Information For Authors

INTRODUCTION

Jurnal Ilmiah PLATAX is committed to maintaining the highest ethical standards throughout the scholarly publishing process. This ethics policy is formulated in accordance with the ten components established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and aligned with Indonesian national journal accreditation standards under Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education Regulation No. 9/2018 and the ARJUNA national journal accreditation guidelines.

COPE #1 — Authorship and Contributorship

A. Authorship Criteria

Jurnal Ilmiah PLATAX adopts the authorship criteria of the ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors). A person is considered an author if they meet all four of the following criteria simultaneously:

• Substantial contribution to the conception/design of the research, or to data acquisition/analysis/interpretation
• Drafting or critically revising important intellectual content of the manuscript
• Final approval of the version to be published
• Accountability — agreeing to be accountable for all aspects of the work, including ensuring the accuracy and integrity of any part of the article

B. Author Order

Author order reflects the degree of contribution of each author. The corresponding author is responsible for all communications with the editorial office throughout the submission and publication process, and must be listed with a valid, active email address.

C. Changes to Authorship

Additions, removals, or reordering of authors can only be made before the manuscript is accepted and require written consent from all authors involved. Changes after acceptance require Editor-in-Chief approval accompanied by a strong justification.

D. Corresponding Author Responsibilities

• Ensuring all authors approve the final version of the manuscript
• Managing communication with the editorial office and distributing information to all authors
• Providing an active ORCID iD in the OJS submission profile
• Retaining raw research data for at least 5 years after publication

E. Artificial Intelligence (AI) / GenAI Policy

AI tools (such as ChatGPT or Large Language Models) do not meet authorship criteria and cannot be listed as authors. If AI tools are used for language editing or writing assistance, their use must be explicitly declared in the Acknowledgements section or Methods. Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy and integrity of all AI-assisted content.

COPE #2 — Conflict of Interest / Competing Interests

A conflict of interest occurs when personal, financial, professional, or institutional interests could affect the objectivity of research or scientific judgment.

A. Author Obligations

• Mandatory disclosure: All funding sources must be stated in the manuscript
• Written declaration: Authors must complete a COI statement on the OJS submission form
• Declaration format: "The authors declare no conflict of interest" OR specify funding sources and the funder's role

B. Reviewer & Editor Obligations

• Must decline an invitation if they have a collaborative relationship (within the last 3 years), direct competition, or a financial interest with the author(s)
• The Editor-in-Chief does not handle their own manuscripts — these are assigned to another Section Editor
• Editorial board members who submit a manuscript may not be involved in reviewing that manuscript

COPE #3 — Allegations of Misconduct

A. Types of Misconduct

B. Plagiarism Handling

All manuscripts are screened with text-similarity detection software before entering peer review. Tolerance limits: a maximum of 20% overall similarity and no more than 5% from a single source (excluding direct quotations and references).

COPE #4 — Complaints and Appeals

A. Appeal of Editorial Decisions

Authors who disagree with a Reject decision may submit an appeal to the Editor-in-Chief within 14 days of receiving the notification. An appeal must be based on specific scientific arguments.

B. Complaints Against the Journal

Complaints regarding editorial conduct or policy may be submitted via official email (platax@unsrat.ac.id). Substantive responses will be provided within 14 working days.

COPE #5 — Data and Reproducibility

Jurnal Ilmiah PLATAX encourages authors to include a Data Availability Statement (DAS) at the end of their manuscript and support reproducible science using repositories such as Zenodo, Figshare, or PANGAEA.

COPE #6 — Ethical Oversight

Research involving animals or human subjects requires formal approval from an accredited institutional Ethics Committee, with the ethics approval number stated in the Methods section.

COPE #7 — Intellectual Property and Fees

A. Copyright and Licensing

Authors retain copyright under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license.

B. Article Processing Charges (APC)

Jurnal Ilmiah PLATAX charges an Editorial Fee based on Rector's Decree No. 339/UN12/LL/2025 dated 28 February 2025. Payment is required ONLY AFTER official acceptance. The current rates are:

• General Authors (Researchers, Lecturers, Public, International): IDR 1,500,000 (~$90–95)
• Undergraduate Students (Sam Ratulangi University): IDR 750,000 (~$45–48) with valid Student ID

Note: All payments must be made in Indonesian Rupiah (IDR) to the designated BLU account. USD figures are estimates for international reference only. For detailed payment instructions, please refer to our Author Guidelines.

COPE #8 — Journal Management

The journal is managed independently by an editorial team from Sam Ratulangi University. Editorial decisions are made strictly on scientific merit, free from commercial or institutional influences.

COPE #9 — Peer-Review Processes

Jurnal Ilmiah PLATAX applies Double-Blind Peer Review evaluated by at least 2 independent reviewers.

E. No Fast-Track / Express Review Policy

Jurnal Ilmiah PLATAX does not provide fast-track, express review, or paid priority evaluation under any circumstances. All submitted manuscripts are processed strictly based on queue order, scientific merit, and standard peer-review procedures to ensure fairness, ethical integrity, and compliance with national accreditation standards.

COPE #10 — Post-publication Discussions and Corrections

The journal provides formal mechanisms for Errata (editorial errors), Corrigenda (author errors), and Retractions (ethical violations) in line with COPE Retraction Guidelines.

REFERENCES AND LEGAL BASIS

• COPE Core Practices — Committee on Publication Ethics (publicationethics.org)
• Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education Regulation No. 9/2018 on Scientific Journal Accreditation
• National Journal Accreditation Guidelines (ARJUNA)
• Rector's Decree No. 339/UN12/LL/2025 on Academic Support Service Tariffs for BLU UNSRAT