The Journal of Digital Religion and Contemporary Society (JDRCS) is fully committed to maintaining the highest standards of publication ethics and academic integrity. The journal adheres to the ethical principles and best-practice guidelines established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME).

All contributors to the publication process—including authors, editors, reviewers, and the publisher—are expected to uphold values of honesty, transparency, accountability, and professional responsibility to protect the integrity of scholarly communication in the fields of digital religion, contemporary religious studies, and interdisciplinary research.

1. Duties of Editors

Editors are responsible for ensuring that all submitted manuscripts are evaluated solely on the basis of their scholarly merit, relevance to the journal’s scope, and contribution to the advancement of knowledge.

Editors must:

• Ensure fairness, impartiality, and confidentiality throughout the review and decision-making process.

• Avoid discriminatory or biased decision-making based on authors’ background, institutional affiliation, nationality, religion, gender, or ideology.

• Maintain confidentiality regarding submitted manuscripts and refrain from using unpublished material for personal advantage.

• Disclose any potential conflicts of interest that may influence editorial judgment.

• Follow COPE procedures when addressing ethical concerns, ensuring due diligence, fairness, and transparency.

2. Duties of Authors

Authors are expected to uphold ethical scholarly conduct in the preparation and submission of manuscripts.

Authors must:

• Submit original research free from plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, or redundant publication.

• Properly acknowledge all referenced material and intellectual contributions.

• Ensure that all listed authors have made a meaningful contribution to the research and approve the final submitted manuscript.

• Disclose any financial, institutional, or personal conflicts of interest.

• Obtain appropriate ethical approval when research involves human subjects, digital data collection, online ethnography, or identifiable participants.

• Provide documentation of informed consent when applicable.

3. Duties of Reviewers

Reviewers play a critical role in maintaining the scholarly quality and integrity of the journal.

Reviewers must:

• Provide objective, constructive, and timely evaluations of submissions.

• Treat all manuscript content as confidential and refrain from using unpublished material for personal benefit.

• Inform the editorial team of any potential conflicts of interest.

• Notify editors if they identify substantial similarity between the manuscript and other works under review or previously published.

• Offer feedback that enhances the clarity, methodological rigor, and academic contribution of the manuscript.

4. Responsibilities of the Publisher

Zamzami Scholar Publishing, East Java, Indonesia, supports the journal in upholding ethical publishing standards.

The publisher will:

• Ensure editorial independence from commercial, political, or ideological influence.

• Support accountability and transparency in the editorial and review process.

• Collaborate with editors to address ethical violations, including issuing corrections, expressions of concern, or retractions when necessary following COPE guidelines.

• Promote academic freedom, inclusivity, and integrity across the scholarly community.

5. Allegations of Misconduct

In cases where ethical misconduct is suspected—such as plagiarism, citation manipulation, data fabrication, or authorship disputes—the journal will initiate an impartial investigation guided by COPE best-practice flowcharts.

• Authors will be given an opportunity to respond.

• Confirmed misconduct will result in actions that may include rejection, retraction, or notification of relevant institutions.

• The process will be confidential, fair, and respectful.

6. Research Ethics and Data Integrity

Authors are responsible for ensuring that research involving human participants or digital data complies with recognized ethical standards.

• Data must be presented accurately and transparently.

• Authors are encouraged to make research data available for academic verification upon reasonable request.

7. Open Access and Copyright Policy

The Journal of Digital Religion and Contemporary Society (JDRCS) is an open-access publication providing immediate and free global access to its content to support equitable scholarship.

• Authors retain copyright of their work.

• Articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0), permitting non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction with appropriate citation of the original work.

 

References

• Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors.

• World Association of Medical Editors (WAME). Recommendations on Publication Ethics Policies for Medical Journals.