1. Focus and Scope

International Journal of Nusantara Islam (IJNI) is a multidisciplinary, peer-reviewed scholarly journal dedicated to the study of Islam and Islamic societies, with particular attention to the Nusantara and Southeast Asian regions. The journal welcomes original and significant scholarship on Islamic teachings and sources, thought, philosophy, history, law, politics, economics, education, culture, anthropology, sociology, literature, da'wah, communication, psychology, science and technology, international relations, environmental and development issues, and ethical questions related to research.

The journal's regional focus includes Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Brunei Darussalam, Singapore, the Philippines, Timor-Leste, Myanmar, Vietnam, and Laos, as well as contemporary Islamic issues arising elsewhere when they make a clear contribution to the journal's aims and scope. IJNI accepts scholarly manuscripts written in academic English or Arabic. Submissions must demonstrate a clear research question or scholarly argument, appropriate engagement with relevant literature, sound methods or reasoning, and a contribution to knowledge.

The opinions and findings expressed in published articles are those of their authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the editors, publisher, or collaborating institutions. Authors remain responsible for the accuracy, legality, integrity, and ethical basis of their work.

2. Authorship Policy

2.1 Authorship Criteria

Authorship must reflect substantial intellectual contribution and accountability. IJNI follows recognized publication-ethics guidance, including COPE principles and, where relevant, the ICMJE authorship criteria. Each author must satisfy all of the following requirements:

1. Make a substantial contribution to the conception or design of the work, the acquisition of data or source materials, or the analysis or interpretation of the evidence;
2. Draft the manuscript or revise it critically for important intellectual content;
3. Approve the final version to be published; and
4. Agree to be accountable for their own contributions and to help ensure that questions about the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

All authors must be able to identify their own contributions and must approve the manuscript's submission and final publication. The journal may request an author-contribution statement, including use of the CRediT Contributor Roles Taxonomy where appropriate.

2.2 Non-Author Contributions (Acknowledgements)

Individuals who contributed to a study but do not meet all authorship criteria must not be listed as authors. Examples may include contributors who provided funding, general supervision, administrative assistance, technical support, transcription, or language editing without making a qualifying intellectual contribution. Their roles should be described accurately in the Acknowledgements or contributor statement, with permission from the individuals concerned.

2.3 Unacceptable Authorship Practices

IJNI prohibits the following practices:

• Ghost authorship: omitting a person who made a qualifying intellectual contribution;
• Gift or guest authorship: including a person who does not meet the journal's authorship criteria;
• Coercive authorship: requiring a person to be named as an author because of seniority, supervisory authority, institutional position, or funding power without a qualifying contribution;
• Honorary or purchased authorship: adding an author in exchange for payment, status, or another improper benefit; and
• False identity or affiliation: using inaccurate author names, affiliations, credentials, or researcher identifiers.

2.4 Corresponding Author Responsibilities

The corresponding author is the principal contact for the editorial office and is responsible for coordinating communication with all co-authors before and after submission. The corresponding author must confirm that all authors meet the authorship criteria, approve the submitted and revised manuscripts, agree to the author order, disclose relevant funding and competing interests, and approve the required declarations. The corresponding author must not submit on behalf of co-authors without their knowledge and approval.

2.5 Authorship Changes

Any proposed addition, removal, or change in the order of authors after submission must be explained in writing and approved by every author, including the person being added or removed. The Editor-in-Chief may request further evidence and may consult the authors' institutions if a dispute cannot be resolved. Changes after acceptance are permitted only in exceptional, adequately documented circumstances. No author may be added after acceptance merely to improve institutional, national, or international representation.

3. Publication Frequency

IJNI is published twice each calendar year, with two regular issues scheduled as follows:

• Issue 1: January
• Issue 2: July

The journal will publish according to its announced schedule and will maintain an accurate record of publication dates. Each regular issue is planned to contain at least five scholarly articles, consistent with applicable national journal-accreditation requirements. Special or themed issues may be organized under the authority of the Editor-in-Chief, but must follow the same standards for editorial screening, independent peer review, ethics declarations, and publication integrity as regular issues. Guest editors must disclose conflicts of interest and may not make decisions on their own submissions.

Any change to the publication frequency or schedule will be announced on the official journal website and reflected consistently in the journal's metadata.

4. Electronic Archiving Policy

4.1 Electronic Publication and Persistent Identification

• IJNI manages submissions, peer review, editorial decisions, and publication through its online journal platform.
• The journal's identifiers are E-ISSN 2355-651X and P-ISSN 2252-5904. These identifiers must be displayed consistently with the official ISSN record.
• Each published article is assigned a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) through the journal's DOI registration workflow. Article metadata, DOI links, titles, author names, affiliations, issue data, and full-text files must be checked for accuracy and consistency.

4.2 Electronic Backup and Digital Preservation

The publisher is responsible for maintaining a documented electronic-backup and digital-preservation plan intended to protect the scholarly record against data loss, technical failure, and service interruption. The journal website will identify any external preservation service, such as a recognized repository or preservation network, only when the journal's participation is active and verifiable. Indexing or harvesting services, including GARUDA, are discovery services and must not be described as a complete digital-preservation system unless they provide that function. If access to the journal platform is interrupted, the publisher will make reasonable efforts to restore access to the published record.

5. Copyrights, Permissions, Reprints & Licensing

5.1 Copyright Terms

Authors retain copyright in their work and grant IJNI the right of first publication. By submitting a manuscript, authors confirm that they have the authority to grant the necessary publication rights and that the work does not unlawfully infringe the rights of others. Authors are responsible for obtaining written permission for third-party text, images, tables, figures, or other materials when permission is required. Permissions and source acknowledgements must be provided to the journal before publication.

5.2 Open Access Licensing (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Unless an article page states otherwise, articles published by IJNI are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0). Users may share and adapt the material for lawful purposes, provided they give appropriate attribution, link to the license, indicate whether changes were made, and distribute adaptations under the same license. Authors and users must respect third-party rights and any materials identified as excluded from the article's license.

5.3 Reprints and Reuse

Reuse, republication, translation, and adaptation must comply with the applicable license and must not misrepresent the original authors, source, or findings. Reprints must preserve the article's bibliographic information and DOI. The journal may correct or refuse requests that involve misleading presentation, unlawful use, or a breach of third-party rights.

6. Screening Plagiarism Policy

6.1 Mandatory Screening

All submissions are screened for similarity and potential publication-ethics concerns before or during peer review. The journal may use recognized similarity-detection software and editorial examination. Authors must cite sources accurately, distinguish quotation from paraphrase, and identify reused material. Similarity scores are screening indicators rather than conclusive proof of plagiarism; editors assess the context, nature, extent, attribution, and location of any overlap.

6.2 Forms of Unacceptable Overlap and Manipulation

Prohibited practices include verbatim copying without attribution, unattributed paraphrasing, translation plagiarism, inappropriate text recycling, duplicate or redundant publication, undisclosed reuse of the author's previously published material, citation manipulation, and unauthorized or misleading reuse of tables, figures, images, or other intellectual property. Fabricated references and citations that do not support the claims attributed to them are also unacceptable.

6.3 Editorial Action

Where substantial unattributed overlap or other misconduct is identified, the journal may request an explanation, require revision where appropriate, reject the manuscript, or initiate a formal misconduct procedure. Serious cases may be referred to the author's institution or other responsible body and, if discovered after publication, may result in a correction, expression of concern, or retraction. The journal will not rely solely on an automated score to determine misconduct.

7. Policy on Allegations of Research Misconduct

7.1 Definition of Misconduct

Research and publication misconduct includes, but is not limited to, fabrication or falsification of data or sources, plagiarism, duplicate publication, undisclosed text or image manipulation, authorship abuse, citation manipulation, manipulation of peer review, false ethics approval, undisclosed conflicts of interest, and deliberate misrepresentation of methods, results, affiliations, or contributions.

7.2 Handling Procedure

IJNI takes allegations seriously whether they arise before or after publication and whether they are submitted by an identified complainant or a confidential source. The journal will record the concern, conduct an initial assessment, preserve relevant editorial records, and seek supporting information where appropriate. The author or other person concerned will normally be given a fair opportunity to respond. The journal may consult independent editors, subject experts, research-ethics committees, institutions, funders, or other responsible bodies where necessary.

Investigations will be handled confidentially to the extent reasonably possible and in accordance with COPE guidance and relevant legal requirements. The journal will not presume misconduct solely because an allegation has been made. Depending on the evidence and seriousness of the case, outcomes may include no further action, clarification, correction, rejection, withdrawal of acceptance, an expression of concern, retraction, or referral to an institution. The journal may take action even if the concern arises years after publication.

8. Conflict of Interest Policy

8.1 Author Responsibilities

All authors must disclose financial and non-financial interests that could reasonably be perceived to influence the research, interpretation, or presentation of the findings. Relevant interests may include employment, consultancy, honoraria, grants, personal or professional relationships, institutional roles, intellectual-property interests, or other competing commitments. All sources of funding and the role of the funder in the research, analysis, writing, and decision to publish must be stated. A declaration of “no competing interests” is required when none exist.

8.2 Reviewer Recusal

Reviewers must disclose any actual, potential, or perceived conflict of interest before accepting an invitation and decline the review where impartiality could reasonably be questioned. Conflicts may arise from close collaboration, recent co-authorship, supervisory relationships, personal disputes, financial interests, competition, or institutional connections.

8.3 Editors and Publisher

Editors must recuse themselves from manuscripts in which they have a conflict, including their own submissions, submissions by close collaborators, or work in which they have a direct personal or financial interest. Such manuscripts must be handled by an independent editor who is not involved in the work. The publisher must not interfere with editorial decisions to advance a financial, institutional, political, or personal interest. Relevant declarations may be published with the article or recorded in the editorial system, as appropriate.

9. Post-Publication Discussion Policy

Publication is the beginning of continuing scholarly discussion. IJNI welcomes evidence-based scholarly comments, letters to the editor, corrections to factual interpretation, and reasoned responses to published articles. Post-publication contributions are assessed for relevance, accuracy, civility, ethical compliance, and scholarly value. Where a comment raises substantive concerns, the original authors may be invited to respond, and both the comment and response may be linked to the article record.

The journal will not suppress good-faith scholarly criticism merely because it challenges a published conclusion, an author, an editor, or the journal. Personal attacks, discriminatory or defamatory content, confidential personal data, and unsupported allegations may be moderated or declined. Concerns that could affect the reliability of the scholarly record will be handled under Sections 7 and 10.

10. Correction and Retraction Policy

Authors must promptly notify the Editor-in-Chief or editorial office if they discover a significant error or inaccuracy in their published work and must cooperate with the journal in assessing the issue. Readers, reviewers, institutions, and other parties may also report suspected errors or integrity concerns.

The journal will determine the appropriate response based on the evidence and the extent to which the reliability, accuracy, or integrity of the article is affected:

• Correction: used for a material error that can be corrected without invalidating the overall reliability of the article;
• Expression of concern: used when a credible concern requires public notice while an investigation or verification remains unresolved;
• Retraction: considered when findings are unreliable, material misconduct is established, the article substantially duplicates prior publication, or another serious problem makes continued reliance on the article inappropriate; and
• Other editorial notice: used where a clarification or notice is necessary to maintain an accurate scholarly record.

Correction and retraction notices will explain the reason for the action, be linked to the affected article, and carry appropriate publication metadata. The original record will not be silently altered or removed, except where removal is required by law or necessary to address a serious legal or safety risk. A retracted article will remain identifiable as retracted wherever technically and legally possible. Decisions will follow COPE guidance and will focus on protecting the integrity of the scholarly record rather than assigning blame prematurely.

11. Peer Review Process

11.1 Initial Editorial Screening

All submissions are first assessed by the editorial team for fit with the journal's scope, scholarly contribution, completeness, compliance with author instructions, research ethics, originality, and basic methodological or interpretive soundness. A manuscript may be rejected without external review if it is out of scope, lacks a clear scholarly contribution, is incomplete, raises unresolved ethical concerns, or does not meet the journal's minimum standards.

11.2 External Review

Manuscripts that pass initial screening are sent for independent external peer review by reviewers with relevant expertise. IJNI normally seeks at least two independent reviews and aims to obtain three documented reviews per manuscript where feasible, particularly when additional assessment is needed to support a robust editorial decision. A third or further reviewer may be appointed when reports conflict, specialized expertise is required, or the editor considers additional advice necessary. Every published research article must have undergone genuine, documented peer review.

The journal will clearly identify the review model used on its official website and submission system and will apply it consistently. Reviewers must be independent of the authors and free of disqualifying conflicts of interest. The editorial office maintains an appropriate record of invitations, reports, revisions, and decisions in the journal management system.

11.3 Editorial Decisions

The editor makes the final decision based on the manuscript's scholarly quality, the reviewers' reports, the authors' responses, and the journal's policies. Possible decisions include acceptance, minor revision, major revision, or rejection. A recommendation from a reviewer is advisory and does not bind the editor. Where reviews conflict, the editor may seek further advice and must explain the decision to the authors in a clear and professional manner.

11.4 Reviewer Conduct and Confidentiality

Reviewers must provide timely, objective, evidence-based comments; distinguish major concerns from minor suggestions; identify relevant literature where appropriate; and avoid personal criticism. Manuscripts and review reports are confidential and must not be shared or used for personal advantage. Reviewers must not use generative AI or other AI tools in the peer-review process; the detailed rule appears in Section 23.

11.5 Appeals and Revisions

Authors may appeal a decision on the grounds of a material factual error, a significant procedural irregularity, a demonstrable misunderstanding of the manuscript, or relevant new information. Disagreement with an editor's scholarly judgment alone is not sufficient. Appeals are handled under Section 20. Revised manuscripts may be returned to the original reviewers or sent to new reviewers when necessary.

12. Open Access Policy

IJNI provides immediate open access to its published content, without an embargo, to support the broad dissemination and exchange of scholarly knowledge. Readers may access the full text of published articles without subscription charges. Reuse is governed by the applicable Creative Commons license described in Section 5. The journal's open-access statement, licensing terms, and any author fees must be visible and consistent across the website and article metadata.

13. Ownership, Publisher & Management

13.1 Publisher and Academic Collaboration

The publisher of record identified for IJNI is the Postgraduate Program, Universitas Islam Negeri Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung, Indonesia. The journal's official description also identifies academic collaboration with the Postgraduate Program at the Academy for Islamic Studies, University of Malaya, under the memorandum of understanding recorded by the journal. Any additional institution or association may be identified as a publisher, owner, or formal partner only where its current role is supported by an appropriate written agreement and is accurately reflected on the journal website.

13.2 Editorial Independence

The Editor-in-Chief and editorial team are responsible for editorial decisions and must exercise independent scholarly judgment. Decisions must be based on quality, originality, relevance, methodological or interpretive soundness, and ethical compliance, not on an author's institutional status, nationality, personal relationships, ability to pay, or the commercial or reputational interests of the publisher. The publisher provides reasonable operational support while respecting editorial independence and applicable law.

13.3 Editorial Board and Journal Management

Editorial board members and reviewers must have relevant expertise and verifiable professional affiliations. Their roles must be accurately described and their consent obtained before their names are displayed. The journal will periodically review editorial workflows, train editors and reviewers where appropriate, and maintain records that demonstrate how submissions are managed from receipt through publication.

14. Repository Policy

Authors may deposit the accepted manuscript or the published version of record in institutional or disciplinary repositories and on personal or institutional academic websites, subject to the applicable license and any third-party rights. Repository records must include the full bibliographic citation, DOI, journal title, and a link to the version of record on the IJNI website. Authors should not present an earlier manuscript version as the final published version. Repository deposit must not remove or obscure the article's publication history, licensing information, or correction and retraction notices.

15. Publication Ethics & Malpractice Statement

IJNI is committed to maintaining a reliable scholarly record and ethical standards in all stages of publication. This statement applies to authors, editors, reviewers, the publisher, guest editors, and other persons involved in editorial and publishing activities. The journal's policies are informed by the COPE Core Practices and the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing.

15.1 Editor Responsibilities

Accountability: Editors are responsible for deciding which manuscripts are published. Decisions are based on scholarly merit, the journal's scope, reviewer advice, and applicable ethical standards.

Impartiality: Editors assess submissions fairly, without discrimination based on race, ethnicity, gender, disability, religion, nationality, institutional affiliation, political views, or other irrelevant personal characteristics.

Confidentiality: Editors and editorial staff must protect submitted manuscripts, reviewer identities where applicable, reports, and correspondence. Information may be shared only with persons who need it for legitimate editorial purposes or as required by law.

Disclosure and conflicts of interest: Editors must disclose relevant conflicts and recuse themselves when impartiality could be questioned. Unpublished information or ideas obtained through editorial handling must not be used for personal advantage.

Investigations: Editors must respond to credible concerns about research or publication misconduct, maintain appropriate records, and take proportionate action in cooperation with the publisher and relevant institutions. Where justified, action may include correction, retraction, expression of concern, or another public notice.

15.2 Reviewer Responsibilities

Contribution to editorial decisions: Reviews should help editors evaluate scholarly contribution, evidence, methods, interpretation, and clarity.

Promptness and competence: Reviewers who lack the required expertise or cannot complete a review on time must notify the editor promptly and decline or return the assignment.

Confidentiality: Manuscripts and review materials must be treated as confidential and must not be shared or used outside the authorized review process.

Objectivity: Reviews must be constructive, evidence-based, and free of personal attacks. Reviewers should identify relevant work that has not been cited and notify the editor of substantial overlap or suspected misconduct.

Conflicts of interest and AI: Reviewers must disclose conflicts of interest and must not use AI tools to analyze, assess, summarize, or write a review of a submitted manuscript. Further requirements are set out in Sections 8 and 23.

15.3 Author Responsibilities

Reporting standards: Authors must report their research honestly, accurately, and sufficiently clearly to allow readers to understand and, where applicable, evaluate or reproduce the work. Fabrication, falsification, and misleading manipulation are prohibited.

Originality and sources: Authors must submit original work, acknowledge sources accurately, obtain permissions where required, and disclose material overlap with prior publications. Manuscripts must not be under consideration by another journal at the same time.

Research ethics: Authors must ensure that the work complies with applicable laws, ethics approvals, consent requirements, and relevant professional standards. Required ethics and consent information must be stated in the manuscript.

Authorship and contributions: Authorship must reflect actual contributions and meet the criteria in Section 2. Authors must approve the final manuscript and take responsibility for its integrity.

Funding and competing interests: Authors must disclose all relevant funding and competing interests, including a statement when no such interests exist.

Data and AI declarations: Authors must provide a data-availability statement where applicable and disclose the use of generative AI or AI-assisted technologies in accordance with Sections 22 and 23.

Fundamental errors: Authors who discover a significant error after publication must promptly inform the journal and cooperate with any necessary correction or retraction.

15.4 Publisher Responsibilities

The publisher supports the editorial team in implementing transparent policies, maintaining the journal platform, protecting intellectual property and privacy, and preserving the scholarly record. The publisher must respect editorial independence, make author fees and licensing terms transparent, support fair investigation of suspected misconduct, and publish corrections or retractions when justified. Commercial or institutional considerations must not override research integrity or the journal's stated review standards.

15.5 Authorship, Plagiarism and Submission Declarations

By submitting a manuscript, the corresponding author confirms that all listed authors have approved the submission, that the manuscript is not under concurrent consideration elsewhere, and that any necessary permissions have been obtained. The journal may require the following declarations in the manuscript or submission system: author contributions, funding, competing interests, research ethics approval and informed consent where applicable, data availability, and AI use. The journal may request additional information to verify authorship, originality, or ethical compliance. Changes to the author list require the approvals described in Section 2.5.

16. Author Fees

16.1 Fee Schedule

16.2 Editorial Independence and Fee Transparency

Payment of a submission fee or publication fee does not guarantee acceptance and must not influence the editorial decision. All manuscripts remain subject to editorial screening, peer review, and publication-ethics requirements. Fees, payment stages, and any other applicable charges must be displayed clearly on the official website before submission. No undisclosed fee may be imposed. Any fee waiver or exception, if offered, must be handled transparently and must not affect editorial assessment.

17. Journal History

International Journal of Nusantara Islam first appeared in print in 2013. The journal's historical records describe the development of the publication as following academic discussions at UIN Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung and a collaborative arrangement with the Academy for Islamic Studies, University of Malaya, formalized through a memorandum of understanding dated 24 January 2011. Since 2016, the journal has also recorded support from the Association of Islamic Sciences Lecturers and Researchers in Southeast Asia. Any current ownership, publishing, or partnership role must be stated accurately and supported by the relevant institutional records.

18. Inclusion and Indexing

18.1 Accreditation

IJNI is listed as a SINTA 2-accredited journal under Decree No. 0173/C3/DT.05.00/2025. The journal will display its accreditation status, decree number, and validity period in accordance with the current official record. Under the current Indonesian accreditation framework, the continued validity of an existing accreditation ranking is subject to the applicable transitional provisions and the validity period of the official decision. The journal will update this information promptly when a new official decision is issued.

18.2 Indexing and Discovery Services

The journal is discoverable through national/international scholarly services including GARUDA, Google Scholar, OpenAlex,  Scilit  and SINTA. The journal will identify additional databases, indexes, abstracting services, and preservation systems only when its coverage or participation can be verified. Indexing status is subject to change and must not be overstated in journal announcements or promotional material.

19. Types of Manuscript

IJNI welcomes scholarly manuscripts written in academic English or Arabic that fall within its stated focus and scope. Manuscripts must follow the journal's current author guidelines and template, which will be made available on the official journal website.

19.1 Research Articles

Research articles report original empirical, qualitative, quantitative, mixed-methods, historical, textual, legal, or theoretical research. They must present a clear research problem, appropriate methods or analytical framework, credible evidence, a meaningful contribution to the literature, and conclusions supported by the analysis.

19.2 Reviews

IJNI accepts substantial critical literature reviews, systematic or other clearly defined review studies, conceptual papers, and scholarly discussions that synthesize or critically assess existing knowledge. Review manuscripts must explain their approach to selecting and analyzing sources, where applicable, and must provide more than a descriptive summary of prior publications.

20. Complaints and Appeals

20.1 Complaints

Authors, reviewers, readers, editorial board members, and other stakeholders may submit a complaint concerning editorial conduct, peer review, publication ethics, journal management, fees, or the conduct of the publisher. Complaints should describe the issue clearly and, where possible, include relevant dates, correspondence, documents, or other supporting evidence. Complaints may be sent to the editorial office at ijni@uinsgd.ac.id or submitted through the contact channel listed on the official journal website.

The journal will acknowledge a complaint normally within ten working days and conduct an initial assessment as promptly as practicable. Where further investigation is needed, the complainant will be informed that the process is continuing, subject to confidentiality and privacy requirements. A complaint about an editor must be handled by an uninvolved senior editor or an appropriate publisher representative. A complaint about the Editor-in-Chief must not be decided solely by the person who is the subject of the complaint.

20.2 Appeals of Editorial Decisions

An author may appeal a decision by providing a reasoned explanation of a material factual error, a significant procedural problem, a misunderstanding of the evidence, or relevant information that was not considered. An appeal must not be used merely to repeat arguments already considered or to pressure an editor to change a decision. An editor who was not responsible for the original decision will review the appeal, seek independent advice where appropriate, and communicate the outcome and reasons. The appeal decision is normally final.

20.3 Fairness and Confidentiality

Complaints and appeals will be considered fairly, impartially, and confidentially to the extent possible. The journal prohibits retaliation against individuals who raise good-faith concerns. Knowingly false, malicious, or abusive allegations may be addressed appropriately, but lack of proof alone does not establish that a complaint was made in bad faith. Suspected research misconduct will be handled under Section 7.

21. Research Ethics and Ethical Oversight

21.1 Research Involving Human Participants

Research involving human participants, identifiable personal information, interviews, surveys, observation, or other human-subject data must comply with applicable law and recognized ethical standards. Where required by law, institutional policy, or disciplinary standards, authors must obtain approval from a competent research ethics committee before the research begins and state the approving body's name and approval reference in the manuscript. Authors must explain informed-consent procedures, including consent to participate and, where applicable, consent to publish identifiable information.

21.2 Vulnerable Groups, Sensitive Topics and Confidential Sources

Research involving children, vulnerable groups, sensitive religious or cultural communities, confidential informants, or potentially harmful disclosures requires particular care. Authors must explain safeguards for privacy, dignity, voluntary participation, and risk minimization. Identifying details must be removed where necessary unless explicit, valid consent and an appropriate ethical basis support publication. Authors must not expose participants or communities to avoidable harm.

21.3 Animal Research and Other Regulated Research

Research involving animals must comply with relevant legal and institutional requirements and must include approval from the appropriate ethics committee where required. Clinical trials and other regulated study designs must be registered in a recognized registry when applicable. Authors must use relevant reporting guidelines where appropriate to their research design.

21.4 Research Not Requiring Formal Ethics Approval

For scholarship based exclusively on published literature, historical documents, public legal materials, or other sources that do not involve human participants or restricted data, formal ethics approval may not be required. Authors should nevertheless comply with copyright, privacy, cultural-sensitivity, and source-attribution requirements. If formal approval was not required or was not obtained, the manuscript must explain the circumstances accurately when relevant; authors must never invent or misrepresent an approval.

21.5 Editorial Assessment

The journal may request ethics approval documents, consent information, research protocols, or other evidence when necessary. If an ethical concern arises before or after publication, the journal will assess it under Sections 7, 9, and 10 and may consult the relevant institution or ethics body.

22. Data Availability, Transparency and Reproducibility

22.1 Data Availability Statement

Authors must include a data-availability statement where data, source materials, code, instruments, or other research materials are relevant to the article. The statement should explain whether the supporting materials are publicly available, available on reasonable request, restricted for ethical or legal reasons, or not applicable. Where materials are deposited in a repository, authors should provide a stable link or persistent identifier and ensure that the repository record corresponds to the reported study.

22.2 Access Restrictions and Protection

Data sharing must respect informed consent, privacy, confidentiality, copyright, security, cultural restrictions, and applicable law. Authors must not publicly disclose personal or sensitive data where disclosure would breach an ethical or legal obligation. If access is restricted, the authors should state the reason and, where possible, describe a process for controlled access.

22.3 Research Transparency and Reproducibility

Authors must describe methods, source selection, analytical procedures, coding, statistical techniques, and other relevant steps with sufficient detail for readers to evaluate the work. Where applicable, authors should provide research instruments, code, supplementary materials, protocols, or reporting checklists. Claims, citations, quotations, tables, and reported results must be checked against reliable source material. Editors may request underlying data or documentation when needed to assess the reliability of a submission or investigate a concern.

22.4 Data Retention

Authors should retain research data and supporting materials for a reasonable period after publication, consistent with disciplinary norms, funder requirements, institutional rules, consent conditions, and law. The journal may request reasonable access to supporting materials for editorial verification, subject to appropriate privacy and confidentiality safeguards.

23. Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

IJNI recognizes that generative artificial intelligence and AI-assisted technologies may support certain research and publishing tasks, but they must not undermine scholarly integrity, confidentiality, originality, or human accountability. This policy applies to authors, editors, editorial staff, and reviewers and is intended to be read alongside the journal's research-ethics and peer-review policies.

23.1 AI Use by Authors

Authors must disclose the use of generative AI or AI-assisted technologies that materially contributed to research or manuscript preparation, including drafting or rewriting text, summarizing or translating sources, generating or modifying images, coding, data processing, analysis, or developing research materials. The declaration should identify the tool and version where known, describe its purpose and scope, and explain how the output was checked by the authors. The disclosure should be placed in the section specified by the author guidelines, such as an AI Use Statement, Methods, or Acknowledgements.

Authors remain fully responsible for the manuscript, including every claim, quotation, citation, reference, calculation, dataset, image, interpretation, and conclusion. AI tools must not be listed as authors or co-authors. Authors must verify AI-assisted output against reliable sources and must not use AI to fabricate or falsify data, references, quotations, sources, ethics approvals, images, or research findings. AI use does not remove the obligation to cite original sources or obtain required permissions. Routine non-generative spelling or reference-management functions that do not create or materially alter scholarly content ordinarily do not require a separate declaration.

23.2 AI Use by Editors and Editorial Staff

Editors remain responsible for all editorial judgments and decisions. AI tools may be used only for authorized, limited administrative assistance where confidentiality and data-protection requirements can be met. Editors and editorial staff must not upload unpublished manuscripts, reviewer reports, author identities, confidential correspondence, or restricted research data to external AI systems without explicit authorization and appropriate safeguards. AI must not replace independent scholarly assessment or be the sole basis for a decision. Any substantive AI use by the editorial team must be disclosed or recorded transparently in accordance with the journal's procedures.

23.3 Prohibition on AI Use by Peer Reviewers

Peer reviewers must not use AI tools at any stage of peer review. This prohibition includes uploading or entering all or part of a manuscript into an AI system, asking AI to summarize or analyze a submission, using AI to assess originality or methodological quality, generating or editing substantive reviewer comments with AI, or using AI to formulate a recommendation. Reviewers must conduct the intellectual work of the review themselves, protect the confidentiality of the submission, and notify the editor if they cannot complete the review without using a prohibited tool.

23.4 Editorial Assessment and Consequences

The journal may request clarification or supporting information about disclosed or suspected AI use. Depending on the evidence and seriousness, the journal may request a corrected declaration, require revision, reject the manuscript, withdraw acceptance, or issue a correction, expression of concern, or retraction after publication. Automated AI-detection results are not conclusive proof of misconduct and must not be the sole basis for an adverse decision. All cases will be assessed fairly and consistently with the journal's publication-ethics procedures.

24. Preprints, Prior Publication and Duplicate Submission

24.1 Preprints and Earlier Dissemination

Authors must disclose whether a manuscript or a substantially similar version has appeared as a preprint, working paper, conference paper, thesis, institutional report, or other public document. A preprint that has not undergone formal journal publication does not automatically disqualify a submission, provided that the authors disclose it, cite it where appropriate, and ensure that the submission complies with the journal's copyright and originality requirements. The final published article should be linked to the preprint record where technically possible.

24.2 Duplicate and Redundant Publication

Authors must not submit the same manuscript simultaneously to IJNI and another journal. A manuscript that substantially duplicates previously published work is not acceptable unless the journal has explicitly agreed to consider a properly justified and transparently disclosed secondary publication that complies with relevant ethical and copyright standards. Translations or adapted versions of earlier publications must disclose the original publication, obtain required permissions, and demonstrate a legitimate scholarly reason for republication.

24.3 Conference Material and Theses

Authors must identify related abstracts, conference proceedings, dissertations, theses, or reports at submission. The editor will assess whether the submitted manuscript contains sufficient original scholarly contribution and whether any overlap is properly disclosed. Failure to disclose substantial overlap may be treated as a publication-ethics concern under Sections 6 and 7.

25. Privacy, Confidentiality and Personal Data

Names, email addresses, affiliations, and other personal information entered into the journal platform will be used for the stated purposes of journal management, editorial communication, publication, and related scholarly activities. Such information must not be sold or used for unrelated purposes without a lawful basis or appropriate consent. The journal's privacy statement must be available on its official website and applied consistently.

Editors, reviewers, and editorial staff must protect the confidentiality of manuscripts, reviewer reports, editorial correspondence, unpublished findings, and personal information. Confidential materials may be disclosed only where authorized by the relevant person, required for a legitimate editorial investigation, or required by law. Authors must obtain appropriate consent for publication of identifiable people, personal communications, images, or sensitive information and must remove identifying details where appropriate.

Participants' consent to take part in a study is distinct from consent to publish identifiable information. Authors are responsible for securing both where required. Any suspected privacy breach will be assessed promptly, and the journal may restrict access, notify affected parties or relevant authorities where required, and take corrective action consistent with law and publication ethics.

26. Advertising, Sponsorship and Revenue Transparency

Any advertising, sponsorship, institutional support, or commercial relationship associated with IJNI must be transparent and must not influence editorial decisions, reviewer selection, peer-review outcomes, article acceptance, or the presentation of research findings. Advertisements, if displayed, must be clearly distinguished from editorial content. Sponsored content must be identified as such and must not be presented as independently peer-reviewed research unless it has undergone the journal's standard review process.

Author fees are listed in Section 16 and on the official author-fees page. Payment does not guarantee publication, and editorial decisions are made independently of payment status except for the transparent administration of the stated fee process. The journal will not offer paid acceptance, guaranteed publication, preferential peer review, or undisclosed editorial services. Sources of financial support for research must be disclosed by authors, and any relevant institutional or commercial support for journal operations must be described accurately where material to the journal's governance.

27. Diversity, Equity and Fair Editorial Practice

IJNI seeks to support a fair and inclusive scholarly environment. Editorial decisions must be based on the quality, relevance, originality, integrity, and ethical soundness of the submission rather than the personal characteristics or institutional status of authors. The journal welcomes contributions from qualified researchers across institutions, countries, career stages, and relevant scholarly traditions, provided that manuscripts meet the journal's scope and standards.

The editorial board and reviewer pool should reflect appropriate subject expertise and, where possible, institutional and geographic diversity. Names, affiliations, qualifications, and roles of editors and reviewers must be genuine, current, and verifiable. The journal prohibits coercive citation, coercive authorship, discriminatory treatment, and pressure to cite the editor's or journal's publications unless those works are genuinely relevant to the manuscript. Diversity must be achieved through fair participation and transparent editorial practices, not through fabricated affiliations or honorary authorship.

28. Policy Review, Records and Compliance

These policies will be reviewed periodically and whenever significant changes occur in publication-ethics guidance, scholarly publishing practices, technology, or applicable law. The journal's public policies, author guidelines, submission forms, article declarations, and actual editorial procedures must remain consistent with one another. The editorial office will maintain appropriate records of submissions, peer review, editorial decisions, author declarations, fees, complaints, investigations, corrections, and retractions, subject to confidentiality and data-protection requirements.

IJNI's policy framework is informed by the COPE Core Practices, the COPE/DOAJ/OASPA/WAME Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing, Version 4 (September 2022), Permendikti Saintek No. 9 of 2026 on Scientific Journal Accreditation, and Decree of the Director General of Science and Technology No. 374/DST/D.D1/HM.01.01/2026 on the Technical Guidelines for Scientific Journal Accreditation. These references guide the journal's policies but do not replace applicable law or the journal's responsibility to implement the policies in practice.

The journal will update the version date and relevant policy pages when revisions are adopted. Questions about these policies may be directed to the editorial office at ijni@uinsgd.ac.id or by post to the Postgraduate Program, UIN Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung, Jl. A.H. Nasution No. 105, Bandung 40614, Indonesia.