Al-Adalah: Jurnal Hukum dan Politik Islam is an international, peer-reviewed journal published by the Constitutional Law Study Program, Faculty of Sharia and Islamic Law, State Islamic Institute (IAIN) Bone, Indonesia.

The journal is committed to integrity, transparency, accountability, fairness, and academic independence throughout the editorial and publication process.

This policy applies to authors, reviewers, editors, Editorial Board members, the Editor-in-Chief, journal staff, and the publisher. It is intended to protect the reliability of the scholarly record and to prevent plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, duplicate publication, inappropriate authorship, citation manipulation, undisclosed conflicts of interest, paper-mill activity, and other forms of research or publication misconduct.

The journal's policies are informed by the principles and guidance of the Committee on Publication Ethics and other internationally recognized standards of responsible scholarly publishing.

1. Editorial Independence

Editorial decisions are made independently and solely on the basis of scholarly merit, originality, methodological quality, ethical compliance, relevance to the journal's focus and scope, and value to readers.

Decisions are not influenced by advertising, sponsorship, publication fees, institutional relationships, political interests, or other commercial or non-academic considerations.

The publisher does not interfere with individual editorial decisions. The Editor-in-Chief has authority and responsibility for the integrity of the editorial process and the published scholarly record.

2. Responsibilities of Editors

Publication Decisions

The Editor-in-Chief, or a delegated handling editor, is responsible for deciding whether a manuscript should be accepted, revised, or rejected. Decisions are informed by independent peer review but remain the responsibility of the editor.

Fairness and Impartiality

Editors evaluate manuscripts without discrimination based on nationality, ethnicity, race, gender, religion, institutional affiliation, disability, political belief, or other personal characteristics unrelated to scholarly merit.

Confidentiality

Editors and editorial staff must protect the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts, author information, reviewer identities, review reports, and editorial correspondence. Information may be disclosed only when required for legitimate editorial, ethical, or legal purposes.

Conflicts of Interest

Editors must disclose actual, potential, or perceived conflicts of interest and recuse themselves when impartial handling is not possible.

Manuscripts submitted by editors, Editorial Board members, institutional colleagues, or close collaborators must be handled by an independent editor and must undergo the same peer-review standards as other submissions.

Integrity of the Scholarly Record

Editors must take reasonable steps to investigate credible concerns about submitted or published work. When necessary, they will issue corrections, expressions of concern, retractions, or other appropriate notices in a timely and transparent manner.

3. Responsibilities of Reviewers

Contribution to Editorial Decisions

Reviewers provide independent, evidence-based, and constructive assessments that assist editors in reaching informed decisions and help authors improve their manuscripts.

Competence and Timeliness

A reviewer should accept an invitation only when they have appropriate expertise and can complete the review within the requested period. Reviewers who are unable to provide a competent or timely review must promptly decline the invitation.

Confidentiality

Submitted manuscripts and review materials are confidential. Reviewers must not share, upload, distribute, discuss, reproduce, or use manuscript content for personal, professional, or financial advantage.

Objectivity

Reviews must be fair, professional, specific, and supported by scholarly reasoning. Personal criticism, discriminatory comments, hostile language, and unsupported allegations are unacceptable.

Acknowledgement of Sources and Integrity Concerns

Reviewers should identify relevant literature that has been omitted and inform the editor of suspected plagiarism, duplicate publication, fabricated evidence, citation manipulation, or substantial overlap with other work.

Conflicts of Interest

Reviewers must disclose any relationship or interest that could affect, or reasonably appear to affect, their impartiality. They must decline the review when a conflict cannot be appropriately managed.

4. Responsibilities of Authors

Originality and Exclusive Submission

Authors must submit original work that is not simultaneously under consideration elsewhere. Previously published material must be clearly identified, cited, and disclosed. Substantially similar or redundant publication is not permitted.

Accurate and Transparent Reporting

Authors must present an honest, accurate, and sufficiently detailed account of their research. Methods, legal sources, data, analytical procedures, limitations, and findings must be reported clearly enough to permit appropriate scholarly evaluation.

Fabrication, Falsification, and Misrepresentation

Authors must not invent, manipulate, omit, or misrepresent data, evidence, sources, findings, authorship, affiliations, funding, ethical approval, or other material information.

Acknowledgement of Sources

All ideas, words, data, figures, tables, and other material derived from external sources must be properly cited. References must be relevant, accurate, complete, and used for legitimate scholarly purposes.

Authorship and Contributorship

Authorship is limited to individuals who have made substantial scholarly contributions to:

1. the conception or design of the study;
2. the collection, analysis, or interpretation of evidence; or
3. the drafting and critical revision of the manuscript.

All authors must approve the submitted and final versions and accept accountability for the work.

Individuals who contributed but do not qualify for authorship should be acknowledged. Guest, honorary, gift, purchased, and ghost authorship are prohibited.

Requests to add, remove, or reorder authors after submission must be explained in writing and approved by all affected authors and the editor.

Conflicts of Interest and Funding

Authors must disclose all financial, institutional, professional, political, or personal interests that could reasonably be perceived as influencing the research.

All funding sources and the role of funders must be stated. When no conflict or external funding exists, an explicit statement should be provided.

Errors in Published Work

Authors who identify a significant error or inaccuracy in submitted or published work must notify the journal promptly and cooperate in correcting or retracting the article when necessary.

5. Research Involving Human Participants

Research involving interviews, surveys, focus groups, observation, personal records, vulnerable groups, or other human participation must comply with applicable ethical and legal requirements.

Authors must state whether ethical approval was required and, where applicable, provide the name of the approving institution or ethics committee and the approval reference.

Authors must explain how informed consent was obtained and how privacy, confidentiality, and personal data were protected.

When formal ethical review is not required under applicable institutional or national rules, authors must state the basis for that determination. The journal may request supporting documentation and may reject research that does not provide adequate ethical protection.

6. Data Availability and Retention

Authors must retain research materials and supporting data for a reasonable period after publication, subject to legal, ethical, privacy, confidentiality, and intellectual property restrictions.

Where appropriate, manuscripts should include a data availability statement explaining whether and how supporting data, interview instruments, coding materials, legal datasets, or other relevant research materials may be accessed.

The journal may request underlying data or documentation during review or when concerns arise after publication.

Authors must not disclose confidential, sensitive, or personally identifiable information in violation of ethical or legal obligations.

7. Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence and AI-Assisted Tools

Generative artificial intelligence and AI-assisted tools cannot be listed as authors because they cannot take responsibility for the work, approve the final manuscript, manage conflicts of interest, or be accountable for the accuracy and integrity of the content.

Authors remain fully responsible for all submitted material, including text, analysis, references, translations, images, tables, or other content produced or modified with AI-assisted tools.

Any substantive use of such tools in manuscript preparation, data processing, analysis, image generation, or translation must be disclosed transparently in the manuscript. The disclosure must include:

1. the name and version of the tool, where available;
2. the purpose for which the tool was used;
3. the part of the research or manuscript affected; and
4. the extent of human review and verification.

AI tools must not be used to fabricate, falsify, manipulate, or obscure evidence, references, quotations, findings, or authorship.

Authors must verify all AI-assisted outputs and ensure that confidential, personal, copyrighted, or legally protected material is not entered into systems that may store or reuse the content without authorization.

Reviewers and editors must not upload confidential manuscripts, review reports, or unpublished material into public generative AI systems or external tools that may retain, process, or reuse the content.

Any permitted editorial use of AI-assisted tools must preserve confidentiality, data protection, human oversight, and accountability. AI tools must not make final editorial decisions.

Undisclosed or inappropriate use of AI-assisted tools may result in revision, rejection, correction, retraction, or other action under the journal's research integrity procedures.

8. Complaints and Appeals

Authors, reviewers, readers, and other parties may submit a reasoned complaint concerning editorial procedures, publication ethics, conflicts of interest, reviewer conduct, or the integrity of published content.

Authors may appeal an editorial decision when they believe that a material factual error, procedural irregularity, unmanaged conflict of interest, or serious misunderstanding affected the decision.

An appeal must provide a clear and evidence-based explanation and must not merely express disagreement with reviewers' academic judgments.

Complaints and appeals will be handled by an editor or institutional authority who was not directly involved in the disputed decision whenever possible. The outcome will be communicated in writing.

The journal may decline repetitive, abusive, unsupported, or bad-faith submissions.

9. Corrections, Expressions of Concern, and Retractions

The journal is committed to correcting the scholarly record when reliable evidence shows that a published article contains:

1. a significant error;
2. misleading information;
3. unethical research;
4. invalid or unreliable findings;
5. plagiarism;
6. duplicate publication;
7. fabricated or falsified material; or
8. other serious research integrity concerns.

A correction will be issued when the main findings remain reliable but a significant part of the article requires amendment.

An expression of concern may be issued while a serious matter is under investigation or when available evidence is inconclusive.

A retraction may be issued when findings are unreliable or when serious misconduct or unethical research invalidates the publication.

All notices will be clearly identified, linked to the original article, explain the reason for the action, and preserve the transparency of the scholarly record. Retractions will not be used solely to punish authors.

10. Handling Allegations of Misconduct

The journal will assess allegations fairly, confidentially, and without unnecessary delay.

Editors may request explanations, original data, ethical approvals, authorship documentation, similarity reports, or other evidence relevant to the concern.

Where appropriate, the journal may contact authors, reviewers, institutions, funders, ethics committees, publishers, or other journals.

Editorial action may include:

1. suspension of the review process;
2. rejection of the manuscript;
3. publication of a correction;
4. publication of an expression of concern;
5. retraction;
6. notification of relevant institutions; or
7. restriction of future submissions in cases of serious or repeated abuse.

The journal will distinguish between honest error, legitimate scholarly disagreement, poor practice, and deliberate misconduct. Decisions will be based on available evidence and relevant ethical guidance.

11. Publisher Responsibilities

The publisher supports editorial independence, provides appropriate infrastructure for peer review and publication, protects journal records, and assists the editorial team in addressing ethical or legal concerns.

Ownership, management, sources of revenue, publication charges, waiver arrangements, advertising policies, copyright, licensing, and contact information must be stated clearly on the journal website.

Publication fees, where applicable, do not influence editorial decisions or guarantee acceptance.

12. Policy Review

The journal will review these policies periodically and revise them when necessary to reflect changes in scholarly publishing standards, technology, law, research practice, and publication ethics.

The version and effective date of major policy revisions should be recorded on the journal website.