Allegation of Research Misconduct

ETERNAL: English Teaching Journal takes all allegations of research and publication misconduct seriously and handles them according to the COPE flowcharts and the Publication Ethics of this journal.

1. What counts as misconduct

  • Fabrication – making up data or results;
  • Falsification – manipulating research materials, processes, data, or images, or omitting data so the research is not accurately represented;
  • Plagiarism – using another person's ideas, words, or data without proper credit;
  • Duplicate/redundant publication – publishing the same work in more than one outlet;
  • Authorship manipulation, citation manipulation, undisclosed conflicts of interest, unethical research involving human participants (e.g., no informed consent), and manipulation of the peer-review process.

2. How to report

Anyone (reader, reviewer, author, or editor) may report a concern by e-mail to the Editor-in-Chief at eternalpbi@upgris.ac.id, stating the article title/DOI, the nature of the concern, and supporting evidence. Anonymous reports are considered if they contain sufficient evidence. The identity of the whistleblower is kept confidential.

3. Handling procedure

  1. Acknowledgement – the editor acknowledges receipt of the allegation.
  2. Preliminary assessment – the Editor-in-Chief and at least one editorial board member review the evidence to determine whether the case warrants investigation.
  3. Author response – the corresponding author is contacted, informed of the concern, and given the opportunity to respond with an explanation and/or original data.
  4. Further investigation – if the response is unsatisfactory, the journal may contact the authors' institution(s) and request an institutional investigation.
  5. Decision – based on the evidence, the editor decides on the outcome and informs all parties.

4. Possible outcomes

  • No action, if the allegation is unfounded;
  • Education of the authors and/or a request for revision (for submitted manuscripts);
  • Rejection of the manuscript;
  • Publication of a correction, expression of concern, or retraction (for published articles);
  • Notification of the authors' institution and/or a ban on submissions for a defined period in serious cases.