Conflict of Interest

1. General Policy

Abdimas Unwahas is committed to maintaining transparency, objectivity, and integrity throughout the publication process. All authors, reviewers, and editors must disclose any potential conflicts of interest that could influence, or reasonably be perceived to influence, the conduct of community service activities, manuscript evaluation, or editorial decisions. This policy follows the ethical principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

2. Types of Conflicts of Interest

Conflicts of interest may include:

  • financial relationships;
  • employment;
  • program funding;
  • consultancy arrangements;
  • institutional affiliations;
  • personal or family relationships;
  • academic competition;
  • other professional interests that could compromise impartiality.

In the community service context, conflicts of interest also include situations where:

  • the authors or their family members own or manage the partner business, institution, or organization;
  • the authors hold patents, copyrights, or commercial interests in the product, application, or technology applied;
  • the program is funded by a party with an interest in its outcomes, such as a company, local government, or financial institution.

Both actual and perceived conflicts must be disclosed.

3. Author Responsibilities

Authors must disclose all relevant financial and non-financial interests, including relationships with program partners and funding sources such as LPPM grants, ministry grants, or other sponsors. Disclosures must be made during submission and included in a Conflict of Interest statement within the manuscript. Authors with no conflicts of interest must explicitly declare their absence.

4. Reviewer Responsibilities

Reviewers must disclose any potential conflicts of interest before accepting a review assignment. They should decline invitations when personal, financial, institutional, or professional relationships could compromise their independence. Examples include being a member of the same community service team, a supervisor, or a close colleague of the authors. Reviewers must keep manuscripts confidential and provide fair, unbiased, and evidence-based evaluations.

5. Editor Responsibilities

Editors must disclose any conflicts of interest involving submitted manuscripts and withdraw from handling them when their impartiality may reasonably be questioned. This applies, for example, to manuscripts written by the editors themselves, by colleagues from the same study program, or by members of their community service teams. Such manuscripts must be assigned to an independent editor. Manuscripts authored by editorial board members follow the same procedures as all other submissions, and those authors take no part in the decision.

6. Disclosure and Management

All declared conflicts of interest will be assessed by the editorial team. Depending on their nature and significance, measures may include:

  • additional disclosure within the article;
  • review by reviewers from outside Universitas Wahid Hasyim;
  • reassignment of editorial responsibilities;
  • other appropriate safeguards.

A conflict of interest does not automatically lead to rejection, provided it is properly disclosed and managed.

7. Undisclosed Conflicts of Interest

Failure to disclose relevant conflicts of interest may constitute a violation of publication ethics. If undisclosed interests are identified during or after publication, the journal may request clarification, issue a correction, reassess the editorial decision, or take other actions in accordance with the journal’s research misconduct policy.

8. Conflict of Interest Declaration

All submitted manuscripts must include a Conflict of Interest declaration. When no conflicts exist, authors may use the following statement:

“The authors declare that they have no financial or non-financial conflicts of interest that could have influenced the implementation and reporting of the community service activities presented in this manuscript.”

When conflicts exist, authors must clearly describe the relevant relationships or interests. For example: “The second author is a board member of [partner name]” or “The application used was developed by the author team.”

9. Commitment to Editorial Independence

Abdimas Unwahas ensures that editorial decisions are based solely on the scientific quality, originality, relevance, community benefit, and ethical integrity of submitted manuscripts. Financial interests, institutional relationships (including affiliation with Universitas Wahid Hasyim), sponsorship, and personal considerations must not influence peer review outcomes or publication decisions.