Publication Ethics Statement

General Statement

Surya Teknika: Jurnal Ilmiah Teknik Mesin is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal published by LPPM Universitas Muhammadiyah Pekajangan Pekalongan. The journal is committed to maintaining the highest standards of publication ethics, research integrity, transparency, accountability, and professional conduct throughout the publication process. This policy applies to all participants involved in scholarly publishing, including authors, reviewers, editors, editorial board members, and the publisher.

Surya Teknika Journal adopts the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Core Practices and supports the implementation of the Regulation of the Minister of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia Number 39 of 2021 concerning Academic Integrity in Producing Scholarly Works.

Academic Integrity Principles

Surya Teknika Journal promotes academic integrity as the foundation of scholarly communication. In accordance with national regulations and institutional policies, all participants involved in the publication process are expected to uphold the following core values:

Honesty: Presenting data, methods, experimental results, and engineering formulations accurately and truthfully.
Trust: Fostering mutual confidence among authors, reviewers, editors, and readers.
Fairness: Ensuring objective, non-discriminatory, and impartial evaluations.
Respect: Valuing intellectual contributions, peer feedback, and editorial decisions.
Responsibility: Accepting accountability for the integrity and consequences of scholarly work.
Courage: Acting ethically and addressing research misconduct or misconduct allegations proactively.

Research Integrity and Publication Misconduct

Surya Teknika Journal is committed to safeguarding the integrity of the scholarly record. Publication misconduct includes, but is not limited to:

Fabrication of research data, experimental results, CAD models, or source codes.
Falsification or manipulation of research procedures, algorithms, simulation datasets, or physical testing findings.
Plagiarism and self-plagiarism (text-recycling).
Improper authorship practices (e.g., gift, ghost, honorary, or purchased authorship).
Undisclosed or hidden conflicts of interest.
Multiple, redundant, or simultaneous submissions to different journals or platforms.
Image, chart, or engineering data manipulation that misrepresents research findings.
Citation manipulation, coercive citations, and peer-review manipulation.
Misrepresentation of ethical approvals, experimental research procedures, or lab safety standards.

Suspected cases of misconduct will be evaluated fairly, confidentially, and transparently in alignment with COPE flowcharts. Depending on the severity of the case, the journal may take actions including: requesting formal clarification, rejecting manuscripts, publishing formal errata/corrigenda, issuing an editorial expression of concern, or retracting published articles.

Conflicts of Interest and Funding Transparency

To ensure scientific objectivity and preserve public trust, Surya Teknika Journal mandates full transparency regarding any real, potential, or perceived conflicts of interest (competing interests) that could influence—or be seen to influence—the design, execution, review, or editorial handling of a manuscript.

1. Definition of Conflicts of Interest

A conflict of interest exists when professional judgment regarding a primary interest (such as research validity or scientific truth) may be unduly influenced by a secondary interest (such as financial gain, institutional loyalty, personal advancement, or private relationships).

2. Types of Conflicts

Financial Interests: Receiving research grants, lab equipment/hardware sponsorships, commercial funding, consultancies, stock ownership, patents, honoraria, or royalties from entities that could gain or lose financially from the publication.
Personal & Professional Relationships: Current or past supervisory roles, familial connections, romantic relationships, active rivalries, or direct professional collaborations (e.g., co-authoring within the past 3 years).
Institutional Affiliations: Being employed by, affiliated with, or serving on the advisory board/executive committee of an organization with a direct commercial or strategic stake in the research outcome.
Intellectual & Political Commitments: Strong personal beliefs, political positions, or rigid adherence to a particular theoretical/engineering model that impairs objective evaluation.

3. Guidelines for Authors

Mandatory Disclosure: During manuscript submission via OJS, the corresponding author must disclose all sources of funding and potential conflicts of interest on behalf of all co-authors.
Funding Statement: Authors must explicitly list funding bodies, grant numbers, and the specific role of the sponsor in research design, data collection, or manuscript writing in the Ucapan Terima Kasih (Acknowledgments) section.
Formal Conflict Declaration: A dedicated section titled "Conflict of Interest Statement" must be placed before the Reference section.
- If no conflict exists:
  
  "The authors declare that there are no financial, personal, or professional conflicts of interest that could inappropriately influence or bias the research presented in this paper."
- If conflicts exist:
  
  "Author [Name] received research funding from [Sponsor Name]. Author [Name] serves as a consultant for [Company Name]. The remaining authors declare no competing interests."

4. Guidelines for Peer Reviewers

Reviewers must decline review invitations if they have a known financial, personal, or collaborative conflict of interest with any of the authors or institutions involved.
Reviewers must immediately inform the Editor if they realize a conflict during the evaluation process.
Reviewers are strictly prohibited from using confidential information or technical insights obtained during the peer-review process for personal advantage or institutional gain.

5. Guidelines for Editors & Editorial Board Members

Editors must recuse themselves from overseeing manuscripts submitted by themselves, close colleagues, current department members, or recent co-authors.
In such cases, management of the manuscript will be delegated to an independent Section Editor or handled directly by the Editor-in-Chief.
Editorial decisions must be based strictly on scientific merit, manuscript quality, reviewer input, and alignment with journal scope, completely free from commercial, political, or institutional considerations.

6. Management of Undisclosed Conflicts

If an undisclosed conflict of interest is identified during review or after publication, Surya Teknika Journal will investigate following COPE guidelines. Undeclared significant conflicts discovered post-publication may result in an official Correction Notice (Corrigendum), an Editorial Expression of Concern, or Article Retraction.

Authorship and Contributorship

Authorship should reflect substantial intellectual contributions to the research. Authors are expected to:

Contribute significantly to the conception, design, execution, analysis, or interpretation of the study.
Participate in drafting or critically revising the manuscript for important intellectual content.
Approve the final version of the manuscript to be published.
Accept personal responsibility for the integrity, accuracy, and ethical compliance of the overall work.

The following practices are strictly considered unethical: gift authorship, honorary authorship, ghost authorship, and purchased authorship. Any request to add, delete, or rearrange author names after submission must be accompanied by a written justification signed by all co-authors and approved by the Editor-in-Chief.

Surya Teknika Journal requires authors to outline specific individual roles using the CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) system placed before Acknowledgments.

Ethical Oversight and Data Privacy

Authors are responsible for ensuring that their research complies with applicable ethical, legal, and professional standards. Given the focus of Surya Teknika Journal on mechanical engineering, applied technology, and experimental research, lab safety, environmental impacts, and data integrity are paramount. Where applicable, authors must provide evidence of:

Safety and environmental compliance for experimental procedures involving hazardous materials, high-pressure equipment, or extreme conditions.
Informed consent obtained from research participants prior to data collection (for ergonomic, human-machine interaction, or survey-based studies).
Explicit written permission to use copyrighted CAD models, datasets, proprietary software tools, software libraries, images, or third-party content.

Data Availability and Reproducibility

To promote open science and empirical reproducibility, authors are strongly encouraged to retain and share raw research data, algorithms, design schematics, and custom source code underlying the findings reported in their manuscripts.

The journal reserves the right to request access to underlying raw datasets, CAD/CAM files, or simulation parameters during the editorial or peer-review process.
Datasets should be deposited in recognized, accessible repositories (e.g., GitHub, Zenodo, Kaggle, Figshare) when legally and ethically permissible.

Citation Integrity

Authors, reviewers, and editors must ensure that citations are relevant, accurate, and scientifically justified.

The journal strictly prohibits excessive self-citation, coercive citation (where editors or reviewers compel authors to cite specific papers without scientific necessity), citation stacking, or citation cartels.
References must primary serve to acknowledge contextual work rather than inflate citation metrics, and must strictly follow the IEEE Citation Style.

Complaints and Appeals

Surya Teknika Journal provides a transparent mechanism for handling complaints and appeals regarding:

Editorial decisions (e.g., manuscript rejections).
Delays in peer review or production.
Allegations of publication misconduct or undisclosed conflicts of interest.
Peer reviewer or editor misconduct.

Appeals Process: Authors wishing to appeal a rejection decision must submit a detailed, point-by-point written rebuttal to the Editorial Office via the official contact/email listed on the journal's website. Rebuttals must be based on scientific evidence and experimental facts rather than personal opinion. The Editor-in-Chief and an independent Editorial Board member will re-evaluate the manuscript, and the resulting decision will be final.

Responsibilities of Publisher, Editors, Authors, and Reviewers

Responsibilities of the Publisher

LPPM Universitas Muhammadiyah Pekajangan Pekalongan, as the publisher:

Guarantees that commercial considerations, advertising revenues, or reprint sales have zero influence on editorial decisions.
Supports the editorial board in upholding publication ethics and handling legal/ethical disputes.
Ensures long-term digital preservation and archival of published articles.

Responsibilities of Editors

Editors shall:

Make fair, objective editorial decisions based solely on scientific merit and reviewer feedback, without discrimination regarding race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, nationality, or political affiliation.
Maintain the strict confidentiality of submitted manuscripts and reviewer details (under a single-blind review protocol).
Process submissions in a timely, sequential manner via the Online Journal System (OJS).
Ensure rigorous similarity checks (plagiarism screening using Turnitin/iThenticate) are performed on all new submissions.
Avoid personal bias and maintain independence from publisher interests.

Responsibilities of Authors

Authors shall:

Present accurate research data and an objective discussion of its significance.
Ensure original work that has not been published previously and is not under consideration by another publication platform.
Explicitly cite all sources, datasets, software, and third-party tools used in the research according to IEEE style.
Promptly notify the editor if a significant error or inaccuracy is discovered in their published or submitted work.

Responsibilities of Reviewers

Reviewers shall:

Provide objective, scientific, and constructive feedback to assist editors in decision-making and authors in manuscript improvement.
Declare any potential conflict of interest and decline assignments outside their expertise or timeline capability.
Treat all manuscript documents as strictly confidential.
Report any suspected plagiarism, data manipulation, or ethical concerns directly to the handling editor.

Corrections, Retractions, and Post-Publication Discussions

Post-Publication Discussion: Readers may submit formal academic comments or critiques (Letters to the Editor), to which original authors will be given the opportunity to reply.
Corrections: Errata or Corrigenda will be published for minor honest errors that do not invalidate the scientific conclusions.
Retractions: Articles will be retracted in cases of severe ethical misconduct, duplicate publication, or fatal experimental/algorithmic errors, following COPE Retraction Guidelines.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and AI-Assisted Technologies

The use of generative AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Copilot, Claude) in research and writing must adhere to journal guidelines:

AI tools cannot be listed as authors, as they cannot take ethical or legal responsibility for scholarly work.
Any use of AI for text generation, data analysis, or coding must be transparently declared in a dedicated "Generative AI Statement" before the Reference section.
Authors remain fully accountable for all content, including data accuracy, citation validity, and avoiding AI-generated hallucinations or plagiarism.

Ethical Commitment

Surya Teknika Journal is dedicated to fostering responsible research practices, ethical publishing standards, and scientific transparency. We invite all authors, reviewers, and editors to collaborate with us in promoting high-quality, trustworthy scientific knowledge in mechanical engineering and applied technology.

References & Frameworks

This Publication Ethics Statement is formulated based on:

Regulation of the Minister of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia Number 39 of 2021 concerning Academic Integrity in Producing Scholarly Works.
COPE Core Practices (Committee on Publication Ethics).
COPE Guidelines for Editors, Reviewers, and Publishers.
COPE Retraction Guidelines.