Publication Ethics

Publication Ethics — Economica: Jurnal Ekonomi Islam

Economica: Jurnal Ekonomi Islam is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal published biannually by the Institute of Islamic Economic Research and Development (LP2EI), Faculty of Islamic Economics and Business, Universitas Islam Negeri Walisongo Semarang, Indonesia. This statement sets out the ethical standards expected of everyone involved in publishing an article in the journal: the author, the Editor-in-Chief, the editorial board, the reviewers, and the publisher. It is based on the Core Practices and the Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors issued by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Publishing an article in Economica contributes to a coherent and trusted body of knowledge in Islamic economics and business, and reflects the quality of the work of its authors and their supporting institutions. As publisher, the Faculty of Islamic Economics and Business, Universitas Islam Negeri Walisongo Semarang takes responsibility for every stage of the publishing process and ensures that advertising, reprints, institutional partnerships, and other sources of revenue have no influence on editorial decisions.

Duties of Editors

Publication decisions. The Editor-in-Chief decides which submitted articles are published. These decisions rest on the validity of the work and its importance to researchers, practitioners, and policymakers. Editors are guided by the policies of the editorial board and bound by the law on defamation, copyright infringement, and plagiarism. They may consult other editors or reviewers when reaching a decision.

Manuscript review. Editors assess each manuscript for suitability and originality before review. They are responsible for organising peer review fairly and competently, selecting reviewers with sufficient subject expertise and no conflicts of interest, and describing the journal's review procedures clearly in the information provided to authors.

Fairness. Editors evaluate manuscripts on their intellectual content alone, without regard to the author's race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, institutional affiliation, or political position. Manuscripts submitted by authors affiliated with the publishing institution are held to the same standards as all other submissions and are handled by an editor without affiliation to that institution.

Confidentiality. Editors and editorial staff must not disclose information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher. Manuscripts sent to reviewers must carry no information identifying the authors, so that the double-blind arrangement holds throughout the review.

Conflicts of interest. Editors must not use unpublished material from a submitted manuscript in their own research without the author's written consent. They must withdraw from handling any manuscript in which they have a competing interest, including manuscripts by close collaborators or by institutions where they hold an advisory, consultancy, or Shariah supervisory position.

Allegations of misconduct. Editors act on ethical concerns raised about a submitted or published manuscript in accordance with the journal's Allegation of Research Misconduct policy and the relevant COPE flowcharts. Where warranted, the journal issues a correction, an expression of concern, a retraction with replacement, or a retraction.

Duties of Reviewers

Contribution to editorial decisions. Peer review helps editors decide, and through editorial correspondence helps authors improve their work. Every manuscript that passes initial editorial assessment is reviewed by at least three independent experts.

Promptness. A reviewer who feels unqualified to assess a manuscript, or who cannot complete the review promptly, should inform the editor and withdraw from the process.

Confidentiality. Manuscripts received for review are confidential documents. They must not be shown to or discussed with others except as authorised by the editor, and must not be uploaded to generative artificial intelligence tools or any other third-party service, which would expose the author's unpublished work.

Objectivity. Reviews must be objective. Personal criticism of the author is not acceptable. Reviewers should state their views clearly, support them with arguments, and give specific guidance for revision. Assessment should address the soundness of the method, the validity of the findings, and the contribution of the work, not the author's normative or madhhab position on contested questions in Islamic economics.

Acknowledgment of sources. Reviewers should point out relevant published work the authors have not cited, and should note any observation, derivation, or argument that has been reported before without the appropriate citation. They should also alert the editor to substantial overlap between the manuscript and any other published paper known to them.

Conflicts of interest. Information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and must not be used for personal advantage. Reviewers should decline manuscripts where a competitive, collaborative, or other relationship with any of the authors, companies, or institutions involved would compromise their judgment.

Duties of Authors

Reporting standards. Authors should give an accurate account of the research and an objective discussion of its significance. Data must be reported accurately. A paper should contain enough detail and references for others to replicate the work, including the specification of models, the definition of variables, and the source and period of the data used. Fabricated or knowingly inaccurate statements are unacceptable.

Data access and retention. Authors may be asked to supply the raw data, questionnaires, or estimation files behind their manuscript for editorial review, and should retain this material for a reasonable period after publication. Where the research draws on proprietary or non-public data from Islamic financial institutions, zakat and waqf bodies, or business entities, authors must confirm that the data were obtained and used with the institution's permission.

Ethical clearance and research ethics. Research involving human participants, primary data collection, or sensitive personal information must have ethical approval from a recognised ethics committee or institutional review board obtained before the study begins. The manuscript must state the approving institution and the reference number. Studies based on secondary data, publicly available datasets, or non-intrusive methods must explain why ethical clearance does not apply. All research must follow internationally accepted ethical principles, including voluntary participation, informed consent where applicable, confidentiality, and responsible handling of data.

Originality and plagiarism. Work submitted must be original, and any use of the work or words of others must be properly cited or quoted. All submissions are screened with plagiarism detection software before review, with a threshold of 20% maximum similarity, excluding the reference list and properly attributed quotations.

Duplicate and concurrent submission. Authors should not publish manuscripts describing substantially the same research in more than one journal, and must not submit the same manuscript to more than one journal at the same time. Where a single dataset has produced or will produce several publications with overlapping findings, this must be disclosed to the editor at submission.

Acknowledgment of sources. Authors must properly acknowledge the work of others and cite the publications that shaped their research. Individuals or organisations that contributed without meeting the criteria for authorship should be named in the acknowledgments. Excessive or coerced self-citation, and citation arranged to inflate metrics, are unacceptable.

Authorship. Authorship is limited to those who contributed significantly to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the study. Everyone who made such a contribution should be listed as a co-author; those who took part in particular aspects of the work should be acknowledged. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all appropriate co-authors, and no inappropriate ones, appear on the paper, and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version and agreed to its submission.

Use of artificial intelligence. Authors must disclose any use of generative artificial intelligence in writing or analysis, in accordance with the journal's Artificial Intelligence Policy. Artificial intelligence tools do not meet the criteria for authorship and cannot be listed as authors. Authors remain fully accountable for the accuracy, integrity, and originality of their work.

Conflicts of interest. Authors must disclose any financial or other substantive interest that could be seen to influence their results or interpretation, including employment by, consultancy for, or membership of a Shariah supervisory board of an institution that is the subject of the research. All sources of financial support must be disclosed in the acknowledgments.

Errors in published work. Authors who discover a significant error or inaccuracy in their published article must notify the editor or publisher promptly and cooperate in correcting or retracting the paper.

Retraction and Corrections

Where evidence emerges of research misconduct or of a fundamental error in a published article, the journal will issue a correction, an expression of concern, a retraction with replacement, or a retraction, as appropriate. Decisions are made by the Editor-in-Chief in consultation with the Editorial Board, following a documented review in which the authors are informed of the concerns and given an opportunity to respond. The full procedure is set out in the journal's Allegation of Research Misconduct policy.