and editorial process.

Depending on the circumstances, the journal may:

• Request additional disclosure or clarification from the authors.

• Require revisions to the conflict of interest statement.

• Assign an independent editor or reviewer.

• Introduce additional safeguards during peer review.

• Decline to proceed with publication when the conflict cannot be managed adequately.

• Issue a correction or take other appropriate post-publication action if a material conflict was not disclosed.

All decisions will be made fairly and proportionately, taking into account the available evidence and the journal's publication ethics policies.

9. Undisclosed Conflicts of Interest

Failure to disclose a relevant conflict of interest may constitute a breach of publication ethics.

If an undisclosed conflict is identified before publication, the editorial team may request clarification and take appropriate editorial action.

If the issue is identified after publication, DAYA-MAS will assess whether a correction, expression of concern, retraction, or another measure is necessary to maintain the integrity of the scholarly record.

10. Policy Review

DAYA-MAS may periodically review and update this policy to maintain alignment with accepted publication ethics principles and developments in scholarly publishing.